On Thursday 24 January 2002 11:18 am, Paul Kraus wrote:
> That's the confusion. I am running 196 megs on my laptop so I should
> double this. But on my home system I am running 512mb so should I
> then make a 1gig swap? If not why?
Just because ;-)
Seriously, the old rule of thumb was "/swap should be 2 x ram". This
is very dated, but might still apply if your runnin a (networked)
server with lot'sa users and/or huge databases. Back when most
desktops had 8, 16, 32, even 64 mb of ram, it also appropriately
applied. 'Course way back then, /swap was limited to 128 mb. Which also
has become obsolete old news.
Opinions vary, but I believe the current consensus is that /swap
should be about 2 x ram, but up to a happy medium of about 200mb, for
most current desktop systems. At least that's my take too. I've got
512mb hard ram, and'a 180mb /swap. I rarely get more'n 20 mb's into
/swap. IOW's , about 160mb of unused disk space... no matter how
crazy'a stuff I do ;)
You might also hear that the newest 2.4.x kernels want more swap.
My experience is just the opposite. Early ones did, >= 2.4.12 don't.
2.4.17's seem to be on a diet ;)
~ $ free -m [system's been up for several days, 24/7]
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 501 496 5 0 58 302
-/+ buffers/cache: 135 365
Swap: 180 2 178
~ $ uname -r
2.4.17-6athlon
Jus'to digress a bit, but pertinent. Memory management will vary
depending on your kernel, and your system usage. The 'athlon' kernel
I'm usin was just an experiment on my part. I compiled a Mandrake
2.4.17-6mdk usin the default Mandrake .config, edited only for
processor optimization. (1.4 Tbird, oc'd to 1.55 gig, ram at 135 mhz,
CL2,4-bank-IL)
It actually tested a touch slower. I only did it 'cause I kept
readin various recent claims of increased performance and better memory
management with > 2.4.16 optimized for AMD. Neither proved true. The
only reason .... well three .. that I keep it is because; I also
re-compiled again, trimming out stuff I don't use (ie, smaller, lighter
kernel), now it's about as quick as Mandrake's default i586, and I'm to
lazy to switch back to the 'regular' Mandrake 2.4.17-6mdk ;~>>
-
Tom Brinkman Corpus Christi, Texas, USA
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft?
Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
