Swap File on boot

Forum: Laptops
Topic: Swap File on boot
started by: walnut

Posted by walnut on Jan. 30 2005,11:17

Hey, i think i havent been here for like 5 months, so im suprised my account is still acive, but on to business:

at last encounter i found that X wouldnt start on my laptop due to low memory, i only have 16Mb, will a swap file help with this?

if so, how do i create one? and can it be dont on a FAT 16 partition without killing its current contents? if not it doesnt matter... i do have a 70Mb partition that can be sacrificed to the cause

the problem is that i cant get into X in the first place, so would need the command to do it on boot, at current it is setup with a poor mans install (i insert a boot floppy and run it that way)

what would be the easiest way to create the partition?

i plan to create the swap file, and if it is succesful in getting DSL to work, i will be promptly going to a full hdd install

thanks
/walnut

Posted by cbagger01 on Jan. 30 2005,18:31

On newer versions of DSL, there is a menu item, Main Menu -> System -> Setup DOS Swapfile

Give it a try.

Posted by walnut on Jan. 31 2005,08:46

hmm, is that AFTER you get the GUI? because, at the moment, i dont really get it to run even long enough to do that

and i can get the files to the hdd for the newer version , its not on the internet, and i dont have the PCMCIA cdrom drive that i used to get the files there in the first place

the only reason it doesnt have net access, is becuase it doesnt seem to like DHCP, i dont think that the NIC is installed properly, i couldnt get the right driver for it, so it is kinda running on a dodge job, i cant get win95 to run webpages properly, and it never seems to load a lot of them...

would a hdd install be "succesful" in only 75Mb of space? seeing as the image i have is only 50Mb, and i can make the other 25Mb swap space in the partitioning bit cant i? so i could technically boot from the floppy, locate the knoppix file.. then issue the

knoppix /tohda2

command.... would this work? i could then partition, mount and install...

/walnut

Posted by cbagger01 on Jan. 31 2005,17:26

Hmm... that is a problem, isn't it.

I am not using DSL at the moment, but one way to run the script is to open up your fluxbox menu file with a text editor like:

nano /home/dsl/.fluxbox/menu

and look for the above-mentioned script menu item and see what is the command syntax. My guess is that it is something like mkdosswapfile or something.

Or you can do it yourself:

< http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....1;st=20 >

< http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....wapfile >

As for the hdd install, you can't fit a full hd install in 75MB of space. However, you can fit a frugal or poorman's install in there.

To boot with less resources, try this boot command:

dsl base noicons vga=normal xsetup

and then choose a low resolution like 800x600 16 bit.

Lastly, if you can't even start up the GUI because of your available RAM, my advice is to either buy more RAM or try another distro/OS.

It is no fun to have your computer swapping all of the time just to get the window system started.

An alternative might be Basic Linux.

It works well on old, extremely low RAM systems.

Posted by Delboy on Jan. 31 2005,21:42

People have reported using DSL ok on 16mb.
As well as swap file, you can help, I think, by making a dedicated linux swap partition. In your case, at least 32MB (try 40MB). This is recommended by DSL if I remember correctly

Posted by AwPhuch on Jan. 31 2005,22:53

Quote (Guest @ Jan. 31 2005,16:42)

You can use it with 16Megs, however it is incredibly slow due to the swappage!

My recommendation is to try and find more ram

(I know it works..tested on a 75Mhz (90Mhz is turbo!)) 16Meg ram, 504Meg HD laptop-incredibly slow..yet useable)

Brian
AwPhuch

Posted by Bidi on Jan. 31 2005,23:00

Get a floppy distro and create a swap file using that. < Tomsrtbt > is my favorite. You can run fdisk and create your swap file that way.

Posted by walnut on Feb. 01 2005,04:27

Quote (AwPhuch @ Jan. 31 2005,17:53)

pfft, good luck finding ram for a laptop like mine (compaq contura 430c)

my system spec is:
Compaq Contura 430c
486 DX 100MHz
16Meg RAM
720Mb hdd
Floppy

and even if i did find some, i wouldnt be paying for it...

i dont mind it being a little but unresponsive, i only plan to install some kind of IM client,and use it for chatting... and perhaps as a DHCP server... as that only needs some lite system power....

i might go and get a laplink cable, so i can use the latest vserion

its just that i dont want to obliterate my win95 partition, making it dual boot isnt the issue, but have you ever installed windows 95 from floppy?

/walnut

Posted by cbagger01 on Feb. 01 2005,05:55

You don't need to blow away your Win95 partition. You can run DSL from livecd, or poorman's install or frugal install without affecting your Windows 95 partition.

You can also create a swapfile on your existing Windows 95 partition as opposed to creating a swap partition using fdisk which requires either resizing the win95 partition or deleting it.

FYI,

If you don't mind text mode (console), DSL includes a text mode web browser, text editor, IM client, and mp3 player (mpg321) so it is quite possible to use the computer without the XWindows.

However, I would still try booting with:

dsl noicons base vga=normal xsetup (choose Xvesa server at the prompt)

or

dsl noicons base vga=785 xsetup (choose Xfbdev server)

Posted by walnut on Feb. 01 2005,10:22

yeah, i dont mind console only, though i know that the webrowser is a but (no offense here guys, it works well) ugly...

besides... i am much more of a point and click person late at night (when this setup will be used....)

one more question, how well does DSL take to MAJOR hardware changes? like, if i was to install the hdd into a desktop computer... how well would DSL handle being moved to a setup of completely different hardware?

/tAK

Posted by Bidi on Feb. 01 2005,18:48

Well, < BlueFlops > is a 2 disk distro with a graphical web browser. It's pretty primitive, but does the work pretty well (it's, personally, my favorite). Not much else besides the Web Browser though, on anIRC client.

As for installing it from another computer, do a search, there are a few thing that you might need to take care of before doing the install from another computer.

Posted by cbagger01 on Feb. 03 2005,03:15

DSL has boot-time hardware autodetection, so it should not be a problem to do this.

However, the bootloader program, LILO, does care about the location of your hard drive.

In other words, if your hdd is usually connected as the Primary Master drive (IDE drive 0) in computer "A" and you decide to do a DSL hard drive install while the drive is connected to computer "B", then make sure that your drive is also connected up as the Primary Master drive (IDE drive 0).