Virtual memory/swapspace/blah.

Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: Virtual memory/swapspace/blah.
started by: Neilo

Posted by Neilo on Jan. 22 2005,14:09

Any way to get DSL to run some virtual memory on the HD install? Having a few problems with DSL when doing several things at once (browsing, programming & playing music). Just wondering if there is, although it is probably a stupid question since its supposed to be a liveCD not an HD install, but thought it would be worth asking.

Posted by mikshaw on Jan. 22 2005,20:02

Creating a Linux swap partition on the HD should work with either liveCD or HD install, although if the HD install is already there you'll probably need to edit fstab in order to use the swap.

Posted by tronik on Jan. 22 2005,21:34

Another alternative to using a partition as a swapfile is to actually use a file as a swapfile.

First create the file, like so,
'dd if=/dev/zero of=dsl.swp count=64000 bs=1024'
will create a 64 megabyte file. (for 64 megs of swap space)

'mkswap file'
'swapon file'
Then you should have virtual memory, (look see with 'free')

This is something you can do if you're not worried about getting into the technicalities of what arrangement of partitions is the best for optimal performace on a machine. This works just nicely for some swap space =)

Enjoy.

Posted by Neilo on Jan. 22 2005,21:45

Thanks! Now that should hopefully solve the poor performance when doin several things. By any chance I wont need to put the mkswap...etc...into a script will i?

Posted by tronik on Jan. 22 2005,21:48

Yes, if you plan on utilizing it as swap you'll need to do it yourself unless you can put it in /etc/fstab

Commands to run at startup can be done in /opt/bootlocal.sh ;)

Make sure you're backing up if you want it to automatically do it.
In order to stifle a race condition i always like to give it a chance to figure out whats going on, so an optional 'sleep 1' in between commands might be useful, even if it does take an extra second =)