From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1OQq23-00066b-Vs for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Mon, 21 Jun 2010 23:04:00 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 37F21E0D2F for ; Mon, 21 Jun 2010 23:03:59 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-wy0-f181.google.com (mail-wy0-f181.google.com [74.125.82.181]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 09F18E0D1F for ; Mon, 21 Jun 2010 22:20:45 +0000 (UTC) Received: by wyb35 with SMTP id 35so3199898wyb.40 for ; Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:20:45 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:from:to:subject:date :user-agent:cc:references:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type :content-transfer-encoding:message-id; bh=LJNNjlmh5OwtWNO5rczooA8pDhzc9GhrU6zr0zJnuho=; b=sqY2IVGdUjbssuwEWS9jc+at0SQduWxHhGpguhiVlr3KTlXrJIQOua5sLq71qxQTNq HMglUM0E5Kic3QkLzcu6FbaTj3arZdFFY7fiwf8oVcXiuyeexphCSDpqZb8e7AEuplrq J78iFozwKQfwwP6LdIZy55XGcWTAJCOBDXZ28= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=from:to:subject:date:user-agent:cc:references:in-reply-to :mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:message-id; b=xwyYes627QjMz7u1mMnsYeajkPbuYgHL4FiPxPS8dhh0uwnwgc604ZdhkFDeRyZJHe 0y9H1fHWQLGqzjARNA2mB76Kc0DLZRNWXqZYUAmbRYLcCV+AUUBhYaUKgQhLE3lVz/17 MSQv0U9qJ6uIMEy4qBLQQB3m0ohxva+tAchKs= Received: by 10.227.127.193 with SMTP id h1mr5419113wbs.15.1277158845402; Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:20:45 -0700 (PDT) Received: from nazgul.localnet (196-210-140-126-rrdg-esr-2.dynamic.isadsl.co.za [196.210.140.126]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id u36sm37283596wbv.12.2010.06.21.15.20.42 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Mon, 21 Jun 2010 15:20:44 -0700 (PDT) From: Alan McKinnon To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Questions re swap and hibernate interaction on 8 gig machine Date: Tue, 22 Jun 2010 00:17:27 +0200 User-Agent: KMail/1.13.3 (Linux/2.6.34-ck; KDE/4.4.4; x86_64; ; ) Cc: "Walter Dnes" References: <20100621220414.GA8164@waltdnes.org> In-Reply-To: <20100621220414.GA8164@waltdnes.org> Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <201006220017.27819.alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> X-Archives-Salt: d2aac181-be02-4d3c-8aa6-195088b68747 X-Archives-Hash: 5026f436f3ea6e49c4fd5b4534602d17 On Tuesday 22 June 2010 00:04:14 Walter Dnes wrote: > I just got a brand new custom-built 8 gig machine. There's an outfit > in north Toronto that has MSI motherboards with PS/2 ports, so I can > keep my genuine IBM PS/2 clickety-clack-keyboard; wooooohooooo. And the > integrated Intel graphics chip has *BOTH VGA AND DIGITAL OUTPUTS*! > > Anyhow, I have 8 gigs of ram on the sytem (will obviously be 64-bit > Gentoo) and I want to know how much swap I need. The general rule of > thumb is twice the ram. In this case, it would be 16 gigs. I think > that it may not need swap when up, unless I do some heavy duty stuff. > My main concern about a swap partition is how much I need for > hibernate-to-disk to work. Is there a rule about this, or should I > simply allocate 16 gigs out of my terabyte drive, and play it safe? With 8G of ram, you will likely never ever use a single bit of swap for the entire life of the machine. There is no such thing as a decent rule of thumb for how much swap. What does exist, is the following: "What intelligent-sounding (but actually dumb) answer can we give to this infernal question that keeps coming up that will make the user shut up and go away satisfied (regardless of the correctness and workability of the answer)?" That answer is, of course, "Twice your RAM". Said answer is also, bullshit[1]. If I said "42!" it would have made as much semantic sense. Your swap needs depend totally on your usage. There is no rule of thumb[2]. [1] Long ago when 386's were all the rage, 2 X RAM did make some sense. You do not have a 386 and 2 X RAM does not make sense with the hardware you have. [2] If you plan to suspend to disk you will need a certain minimum amount of swap for that. But you already know that, so I'd create that minimum amount. -- alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com