During the Debian install I opted to partition a swap.
I noticed however that df-k returned only one partition. In the fstab the swap partition is indeed not mounted.

Can it cause any harm to change the fstab from:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
/dev/hda1 / ext2 errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/hda2 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/hda5 /data ext2 defaults 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/fd0 /floppy auto user,noauto 0 0
/dev/cdrom /cdrom iso9660 ro,user,noauto 0 0

to:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
/dev/hda1 / ext2 errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/hda2 /tmp swap sw 0 0
/dev/hda5 /data ext2 defaults 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/fd0 /floppy auto user,noauto 0 0
/dev/cdrom /cdrom iso9660 ro,user,noauto 0 0

The /tmp directory obviously already exists, so I suspect I might be making things worse...

Any ideas?




# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 2434 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 498 4000153+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 499 514 128520 82 Linux swap
/dev/hda3 515 2434 15422400 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 515 1510 8000338+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda6 1511 2434 7421998+ 83 Linux

try this:
> /dev/hda2 swap swap pri=42 0 0

did you do a "mkswap" on /dev/hda2 ?

Nope, I've left it as I found it. Thought I'd ask around first.

I take it I have to mount it first??

swap is not mounted to a mountpoint per se and when mounted its usage is not reported via the command df

/dev/hda2 /tmp swap sw 0 0

should be

/dev/hda2 swap swap defaults 0 0

Once its formated you need to start swap
swapon /dev/hda2

Check the free command, you should see total swap space > 0

The next time you reboot the swap space will be automatically enabled.

Thanks for the help, I think I'll leave it as it is. top says swap is being used, which is good enough for me, for now.

Thanks