[H-GEN] What size swap space is optimum?

[Jason Henry Parker]

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On Tue, Apr 24, 2001 at 07:33:45AM +1000, Webmaster wrote:

> OK, thanks for the pointers. But I'd now like to raise the original
> issue which promted my inquiry. When I'm surfing the Net and get
> more than two Netscape screens running, the system often locks up in
> 'disk-thrashing mode' - the HDD sits churning away in an endless loop
> - and I've let it go as long as ten minutes before hitting reset. I
> made the assumption that this was due to insufficient memory (real
> or virtual - 32MB RAM, 32MB swap partition) and have followed this
> through.

I have 32MB of RAM also.  At one point the machine was running netscape;
I found it pretty painful.  My experience suggests that you do not have
enough swap space (if increasing the amount of RAM is not an option).  I
have a 128MB swap partition and well, I can cope.  With that much RAM it
is about all you can do, modulo removing unneeded services, and so on.

> Further investigation suggests that this event occurs when Java is
> invoked, and I've now seen enough snide comments about Netscape (it
> really is a dreadful piece of software) to prompt inquiries in this
> direction. Even with low memory and lots of swapping, any instruction
> sequence should surely proceed to completion this side of Xmas -
> correct?

Correct, *but* it may take a very long time if you have very little
virtual memory.

My recommendations in order:

1.  Stop running unneeded services.
2.  Buy more RAM (or a better computer).
3.  Increase the size of your swap partition.

jason ``It hurts when I do this.'' ``So don't *do* that.'' parker
-- 
Windows is user-friendly, but with friends like that . . .

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