Swap Issues

prinsobed · 09-03-2010, 08:32 AM

Hi Guys..i am new to this forum, i love linux and i believe with ur help i will be a geek soon.

My problem is i installed ubuntu 1o.o4 lucid lynx from inside windows cos i wanted to use the win boot manager..its working. however the installation created a 255mb swap space which is small for my 2.5gb ram. i have a partition on my drive i have already converted to a swap partition..how do i mount this partition..? I really need this cos my pc freezes all the time.

MensaWater · 09-03-2010, 10:09 AM

Use the swapon command.

Typing "man swapon" will show you the manual page for how to use it.

You can also add swap devices to /etc/fstab with lines similar to:

Code:

/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol01 swap             swap    defaults        0 0

That way they are enabled automatically at boot.

michaelk · 09-03-2010, 10:41 AM

Welcome to LinuxQuestions

The amount of swap really depends on the types of applications you are running. Look at the output of the free command and see how much swap is currently being used. Under normal usage with 2.5 GB RAM 256MB should be enough.

Before you can turn on the new swap partition it must be formatted with the mkswap command.

What applications are you running when the computer freezes.

syg00 · 09-03-2010, 06:32 PM

Sounds like a wubi install - I not even sure you can add a swap partition. But I've never used wubi.

What makes you think adding swap will help ?. Describe your problem(s) better.

tommcd · 09-03-2010, 09:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by prinsobed

My problem is i installed ubuntu 1o.o4 lucid lynx from inside windows cos i wanted to use the win boot manager..its working. however the installation created a 255mb swap space which is small for my 2.5gb ram.

With that much memory it is unlikely that you will ever need a bigger swap partition, I have 2GB memory, and ny swap partition is rarely, if ever used.

Code:

tom[data]$ free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          2000       1107        892          0         66        527
-/+ buffers/cache:        514       1486
Swap:          956          0        956

The command: "free -m" lists memory, including swap that is used, cached, etc in megabytes. Note that I am not using any of my 1GB swap partition.

BTW, according to Wubi's developer Agostino Russo, Wubi is just meant as a way to try out Ubuntu. It is not meant for long term installs:
http://howsoftwareisbuilt.com/2009/0...o-wubi-ubuntu/
So, if you decide you really like Ubuntu / linux, you should do a real install to a dedicated partition on your hard drive. You can easily dual boot with Windows using grub2. Here are 2 excellent sites for getting started with that:
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/
http://members.iinet.net/~herman546/index.html

And welcome to the LQ forums!

johnsfine · 09-04-2010, 06:34 AM

I'm going to try to be a little clearer about something others has already said.

Quote:

Originally Posted by prinsobed

the installation created a 255mb swap space which is small for my 2.5gb ram.

Probably 255MB of swap space is enough.

Quote:

I really need this cos my pc freezes all the time.

Your problem is almost certainly caused by something other than a shortage of swap space.