I have 2 core proc with 4Gb of ram. my advice anything under 3Gb, swap. Linux offer a lots software that require a decent amount of Memory. With 4 ram and 2 core I can run Virtual Box, watch tv ,browse the internet and use open office without swapping. there is a very good tool that can help you understand your pc Capability. the software is called: AILURUS.
this is always full with firefox and music, but its usualy 40% ram used and 58% cache+buffer. i have 5 gigs of swap to be safe.
the only reason i need swap is for hibernating or if i drop a forkbomb.
so ultimately i dont need swap, but how can it be much faster is it because ram is easier to access then swap? (buy more ram OR mess around with swappieness) or is it faster because kswapd isnt running?
I have 4GB of RAM but only have 32 bit so with my video card and all I only have 3.25GB of RAM available, did have 64 bit but I honestly, running virtual machines, watching movies and browsing the web I never go more than 1.5GB and over 1GB is very very rare and since I have a Solid State Drive I decided to use very little swap space since I never really need it and the cost per gigabyte is obscene. Try just a ram upgrade but I can't imagine why you'd need much swap space even with a gig of ram.
I have 2 gigs of physical ram on my linux machine and 6.2 gigs of swap which were allocated by default during my LM 8 installation of Helena and honestly I don't think I use swap very often unless I am running all sorts of shit at once, but if I do use it I don't notice any difference. I have never used Linux without it before. Good question and great vid btw
yeah, depending on what you do, swap is mostly unnecessary. I had no swap on my machines until yesterday. With all the video encoding I've been doing, I think it might be helpful. I've got 2gb in my laptop and 1.5gb in my desktop.
Anything more than 1gb with most distros should be safe to go without swap, unless you're doing memory intensive tasks.
I have 3 GB RAM. I run Arch Linux with KDE4. Have quite a few apps running now and also WinXP with apps in a VM. RAM use = 2887MB RAM and 44MB of swap. This is about as high as it gets. I have 3GB for hibernating.
Instead of disabling swap, tweak the swappiness (yes that's the official term) of the kernel. You can tell it to favor either swap or RAM or anything in between (0-100). You can tell it to use swap only when the RAM gets full. Same benefits, but no crashes because of no swap ;)
I have 3 GB RAM. I run Arch Linux with KDE4. Have quite a few apps running now and also WinXP with apps in a VM. RAM use = 2887MB RAM and 44MB of swap. This is about as high as it gets. I have 3GB for hibernating.
Instead of disabling swap, tweak the swappiness (yes that's the official term) of the kernel. You can tell it to favor either swap or RAM or anything in between (0-100). You can tell it to use swap only when the RAM gets full. Same benefits, but no crashes because of no swap ;)
@ASCII808 I have read in the past that if you don't create a swap partition, you can now create a swap file, cause it is just as good. I never heard that a swap file is better than a partition, just that they were equal. Why is a file better?
With newer kernels the speed is not much different, but in the past a swap partition was better. I prefer swap files because I can make it bigger or smaller if I want and I don't like having tons of lose partitions around because I use the same hard drive between Windows and Linux. instead I just keep it at 2, one for / and the other for /home to keep files just in case Linux screws up. if you have lots of memory a swap file is pretty useless though.
Todays, swap partitions (or swap files) are often used in apps that do heavy memory utilization and/or to store the memory (RAM) Image if your computer goes to sleep (Standby,suspend to disk, dont know what else to call it). specialy in linux its often used to enable suspend to disk by the kernel. however, if your todays machine gots plenty of ram, it usualy will nearly never do swap memory to the file/partition as long there is enough free mem left. ...
... anyhow, even if you got plenty of ram, there might still be apps out there who (for whatever) "like to use swap mem" a lot. kinda for compatibility or historical reasons. i dont know. you would need to check their source code why they still use it. So, even you got enough RAM, it might be still a good thing to have at least a small swap partition up and running so those apps can make use of it if they request it. IF you use suspend-to-disk you might need swap at least as big as your RAM is.
... If you just want it do offer historical support/compatibility to your kernel/apps then even few hundred MB (or simply 1gig) would be enough swap space. - There are STILL some ancient Rules of thumbs out there saying swap needs to be x times size of RAM. Well.. thats from those Days when RAM was expensive like hell and 1-8MB RAM (in total) been common. Back then we usualy needed much more "(virtual-)memory" as we could afford physicaly. But those times are gone since decades now.
... So what i realy want to tell is: Even todays, activating swap is still a good thing, since it still can speed up things sometimes. 1GB Swap would be cool in most cases. IF you want to use standby/suspend read those manuals for how many swap space they recommend. mostly it then would be around PHYSICAL MEM SIZE+10% or sumthin. Having Swap size X times of MEM SIZE is pure WASTE in my eyes, since it NEVER will be used. ( use "top" to monitor your servers mem utilization )
@platnumX The more and more I mess with it, the more I think you're right. With all my usual programs running I find myself sitting near the 900 MB area.
For damn god, ,, of curse your computer is deing without when the memory is used .. I have 8 GB of DDR2 memory and a 27 GB swap just because of that so my computer wont die then all my memory is used.
i am doing some big stuff sometimes and there have been time there those 27 GB have been needed. I am working a lot with virtual machines. And very big files that take very much memory.
2 gigs /w no swap.. but since you compile videos.. swap is used in compression feeding it to the cpu to crunch.. without it.. right to the ram to the CPU. I run 4 gb at home.. but need DDR? I got a few sticks to get rid of.
a 1 TB swap space is a VERY VERY VERY slow 1 TB of RAM. 1 TB nonetheless.
mattgresh1 3 months ago
4gb ddr3 no swab
supercoolguyT 1 year ago
Part2
After install, open Ailurus look for a tab "Memory". it gives you a tool to adjust your swapping rate between 0 and 100 without requiring a reboot.
Linux rocks!!!!
savanny1976 1 year ago
Part 1
I have 2 core proc with 4Gb of ram. my advice anything under 3Gb, swap. Linux offer a lots software that require a decent amount of Memory. With 4 ram and 2 core I can run Virtual Box, watch tv ,browse the internet and use open office without swapping. there is a very good tool that can help you understand your pc Capability. the software is called: AILURUS.
To install it open terminal :
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ailurus
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ailurus
savanny1976 1 year ago
im rocking 4 gigs on ubuntu 9.10
this is always full with firefox and music, but its usualy 40% ram used and 58% cache+buffer. i have 5 gigs of swap to be safe.
the only reason i need swap is for hibernating or if i drop a forkbomb.
so ultimately i dont need swap, but how can it be much faster is it because ram is easier to access then swap? (buy more ram OR mess around with swappieness) or is it faster because kswapd isnt running?
skoolsuksok 1 year ago
I have 4GB of RAM but only have 32 bit so with my video card and all I only have 3.25GB of RAM available, did have 64 bit but I honestly, running virtual machines, watching movies and browsing the web I never go more than 1.5GB and over 1GB is very very rare and since I have a Solid State Drive I decided to use very little swap space since I never really need it and the cost per gigabyte is obscene. Try just a ram upgrade but I can't imagine why you'd need much swap space even with a gig of ram.
kencluck3 1 year ago
Lie I am rocking 6 gigs not 3!!!!
thriftytnerd 2 years ago
My bad, Bro! Lulz!
arthursucks 2 years ago
I have 2 gigs of physical ram on my linux machine and 6.2 gigs of swap which were allocated by default during my LM 8 installation of Helena and honestly I don't think I use swap very often unless I am running all sorts of shit at once, but if I do use it I don't notice any difference. I have never used Linux without it before. Good question and great vid btw
dekaband 2 years ago
yeah, depending on what you do, swap is mostly unnecessary. I had no swap on my machines until yesterday. With all the video encoding I've been doing, I think it might be helpful. I've got 2gb in my laptop and 1.5gb in my desktop.
Anything more than 1gb with most distros should be safe to go without swap, unless you're doing memory intensive tasks.
thisweekinlinux 2 years ago
No swap, I have 4 gigs of RAM and have only knowingly gone over 2GB three times.
RPCJerkobi 2 years ago
hi.. oh. nope. dont know shit.
hannahaful 2 years ago
I still love ya anyways.
arthursucks 2 years ago
I have 4 Gigs, and I never even thought of doing that. I would think a swap partition or file would be a good safety net.
ThingsontheWeb 2 years ago
correction ...6GB
ThingsontheWeb 2 years ago
This has been flagged as spam show
I have 3 GB RAM. I run Arch Linux with KDE4. Have quite a few apps running now and also WinXP with apps in a VM. RAM use = 2887MB RAM and 44MB of swap. This is about as high as it gets. I have 3GB for hibernating.
Instead of disabling swap, tweak the swappiness (yes that's the official term) of the kernel. You can tell it to favor either swap or RAM or anything in between (0-100). You can tell it to use swap only when the RAM gets full. Same benefits, but no crashes because of no swap ;)
librano 2 years ago
I have 3 GB RAM. I run Arch Linux with KDE4. Have quite a few apps running now and also WinXP with apps in a VM. RAM use = 2887MB RAM and 44MB of swap. This is about as high as it gets. I have 3GB for hibernating.
Instead of disabling swap, tweak the swappiness (yes that's the official term) of the kernel. You can tell it to favor either swap or RAM or anything in between (0-100). You can tell it to use swap only when the RAM gets full. Same benefits, but no crashes because of no swap ;)
librano 2 years ago
I have 6 gigs of RAM and used to not use swap, but I started again so I could use hibernate and sleep mode.
hrgplumer 2 years ago
I do not use (Swap) because I have 4 gb ram.
in my opinion (swap) is not necessary with 4 gb ram.
and I use gnu / linux (64 bit) very fast (a bullet) Swap out 8-)
vampspell 2 years ago
swap file > swap partition
ASCII808 2 years ago
@ASCII808 I have read in the past that if you don't create a swap partition, you can now create a swap file, cause it is just as good. I never heard that a swap file is better than a partition, just that they were equal. Why is a file better?
ThingsontheWeb 2 years ago
With newer kernels the speed is not much different, but in the past a swap partition was better. I prefer swap files because I can make it bigger or smaller if I want and I don't like having tons of lose partitions around because I use the same hard drive between Windows and Linux. instead I just keep it at 2, one for / and the other for /home to keep files just in case Linux screws up. if you have lots of memory a swap file is pretty useless though.
ASCII808 2 years ago
I see ... not faster but more versatile, makes sense.
ThingsontheWeb 2 years ago
you could try and adjust the swapiness.
btw, removing swap disables hibernation.
Alek900 2 years ago
Todays, swap partitions (or swap files) are often used in apps that do heavy memory utilization and/or to store the memory (RAM) Image if your computer goes to sleep (Standby,suspend to disk, dont know what else to call it). specialy in linux its often used to enable suspend to disk by the kernel. however, if your todays machine gots plenty of ram, it usualy will nearly never do swap memory to the file/partition as long there is enough free mem left. ...
axel1973w 2 years ago
... anyhow, even if you got plenty of ram, there might still be apps out there who (for whatever) "like to use swap mem" a lot. kinda for compatibility or historical reasons. i dont know. you would need to check their source code why they still use it. So, even you got enough RAM, it might be still a good thing to have at least a small swap partition up and running so those apps can make use of it if they request it. IF you use suspend-to-disk you might need swap at least as big as your RAM is.
axel1973w 2 years ago
... If you just want it do offer historical support/compatibility to your kernel/apps then even few hundred MB (or simply 1gig) would be enough swap space. - There are STILL some ancient Rules of thumbs out there saying swap needs to be x times size of RAM. Well.. thats from those Days when RAM was expensive like hell and 1-8MB RAM (in total) been common. Back then we usualy needed much more "(virtual-)memory" as we could afford physicaly. But those times are gone since decades now.
axel1973w 2 years ago
... So what i realy want to tell is: Even todays, activating swap is still a good thing, since it still can speed up things sometimes. 1GB Swap would be cool in most cases. IF you want to use standby/suspend read those manuals for how many swap space they recommend. mostly it then would be around PHYSICAL MEM SIZE+10% or sumthin. Having Swap size X times of MEM SIZE is pure WASTE in my eyes, since it NEVER will be used. ( use "top" to monitor your servers mem utilization )
axel1973w 2 years ago
If you have >4 gigs, run without swap, if not, I would not recommend it.
platnumX 2 years ago
@platnumX The more and more I mess with it, the more I think you're right. With all my usual programs running I find myself sitting near the 900 MB area.
arthursucks 2 years ago
For damn god, ,, of curse your computer is deing without when the memory is used .. I have 8 GB of DDR2 memory and a 27 GB swap just because of that so my computer wont die then all my memory is used.
Mysticsam86 2 years ago
@Mysticsam86 huh?
boboelmo 2 years ago
@Mysticsam86 27 GB is epic! What kind of next level things do you do?!
arthursucks 2 years ago
@Mysticsam86 , lol! What a waste!
axel1973w 2 years ago
i am doing some big stuff sometimes and there have been time there those 27 GB have been needed. I am working a lot with virtual machines. And very big files that take very much memory.
Mysticsam86 2 years ago
Just use a swap file.
JamesManes 2 years ago
2 gigs /w no swap.. but since you compile videos.. swap is used in compression feeding it to the cpu to crunch.. without it.. right to the ram to the CPU. I run 4 gb at home.. but need DDR? I got a few sticks to get rid of.
o0splitpaw0o 2 years ago
@o0splitpaw0o The best nation in the world is DOnation!
arthursucks 2 years ago
@arthursucks Can you use it? Hit me with a message. I'll hook you up.
ubunite 2 years ago
I run with a swap, but I do have have 4 gb of ram lol.
Anoxia425 2 years ago