diff -urN 2.3.41/fs/buffer.c buf-flush/fs/buffer.c
--- 2.3.41/fs/buffer.c	Sun Jan  9 20:45:31 2000
+++ buf-flush/fs/buffer.c	Wed Feb  2 16:47:07 2000
@@ -820,8 +820,10 @@
 
 	dirty = size_buffers_type[BUF_DIRTY] >> PAGE_SHIFT;
 	tot = nr_free_buffer_pages();
-	hard_dirty_limit = tot * bdf_prm.b_un.nfract / 100;
-	soft_dirty_limit = hard_dirty_limit >> 1;
+
+	dirty *= 200;
+	soft_dirty_limit = tot * bdf_prm.b_un.nfract;
+	hard_dirty_limit = soft_dirty_limit * 2;
 
 	if (dirty > soft_dirty_limit)
 	{
@@ -2000,7 +2002,7 @@
  */
 int try_to_free_buffers(struct page * page)
 {
-	struct buffer_head * tmp, * bh = page->buffers;
+	struct buffer_head * tmp, * p, * bh = page->buffers;
 	int index = BUFSIZE_INDEX(bh->b_size);
 	int ret;
 
@@ -2009,7 +2011,7 @@
 	spin_lock(&free_list[index].lock);
 	tmp = bh;
 	do {
-		struct buffer_head * p = tmp;
+		p = tmp;
 
 		tmp = tmp->b_this_page;
 		if (buffer_busy(p))
@@ -2051,7 +2053,8 @@
 
 busy_buffer_page:
 	/* Uhhuh, start writeback so that we don't end up with all dirty pages */
-	wakeup_bdflush(0);
+	if (buffer_dirty(p))
+		wakeup_bdflush(0);
 	ret = 0;
 	goto out;
 }
@@ -2210,7 +2213,7 @@
    as all dirty buffers lives _only_ in the DIRTY lru list.
    As we never browse the LOCKED and CLEAN lru lists they are infact
    completly useless. */
-static void flush_dirty_buffers(int check_flushtime)
+static int flush_dirty_buffers(int check_flushtime)
 {
 	struct buffer_head * bh, *next;
 	int flushed = 0, i;
@@ -2259,6 +2262,8 @@
 	}
  out_unlock:
 	spin_unlock(&lru_list_lock);
+
+	return flushed;
 }
 
 /* 
@@ -2342,6 +2347,7 @@
  */
 int bdflush(void * unused) 
 {
+	int flushed;
 	/*
 	 *	We have a bare-bones task_struct, and really should fill
 	 *	in a few more things so "top" and /proc/2/{exe,root,cwd}
@@ -2363,7 +2369,7 @@
 	for (;;) {
 		CHECK_EMERGENCY_SYNC
 
-		flush_dirty_buffers(0);
+		flushed = flush_dirty_buffers(0);
 
 		/* If wakeup_bdflush will wakeup us
 		   after our bdflush_done wakeup, then
@@ -2378,10 +2384,10 @@
 		/*
 		 * If there are still a lot of dirty buffers around,
 		 * skip the sleep and flush some more. Otherwise, we
-		 * sleep for a while.
+		 * go to sleep waiting a wakeup.
 		 */
-		if (balance_dirty_state(NODEV) < 0)
-			schedule_timeout(5*HZ);
+		if (!flushed || balance_dirty_state(NODEV) < 0)
+			schedule();
 		/* Remember to mark us as running otherwise
 		   the next schedule will block. */
 		__set_current_state(TASK_RUNNING);