Thanks to everyone who gave advice on creating swap areas. I did pretty much what Janina and Tim suggested and now have a 1 GB swap file registered. Why is a swap partition more efficient than a file? Finally, what is this CF/M / ºCTOS partition that I have? thanks, john On Tue, 5 Oct 2004, Janina Sajka wrote: > I've been using swap files, rather than swap partitions, without any > problems whatsoever. Frankly, I think there's every reason to just > create a swap file. However, whether you create a file, or repurpose > some existing partition, you still have to do certain things for it to > be a swap partition. You don't just rename it and label it "swap." > There's more to it. It's its own file type (82), for instance. > > If you look at the mkswap man page you'll see that you need to do > something like: > > > # dd if=/dev/zero of=swapfile bs=1024 count=65536 > > > > before using the mkswap command. Thereafter, though, you can turn it on > by hand with swap on, or just put it in fstab. > > John J. Boyer writes: > > Tim, > > > > Thanks. This should do the trick. One additional question: I have a > > partition called CP/M / CTOS. ?What is that for? Can I change it to a > > swap partition? It's about 3 GB. > > > > Thanks, > > John > > > > > > > > On Tue, 5 Oct 2004, Tim Chase wrote: > > > > > Mr. Boyer, > > > > > > (I CC'd you in, as I've had trouble getting my account to > > > successfully post to the blinux list and this may not go > > > through...if it doesn't show up there, and you think it would be > > > helpful, you're welcome to repost it to the list) > > > > > > There's a good tutorial on swap partitions and swap files found > > > on RedHat's site at: > > > > > > http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/RHL-8.0-Manual/custom-guide/s1-swap-adding.html > > > > > > It's supposedly for RH 8.0 which is a bit old, but the same > > > method should work in other distros as well. It's got two > > > sections...one entitled "To add a swap partition", and a second > > > entitled "To add a swap file". > > > > > > A swap partition is always the better (read "faster") option if > > > you have the opportunity, as it doesn't require going through a > > > file-system. However, if you just want to create one on the fly, > > > make use of it for some intensive task, and then remove it, using > > > a simple swap file is easy way to go. Partitions, on the other > > > hand, require you to plan ahead sufficiently to have such a > > > partition available (or risk monkeying with > > > partition-editing/resizing tools). > > > > > > And just to cover my own tail, beware of editing/resizing > > > partition tables...you can hose your whole box with very little > > > effort (grins). Take care and hope it gets you put on the right > > > path to swapping nirvana. > > > > > > -tim > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > John J. Boyer; Executive Director, Chief Software Developer > > Computers to Help People, Inc. > > http://www.chpi.org > > 825 East Johnson; Madison, WI 53703 > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx > > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list > > -- John J. Boyer; Executive Director, Chief Software Developer Computers to Help People, Inc. http://www.chpi.org 825 East Johnson; Madison, WI 53703 _______________________________________________ Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list