Linux swap partition size 2

[wmg]

Hello,

I have a linux swap partition size of 128Mb which, at the time was based on the amount of RAM I had in my system (I was told that was the best thing to do.)

I now have 512Mb RAM and was wondering, should I repartition the disk to make the swap partition the same size or just leave it at 128Mb??

Thanks in advance
wmg

 

[bubak]

it uis adviced to have the partition for swap witha xxxx MB, according to your ram, but... DO U NEED IT?
just type "free", look, what amount is beeing used and if there is no much space left, add some more ;-)
bubak

 

[ifincham]

Hi,

Well, the general recommendation for 2.4 series kernels is at least twice your physical ram. Although separate swap partition(s) are optimal, you can actually create a swap file within a 'regular' lunux partition if you don't want to re-partition - a bit like a windows swap file perhaps.

See 'man mkswap'.

But, as bubak says, it all depends on how stretched the system is at the moment. You'll always see close to 100% utilisation of real memory even if you're running almost nothing because thats how the kernel works - it gives out that memory to other processes as required.

Regards

 

[wmg]

Great - thanks for that guys - I'll check what's being used before I re-install Mandrake 8.2 (downloading at the moment) and maybe reconfigure at that stage.

regards
wmg