I already installed my Slack about 2 weeks ago and everything is running fine. I just have two questions, i never made a /swap partition, how do i go about doing this and why is it so important? Secondly, i wanted to ask if this new kernel 2.6.0 gives any improvement over the 2.4.26 kernel that i have now. Still kinda new to this all, but i am doing alot of reading but searching google i havent found any answers to these two questions.


SlackWare 10
Kernel:2.4.26
Intel 845 Chipset

swap is the same as virtual memory with windows. If a application requires memory and there is insufficient RAM, idle processes will be temporarily saved to disk. If RAM is consumed due to lots of processes running or maybe an errant program your system will crash.

Wether you need a swap partition depends on the apps running and how much RAM is installed. A desktop with >= 256MB may never need swap.

You can use any partitioning utility to create a swap partition. Then all you need to do is format it and turn it on.

2.6.x is supposed to be more responsive than 2.4 because it provides pre-emtive scheduling in the kernel. Also, it has many more drivers than 2.4 and alot more hardware is supported. Like with anything, the newer version is usually better, but alot of people have been staying away because 2.6 is being used as a testing ground for alot of stuff.. mainly due to a lack of a 2.7 development kernel. So yeah, if your not running a server I would probably go to 2.6.

As for all kernel related questions, browse around kerneltrap if your interested in this type of thing, it has alot of info from the lkml (linux kernel mailing list).

Thanks alot, both of your posts helped me, i am running 256 MB in my pc though so i guess i dont need swap, but i am switching it out since its generic and throwing 1 gig of kingston in here. Gonna head to that site and read up on kernels now, guess i still got alot to learn.

We've all got lots to learn!

The way I figure it, 256mb of ram isn't enough to say you don't need swap. If you do happen to open a file that requires more ram than you have available, linux starts killing those idle processes instead of saving them to swap.. since there is no swap.

I always like to have a bit of swap as a safety net.

A machine with 1 gig ram (like my desktop) probably wouldn't ever touch swap unless you're doing some pretty hardcore video editing or it's a production server.

--Shade

I agree with Shade. I have 512M of RAM, and I rarely touch the swap. With 256, You should have a swap partition. YOu could also use a swap file, I believe, since you are moving up to 1G of RAM soon. Would save you the trouble of making a swap partition that you won't need when you get the 1G. YOu could get rid of the swap file really easily when you upgrade. Or just don't worry about swap at all, since you seem to be running fine. Just hurry up and get that extra RAM.

On the kernel issue, I say go for the 2.6.7. 2.6.8.1 broke CD burning. Besides the pre-emptive kernel option, you also get to stop using SCSI-emulation when you burn CDs. Plus, you get to learn how to compile a kernel. After a few times, kernel compiling gets pretty easy. Better to learn it now for fun than to try learning sometime when you need to learn to get new hardware working right.