SWAP File basics

[stevetogo]

Hi Everyone,

I understand certain basics regarding SWAP file as in it is a temp page file used by the OS, I have the below questions.

I read in some linux sites where they state the responsiveness can be improved, I would like to know what will be the side effects?

I have an E02 plug with 256 megs of RAM on it, I see certain posts in this forum that state a SWAP is not required, I would like to know how is that determined as I always thought having an SWAP is beneficial as it gets turned on demand.

Is there an optimal size or a maximum for a SWAP meaning is it limited by the architecture etc and I would like to know what is the optimum size for a swap?

Last question, I have created a SWAP partition on a HDD for 8 gb, the same hdd also houses all my media and it is a 500 gig. I would like to know if I can use only say (512 or 1024 MB) for a swap and can someone explain me the steps required to do the same.

Thanks,
Steve

[pepedog]

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Swap
Choose swap file method, then you can change. 1Gb is plenty

[yazyazoo]

If I wanted to make a swap space on my external hard drive I would need to make a ext3 with something like GParted 1 GB partition and name it SWAP and then follow the wiki?

I am not sure if I can have a hard drive with a partition in ext3 and the rest in NTFS, is this possible? If so would the ext partition be named sdb1 and the NTFS partition named sdb2?

So would my swap would be something like?

mkswap /dev/sdb1 /SWAP

Thanks.

[yeehaa]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('yazyazoo', 'I')f I wanted to make a swap space on my external hard drive I would need to make a ext3 with something like GParted 1 GB partition and name it SWAP and then follow the wiki?

I am not sure if I can have a hard drive with a partition in ext3 and the rest in NTFS, is this possible? If so would the ext partition be named sdb1 and the NTFS partition named sdb2?

So would my swap would be something like?

mkswap /dev/sdb1 /SWAP

Thanks.

[WarheadsSE]

Here's a thought: why do people thing they still need to make a swap PARTITION

[Socaltom]

I'm my case I've run my V2 without a swapfile just fine. I did create a swapfile for a time but I found that it was rarely in use when I checked on it.

On my Pogopro with 128MB of memory it was a different story, some programs failed to run at all, and I usually had about 50MB of the swap in use. I tend to make the swap file small. I'm basically a newb, so it doesn't make sense to me how a swapfile larger than my installed memory would be useful. So I'm currently using a 128MB swap. More may be required for some applications, but for what I'm doing its fine ( Samba, CUPS, pyTivo, Webmin)
Tom

[stevetogo]

I wanted to create on because I was Plex Server on it and I was not sure if adding one might help it.

[apowell656]

I do not use a swap file and when I decided to run Plex, I found it simpler to buy another PogoPlug and run it there.

-Andre
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('stevetogo', 'I') wanted to create on because I was Plex Server on it and I was not sure if adding one might help it.

[Kurlon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('WarheadsSE', 'H')ere's a thought: why do people thing they still need to make a swap PARTITION

[yazyazoo]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('WarheadsSE', 'H')ere's a thought: why do people thing they still need to make a swap PARTITION