I have a laptop that I aquired some months ago. I wound up being too busy to install Linux on it, and installed XP instead.

Now I'm going to try installing Linux so I can learn some basic skills dealing with wireless networks and Windows authentication.

I haven't decided on Fedora or Ubuntu. I'm going to night school, and they are starting to use both. Heck, there's a mix between Fedora 12, Fedora 14, and Ubuntu something (I can't recall and am too lazy to look it up).

Anyways, when examining my hard drive, I noticed that there is 1.89gb of unused space that I can allocate between the old Vista and the XP partition. I have roughly 30gb for Linux. The computer only has 1gb of RAM.

Does the swap need to be a full 2GB, or can I use that 1.89GB of space for the swap partition? Ten years ago I was told to make the swap partition equal to the RAM, but these days I'm told to double it.

I need answers for both Fedora 14 and Ubuntu (whatever the latest stable build is). What amount of that 1.89GB should I allocate to swap? 1.0GB, 1.5, or all of it?

You need as much swap space as you need and no heuristic (such as "double the RAM") can predict how much that will be. Best bet, especially if short of HDD space, is to swap to a file (on a file system!) instead of to a dedicated partition. That way, if you do decide you want to use a swap partition after all, you will know how much swap space your system has actually used. Further considerations if you want to hibernate.

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Since you have a laptop. If you plan on using hibernation I would say at least give the swap partition a bit more than the RAM you have. I'd give it all of the 1.89G.

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How do I figure out if I need more swap space or not? I'm going on what I was taught back in either 2000 or 2001 (I can't recall) when I needed to learn Unix commands and installed Yellow Dog Linux on my PowerMac to do so. Back then, everything I read said to allocate as much swap space as your computer has memory.

Today, I see three things: Same as the RAM, 1.5*RAM, and 2*RAM.

That was my first instinct, then I thought maybe I should only allocate 1GB. I know that I don't know enough about modern swap space to know what to do, so I made this post. I wasn't sure if I needed to keep it divisible by the amount of RAM, or if being at that odd number wouldn't matter.

P.S. Since the primary reason I'm installing Linux is educational, would it be a dumb thing to choose Ubuntu over Fedora solely because I know Fedora much better and could use the practice with Ubuntu, and no other reason?

My experience is that on a machine like your's Linux will hardly use more than a few MB of the swapspace. 256MB should be sufficient.

If you want to hibernat (as been said above), you'll need at least as much as the RAM.

Otherwise, since you can't use the space of 1.89GB for anything else, it makes sense to use it as swapspace.

Use the commandin order to examine the usage of memory and swapspace.

Markus

What are you trying to achieve when choosing a distro? Is it dominantly to learn about Linux? If so, are there secondary objectives? Which constraints apply to the distro choice? Does it have to be Fedora or Ubuntu?

The only real method is to observe your usage. With your system, allocating that 1.89G free space to swap should be enough.

With a system that has 1G of RAM; in your situation; with partitions already set for Windows and Linux, and with 1.89GB free space; I'd just use it all. Your not really losing a lot of hard drive space doing so. You will need at least 1GB+ for hibernation anyway.

All of the math calculations to figure swap size have always been pretty much a guesstimate (bullony in my language ). It really depends on what you are going to be running, how much memory those applications need, how many programs are run at the same time. Usage is a big factor on figuring swap size.

If you know Fedora better than Ubuntu, then stick with Fedora and and learn it well. What every you decide, stick with it and learn it.

Use (all) the space for a single swap partition. If you need more (your system will crash - you will know when), simply add more - a file as swap space is fine.
With a Gig, you can probably get by without swap at all, but I wouldn't recommend it.
The same swap partition can be used for multiple distros if you're careful.

Just do it - if it all goes to hell, it'll be educational to fix it ...

Fedora vs. Ubuntu: I use both. Be aware that standard Fedora and Ubuntu have, up through F14 and U10.10, used the standard GNOME2 desktop. Starting with U11.04 (due out April 28), Ubuntu will default to the Unity desktop. Starting with F15, Fedora will offer the Gnome3 desktop. Whichever distro you choose, I recommend sticking with the current version (F14 or U10.10) until you're comfortable with different desktop environments. I use LXDE on both Fedora and Ubuntu, so the above changes don't greatly affect me. Avoid Fedora 12; it's well beyond end-of-life and is no longer receiving updates.

Swap: Like everyone else, I recommend using the whole 1.89 GB.