>> OK, that's right. How can I find out if 4GB RAM (the current amount) >> is enough? From what I understand of how Linux handles memory, it >> will fill it up as quickly as possible, and then free it as necessary. >> This makes it difficult to determine how much RAM is necessary from >> watching top. > > top lies. This has been discussed here many times. All your memory tools > essentially tell you how much memory an app is able to see into, and most of > that memory is shared with other stuff (like libs). > > You can't tell how much memory an app is using in any meaningful way, you are > not supposed to even look at it as it changes millions of times a second. What > you are supposed to do is select an allocation algorithm that works well for > you in practice and let the kernel do the heavy lifting. > > Yes, the kernel does grab as much memory as it can for buffers and cache, then > release it on demands. All modern operating systems have done this for many > years - Linux just doesn't try and hide that fact from you :-) > >> I read on this list that the kernel needs *some* swap, even just a >> tiny amount, to function properly. Is that true? If so, do you think >> it would be OK to put this tiny amount of swap on a cheap SSD? > > Not true. I have machines with zero swap and they work just fine. I am utterly > unconcerned with out of memory conditions as whether you have swap or not, > when virtual memory runs out, either way you have a horrible cockup that is > hard to fix. Then there's the oom-killer that comes along, stomps all over > everything and just makes it worse.
Sounds good. Will commenting the swap line out of /etc/fstab and rebooting disable swap? In order to resize the root partition to include the swap paritition, I'll have to boot to LiveCD right? - Grant
