swap file usage basic questions, oh yea, btw love Puppy!

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sulemasc
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Joined: Sat 11 Jun 2005, 00:01
Location: Brampton, Ontario, Canada

swap file usage basic questions, oh yea, btw love Puppy!

#1 Post by sulemasc »

Hi - I've got Puppy 1.0.4 running on hd grub install - when I setup the hard drive I put in a swap file because someone reccomended it to me as maybe down the road some apps might want to use it - I'm new to linux so I go with the advice..

http://www.murga.org/~puppy/viewtopic.php?t=1055
this forum link helped me out a lot

I'm new to this swap file usage - but I understand it's very useful for low memory computers (I'm going to soon test with 64mB, and 128mB installs) - with some research I now know how the 'mut' utility in Puppy does recognize the swap partition but it's not being used now (I chose 512mB).

I already know the hd install slows down puppy a bit (still great I'd say), and I'm wondering if clicking the use swap is a good idea. It's not going to be used unless it needs to be right? Meaning that since the only thing I've installed so far is freecell, it wouldn't be used, but later on if I install a memory hogging program (does linux have any:) or use up the memory with graphics processing or whatever then the swap would then be used?

Also, what would happen if the swap was needed but wasn't there? Would linux just respond by saying there isn't enough memory?

Thanks, and I'm soo enjoying Puppy. When gxine worked for live365.com that really made my day. And the help file is dynamic! New apps have their links added there?! Fantastic I'd say. Tuxfiles, and Rute, and help, gee I've all this info to peruse .. :) Plus the info on this forum is fantastic. I'd say sometimes randomly reading posts I learn just as much as when I try to find something specific!

Thanks - I hope this wasn't already covered on the forum.
Mark

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mike
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Joined: Sat 13 Aug 2005, 17:25
Location: Bowser

#2 Post by mike »

if linux demanded more memory, but it wasn't there, it would act alot like win98 when trying to do something you know you shouldn't (you know who you rae, y'know, like tring to start IE when already doing another memory intensive task)



yes, linux really does have some programs that will tryt and cash your system due to memory problems....


if you get a chance, try out nicotine, a soulseek p2p client, it will just about crash my system every time... so yes, there does exist bad programming in linux as well, it's just lees often.

(no offence to the programmers behind nicotine, it's just that reputation is built on results, not neccacarrily politics)

edit: spelling doesn't seem to be my cup of tea today, sorry
Last edited by mike on Sun 14 Aug 2005, 05:57, edited 1 time in total.

sulemasc
Posts: 69
Joined: Sat 11 Jun 2005, 00:01
Location: Brampton, Ontario, Canada

swap file usage basic questions, oh yea, btw love Puppy!

#3 Post by sulemasc »

jeepers, I forgot to mention this pc has 288mB of ram, 16 shared (don't know what that really means - says it at startup), and Puppy sees 272mB
Mark

Guest

#4 Post by Guest »

urnong the swap off whilst runing isn't a good idea...I mentioned this to Jesse and he said most users would only do it once :lol:

Bruce B

#5 Post by Bruce B »

In order not to have confusion, when you wrote "swap file" you meant swap partition?

According to my experience Puppy will automatically configure itself to use a Linux swap partition if there is one.

I run Linux with swap partitions and I've noted that quite often it gets used for some purpose other than running out of physical RAM. Stated differently, I've seen the swap partition in use under circumstances when I didn't even come close to using all the physical RAM.

Overall, I think it is a good practice to have swap partitions.

As for a swap file, I haven't had occasion to create one or configure Puppy to use. There are some good posts on how to do this. Gotta search and find, that's all.

Edit: Opps, in reading the link you referenced, I think you probably are talking about a swap file.

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mike
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Joined: Sat 13 Aug 2005, 17:25
Location: Bowser

#6 Post by mike »

According to my experience Puppy will automatically configure itself to use a Linux swap partition if there is one.
i agree that puppy does this, but not in my experience once instaled to hard drive. i've always had to manually setup the swap partition once installed (at least with hd install #2)

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Lobster
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#7 Post by Lobster »

:)

the 16 meg shared is usually from the built in graphic card.

Puppy will usually boot from HD faster than from CD (not much in my experience) and then run (or try to primarily from RAM - so no difference in running speed with the CD and HD versions)

I think the idea of "flitting" through the forum, the wiki or Barrys site is a good one - sooner or later you will find more and more making sense. Tips and inspirations . . .

for example here are some of Barrys Quick tips
form puppylinux.com

Quick tips

* Rxvt and the clipboard
Copying text from an rxvt terminal window to the clipboard is so easy: just drag with the mouse pointer (hold left button down) to highlight text, release the left button -- and the text is automatically placed in the clipboard.
* Rxvt auto-complete
Another neat feature in an rxvt terminal window is auto-complete -- start to type a directory name or filename, press the TAB key and it will automatically complete.
* Live-CD faster boot
Booting from live-CD and want a faster boot? If you study the How Puppy works page, you will see the search order for the usr_cram.fs file -- mount the CD, drag a copy of usr_cram.fs to /mnt/home/. Next time you boot, wow!
Puppy Raspup 8.2Final 8)
Puppy Links Page http://www.smokey01.com/bruceb/puppy.html :D

sulemasc
Posts: 69
Joined: Sat 11 Jun 2005, 00:01
Location: Brampton, Ontario, Canada

swap file usage basic questions, oh yea, btw love Puppy!

#8 Post by sulemasc »

correct - swap partition. See already I realize that as much as I try to be succinct, somethings probably missing. Sorry, not swap file - subject should say swap partition .....

So the partition - I made it by searching this forum, typing into terminal, and making sure it said linux swap/solaris when I ran cfdisk. Then xproc memory tab showed 0kb swap and I can't edit xproc, so then I see that you can edit mut
Mark

raffy
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Joined: Wed 25 May 2005, 12:20
Location: Manila

mkswap and swapon -a

#9 Post by raffy »

Chief Barry says swap preparation is not automatic, so to format it

mkswap /dev/hda6 #if it is /dev/hda6

and to use it

swapon -a

Even having done this, check the MUT utility when inside Puppy...
Puppy user since Oct 2004. Want FreeOffice? [url=http://puppylinux.info/topic/freeoffice-2012-sfs]Get the sfs (English only)[/url].

Bruce B

#10 Post by Bruce B »

Puppy has always used the swap partion. I mean Puppy uses it after a fair amount of uptime.

It is using it right now and I've only browsed the forum and opened a text editor a few times. The more uptime the more ram and swap file gets used.

Code: Select all

## Uptime you can see the computer is mostly idle
]
 up 11:42, load average: 0.07, 0.32, 0.32

## 384 mb ram and it is still swapping to the swap partition
              total         used         free       shared      buffers
  Mem:       386284       327808        58476            0        12744
 Swap:       136512        51932        84580
Total:       522796       379740       143056
Last edited by Bruce B on Sun 14 Aug 2005, 19:09, edited 1 time in total.

Bruce B

#11 Post by Bruce B »

Mike, you are right and thanks for the info.

I use almost exclusively Option 1 installs and Puppy autodects and uses the swap partition.

I just tested it on an Option 2 install and Puppy did not autodect or configure to use the swap partition.

I tried swapon -a and it didn't work.

Then swapon /dev/hda4 and it worked.

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mike
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Joined: Sat 13 Aug 2005, 17:25
Location: Bowser

#12 Post by mike »

that's right, i had to add the line

Code: Select all

swapon /dev/hda5
to /root/.etc/rc.d/rc.local.

kind of starnge that the ability to autodetect swap isn't carried over to the hd option2 install.... :shrug:

Bruce B

#13 Post by Bruce B »

Lobster wrote:I think the idea of "flitting" through the forum, the wiki or Barrys site is a good one - sooner or later you will find more and more making sense. Tips and inspirations . . .
I've been intertaining an idea. As we know there are several brilliant and helpful contributors, I don't mention them by name for fear I might leave some out.

My idea is to search the formum by names of the 'answer' people and copy and paste some of their informative posts to flat text files for personal searching and referencing.

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mike
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Joined: Sat 13 Aug 2005, 17:25
Location: Bowser

#14 Post by mike »

that's a real good idea Bruce B...

Bruce B

#15 Post by Bruce B »

Mike, there is something else I noticed that doesn't seem to get carried over in an option 2 install. It is the MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME path and export and append instructions in /etc/profile.

The path locations are the same and it seems to me if an option 1 wants that information an option 2 would want the same information.

???

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Flash
Official Dog Handler
Posts: 13071
Joined: Wed 04 May 2005, 16:04
Location: Arizona USA

#16 Post by Flash »

The OS uses the swap partition as 'virtual RAM' according to its own rules, which are completely transparent to the user. As far as I know, there is no penalty, speed or otherwise, for having a swap partition that's never used, except the loss of room on the hard drive.
sulemasc wrote:Thanks, and I'm soo enjoying Puppy. When gxine worked for live365.com that really made my day. And the help file is dynamic! New apps have their links added there?! Fantastic I'd say. Tuxfiles, and Rute, and help, gee I've all this info to peruse .. :) Plus the info on this forum is fantastic. I'd say sometimes randomly reading posts I learn just as much as when I try to find something specific!
If I may speak for everyone who tries to help out in the forum, thanks! :)

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