Ubuntu 10.10 recreating swap file after install of USBSTICK
 

I made a mistake and during the setup created a seperate swap partition and noticed that using this on a usbstick hindered performance. So I want to simply add the swap to the same partition as root and the others. I used this ubuntu help file. Will this suffice:


https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwapFaq

Did you install your Ubuntu to a USB-stick? I can not see that clearly from your post. If you installed it to the USB-stick there should be no performance loss, only because you made a swap partition and not a swap file. Generally I don't think that all of the recommendations in the mentioned article make sense. Why should someone use more swapspace on a computer with more RAM, except for hibernation? And why should I use more swapspace on the same harddisk size only because I have more RAM. Maybe I don't see the point here. then please correct me.

there is a delay when opening up web browsers and basically multi-tasking. I am trying to figure out why it is sluggish. I am using a new laptop with usb 2.0. I have installed Ubuntu 10.10. multiple time on this memory stick and cannot figure out what it is. I have stipped it down and prevented the services. Help.

Did you check with the free command, if you actually use swap? How much RAM do you have? Maybe your memory-stick is not very fast?

That article seems to cover things - easy enough to test, easy enough to undo again if/when nothing changes.

Maybe try latencytop.

the article worked but I am still trying to figure out the intermittent lag between programs. I have installed 3 different installs including Lubuntu 10.10, Ubuntu 9.04 and now Ubuntu 10.10 and all three have the same issue. Any suggestions?

Use the free command to see if it is a swap issue. Make a benchmark of your memory-stick using the command sudo hdparm -tT /dev/sdX with X replaced by the letter of your memory-stick.
Is the lag only at the first start of your program? How much RAM do you have?

is it a persistent usb install with a casper-rw persistent file?
if yes then thats why
nothing you can really do about that except

if usb-creator made a casper-rw file on fat32 usb
then instead create a 2nd partition on usb, ext3, labeled "casper-rw"
delete the old casper-rw file also
this will only speed it up a bit
you culd also probably edit the persistent /etc/fstab and make sure it mounts the casper-rw partition with noatime

I did a straight install and used EXT4. It is an 8 Gig stick. I used a 512MG swap file. There isnt a casper-rw. The lag is happening about every 10 seconds. I can only move the mouse. I have disable most of the unnecessary services from starting up like NIS, Bluetooth Garbage and others. The system has 4 GIG of memory and I have tried using this stick on several systems with the same issue. Could the stick be bad or do usbsticks have a history of performance issues?

P.S

Linus72
Growing up I listened to a lot of Christian Metal, have you heard the group Stryper. They are one of my favorites.

Here are the results of free and sudo hdparm -tT /dev/sdb1

The only difference that I can see from the other installs are that they are persistent as opposed to an install or that is could be a bad stick. This lag shouldn't be present.

15 MB/s is a average rate, but this shouldn't be the cause for a lag. You wrote that you have the lag every 10 seconds, so I would assume that one of your applications or the system itself is making a write operation every 10 seconds, because write operations are slower with most flash disks. Maybe this slows your system down. I would try to get your /tmp, /var/cache and similar folders to a RAM disk and look if this will solve your issues.
With 4 GB of RAM you shouldn't need a swap partition/folder.

ramdisk, would that be what the live cdrom uses. If that is the case I willing to bet that is the issue. My other usbstick are using persistent files and there are not any issues with them. How can I see if there are using "RAMDISK"

Many thanks.

P.S

http://www.vanemery.com/Linux/Ramdisk/ramdisk.html

and add that to /etc/grub.conf. When I tried to install Ubuntu 10.10 it complained about not having a swap area or partition. So I just went through with the install and added a swap area. So what I intend on doing it deleting the swap partition if there is one and adding a RAMDISK to /tmp and seeing what that does. I would like to add the additional space to root. Maybe I use gparted or something.

Would that suffice?

here's nFluxOS Ubuntu installed to usb using usb-creator in read-only livecd mode
try using the noatime in /etc/fstab
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fstab

/dev/sda1 / ext4 defaults,noatime 0 1

@Metallica1972:
I think you misunderstood me, I meant to put your whole /tmp and the other directories into a ramdisk, not create a ramdisk into your /tmp.
For example, add to your /etc/fstab (not /etc/inittab, this file has a complete other purpose) this entry:Then reboot and look if your system is laggy, if it is try one of the other directories, like /var/cache or ~/.cache

I tried the noatime option and it does the same thing, lag. I will try moving all the !!#!!#$ into /tmp. Here is my /etc/fstab

It has to be the RAMDISK!!!! Let me investigate many thanks to all I will get back to you on this issue.