Sharing swapspace between two Linux installations?

mwettach · 03-29-2004, 04:29 AM

I have installed the ELX business desktop on my home computer and found that during install it grabs all the available swap partitions (which I created to be used by different Linux installations; one swap partition for each).

(1) Is that a problem?
- Does Linux rely on these swap partitions having the same content as at the last shutdown?
- Or is the swap partition initialized anyway by the boot process?

(2) Can I save space by just creating one swap partition for all my Linux installations?

Thanks for your comments.

Andrew Benton · 03-29-2004, 04:44 AM

Yes, you only need one swap partition. You only have one operating system running at a time so there is no conflict. The swap partition is just there for the kernel to use when it runs out of main memory. Nothing is stored on it between boots.