Swap Partition Question

Forum: HD Install
Topic: Swap Partition Question
started by: noordinaryspider

Posted by noordinaryspider on Mar. 20 2005,16:58

First ever HD installation is coming up and I was wondering whether I should size the swap partition at the size of the RAM (128MB RAM=128MB swap partition, 64MB RAM=64MB swap partition, etc.) that's already on the PC or if there would be any problems if I sized it as the maximum RAM the machine will take to allow room for growth.

I'm asking because it will be an old machine and the RAM could be hard to find.

Like an idiot, I completely forgot about the swap partition on my Mandrake machine and promptly doubled the RAM after installing the OS but I haven't had any problems; that could be beginner's luck and I'd rather be more cautious when working on somebody else's box.

TYA and thank you for your patience with my illustrious and asinine self.

Posted by Delboy on Mar. 20 2005,18:16

I think twice the physical ram figure is the rule of thumb and I don't think a further multiples helps any more ie. 128 RAM = 256mb swap partition. I've been using 40mb ram with 100mb swap partition for a long time now with DSL with only Open Office and a couple of other hungry apps. defeating me.

Posted by cbagger01 on Mar. 21 2005,02:01

I also think that 2x RAM is a good rule of thumb, with a couple expections on each end of the extremes for RAM installed.

1) If your RAM is really limited, I would go higher for example 32MB is too small of a swap for a 16MB RAM system. 64MB (RAM + Swap) total is a good minimum level for a system with tight disk space and RAM.

2) If you have a lot of RAM (512MB or higher), it makes no sense to create a swap file of 1GB or larger. I pretty much MAX out my swap size at no more than 512MB.

But that's just my opinion.

Posted by boogaloo on Mar. 21 2005,14:29

Yep, same suggestion. Twice the ram for swap.

Posted by jbm on Mar. 22 2005,12:32

Anyone know if i can get DSL to run with no swap? the computer ima try this on only has a 60mb hdd lol! but 256MB of RAM so i figure if it will never need the swap.

Its just a comp that i have pieced together with junk lying around and apparently i have way more RAM than HDD.

Posted by mikshaw on Mar. 22 2005,15:07

use "noswap" in your boot options. If it's your only option then use "dsl noswap".

Depending on what you plan to do with DSL, you may still want swap with 256mb. for example, Firefox can quickly suck up lots of memory.

Posted by noordinaryspider on Mar. 27 2005,16:45

Thanks bunches, everyone.

I seem to be confused about how much hard drive space DSL needs; it says < here > that 2 GB is recommended and < here > that 200-300MB is sufficent.

Advice, please? I would like to do this for others as well as my illustrious self.

My own PC has a 2.37 gig hard drive and 128MB of RAM but I am very much a bumbling newbie so I would like to dual boot with either Win95 or Puppy if I have enough room.

After reading this:

< Not Your Father's OS >

I'm thinking I might personally be better off waiting BUT.....

Since I have a Partition Magic that runs under Win95 anyway and certainly could do with the practice using it and will be helping even less experienced newbies than myself get older hardware on line, I was wondering if a swap partition would make DSL run faster from the CD?

Posted by mikshaw on Mar. 27 2005,17:30

The 2gb recommendation was a personal recommendation by the author of that piece. It shouldn't be taken as "set in stone". 2gb is good because you have plenty of room for additional software and personal data files, but it's not required. It's also easier to maintain the filesystem when you have a decent amount of free disk space.

Swap won't necessarily make DSL run faster, but it will if you are low on memory, and most likely will prevent freezes and crashes if you run out of physical memory.