Toram option with swap file?

Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: Toram option with swap file?
started by: lesliek

Posted by lesliek on Feb. 21 2006,20:54

I am presently running DSL v 2.2b from a live cd.

I have 64MB of physical memory and 128MB of virtual memory, the latter in a swap file.

In those circumstances, can I use the toram option when booting up or do I need to have at least 128MB of physical memory?

If I can use the toram option, that'd free up my CD reader. Would there be any other advantages or any disadvantages?

Any guidance would be much appreciated.

Posted by larkl on Feb. 21 2006,23:46

I kinda doubt that you can use the swap instead of physical memory for toram. You can do a frugal install, which puts the CD image on your HD (I'm probably oversimplifying what really happens). The grub is more configurable, so it's probably better.

Posted by lesliek on Feb. 22 2006,03:05

Thanks very much for taking the trouble to reply, larkl.

I think I've now got confirmation that you're right about my not being able to use virtual memory with "toram".

I looked again at the changelog with this particular idea in mind and found the following:

For 2.0, item 23: "added hack for extending ramdisk to use swap"

For 2.1, item 19: "Updated extended ramdisk to use swap only if not using 'toram' option."

For 2.2, no relevant item.

If I understand that history properly, my idea's out. Oh well.

As to a possible frugal install, the conditions under which I'm configuring the computer prevent me from carving partitions out of the existing sole Windows partition on the sole HDD, so that seems to be out as well.

Thanks again,

Leslie

Posted by larkl on Feb. 22 2006,23:48

Well, Sorry that that won't work. What about a frugal install onto a USB key? If it's before the HD in the BIOS boot order, then it'll be a DSL box. Otherwise, the same old windows box (read your other topic) will boot up. I haven't done the USB boot, so I may be missing something here. Maybe it's an option.

Posted by lesliek on Feb. 23 2006,00:24

larkl,

Thanks for your latest reply.

Unfortunately, the computer doesn't have any USB ports, so that's not an option either.

What I'm onto now, assuming I have to continue to use the live cd, is trying to edit my bootlocal.sh file to stop any services started unnecessarily earlier in the bootup process (I've got one at least so far) and then do the same with kernel modules. It's a slow process, because I've got to research each service and module before having a go (my knowledge in these matters is tiny). In that way, I hope to have as much RAM available as possible for running a Web browser, which is what the intended user of the computer will want to do with it.

There is an external modem that goes with this computer, but I haven't got it yet. When I do, I'll see whether the system's fast enough to use Firefox (which is what I use myself on my own computer). If not, I saw someone saying that they had success using Opera with less RAM than I'm working with, so maybe that'd be alright. Finally, there's the installed Dillo, about which I know nothing.

Thanks again for your help.

Leslie

Posted by mikshaw on Feb. 23 2006,00:59

I'm not sure i completely understand your situation, but it sounds as though you're thinking that a swap partition cannot be used if you run toram. This is not the case.

Quote

Updated extended ramdisk to use swap only if not using 'toram' option.

This means that the ramdisk itself will not use swap if you use toram. The swap will still be available, to be used as needed when/if you run low on physical ram. Unfortunately you'll need to be much more careful about what you add to your ramdisk, meaning you won't be able to add many *.dsl or *.deb applications. If you use a persistent /opt, you'll be able to load many *.tar.gz or *.uci applications, since they would be installed on a harddrive without adding to the ramdisk. The same can be said about a persistent /home. Even though it will be mounted in /ramdisk/home, the actual home directory would be on a permanent partition instead of being in ram.

Posted by lesliek on Feb. 23 2006,02:44

test

Posted by lesliek on Feb. 23 2006,18:08

Quote (mikshaw @ Feb. 23 2006,05:59)

I'm not sure i completely understand your situation, but it sounds as though you're thinking that a swap partition cannot be used if you run toram. This is not the case.

Thanks very much for your reply, mikshaw.

It's not that I want to use a swap file while running toram; it's that I want to use a swap file in order to be able to run toram in the first place, since I only have 64MB of physical RAM. I was hoping that, since I had a 128MB swap file, DSL would treat me as having 192MB of RAM.

Can I run toram in those circumstances?

Thanks again,

Leslie

Posted by larkl on Feb. 24 2006,23:04

A comment on a few posts back, re- web browsers. On a PC with 32M of RAM, firefox wasn't an option, it's just too big. Dillo isn't really an option as it just can't handle a lot of web sites. The file type escapes me at the moment (the ones it can't handle). Opera WAS an option and ran well. Hope this helps. Good luck.

Posted by lesliek on Feb. 25 2006,05:43

Thanks very much for that, larkl. I think that while reading other threads, I came across your saying the samr thing about Opera to someone else. I've actually got 64MB of RAM to play with and, just a short time ago, got the modem that's to be used with this computer. I'll now try to get the thing working and see whether Firefox runs acceptably. If not, you'll know it, since I'll be back here begging help on installing Opera!

Thanks again,

Leslie