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Topic: Swap file instead of swap partition?

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lesliek

Group: Members
Posts: 91
Joined: Feb. 2006

Posted: Feb. 20 2006,20:30

I'm using a live CD of DSL v 2.2b on a computer with a 233Mhz cpu, 64MB of RAM and a 3GB HDD.

The HDD consists of a single partition (hda1) with Windows 98 on it. Although I'm permitted (by the computer's owner) to use any empty space on hda1, I'm not permitted to erase any of the existing data on it or to shrink it. That leaves me with 2.3GB of space on hda1 to use for DSL.

I'm now using that empty space to store my backup.tar.gz file and I've edited bootlocal.sh to keep hda1 mounted permanently, so that I can store other things in the empty space too.

Because I can't create any new partitions on hda1, I can't can't have a swap partition.

I found an article with instructions for creating a swap file to augment one's existing swap partition (http://enterprise.linux.com/article.pl?sid=05/03/02/2250257).

Could I use the technique in that article to create a swap file on hda1 when I have no swap partition?

Will DSL recognise the file as swap space and utilise it?

If so, would it be a good idea to do this?

If so, do I make the file 128MB in size?

Advice would be much appreciated.

AwPhuch

Group: Members
Posts: 1404
Joined: April 2004

Posted: Feb. 20 2006,23:03

perhaps you can mount the /dev/hda1 then create a swapfile...even though the user running on the windows machine will then be able to delete the file later

Perhaps if you made a script to mount the partiton, build the file, format the file, then activate the file and put it in /opt/bootlocal.sh it might benefit you

http://community.smoothwall.org/forum....wapfile
That is how we add a swapfile, with some minor tweakage I'm sure you can get it running just fine

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1
dd if=/dev/zero of /mnt/hda1/swapfile count=131072 bs=1024
mkswap /mnt/hda1/swapfile
swapon /mnt/hda1/swapfile

That might work for you, that should build/rebuild the file "swapfile" in the c:\ directory of the windows system..which can/probably will be deleted.

Brian
AwPhuch

--------------
http://www.frappr.com/dsl <-- Where do you use DSL?
http://www.smoothwall.org <-- Ultimate firewall for the world!
http://boinc.mundayweb.com/one/stats.php/userID:6107 <--My BOINC stats!
./S99LinuxRevolution start

lesliek

Group: Members
Posts: 91
Joined: Feb. 2006

Posted: Feb. 21 2006,03:39

Hi, Brian.

I gather you have an interest in spelling reform, as well as in DSL.

I followed generally the method you suggested and it does give me my swap file each time I boot up in DSL.

However, by experimenting, I found that it was unnecessary, at least in my circumstances, to add the data dump and the mkswap lines to bootlocal.sh. (The line to mount hda1 I had created earlier.)

That's because, after shutting down in DSL and then booting up in Windows 98, I found that the swap file was not deleted simply by running Windows and I don't expect the computer's owner will try to delete the file manually.

Now that I've found two specific uses for the empty space on hda1, the swap file and the backup.tar.gz file, may I ask another question related to the space's empty use?

I've read a bit about using extensions with DSL, but my understanding of them's pretty blurry so far.

Will I be able to store extensions on hda1 and run them from there?

Many thanks for taking the trouble to reply to my original post.

Leslie

AwPhuch

Group: Members
Posts: 1404
Joined: April 2004

Posted: Feb. 21 2006,05:30

Quote (lesliek @ Feb. 20 2006,22:39)

Hi, Brian.

I gather you have an interest in spelling reform, as well as in DSL.

I followed generally the method you suggested and it does give me my swap file each time I boot up in DSL.

However, by experimenting, I found that it was unnecessary, at least in my circumstances, to add the data dump and the mkswap lines to bootlocal.sh. (The line to mount hda1 I had created earlier.)

That's because, after shutting down in DSL and then booting up in Windows 98, I found that the swap file was not deleted simply by running Windows and I don't expect the computer's owner will try to delete the file manually.

Now that I've found two specific uses for the empty space on hda1, the swap file and the backup.tar.gz file, may I ask another question related to the space's empty use?

I've read a bit about using extensions with DSL, but my understanding of them's pretty blurry so far.

Will I be able to store extensions on hda1 and run them from there?

Many thanks for taking the trouble to reply to my original post.

Leslie

Spelling reform!?!?!?

Yes you should be able to put extensions directly in c:\ or /mnt/hda1 and it will boot and find them (if you modify the menu.lst in the /boot/grub folder)

I still dont understand spelling reform??

Brian
AwPhuch

--------------
http://www.frappr.com/dsl <-- Where do you use DSL?
http://www.smoothwall.org <-- Ultimate firewall for the world!
http://boinc.mundayweb.com/one/stats.php/userID:6107 <--My BOINC stats!
./S99LinuxRevolution start