[SOLVED] Installer - don't build a swap partition by default

cloverskull · 2017-02-23 18:12:40

Hey everyone, I know we pride ourselves on BL running on lower end machines, but I think that defaulting to having swap space is a waste. I'm not sure how the logic of building the installer makes decisions about things like this but I'd certainly prefer nixing swap space altogether.

Last edited by cloverskull (2017-02-27 21:25:52)

damo · 2017-02-23 18:26:53

^ Can't you just choose "No" to swap when asked to confirm the partitioning?

iMBeCil · 2017-02-23 19:10:11

cloverskull wrote:

Hey everyone, I know we pride ourselves on BL running on lower end machines, but I think that defaulting to having swap space is a waste. I'm not sure how the logic of building the installer makes decisions about things like this but I'd certainly prefer nixing swap space altogether.

IMHO, older machines usually(!) have plenty of disk space, but are low on memory. (Or: it is relatively easy to upgrade HDD on an older machine, but not so easy/cheap to upgrade RAM.) Therefore, having the swap by default (read: for less experienced users) seems to be a good idea.

This is based on my own experience ... your mileage may vary ...

cloverskull · 2017-02-24 18:06:15

I'll have to reinstall to test specifically but I seem to recall you either got the default layout (which includes a rather large swap partition, considering I have 16 gigs of ram, which ends up being a waste of disk space) OR you had to manually partition. Maybe an easy yes/no option for building a swap partition?

ohnonot · 2017-02-24 19:26:24

it seems to be a current discussion, that swap is "so 2005".

i remember the old windows recommendation, which was twice your physical ram.
then the linux recommendation: 1:1 with physical ram.
just yesterday i read something some redhat guy wrote - basically, swap is still really important to have.
and he recommended something like 20% of physical memory, but i'm sure that was for large machines with dozens of GB of ram...

i personally think that a few gigabytes of hd space are nothing, compared to the - however remote - risk that your OS goes into lockup because out of memory.
or the occasional application that attempts to handle things in a ram-saving manner.

edit:
granted, my conky tells me 99% of the time swap usage is zero. sometimes a few MB, dunno who uses it.

Last edited by ohnonot (2017-02-24 19:28:27)

hhh · 2017-02-24 19:37:16

IIRC, you can choose to not create swap and the installer will warn you. I can't test to give you the exact steps ATM. I remember that it's not a very clear step, though clearer than not installing grub, which you can definitely do.

hhh · 2017-02-24 19:43:03

Hang on, you need swap if you plan to suspend or hibernate. With laptops and tablets becoming more common, we should keep our defaults IMO.

ohnonot · 2017-02-24 19:45:30

^ there you are. the old 1:1 with physical ram rule.

dolly · 2017-02-25 09:50:56

^Yes, no need to change a well working default.

cloverskull · 2017-02-27 21:25:25

hhh wrote:

Hang on, you need swap if you plan to suspend or hibernate. With laptops and tablets becoming more common, we should keep our defaults IMO.

Wow, didn't know that! Interesting. Well, that said, makes perfect sense to keep things the way they are. Thanks!

Steve · 2017-02-28 07:27:43

I think if you didnt want swap you need to manually partition your drive (expert mode or something) during installation. My swap is 8 gb as i have 4 gb of ram, so 16 would be what? over 30 gb? Surely you wouldnt need that much swap with a machine running 16 gb of ram.

Last edited by Steve (2017-02-28 07:30:09)

hhh · 2017-02-28 12:51:09

If you plan to hibernate a system with 8G to 64G RAM, Red Hat recommends 1.5 times RAM. For the same system that you don't need to hibernate, they recommend at least 4G...

https://access.redhat.com/documentation … #id4394007

#1 2017-02-23 18:12:40

[SOLVED] Installer - don't build a swap partition by default

#2 2017-02-23 18:26:53

Re: [SOLVED] Installer - don't build a swap partition by default

#3 2017-02-23 19:10:11

Re: [SOLVED] Installer - don't build a swap partition by default

#4 2017-02-24 18:06:15

Re: [SOLVED] Installer - don't build a swap partition by default

#5 2017-02-24 19:26:24

Re: [SOLVED] Installer - don't build a swap partition by default

#6 2017-02-24 19:37:16

Re: [SOLVED] Installer - don't build a swap partition by default

#7 2017-02-24 19:43:03

Re: [SOLVED] Installer - don't build a swap partition by default

#8 2017-02-24 19:45:30

Re: [SOLVED] Installer - don't build a swap partition by default

#9 2017-02-25 09:50:56

Re: [SOLVED] Installer - don't build a swap partition by default

#10 2017-02-27 21:25:25

Re: [SOLVED] Installer - don't build a swap partition by default

#11 2017-02-28 07:27:43

Re: [SOLVED] Installer - don't build a swap partition by default

#12 2017-02-28 12:51:09

Re: [SOLVED] Installer - don't build a swap partition by default

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