Telling Linux what to use as its swap partition
 

How can I get Linux to recognize its swap partition? Somehow, the information became lost, and it does not realize it has a 1 GB swap partition set aside for it. This is bad, because setup will not let me upgrade to Fedora Core 3 without a swap partition. I have one, but my Core 3 Test 1 install does not recognize it anymore. Little help anyone?

Thanks!

First of all swap partition must be formated as swap hextype is 82
Secondly you enable it by typing "swapon"
Just an example:
$mkswap /dev/hda2
$swapon /dev/hda2

First do you know what partition your swap should be? Log in as root and enter the follow command:
fdisk -l (that is a small L)

Check the /etc/fstab file and see if it matches. Look for
/dev/hdxy swap swap defaults 0 0 (or similar). Where xy is the drive a partition ID.

Look at the output of the free command. If total swap space is 0 then it isn't activated.
To activate swap
swapon /dev/hdxy (again replace xy with the ide of thepartition)

If your getting errors activating the drive then you can reformat swap with the command.
mkswap /dev/hdxy

The try a swapon command again. Check the output of the free command to see if everything is working.

Thanks guys. Three problems.

First: No fdisk.
[root@pcp04376218pcs danny]# fdisk -l
bash: fdisk: command not found

I found the swap partition anyway, though. It's /dev/hdf6.

Second and third: No swapon or mkswap either.
[root@pcp04376218pcs danny]# swapon /dev/hdf6
bash: swapon: command not found
[root@pcp04376218pcs danny]# mkswap /dev/hdf6
bash: mkswap: command not found

Any pointers?

Thanks!

P.S. Running Fedora Core 3 Test 1, as mentioned above.

Please, be sure that you enter commands like "fdisk" or "cfdisk" as superuser, in fact, CFDISK is easier to use
$su
<PW>
$cfdisk

I am logged in as root. fdisk, cfdisk, swapon, and mkswap all come up with command not found errors.

Easy solution is, of course, LiveCD, which has all options you need for lowformatting

Is there another way to go through with this without LiveCD? Alternatively, how do I get LiveCD? (Alternate solution would be more appreciated.)

OK. First answer to second question. Any distro as well as LiveCD my be downloaded free at http://distrowatch.com
Second, let us try again, shall we:
CTRL+ALT+F1
$login
<PW>
$cfdisk

Sounds like you don't have your path set correctly.
Try /sbin/swapon /dev/????
fdisk and mkswap should also be in /sbin

syg00 may be also right in this case.
Try what he wrote....:)

Ah, come on, please. Log in as root correctly. That means, use su --login or the two short-forms su -l or su -, but don't use just "su". It's not enough. Then run:

parted /dev/hda print

Wow, sorry, sir. You don't need to snap at people who don't know as much about Linux as you. The "su" command has worked for me in the past, so jeez. My sincere apologies for not being perfect.

I found and fixed the problem and am now confronted with a new one though. I recently installed a new hard drive, and for some reason it started looking for the swap partition in the same spot on the new drive. Fixed that, and both Linux and FC3 setup worked correctly. I got my installation upgraded to Fedora Core 3, but now whenever I boot it, it refuses to load at all.

It does:

Initializing hardware: network (something else I can't remember) audio [ OK ]

Then it does:

Configuring kernel parameters:

And just stops and won't boot past that. This problem just went from marginally annoying to very serious...

Thanks for your help.

timelord726!
Please, take time to reply when the initial problem is fixed, because people keep posting regarding the initial one. We take time to help you - you take time to at least notify.

Regards;)

Umm... I thought I just did that. I fixed it, and then I notified you as soon as I could. Do you expect me to just hop onto my cell phone and use its internet access to post on here when my computer is otherwise occupied? Once again, sorry for not being perfect...