Swapp file blues

Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: Swapp file blues
started by: wavetel

Posted by wavetel on Nov. 09 2007,11:29

Ive been messing with DSL4.0 for a while now on an old laptop with 128Megs of ram. Its ok most of the time but a DOS swapp file helps. I notice on my other machines which sport multiple drives it detects my perminent linux swapp file on hdc every time on boot and uses it. However on the laptop I have 2 FAT32 drives. The bootable drive is hda1 and there is another smaller non bootable partition hda5 . If I get DSL4 to make a DOS swapp file it puts it on hda5 and runs with it ok. Next time I boot up DSL I have to delete the DOS swappfile and then make a new one yet again.

Why cant DSL see the existing DOS swapp file from last session and run with it? I cant find any boot cheat codes that would help either. If DSL can see and run with a Linux swapp file without being pushed then whats the problem with it grabbing and running with a DOS swapp?

Any ideas?

Posted by sheldonisaac on Nov. 09 2007,13:17

Quote

Any ideas?

Perhaps something like the folowing excerpt from my
/opt/bootlocal.sh

However, I am re-using the swapfile created by MS-Windows 98; still, maybe the startup code will work even though you create the swapfile another way.

Code Sample

mount -t msdos /dev/hdb5 /mnt/
mkswap -v1 /mnt/win386.swp
sync
swapon /mnt/win386.swp 2>/dev/null

Posted by roberts on Nov. 09 2007,13:56

The DOS Swap File is a file and not a partition. That is why it is not automaticlly recognized. However, I have made a boot code to specify it's location or have it autoscaned. Just use the following:

dosswapfile=hda5

or

dosswapfile

The second option will cause DSL to autoscan for it.
Of course the boot option only works when you have used the mkdosswapfile as provided by DSL, i.e., file name is knoppix.swp

Posted by ^thehatsrule^ on Nov. 09 2007,15:37

Quote (sheldonisaac @ Nov. 09 2007,08:17)

Code Sample

mount -t msdos /dev/hdb5 /mnt/
mkswap -v1 /mnt/win386.swp
sync
swapon /mnt/win386.swp 2>/dev/null

I'd just like to point out that using /mnt/ as your mountpoint probably isn't a good idea.

Posted by sheldonisaac on Nov. 09 2007,19:09

Quote

I'd just like to point out that using /mnt/ as your mountpoint probably isn't a good idea.

I'm sorry, I posted the one I used with BasicLinux.

Here's the one I use with DSL 3.45:

Code Sample

#!/bin/bash
# put other system startup command here
mount /dev/hdb5
mkswap /mnt/hdb5/win386.swp
swapon /mnt/hdb5/win386.swp
sudo modprobe fuse

Posted by wavetel on Nov. 09 2007,20:57

Excellent. Thanks for all those good replies. I suspected there may be a cheatcode at the boot prompt. This will probably do for me.

Is there a more up to date list of cheat codes? All Ive found is this
< http://damnsmalllinux.org/wiki/index.php/Cheat_Codes >

There are a few codes missing like the dosswappfile and fromusb which I find extremely valuable. Maybee an update on this page is due.

Thanks again. Keep on DSL-ing