>>>> I recently disabled swap and mounted /tmp on tmpfs for a netbook since >>>> the SSD is so slow, and now I'm wondering if that would be a wise move >>>> for all of my Gentoo systems. In what type of situation would it be a >>>> bad idea? >>>> >>> Instead of disabling swap, just make it small (like 32MB or something; >>> whatever the smallest allowable partition size is). The kernel needs >>> swap to operate optimally, even if it's extremely small. Just make sure >>> it's there. >>> >> >> Hmm, on this old box I noticed swap was using more than 135,000K earlier >> today >> as I was emerging xulrunner and ImageMagick. I think that the size of swap >> is relevant to the memory size that the box in question has. Not all >> machines have found their way to 2G RAM yet ... ;) >> >> > > Don't forget that you can set swapiness too. This is set in > /etc/sysctl.conf and for mine I have this: > > vm.swappiness = 30 > > The lower the number, the less chance of it using swap. If it is set to > 90, it will use a lot of swap which is fine if you have little ram or a > really fast drive. If it is set to 30, then it will not use swap unless > it is basically out of ram. > > With the setting of 30, mine uses swap when compiling OOo or some other > large package or if I am opening a TON of pics. Otherwise, swap is at 0 > or close to it even after being up a long time. I have 2Gbs here tho. > Your mileage may vary. > > Dale
Thanks Dale. Should "vm.swappiness = 30" work well on all systems? My Gentoo systems have vastly different specs and duties so I love tweaks that always improve things. It sounds like /tmp on tmpfs is one of those. - Grant
