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*SOLVED* CorePlus-5.1 Installer creates swap file on USB flash drive: Why?

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Mike7:
Hi, all, and Happy Easter!

Everything I've read about running Linux on USB flash drives says not to use swap files as they seriously shorten the life of the drive. Yet after using the Installer app in CorePlus-5.1 to make a frugal install to a flash drive, I found this:

Control Panel>System Stats>mem:
SwapTotal:        248684 kB

Control Panel>System Stats>dmesg:
Adding 248684k swap on /dev/zram0.  Priority:-1 extents:1 across:248684k SS

What gives here? Is this 248MB swap file being used? Is it necessary? Why was it created? What should I do about it?

My computer has 1GB of RAM. Isn' t that enough to run TCL without a swap file?

And if I must have a swap file, wouldn' t it be better to have a separate swap partition or even a separate flash drive just for swapping, so as not to endanger the OS?

Can someone help me solve this issue so I don't keep worrying about it?

Thanks.

Cheers!

Mike

gerald_clark:
That is zswap. It is not on the flash drive.
Google zswap for more information.
To turn it off use the nozswap boot option.

Mike7:
Hi, Gerald. Happy Easter!


--- Quote ---That is zswap. It is not on the flash drive.
--- End quote ---

That's a relief.


--- Quote ---Google zswap for more information.
--- End quote ---

Found these:

========================================
kernel.org:

"Zswap is a lightweight compressed cache for swap pages. It takes pages that are in the process of being swapped out and attempts to compress them into a dynamically allocated RAM-based memory pool.  zswap basically trades CPU cycles for potentially reduced swap I/O.

Users with SSDs as swap devices can extend the life of the device by
drastically reducing life-shortening writes."

========================================
Wikipedia:

"As a result of reduced I/O, zswap offers advantages for various devices using flash-based storage, including embedded devices, netbooks and similar low-end hardware devices, as well as other devices using SSDs for storage. Flash memory has a limited lifespan due to its nature, so avoiding its usage for providing swap space prevents it from wearing out quickly."
========================================

It sounds like a very good thing, just the opposite of what I feared, so I won't be turning it off.

I guess it's enabled by default and being used?

Cheers.

Mike

volkerp:
Hi Mike7,

Yes, your'e right. The Corebook says:


--- Quote ---10.33. nozswap - disable compressed swap in RAM

By default, Core uses a RAM compression technique allowing
you to use more RAM than you actually have. If you experience
problems with this, the nozswap bootcode lets you disable this.
Example:
• nozswap
--- End quote ---

As you don't experience any problems with this, there's no need for you to change anything. :)

Enjoy TC!

Volker

Mike7:
Volker-

You don't think zswap could be the cause of my problem watching videos in the browser?

M.

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