It depends. james miller wrote: > > Let me pose the RAM question in another way to see if it can elicit a > generic, "rule-of-thumb" response this way. If a person uses their > computer as a sort of personal workstation using a fairly recent distro > and requires that it have an Xwindows gui, using applications like web > browsers, email clients, wordprocessing software and maybe Gimp on > occassion, at what point would such a person need to have a swap > partition?
You would need to have a swap partition when your system 'runs out of' real memory. It depends on how much memory the applications request/need. There are many, many window managers from tiny 'twm' to huge KDE & GNOME. I would guess that there are small and large 'word processing' software. I can run Xwindows, fvwm95, netscape v4.77, in 48 Megabytes of virtual memory. It would run much faster if 32 or more magabytes were real RAM. ;-) However, it does run. > In other words, can it be stated in somewhat generic terms > "if said user had less than X MB RAM, they will definitely need a swap > partition"? It depends on what is requesting memory. > And what about guidelines for swap partition size in such a > case: can such be stated as well? Like, say, "if this individual has > only 32 MB RAM, he should have a 64 MB swap partition" or "if he has 64 > MB RAM he'll only need a 64 MB swap partition"? It depends. Tell the list what you plan to run and you will probably get many suggestions. ;-) HTH, Chuck > Thanks, James > > >===== Original Message From Chuck Gelm <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ===== > >Ditto to what Ray said. > > > > Perhaps you could run your system with a 'swap file' and see > >how big it ever gets. Then make a swap partition just that size > >or a little larger. ;-) > > > > My current firewall-router (aDSL to 100 Mb LAN) has 32 megabytes > > of RAM and has not used any swap memory, AFAICR. > > Another workstation with 64 M of RAM has used 3 M of swap. > > Another workstation with 160 M of RAM has used 2 M of swap. > > Another laptop with 16 M of RAM, XFfree86 v4.0.3, and I just > > ran Netscape v4.77 under fvwm95, loaded a small web page, > > has used 2.6 M of swap. > > > > IMHO, it depends. ;-) > > > >HTH, Chuck > > > >Ray Olszewski wrote: > >> > >> At 01:15 PM 12/8/02 +0000, Rolf Edlund wrote: > >> >Originally to: james niland > >> > > >> > > >> > jn> I know some people who run happily without a swap at all. > >> > > >> >How low RAM can I use, without running a swap ? Can I for example > >do it on > >> >a 486 > >> >with 4 MB RAM ? > >> > >> The way you ask this question, it has no real answer. How little > >memory a > >> system can run with depends on what tasks it is doing. And the > >choice of > >> CPU is pretty much irrelevant to this question (its only slight > >relevance > >> is in the smaller size of CPU-specific kernels). > >> > >> That said ... running any sort of Linux system in less than 8 MB of > >real > >> (not swap) RAM poses special challenges ... most modern distros > >can't even > >> install on such systems (only Slackware, I think, still offers a > >"low > >> memory" install option) and you won't be able to do much with such > >a > >> system. In practice, the smallest systems I've ever run without > >swap were > >> 486s with 16 MB of RAM, and that was for special purpose systems > >like > >> routers. While these days I routinely run my workstations without a > >swap > >> partition, they have at least 256 MB of RAM. > >> > >> -- > >> -------------------------------------------"Never tell me the > >odds!"-------- > >> Ray Olszewski -- Han Solo > >> Palo Alto, California, USA [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >> > >----------------------------------------------------------------------------- > -- > >> > >- > >To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in > >the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html > >Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs > > - > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in > the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html > Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs
