swap file doesn't work

mohtasham1983 · 11-13-2005, 07:57 PM

Since I have upgraded my fc3 machine to fc4 when I work some programs simultaneously every thing get frozen and I have to reset my computer manually. I have a athlon 2000 XP+ with 384 MB ram. Swap file is 777MB but it never works for me. In system monitoring it is always empty even when run huge program.

Tinkster · 11-13-2005, 08:41 PM

Are you actually activating it? Have you got it in /etc/fstab
so you get it switched on automagically? And is it actually
a file or have you got a swap-partition (you should)? Where
is it set-up, how has it been set-up?

swapon <filename>

Cheers,
Tink

syg00 · 11-13-2005, 08:48 PM

Simply issue "swapon -s" to see if you have any swap enabled/active.

mohtasham1983 · 11-14-2005, 08:10 AM

/sbin/swapon -s
Filename Type Size Used Priority
/dev/hda3 partition 795208 900 -1

swap file is available in fstab but I don't know why it never works for me. when my CPU usage become very high my computer freezes and every thing gets stopped and I have to reset it

bigrigdriver · 11-14-2005, 09:36 AM

Please post the swap partition entry from /etc/fstab.

mohtasham1983 · 11-14-2005, 12:07 PM

# This file is edited by fstab-sync - see 'man fstab-sync' for details
LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults 1 1
/dev/devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
/dev/shm /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
LABEL=/home /home ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/sys /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
LABEL=SWAP-hda3 swap swap defaults 0 0

I am not sure whether the problem is with swap file. Maybe my athlon XP 2000+ is not good enough for linux

sundialsvcs · 11-14-2005, 12:55 PM

Umm, yeah, it's "good enough for Linux." That isn't the problem.

The swapon output indicates that the swap-partition is being used, although it is almost completely empty. I conclude that whatever is causing your system to freeze is not related to swapping.

Does /var/log/messages have anything?

Tinkster · 11-14-2005, 02:43 PM

What's the output of free?

In terms of the labeling - my understanding was that
the kind of label you're using is specific to ext2/3, and am
not certain that it will work with swap files. Try something
like this instead:
/dev/hda3 swap swap defaults 0 0

Cheers,
Tink

mohtasham1983 · 11-14-2005, 04:37 PM

in /var/log/messages there is nothing written about this problem

mohtasham1983 · 11-14-2005, 04:42 PM

I changed the fstab to /dev/hda3 swap swap defaults 0 0

I hope it works

mohtasham1983 · 11-15-2005, 09:10 AM

I still have that problem.
Even when I am reading a text and doiing nothing special my computer freezes.

in the system monitor when it freezes CPU usage is 100%

syg00 · 11-15-2005, 04:03 PM

What does dmesg have to say at the point it attempts to mount the swap ???>

mohtasham1983 · 11-15-2005, 05:27 PM

at the end of the file is written:
Adding 795208k swap on /dev/hda3. Priority:-1 extents:1

But I don't think that anything's wrong with swap
I have doubts about FAN, because CPU temperature is around 80c and system is 44c

mohtasham1983 · 11-17-2005, 08:00 AM

I was working on windows and my computer suddenly stopped working. that means there is a problem in hardware.
I have 2 RAMs. one 128 and the other 256.i think one of them doesn't work properly.
I have doubt about my CPU fan also. Since I have an AMD athlon machine it heats so moch and i think my fan is not enough for it.
I don't think that there could be any other errors.