swap file

[Ksmith- Tx]

i have read with more memory need smaller swap file...ok i have 512mb ram so how big of a swap file do i need and how do i check to see if i have set one up and where it is? thanks (mandrake 8.1)

[Gaccm]

in a terminal window type "free" or "top" both of these show info about your memory (free is simplier to read).
I have 256megs of ram, i NEVER even touch my swap file. If you like using TONS of memory, then you would need a swap file, if you are an average user (which includes games) then you can set it to any size you feel like since you most likely will never use it.

[DMR]

Gaccm is right about the size and usage issues, but where and how large swap is depends on how you set things up during the installation. You should be able to find swap's location and size in Mandrake by using the HardDrake utility.

[Ksmith- Tx]

ok used harddrake and says 0 swapfile... how do i go back and setone up??? thanks

[Ksmith- Tx]

oh yeah... total 513mb
used 275mb
free 60mb
shared 0mb
buffers 22mb
cached 252mb
swap total 0mb
swap free 0mb
So do i need one?

[zcapt51]

Use diskdrake and resize your partition to create space for a swap partition. Mine is about 150 megs dont know how big you want yours to e

[thedexman]

Yes you want a swap file. You would never want to run out of memory. At a minimum, it should equal in size to the amount of RAM in your system.

[Dark Ninja]

Yes you want a swap file. You would never want to run out of memory. At a minimum, it should equal in size to the amount of RAM in your system.

Not necessarily. If you have 256 MB of RAM, you don't really need that large of a swamp file. (This is assuming, of course, that you are just using Linux as a desktop computer and not running many, if any, servers.) With 512 MB of RAM, it is rare the the swap file will ever be accessed. This is especially true if Ksmith-Tx is using BlackBox as his window manager, rather than KDE.


Dark Ninja