I don't think I have a swap file . . .
Will my box run faster if I had one?

Would Linux be happier on it's own hardrive?
Here's what I have:


root@hal1:~# fdisk -l /dev/hda

Disk /dev/hda: 122.9 GB, 122942324736 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14946 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 1216 9767488+ c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/hda2 1217 14946 110286225 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 1217 2432 9767488+ b W95 FAT32
/dev/hda6 2433 3648 9767488+ b W95 FAT32
/dev/hda7 3649 13739 81055926 b W95 FAT32
/dev/hda8 * 13740 14946 9695196 83 Linux


root@hal1:~# fdisk -l /dev/hda8

Disk /dev/hda8: 9927 MB, 9927880704 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1206 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System




root@hal1:~# dmesg | grep hd

Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=Slackware9.1 ro root=308 hdc=ide-scsi
ide_setup: hdc=ide-scsi
ide0: BM-DMA at 0xa800-0xa807, BIOS settings: hdaMA, hdbMA
ide1: BM-DMA at 0xa808-0xa80f, BIOS settings: hdcMA, hddMA
hda: Maxtor 6Y120L0, ATA DISK drive
hdb: Maxtor 91536H2, ATA DISK drive
hdc: IDE DVD-ROM 16X, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
hdd: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4040B, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
hda: attached ide-disk driver.
hda: host protected area => 1
hda: 240121728 sectors (122942 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=14946/255/63, UDMA(100)
hdb: attached ide-disk driver.
hdb: host protected area => 1
hdb: 30015216 sectors (15368 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=1868/255/63, UDMA(100)
hdd: attached ide-cdrom driver.
hdd: ATAPI 32X DVD-ROM DVD-R-RAM CD-R/RW drive, 2048kB Cache, UDMA(33)
hda: hda1 hda2 < hda5 hda6 hda7 hda8 >
hdb: hdb1
hdc: attached ide-scsi driver.



Thanks,
John.

swap space is basically the linux version of virtual memory.
well, that really depends. it depends mostly on how much ram your system has. for example, my laptop has 512 mb of ram, and i very rarely use any of my swap. this is because it is only used when all of your memory is used up. so if you run a lot of games, graphics editing apps or other memory intensive programs, then you will use swap more often than if you run text editors and email clients. if you never use all of your system memory, then you will never use swap. the general rule of thumb is that you should have twice the swap space that you do system ram. though this is not necessarily the case when you have a lot of ram, as mentioned earlier. i do think that it is basically a good idea to always have some amount of swap however.

hope this helps.

I screen shakes and jerks when I play .vob(dvd movie) files.
windoze plays these same files smooth.

Is there a command which will show me how much mem is being used?
Is it possible to add a swap partician without a total reload?

I have 512 MB RAM.

Thanks,
John.

the command: will give you memory usage stats measured in megabytes. i've had some success with a partition resizing program called parted. you can google for it to get some info. but a disclaimer: this is not guaranteed to be completely safe, always back up important data before resizing a partition.

edit for speling

the command: will also give you memory usage stats (as well as many other system stats such as cpu load and swap info) and will refresh it every 5 seconds by default. if you have any questions about the output for this command, take a look at the man page.

oh yeah, press q to exit from top back to the cli.

edit for speling