How do you do it after everything is set up except the swap partition?
Here is fstab:
# /etc/fstab: filesystem table.
#
# filesystem mountpoint type options dump pass
/dev/hda5 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/fd0 /floppy vfat defaults,user,auto,showexec,umask=022 0 0
/dev/cdrom /cdrom iso9660 defaults,ro,user,noexec,nooauto 0 0
#partitions found by knoppix
/dev/sda5 /mnt/sda5 ext3 noauto,users,exec 0 0
/dev/sda6 /mnt/sda6 ext3 noauto,users,exec 0 0
/dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1 vfat noauto,users,exec,umask=000,uid=knoppix,gid=knoppix 0
/dev/hda5 /mnt/hda5 vfat noauto,users,exec,umask=000,uid=knoppix,gid=knoppix 0
/dev/hda6 ext3 noauto,users,exec 0 0
/dev/hda7 ext3 noauto,users,exec 0 0
/dev/hda8 ext3 noauto,users,exec 0 0

I hope to put the swap partition on sda6.
How should I rewrite it so I can access and write to everything?

ok, so right now sda6 is an ext3 partition, and you want to convert it to swap and set it up so swap is all good and working, right?

umount /dev/sda6
mkswap /dev/sda6
swapon
/dev/sda6 swap swap defaults 0 0

More or less, that's it. As root of course

Some documentation on it should you desire more :
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/gentoo-....xml#doc_chap6

Also, I'd suggest fdisking the partition ID to Linux Swap, I am not sure if that is required or not, but that's what I do to keep things all happy and shiny.

Cool

How big is sda6? A swap partitions max size is 2gb. How much RAM do you have? 512mb swap is a resonable size if you have 256 or greater and not running memory intensive apps.

You could also go with a swap file instead.

I have a related question.

How do you know if your swap partition is doing what it is supposed to? What I mean is I fdisked a swap partition, set it up, etc. etc. How do I know Linux is recognizing this as my swap and using it?

Thanks for the help MasterC. here is how it responded:
#umount /dev/sda6
/dev/sda6 is not mounted
#mkswap /dev/sda6
setting up swapspace version 1, size = 105885 kB
#swapon
usage: swapon [-hV]
swapon -a [-e] [-v]
swapon [-v] [-p priority] special ...
swapon [-s]

Also, after you get it working I add it to /etc/fstab; right?

peace: free

MichaeK,
I can't rightly remember how much memory is in it. I had mandrake 9.0 set the partitions up (including the swap) and then put knoppix (which is debian) onto the harddrive. I let the mandrake installer determine the size of the swap partition. It is a strange thing; I set the swap partition up and then sda5 to immediately follow that. Apparently knoppix didn't like my swap partition and assigned sda6 to it.

You need to specify the partition with swapon

swapon /dev/sda6
If you look at the output of free it should now show your swap space.

As MasterC posted add that line to you /etc/fstab to have your swap activated on boot up.

Well, I didn't get an error after hitting enter so I suppose that means that it worked.
I then added 'swapon /dev/etc/sda6' to /etc/fstab.

This is what you need to add to the /etc/fstab file

/dev/sda6 swap swap defaults 0 0

Look at the output of free you should see the total swap memory equal to the size of the partition.

Thanks michaelk and sannik, that shows me my swap space!

Help always appreciated.

here is my new fstab (the last two lines are new)
~~~
# /etc/fstab: filesystem table.
#
# filesystem mountpoint type options dump pass
/dev/hda5 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/fd0 /floppy vfat defaults,user,auto,showexec,umask=022 0 0
/dev/cdrom /cdrom iso9660 defaults,ro,user,noexec,nooauto 0 0
#partitions found by knoppix
/dev/sda5 /mnt/sda5 ext3 noauto,users,exec 0 0
/dev/sda6 /mnt/sda6 ext3 noauto,users,exec 0 0
/dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1 vfat noauto,users,exec,umask=000,uid=knoppix,gid=knoppix 0
/dev/hda5 /mnt/hda5 vfat noauto,users,exec,umask=000,uid=knoppix,gid=knoppix 0
/dev/hda6 ext3 noauto,users,exec 0 0
/dev/hda7 ext3 noauto,users,exec 0 0
/dev/hda8 ext3 noauto,users,exec 0 0
swapon
/dev/sda6 swap swap defaults 0 0
~~~
Do I need the 'swapon' line?
What do you mean when you say to check free?

The swapon line is not necessary.

free is a console command that shows how much free and used memory in the system. It also shows how much swap you have.

You should delete this line since its now your swap and not valid anymore:
/dev/sda6 /mnt/sda6 ext3 noauto,users,exec 0 0

It tells me I have no swap space.

So its showing zero for total space?

Try the swapon /dev/sda6 command again see what happens