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1 • Swap file on traditional hard disks (by Explorer09 on 2022-11-21 01:48:37 GMT from Taiwan)
Just to say one personal experience: I used to like the swap partition approach as used in Linux operating systems rather than the swap files as used in Windows. Today it no longer matters, but the dynamic size of the swap file in Windows often fragmented my hard disk partition, and I had defragmented my disks a lot of times. The fixed size of the swap partition prevents fragmentation of the disk partition, which could matter if you are still using an old, CMR hard disks. Modern SMR hard disks and SSDs do not need defragmentation (actually defragmenting on them would do more harm than good). So it's more free to use swap files today. Note that it's preferred to set up swap files on SSDs than hard disks, if you have SSDs available.
2 • Swap and hibernation (by swaponoroff on 2022-11-21 02:52:16 GMT from Australia)
I only use a swap partition because of the hibernation feature (I have enough RAM so it doesn't need to be used for anything else) but is this also possible with swap files, given they are on that partition that is hibernating?
3 • Grub2 /boot partitions are EFI(fat/vfat) formated not ext4 (by Scott on 2022-11-21 03:23:52 GMT from United States)
I think the Fedora 37 review has an error.
The UEFI interface needs a EFI system partition that is typically mapped to /boot:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/EFI_system_partition#Typical_mount_points
4 • Fedora 37 boot partition (by K. Engels on 2022-11-21 04:30:04 GMT from United States)
/boot and /boot/EFI are two separate partitions in Fedora. /boot is Ext4 like noted in the review.
5 • swap resize (by Titus_Groan on 2022-11-21 05:35:12 GMT from New Zealand)
just for the record I just tried this.
using the Distros' system GUI disk management tool* on a running system:
unmount the swap partition - check.
resize swap partition to a smaller value - check.
format swap partition - check.
remount swap partition - check.
reboot and not have a 90sec timeout for fstab partition mismatch - check.
unmount the swap partition again- check.
resize swap partition to original value - check.
format swap partition - check.
remount swap partition - check.
reboot and not have a 90sec timeout for fstab partition mismatch - check.
how hard is that.
Note: it is also possible to mount a swap partition (if it exists) in a Live system, should the system be *lite* on RAM, to allow the GUI desktop to work. or create one on a USB stick for use.
* not gparted!
6 • Swap file/partition (by Romane on 2022-11-21 07:10:10 GMT from Australia)
The way that have structured my systems (3 with multi-boot) is that each system has its own dedicated swap partition. Probably all wasted space, as I have 20Gb of memory and only light usage of the system, so swap never gets touched/used.
i run with an NVME drive for the system, and a rust-disk for /boot and swap (my motherboard is to old to boot from anything except a drive at /dev/sda, and this arrangement means that the system itself can run from the PCIe drive), which all still leaves me heaps of spare disk-space once up and running.
7 • @Jesse Smith about swap files (by DidierSpaier on 2022-11-21 09:24:53 GMT from France)
Hello,
There is no inconvenience setting up a swap file in a BTRFS filesystem properly configured as indicated in their documentation: https://btrfs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/Swapfile.html
In Slint that I maintain, when using BTRFS by default copy on write and zstd compression are enabled, however the main volume contains a swap subvolume as shown by "findmnt /swap":
TARGET SOURCE FSTYPE OPTIONS
/swap /dev/sda4[/@swap] btrfs rw,noatime,compress=zstd:3,space_cache=v2,subvol
Inside this subvolume a swap file of size 1G is set up this way during installation (the varaible SLINT is the mount point of the to be installed system):
mount -o subvol=/@swap,compress=zstd:3,noatime $ROOTNAME $SLINT/swap
truncate -s 0 $SLINT/swap/swapfile
# +C=no copy-on-write
# +m=no compression
chattr +C +m $SLINT/swap/swapfile
dd if=/dev/zero of=$SLINT/swap/swapfile bs=${MEGA}c count=1024 status=none
chmod 0600 $SLINT/swap/swapfile
mkswap $SLINT/swap/swapfile
Additonally, a "swap in zram" ram disk is set which practically more than double the usable RAM vs the physically installed as shown below:
root[/]# swapon
NAME TYPE SIZE USED PRIO
/swap/swapfile file 1024M 0B 5
/dev/zram1 partition 15,3G 0B 32567
root[/]# LANG=C free -th
total used free shared buff/cache available
Mem: 7.7Gi 1.3Gi 4.3Gi 281Mi 2.0Gi 5.8Gi
Swap: 16Gi 0B 16Gi
Total: 23Gi 1.3Gi 20Gi
I keep a small swap file to let user know that the system being less responsive in the unlikely case that the swap in zram becomes full and thus the swap file be used, the OOM killer will soon kill some processes if nothing is done to avoid that.
No issue found or reported bu users os far.
8 • Shared swap file (by John on 2022-11-21 09:41:20 GMT from United Kingdom)
I run multiple distros, sharing the same partition for data. I have a shared swap file on this partition. It took a couple of minutes to set up.
9 • Firefox on Fedora 37 (by Appalachian on 2022-11-21 11:02:00 GMT from United States)
Lately I've been thinking of trying Fedora on my main machine so this week I tried out a couple of versions of it (flagship Gnome and the i3 spin) on a test machine. Everything works well enough, with the exception of Firefox. No matter how I launch it (could be from a launcher or command line), I can't get it to run.
When I use the launcher there is no response at all. Firefox never appears on the screen. When I launch from command line there is no output of any sort, and eventually I have to kill the process. Once again Firefox is never seen on the screen. Neither updating, nor uninstalling and reinstalling the app, did anything to fix the problem. I had to resort to removing Firefox and installing the Flatpak version to make it work.
10 • Fedora 37 Workstation (by Fedora 37 Workstation on 2022-11-21 11:02:19 GMT from India)
I prefer Fedora 37 Workstation because of it offers a vanilla GNOME experience. It includes all work flow improvements in in GNOME 43 - instead of customizing some parts.
11 • Swap partition / files (by DaveT on 2022-11-21 12:02:04 GMT from United Kingdom)
I stopped bothering with swap partitions on the desktop years ago, never had any problems.
If you do use swap and find it is getting used a lot than you need more RAM!
Servers are a different kettle of fish. Use a swap partition.
12 • swap (by James on 2022-11-21 12:10:15 GMT from United States)
I put both, depends no the age of the machine and the installed hardware.
13 • zram/ZRAM/ZRam/zRam (it is written lots of ways) (by Tim on 2022-11-21 13:19:22 GMT from United Kingdom)
Garuda linux uses zram for swap. Probably discussing its pros and cons needs a column of its own but any brief thoughts?
14 • swap partition, but I don't use it (by Matt on 2022-11-21 13:40:44 GMT from United States)
My new workstation has 64 GB of ram and a discreet GPU. It has a 1 GB swap partition, which was the swap partition size the OS installer chose for me. The swap partition will probably never be used. My old workstation had a lot less memory as well as an integrated GPU that took up some memory, so the swap partition was bigger (equal to memory size).
15 • @13 Tim about zram (by Didier Spaier on 2022-11-21 13:46:56 GMT from France)
Same in Slint, but I also install a 1GB swap file, see post #7 for the rationale.
16 • zRAM (by Jesse on 2022-11-21 14:35:36 GMT from Canada)
@13: We did publish an article on zRAM, how to set it up, and some of the considerations involved: https://distrowatch.com/weekly.php?issue=20201012#tips
17 • swap partition or file and size etc (by Otis on 2022-11-21 14:42:52 GMT from United States)
Modern new machines still ship with swap as OEM. It's there and seems to be reported by system monitors as full as RAM does too, but mainly as a sort of "high tide" mark like we see on the beach or rocks. Honestly it does a simple but good service to the system. Set and forget or even forget in the first place unless you're trying to breathe life into a pretty old machine with small storage space and anemic RAM/CPU/GPU etc. In those cases you're likely going to be doing a bit of regular maintenance to keep it fresh as possible anyway (the old 2 x RAM was my credo early on).
18 • Swap (by Roger on 2022-11-21 18:34:05 GMT from France)
It depends what hardware I am using and which distro, sometimes file or partition or both or no swap.
Because we use mostly Linux Mint Mate and it's only for office work there is a swap file on the same SSD.
For older PC with a HD there will be a swap partition, sometimes on a second HD.
Other way around for a newer PC with enough Ram there will be no swap.
For testing it's a matter of choice and what we want to find out.
19 • Swap (by Crackly Dan on 2022-11-21 20:09:04 GMT from Canada)
On a laptop I make a swap the same size as RAM for hibernation. On the desktop I use whatever the installer chooses. I manually set sysctl variable vm.swappiness=10 to limit swap usage. My desktop has 32GB RAM and with the sysctl variable I thought I'd seen the last of swap usage so I was surprised the other day when it was using almost 10MB. I wasn't concerned and in fact I read the kernel can decide to store things in swap even with a ton of RAM at hand. Lastly, I have run my desktop without swap in the past and it didn't seem to impact performance.
20 • WattOS (by MrSparkleWonder on 2022-11-21 20:53:43 GMT from Mexico)
At long last, this fantastic distro is back, and just in time as I was distro hopping looking for 'my' distro. I thought I had found it in SpiralLinux LXQT but there is just something i don't like with LXQT, the feel or themeing is weird and then WattOS was revived. I am now happily running this distro, and recommend it to anyone with older hardware.
One thing i had to install which was missing was dbus-x11 as i encountered an error while trying to open a file as sudo. But otherwise, it is running great, bare bones, customizeable lean and mean LXDE distro.
love it
21 • Linux's useless Apppendix....I think.... (by tom joad. on 2022-11-21 22:26:37 GMT from Norway)
faceinthecrowd@galaxy-hp:~$ free -htl
total used free shared buff/cache available
Mem: 11Gi 3.0Gi 6.5Gi 654Mi 2.1Gi 7.7Gi
Low: 11Gi 5.1Gi 6.5Gi
High: 0B 0B 0B
Swap: 975Mi 0B 975Mi
Total: 12Gi 3.0Gi 7.4Gi
That is what I have at the moment. And about every time I looked at that the results of that command...I have had a f$%^&*(g swap file! No partition, just a file. And I used to dump just remove the swap file. And after a bit I gave up doing that. I never, ever noticed a performance hit after I did that either. I am running Mint Cinnamon.
I have 12 gig of RAM on my laptop. My tower has 16 gig of RAM. I don't need a swap. As near as I can tell I never, ever use it. That file is totally pointless, a wasted use of RAM IMHO.
Why doesn't Linux, on the new install, check how much RAM is out there. And if that amount is over a certain required limit don't make a swap file. Or, during the install, ask if the user wants a swap file.
Yes, yes, I know one can during the install do a custom partition. That is a lot of work when the programmer could set it up my way. Not to mention a lot of users don't know how or will ever attempt doing that custom install.
22 • I trust Debian (by Ted E. Bear on 2022-11-22 00:28:46 GMT from Denmark)
@20:
One can easily make a minimal Debian install into whatever customized DE/WM they want. Debian's always around, vs. "other" distros which are here one day and gone the next.
I trust Debian.
23 • Swap (by penguinx86 on 2022-11-22 05:12:55 GMT from United States)
I've tried both swap files and swap partitions. Swap files seem to have better performance on a lightweight desktop system. I tried 8 and 16gb swap partitions, but it seems like barely 3gb ever gets used. Even running Virtualbox clients, I've never seen more than 4gb swap space used. I think a combo of a 4gb swap file and an 8gb swap partition is optimal. If you have the system resourses, why not? Better safe than sorry?
24 • @22, WattOS, I trust Debian (by Harry the Lizard on 2022-11-22 10:07:54 GMT from United States)
WattOS is Debian. Just like SpiralLinux, all the repositories are Debian. Sometimes people want to avoid the Debian installer and configuration and get something ready-to go. It's still Debian.
25 • Asus eee pc 4/8gb and swap (by MInuxLintEbianDedition on 2022-11-22 11:47:22 GMT from United Kingdom)
On the 3.73 GiB ssd of the eeepc 700, a 501 MB swap is most satisfying, leaving 3.23 GB for LMDE stripped down, and it's eversosatisfying those times (approx half) when they hibernate successfully.
Of course, if you still have your two 8MB bios boot boost partitions, you go for the 483MB swap option.
With bios boost, boot times of 40 seconds are a good mark.
Hibernate is less likely to succeed with bios boost, but can give you a 20 second resume.
Fastest I ever got these to boot to desktop is around 30 seconds, so a ten second time saving if hibernbating, Btw, shutdown is under 5 seconds, into hibernate more like 15.
With the 7.5GiB eee 701sd, Ive had three systems, i.e. lmde, debian, and devuan, each with own swap large enough to hibernate in, Had to make them share their /usr/share/icons partition though, because I ran out of inodes.
26 • Debian isn't always Debian... (by Otis on 2022-11-22 14:03:46 GMT from United States)
...despite the repos offered (and often relied upon).
Analogies can be distracting, but perhaps this one is not: I have a 1982 Harley Davidson (belt drive) frame, front assembly, frame, and customized rear spring hub. Other than that it's all Super V and other parts and systems.
Is it a Harley? Nope. Just the frame and a few other important pieces. It's my 40 year motorcycle project. Yes I get Harley parts when needed, but also many others as things wear out or need upgrading. Similarly many linux users have Knoppix or DogLinux or Feren or Siduction. Not Debian.
If they had Debian they'd have Debian and not those other distros "based" on Debian.
27 • swap (by brad on 2022-11-22 17:14:56 GMT from United States)
Most of the comments about swap do not seem to address the "usefulness" of hibernating a system when not in use. Perhaps I'm overstating the case, but it seems a "greener" solution than putting a device to sleep, and faster to wake than shutting the device off when not in use?
28 • @22 (by MrSparkleWonder on 2022-11-22 17:44:47 GMT from Mexico)
Debian has a lot of bloat. WattOS is de-fatted.....and based on Debian.
29 • @21 • Linux's useless Apppendix....I think.... (by tom joad) (by Leonie on 2022-11-22 18:48:39 GMT from France)
"I don't need a swap. ... Why doesn't Linux, on the new install, check how much RAM is out there."
Because Linux can't think and because it can't know who is gonna use it, nor what for.
YOU (eventually really) don't need swap, but your system (suspend to disk), or your applications (Blender, Hugin, GIMP etc., etc.) might very well need it.
Have you ever asked yourself why professional workstations with 256 GB RAM have one or more dedicated swap SSDs?
Each time you click on that 'undo' button in Photoshop (Blender, Hugin, GIMP etc., etc.) you load a previous full copy of the file.
For easier understanding, take some small image, 50 MB for example, open 300 layers, and in each one change only one single pixel, and then check the memory usage and a swap file size again.
Working on a 1.5 MB image (end size) used more than 12 GB RAM while working on it, and some people sometimes even work on some real photos, and are not just toying around ...
https://petapixel.com/2015/05/24/365-gigapixel-panorama-of-mont-blanc-becomes-the-worlds-largest-photo/
30 • Some interesting readings, in regard 'to swap, or not to swap' ... (by Leonie on 2022-11-22 18:56:55 GMT from France)
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/190398/do-i-need-swap-space-if-i-have-more-than-enough-amount-of-ram
https://artisticrender.com/memory-optimization-for-rendering-in-blender/
https://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-swap-space.html
31 • @26, Debian isn't always Debian (by Harry the Lizard on 2022-11-23 01:55:20 GMT from United States)
You analogy doesn't fit. Debian is a collection or repos. A Debian installer gives you a bootable medium with access to the repos and the choice to install what you want. Distros like WattOS and SpiralLinux offer convenience, saving you the work of configuration.
Assume Harley gives you the option of choosing a frame and configuring your bike with engine, etc. to your liking. That would be akin to Debian. But what if someone orders the frame and all parts from Harley and puts the bike together so you can go pick up your shiny new machine all done and ready. If Harley did not own the rights, they could badge it as a Yamaha, but it would still be a Harley. If you need parts and repairs, it would be no different than any other Harley.
In the case of WattOS and SpiralLinux, should the developer quit, you can update, upgrade, and do anything that can be done on any installation of Debian. And it will remain so as long as Debian exists. They are Debian no matter what the badge says..
32 • There is only one Debian (by There can only be one on 2022-11-24 06:51:18 GMT from Luxembourg)
@28:
"Debian has a lot of bloat. WattOS is de-fatted.....and based on Debian."
I can tell you've never performed a minimal installation. Debian doesn't have a lot of bloat if you do a simple and minimal install and build what you want from there. Try this for yourself if you're so inclined and you'll see. I've tried WattOS, it is not "de-fatted", it's someone's spinoff distro built the way THEY want it. YOU have the same power to create the environment you want by installing from the simple, minimal install method. But it sounds like you're just here to advertise.
@31:
"Debian is a collection or repos"
Debian is Debian.
"Distros like WattOS and SpiralLinux offer convenience, saving you the work of configuration."
Debian spinoff distros often rely on the Debian repos, and often modify/customize programs according to their wishes. Some sponoffs also go further and add custom repos and/or custom programs outside and apart from the Debian repos. I could take Debian and make TurdOS but in the end, it's still TurdOS and not Debian. Spinoffs are also usually ran by different people made up of organizations or companies, sometimes an simply an individual. Completely different team, motives, wants and needs. Some developers choose to remain anonymous. I don't like this.
If I want Debian, I install Debian. Not someone else's vision.
"In the case of WattOS and SpiralLinux, should the developer quit, you can update, upgrade, and do anything that can be done on any installation of Debian."
Except usually it's much more than that. It's not just Debian, it's a customized and often heavily modified version of what someone else wants Debian to be. It is not the same people, it's more often than not the same design.
"And it will remain so as long as Debian exists."
Unless they contain additional packages, stuff outside of the Debian repos and/or extreme modifications, forks, tweaks requiring unique old libraries or what not.
"They are Debian no matter what the badge says"
No, they most certainly are not. They are spinoffs made by others. Stick to Reddit.
33 • Debian (by Romane on 2022-11-24 12:09:00 GMT from Australia)
A few interesting comments above regarding the Debian offering,
I have been running Debian Testing for about 12 years now. Every once in a while I have the urge to try another distro, but not one satisfies what I want from my operating system except Debian, so I always return to it (usually within less than a week).
I have found that the best way to install it is as another person (I think it is @22) stated above - install a minimal base, and build what you want from there. As I am in general lazy, for me this means installing one of the ready-made desktop environments after the minimal system is installed. At the moment that is KDE Plasma running on Wayland.
Just to mention about running a full desktop environment on old tehnology, My laptop runs the same system, Debian Testing with KDE Plasma on Wayland. About 20 to 25 years old this machine is. Yes, booting is noticeably slower than my desktop (so just wander off and do something else briefly), even with an SSD in it, but that slowness is due, not to the OS but to the now-ancient technology. Once up and running, performance is eminently acceptable. In fact, for its age and etc. I would call it quite snappy.
I have found over the years that Debian "Just Works", whereas with other Distro's and Debian-based distro's, there has alway been "something" such that they do not, for me, live up to "Just Works", no matter how good and well-supported these other distro's are.
34 • @32, one Debian (by Harry the Lizard. on 2022-11-24 14:28:22 GMT from United States)
"Debian spinoff distros often rely on the Debian repos, and often modify/customize programs according to their wishes. Some sponoffs also go further and add custom repos and/or custom programs outside and apart from the Debian repos."
Sure they do, except when they don't. No one was talking about all spin-offs. The distros in question are WattOS and SpiralLinux. Nothing else was mentioned. No programs are "customized". Nothing is added from outside the Debian repos. Maybe it's not Reddit that's needed, but reading lessons.
I can install all those exact packages by customizing Debian to suit me using the Debian installer, or I can install something that already has the packages I want, and be done with it in a few minutes. I have installed Debian several times. This time I decided to try SpiralLinux with Plasma. I then changed to the testing repos. I now have Debian testing with nothing "customized" or from outside repos except for what I installed myself afterward: VBox from Oracle, Librewolf, and Chrome browser. Oh yes, I changed the green wallpaper.
35 • They like spinoffs *shrug* (by Goose on 2022-11-25 01:22:45 GMT from Germany)
@34:
Sigh. Some people like to argue just for the sake of arguing.
"No one was talking about all spin-offs. The distros in question are WattOS and SpiralLinux."
I'm sorry, are you god? You never defined the *rules* of discussion. These ARE spinoffs.
"Nothing else was mentioned."
I'm so glad you alone dictate what responses can contain.
"No programs are "customized".
Often with spins, many things are. Maybe not the two referenced, but in general.
"Nothing is added from outside the Debian repos."
Again, often in spinoffs, unique modifications and/or forks are made. Maybe you have the interest/patience of verifying every package as the same/legit but other's don't.
"Maybe it's not Reddit that's needed, but reading lessons."
That's why it was said, "stick to Reddit" for useless arguments. You sound like the type of person who likes to have the last word, no matter how wrong or right it may be. If you need reading lessons, surely there's a subreddit for that at Reddit. Best of luck to you and your education.
"I can install all those exact packages by customizing Debian to suit me using the Debian installer, or I can install something that already has the packages I want, and be done with it in a few minutes."
If you want to install a spinoff, that's your choice. A spinoff is generally commanded by one or more users, usually not developers of the distribution they pull packages from. They each have different goals, purposes, and so on. They are not Debian. You're more than welcome to jump on /r/Debian @ Reddit or the Debian mailing lists and try and talk about spinoffs, but you'll likely be informed that they aren't Debian and will probably be pointed in the right direction, which is the spinoff's respective mailing lists or forums.
I see the response in whole wasn't quoted/commented on, and with good reason, because they can't be argued against successfully.
"I now have Debian testing with nothing "customized" or from outside repos except for what I installed myself afterward"
You have a spinoff with different leader(s). Debian is Debian. If you want it, install it. If you don't, don't. But please do not confuse spinoffs with the real thing.
36 • It's still there! (by Richard GopherHeart on 2022-11-25 02:30:48 GMT from United States)
> The distros in question are WattOS and SpiralLinux
I've seen smaller distributions come and go for longer than you've probably been alive.
Debian is always there. Their "team" is always there and not cowards hiding under nicknames.
I wouldn't choose anything less than REAL DEBIAN!
37 • @36, It's still there! (by Harry the Lizard on 2022-11-25 11:32:20 GMT from United States)
"I've seen smaller distributions come and go for longer than you've probably been alive." Been alive for 76 years, so I seriously doubt it.
No point continuing, since you and @35 will just keep building straw-men to knock down. Spiral Linux can go away tomorrow, but it will not affect the system I'm running. I will not have to do anything to continue using it as long as Debian repos are there.
There are very popular, damn good and well respected distros such as MX and AntiX which are based on Debian. There are specialty distros such as Kali and Parrot. (I run Parrot) If these distros cease to exist, one needs to find an alternative. That is not the case if the distro is solely using Debian's repos. Neither the MX, Parrot, antiX, Kali, SpiralLinux or WattOS devs are "cowards". They are trying to provide usefulness and convenience to Linux users. They do this at no cost to the user, and deserve better than epithets.
38 • Swapping. (by Friar Tux on 2022-11-25 13:26:28 GMT from Canada)
Well... we've spent the week swapping swap stories. Interesting.
Me? I just use whatever is default in my OS. Hasn't failed me, yet.
As for this whole Debian "discussion", I use Linux Mint/Cinnamon. When I tested straight Debian, it was a pain in the undercarriage to get working. Then I tested Ubuntu, based on Debian, but "but much improved" (or so they claimed). It, too, was a pain to get working. Finally, I tested Linux Mint, which claimed to be an improvement on Ubuntu. It was the only distro that, on my HP laptop, worked out-of-box every time I installed it afresh, which was quite a few times. So while I do test/try/play with other distros, Linux Mint/Cinnamon will always be my workhorse.
As for starting minimal and building your system to your own specs, What Mint offers as default can easily be changed out to what I prefer. It takes no more time than "building my system".
39 • Eliminated my swap file... (by tom joad on 2022-11-25 16:31:51 GMT from Germany)
I posted as @21 about the overall value of a swap file when large amounts of RAM are freely available.
So I turned off my swap file a few days ago. That was several reboots ago. See?
munchkin@jupiter-hp:~$ free -htl
total used free shared buff/cache available
Mem: 11Gi 1.4Gi 7.7Gi 342Mi 2.5Gi 9.5Gi
Low: 11Gi 3.9Gi 7.7Gi
High: 0B 0B 0B
Swap: 0B 0B 0B
Total: 11Gi 1.4Gi 7.7Gi
lothario@nemesis-hp:~$
I honestly can discern no difference in performance..zero. Sure your 'mileage may vary' as they say. But for me, I don't need no swap anything.
Sorry for the second comment in a week.
40 • How much swap space? (by penguinx86 on 2022-11-25 17:49:46 GMT from United States)
In the old pre-Y2k Unix days, the recommended swap space was 2x to 3x the amount of RAM. But in those days, most systems had less than 1gb of RAM and hard drives were much smaller. I worked on old HP/UX systems running CAD software that had 512mb of RAM and two 1gb hard drives.
One of the 1gb hard drives was used for the OS and the other drive was used entirely for swap space. Yes, back then 1gb was a lot of storage.
These days, my laptop with 16gb of RAM and a 1tb SSD rarely ever swaps. I question if I really need the swap space or not. It seems like Linux Mint usually installs a swap file about 2gb by default. This default swap file seems good enough, if not overkill. Sometimes I add an extra swap partition, just to be safe.
That other OS from Redmond usually installs a swap/page file about 1.3x the amount of RAM. But it's probably needed on a bloated OS like that. Increasing the swap/page file to 4gb doesn't really seem to make much difference on that OS.
There seems to be lots of conflicting information about swap files and partitions. For example, some people say to NEVER use swap on an SSD due to premature wear. I contacted Samsung support about this. They said it's not an issue and just use their SSDs the same as an HDD.
Number of Comments: 40
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| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
| • Issue 1035 (2023-09-04): Debian GNU/Hurd 2023, PCLinuxOS 2023.07, do home users need a firewall, AlmaLinux introduces new repositories, Rocky Linux commits to RHEL compatibility, NetBSD machine runs unattended for nine years, Armbian runs wallpaper contest |
| • Issue 1034 (2023-08-28): Void 20230628, types of memory usage, FreeBSD receives port of Linux NVIDIA driver, Fedora plans improved theme handling for Qt applications, Canonical's plans for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1033 (2023-08-21): MiniOS 20230606, system user accounts, how Red Hat clones are moving forward, Haiku improves WINE performance, Debian turns 30 |
| • Issue 1032 (2023-08-14): MX Linux 23, positioning new windows on the desktop, Linux Containers adopts LXD fork, Oracle, SUSE, and CIQ form OpenELA |
| • Issue 1031 (2023-08-07): Peppermint OS 2023-07-01, preventing a file from being changed, Asahi Linux partners with Fedora, Linux Mint plans new releases |
| • Issue 1030 (2023-07-31): Solus 4.4, Linux Mint 21.2, Debian introduces RISC-V support, Ubuntu patches custom kernel bugs, FreeBSD imports OpenSSL 3 |
| • Issue 1029 (2023-07-24): Running Murena on the Fairphone 4, Flatpak vs Snap sandboxing technologies, Redox OS plans to borrow Linux drivers to expand hardware support, Debian updates Bookworm media |
| • Issue 1028 (2023-07-17): KDE Connect; Oracle, SUSE, and AlmaLinux repsond to Red Hat's source code policy change, KaOS issues media fix, Slackware turns 30; security and immutable distributions |
| • Issue 1027 (2023-07-10): Crystal Linux 2023-03-16, StartOS (embassyOS 0.3.4.2), changing options on a mounted filesystem, Murena launches Fairphone 4 in North America, Fedora debates telemetry for desktop team |
| • Issue 1026 (2023-07-03): Kumander Linux 1.0, Red Hat changing its approach to sharing source code, TrueNAS offers SMB Multichannel, Zorin OS introduces upgrade utility |
| • Issue 1025 (2023-06-26): KaOS with Plasma 6, information which can leak from desktop environments, Red Hat closes door on sharing RHEL source code, SUSE introduces new security features |
| • Issue 1024 (2023-06-19): Debian 12, a safer way to use dd, Debian releases GNU/Hurd 2023, Ubuntu 22.10 nears its end of life, FreeBSD turns 30 |
| • Issue 1023 (2023-06-12): openSUSE 15.5 Leap, the differences between independent distributions, openSUSE lengthens Leap life, Murena offers new phone for North America |
| • Issue 1022 (2023-06-05): GetFreeOS 2023.05.01, Slint 15.0-3, Liya N4Si, cleaning up crowded directories, Ubuntu plans Snap-based variant, Red Hat dropping LireOffice RPM packages |
| • Issue 1021 (2023-05-29): rlxos GNU/Linux, colours in command line output, an overview of Void's unique features, how to use awk, Microsoft publishes a Linux distro |
| • Issue 1020 (2023-05-22): UBports 20.04, finding another machine's IP address, finding distros with a specific kernel, Debian prepares for Bookworm |
| • Issue 1019 (2023-05-15): Rhino Linux (Beta), checking which applications reply on a package, NethServer reborn, System76 improving application responsiveness |
| • Issue 1018 (2023-05-08): Fedora 38, finding relevant manual pages, merging audio files, Fedora plans new immutable edition, Mint works to fix Secure Boot issues |
| • Issue 1017 (2023-05-01): Xubuntu 23.04, Debian elects Project Leaders and updates media, systemd to speed up restarts, Guix System offering ground-up source builds, where package managers install files |
| • Issue 1016 (2023-04-24): Qubes OS 4.1.2, tracking bandwidth usage, Solus resuming development, FreeBSD publishes status report, KaOS offers preview of Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1015 (2023-04-17): Manjaro Linux 22.0, Trisquel GNU/Linux 11.0, Arch Linux powering PINE64 tablets, Ubuntu offering live patching on HWE kernels, gaining compression on ex4 |
| • Issue 1014 (2023-04-10): Quick looks at carbonOS, LibreELEC, and Kodi, Mint polishes themes, Fedora rolls out more encryption plans, elementary OS improves sideloading experience |
| • Issue 1013 (2023-04-03): Alpine Linux 3.17.2, printing manual pages, Ubuntu Cinnamon becomes official flavour, Endeavour OS plans for new installer, HardenedBSD plans for outage |
| • Issue 1012 (2023-03-27): siduction 22.1.1, protecting privacy from proprietary applications, GNOME team shares new features, Canonical updates Ubuntu 20.04, politics and the Linux kernel |
| • Issue 1011 (2023-03-20): Serpent OS, Security Onion 2.3, Gentoo Live, replacing the scp utility, openSUSE sees surge in downloads, Debian runs elction with one candidate |
| • Issue 1010 (2023-03-13): blendOS 2023.01.26, keeping track of which files a package installs, improved network widget coming to elementary OS, Vanilla OS changes its base distro |
| • Issue 1009 (2023-03-06): Nemo Mobile and the PinePhone, matching the performance of one distro on another, Linux Mint adds performance boosts and security, custom Ubuntu and Debian builds through Cubic |
| • Issue 1008 (2023-02-27): elementary OS 7.0, the benefits of boot environments, Purism offers lapdock for Librem 5, Ubuntu community flavours directed to drop Flatpak support for Snap |
| • Issue 1007 (2023-02-20): helloSystem 0.8.0, underrated distributions, Solus team working to repair their website, SUSE testing Micro edition, Canonical publishes real-time edition of Ubuntu 22.04 |
| • Issue 1006 (2023-02-13): Playing music with UBports on a PinePhone, quick command line and shell scripting questions, Fedora expands third-party software support, Vanilla OS adds Nix package support |
| • Issue 1005 (2023-02-06): NuTyX 22.12.0 running CDE, user identification numbers, Pop!_OS shares COSMIC progress, Mint makes keyboard and mouse options more accessible |
| • Issue 1004 (2023-01-30): OpenMandriva ROME, checking the health of a disk, Debian adopting OpenSnitch, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1003 (2023-01-23): risiOS 37, mixing package types, Fedora seeks installer feedback, Sparky offers easier persistence with USB writer |
| • Issue 1002 (2023-01-16): Vanilla OS 22.10, Nobara Project 37, verifying torrent downloads, Haiku improvements, HAMMER2 being ports to NetBSD |
| • Issue 1001 (2023-01-09): Arch Linux, Ubuntu tests new system installer, porting KDE software to OpenBSD, verifying files copied properly |
| • Issue 1000 (2023-01-02): Our favourite projects of all time, Fedora trying out unified kernel images and trying to speed up shutdowns, Slackware tests new kernel, detecting what is taking up disk space |
| • Issue 999 (2022-12-19): Favourite distributions of 2022, Fedora plans Budgie spin, UBports releasing security patches for 16.04, Haiku working on new ports |
| • Issue 998 (2022-12-12): OpenBSD 7.2, Asahi Linux enages video hardware acceleration on Apple ARM computers, Manjaro drops proprietary codecs from Mesa package |
| • Issue 997 (2022-12-05): CachyOS 221023 and AgarimOS, working with filenames which contain special characters, elementary OS team fixes delta updates, new features coming to Xfce |
| • Issue 996 (2022-11-28): Void 20221001, remotely shutting down a machine, complex aliases, Fedora tests new web-based installer, Refox OS running on real hardware |
| • Issue 995 (2022-11-21): Fedora 37, swap files vs swap partitions, Unity running on Arch, UBports seeks testers, Murena adds support for more devices |
| • Issue 994 (2022-11-14): Redcore Linux 2201, changing the terminal font size, Fedora plans Phosh spin, openSUSE publishes on-line manual pages, disabling Snap auto-updates |
| • Issue 993 (2022-11-07): Static Linux, working with just a kernel, Mint streamlines Flatpak management, updates coming to elementary OS |
| • Issue 992 (2022-10-31): Lubuntu 22.10, setting permissions on home directories, Linux may drop i486, Fedora delays next version for OpenSSL bug |
| • Issue 991 (2022-10-24): XeroLinux 2022.09, learning who ran sudo, exploring firewall tools, Rolling Rhino Remix gets a fresh start, Fedora plans to revamp live media |
| • Issue 990 (2022-10-17): ravynOS 0.4.0, Lion Linux 3.0, accessing low numbered network ports, Pop!_OS makes progress on COSMIC, Murena launches new phone |
| • Issue 989 (2022-10-10): Ubuntu Unity, kernel bug causes issues with Intel cards, Canonical offers free Ubuntu Pro subscriptions, customizing the command line prompt |
| • Issue 988 (2022-10-03): SpiralLinux 11.220628, finding distros for older equipment and other purposes, SUSE begins releasing ALP prototypes, Debian votes on non-free firmware in installer |
| • Issue 987 (2022-09-26): openSUSE's MicroOS, converting people to using Linux, pfSense updates base system and PHP, Python 2 dropped from Arch |
| • Issue 986 (2022-09-19): Porteus 5.0, remotely wiping a hard drive, a new software centre for Ubuntu, Proxmox offers offline updates |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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