Puppy 214X-TOP9 swap file problem

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PenguinPupLin
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Puppy 214X-TOP9 swap file problem

#1 Post by PenguinPupLin »

I created a swap file called pupswap.swp in my WinXP partition for my frugal installed Classic Pup 214X-TOP9 using a method I found in the Internet, i.e in WinXP (ntfs partition),type "fsutil flie createnew C:\pupswap.swp 528244000" (without quotes, and for 512MB size). Then in Puppy rxvt, I first "mkswap /mnt/home/pupswap.swp" successfully as it showed the correct size and UUID. But when I wanted to turn swap on by " swapon /mnt/home/pupswap.swp" , it said "swapon: argument is invalid". Upon rebooting puppy,the message about swapon invalid argument also appeared. What gives and how to correct it? Please help. By the way, I also tried using winfonts.pet to set my WinXP pagefile.sys as swap space but to no avail.

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RetroTechGuy
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Re: Puppy 214X-TOP9 swap file problem

#2 Post by RetroTechGuy »

PenguinPupLin wrote:I created a swap file called pupswap.swp in my WinXP partition for my frugal installed Classic Pup 214X-TOP9 using a method I found in the Internet, i.e in WinXP (ntfs partition),type "fsutil flie createnew C:\pupswap.swp 528244000" (without quotes, and for 512MB size). Then in Puppy rxvt, I first "mkswap /mnt/home/pupswap.swp" successfully as it showed the correct size and UUID. But when I wanted to turn swap on by " swapon /mnt/home/pupswap.swp" , it said "swapon: argument is invalid". Upon rebooting puppy,the message about swapon invalid argument also appeared. What gives and how to correct it? Please help. By the way, I also tried using winfonts.pet to set my WinXP pagefile.sys as swap space but to no avail.
IIRC, at least some of the versions automagically mount a file called 'pupswap.swp" when they boot up, if it exists.

Try opening a terminal and type "free" (which will report free memory, actual RAM and swap) -- that will tell you if it was already mounted.
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PenguinPupLin
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#3 Post by PenguinPupLin »

Yes,it's auto mounted for my other puppies,eg Wary511, Puppy 431, and Lighthouse 5.0.3 but just not for Classic Pup 214X-TOP9 (and I believe for Legacy OS2 as well which is based on Puppy 2.14). Free in console shows no swap space and invalid argument for swapon.

Peterm321
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#4 Post by Peterm321 »

This reply is purely speculative its something I would try if no other suitable suggestion arises.

Perhaps it may be worth recreating the swapfile under Classic Pup 214X-TOP9? (In case there are possible file compatibility issues).

BTW the solution I use is to create a separate linux-swap partition using gparted. Even non puppy linuxes such as knoppix and GRML as temporary/ live CDs find and use with no problems arising.

This is a more technical solution and may not suit everyone especially if you have to shrink an existing partition to make room. Also it will semi-permanently reserve space on the HD unlike a standard swapfile that can be deleted.

PenguinPupLin
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#5 Post by PenguinPupLin »

I was thinking along this line when I saw your post. Tried, using swapfilemanager to create one under Classic Pup 214X but no dice. Typing free in console showed no swap and rebooting showed sawpon invalid argument when I used the name pupswap.swp - when I used another name,eg simply swapfile,nothing happened.
Thanks for your suggestion anyway. I guess,my last resort is to create a swap partition however reluctant I am to do so as all my puppies are frugal installed to multi-boot in WinXP ntfs partition which I originally wanted to avoid touching.

sheldonisaac
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Re: Puppy 214X-TOP9 swap file problem

#6 Post by sheldonisaac »

(PORTIONS SNIPPED)
PenguinPupLin wrote:I created a swap file called pupswap.swp in my WinXP partition for my frugal installed Classic Pup 214X-TOP9

This computer has a frugal installed Classic Pup 214X-TOP9, which can dual-boot with MS-Windows 98SE.

Here's the output of free:

Code: Select all

               total         used         free       shared      buffers
  Mem:       775668       325100       450568            0        30632
 Swap:       102372            0       102372
Total:       878040       325100       552940
Here's some other stuff:

Code: Select all

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hda1   *           1        1006     8080663+   b  W95 FAT32
/dev/hda2            1007        9729    70067497+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5            1007        2542    12337888+   c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda6            2543        3524     7887883+   c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)
(SNIPPED)

Code: Select all

 ls -l /mnt/home/
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root      4096 2011-09-13 19:01 boot
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 104857600 2011-09-16 02:00 pupswap.swp
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root      4096 2011-09-15 16:34 top9
Please let me know other info you may want.

Thanks,
Sheldon

PenguinPupLin
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Location: The Little Red Dot

#7 Post by PenguinPupLin »

Hi Sheldon, the main difference between yours and mine lies in the Windows OS and partition format. Mine is WinXP ntfs (I actually heard of people installing their WinXP in FAT32 partition but that's beside the point here) while yours Win98SE FAT32. And my understanding is that Classic Pup 214X-TOP9 is based on an old kernel 2.6.18.1 which may not take too kindly to ntfs partition where I frugal nstalled all my multi-boot Puppies with WinXP.Maybe somebody has something to say about this. Or could it be the command to turn swapon is different from the newer puppies/kernels because my swap space works fine under Wary511, Puppy 431 and Lighthouse 5.0.3?
Well,thanks for sharing your info with me. I'll just have to be patient and wait for some kind soul to come to my rescue. If and when the solution arises,I ll also try it on my other puppy Legacy OS 2 similarly based on k2.6.18.1.
So far,in my case, the puppies I've tried that works best for my 10-yr-old notebook (1.6GHz cpu,512MB ram and integrated NVidia Geforce 2 go graphics chipset) has been Wary 511, Puppy 431 and Classic Pup 214XTOP9, the last of which is my favourite and I just have got to make swap space work for much better performance. Understandably,for my other slightly better PC hardware, I always go for Lighthouse Puppy first and then others such as Slacko.

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