swapfile manager

[jpeps]

Version 4.1 Better integration of gtimer; streamlined some code.

[jpeps]

Version 4.2 Automatically defaults to gtkdialog4 but reverts to gtkdialog3 if not available. Added version name to work with pet uninstaller.

[PenguinPupLin]

In urxvt,I get swapfile error:Malformed setting :"vm.swappiness=".
What I did was:
1) In WinXP, fsutil file createnew c"\Wary-511\pup,swp 528244000;then reboot
2) in Wary511,urxvt,
a) mkswap /mnt/home/Wary-511/pup.swp,
b) swapon /mnt/home/Wary-511/pup.swp;
3) use Geany,open roo/.etc/rc.d/rc.local and appended "swapon /mnt/home/Wary511/pup.swp" (without quotes) and saved it to make swapon automatic.
Then I came across the swapfile manager.4.2.pet and installed it,run the program and just set the swappiness at 10 without creating another swapfile as I already have one. Now I get this error message every time I open rxvt.
What should I do ? Any help greatly appreciated.
Another question, I intend to use swapfilemanager in Classic Pup214X-TOP9 to add a swapfile in the same partition where Wary-511 subfolder is located but this time in root where the 214X pupsave resides. Any problem if I do this? Kindly advise(still a noob in Linux).
Edited: Latest development - I deleted the created puppy.swp and use swapfilemanager to created a new swapfile. The swappiness problem is resolved but now I get "..,swapon failed: Device or resource busy" . Need help on this, thank you.

[jpeps]

"swapon -s" will show you what swapfile it is pointing to. I think "swapon -p" will let you prioritize. It looks like you set up conflicting swapfiles.

[PenguinPupLin]

swapon -s showed only one i.e initrd/mnt/dev_save/swapfile and priority -1
Will swapon -p auto prioritize it as there is only one swapfile?

Having created it in Wary511, how do I add the same swapfile ,without creating another one, in Lighthouse Puppy 5.0.3 after installing the swapfilemanager.pet? Saw yr instruction above,but my apology,being a noob,still not clear how to do it. Appreciate yr help.

[jpeps]

The location is listed in /root/.swapfile. It's easiest to just create a new one in the same location. The other will still be there.

Your swapon -s printout looks good.

example:

Code: Select all

STATE=ON
/mnt/sda2/swapfile
SWAPPINESS=30

[PenguinPupLin]

Thanks, I'll create another one for Lighthouse then but can I use a different name as it will be in the same drive and partition sda1(hd0,0) as for Wary511?
The one for Wary still showing the same error message:"swapon failed.Device or resource busy" despite there being only one swapfile.

[jpeps]

Thanks, I'll create another one for Lighthouse then but can I use a different name as it will be in the same drive and partition sda1(hd0,0) as for Wary511?
The one for Wary still showing the same error message:"swapon failed.Device or resource busy" despite there being only one swapfile.

You can't delete or alter a swapfile until you turn it off with swapoff. Yours is still on.

If you use a different name, it will be a different swapfile on the same partition.

[PenguinPupLin]

But once I boot out of Wary,wouldn't it be turned off ? Then I 'll boot into Lighthouse to create another one by a different name, leaving the other one alone as swapfile(which was the default name). Will this do? Sorry,I'm still a noob.

Anyway,I've gone ahead to create a swapfile of the same name for Lighthouse Puppy as for Wary511 since they can both share the same swapfile running at different times as I don't wish to have more than one swapfile to confuse it and hv to set priority(don't know how).

Lastly, although the message "swapon failed.Devce or resource is busy" appeared in both Lighthouse and Wary, typing "free" in terminal showed some swap memory were used. Not sure if this means the swapfile is working alright and the message has something to do with the swappiness setting.

Also noticed that with swapfile auto-on,booting time is longer.

[PenguinPupLin]

Could you confirm that creating a swapfile of the same name and in the same harddisk partition in Lighthouse and Wary511 is alright? When I reboot or shutdown the system,is the cache in the swapfile cleared, so that when I boot into another Puppy, there is no conflict or anything? I ask because now my Lighthouse boots up and gives me a message (as far as I can remember) like "multi-user hald message: bash /etc/rc.sysctl/ no such file or directory" and stays like this for sometime before finally booting into xserver. Pardon me for nagging you as I'm trying out various puppy linux distros to see which one or two works best for my notebook and leave it at that for longterm use and also before I do the same for my friends similar notebook specs. Thanks in advance.

[jpeps]

Could you confirm that creating a swapfile of the same name and in the same harddisk partition in Lighthouse and Wary511 is alright?

When you install it, it creates an entry in /root/.swapfile. It doesn't care if you've got a similar entry in another distro.

If you're seeing swap usage, that would explain the "busy" messages. The system can only use one swapfile or swap partition. The one in use must be turned off to create a new one. Swapfile was intended when there is no swap partition already in use.

[PenguinPupLin]

That's reassuring,thank you. Any idea about the hald message "multi-user -sh: /.etc/.bashrcsysctl: No such file or directory" that I got when booting up Lighthouse puppy 5.0.3 mariner after I've created the swapfile, not that I think it must have anything to do with it. Anyway,it still boots up after a while.

[jpeps]

Something ( "multi-user") is looking for a missing or misplaced file. It's definitely not swapfile manager.

[PenguinPupLin]

As an experiment and to test it, I follow Shinobar's instruction to use winfonts.pet to create a swap space that uses windows pagefile.sys as swap space.
First,I turn my existing swap off with your swapfilemanager. Then I installed and run winfonts3.4.pet to set swap space - my pagefile.sys has about 785MB of virtual memory. After rebooting X server, I uninstalled swapfile manger to avoid any conflict just in case. But I noticed,free in console still shows vm.swappiness=60. How is this so? Does it matter or is it useful to leave it? If necessary,how to remove it? On the other hand,if I still wish to set swappiness,how can I do so without swapfilemanager? Any advice appreciated.

[jpeps]

edit "/proc/sys/vm/swappiness"; 60 is default

[PenguinPupLin]

OK,noted,I'll leave the swappiness=60 on.
I have a question for Shinobar,hoped he sees this. Running winfonts in Classic Pup 214X-TOP failed to use WinXP pagefile as swap space. Free in MRrxvt didn't show any swap available.

[PenguinPupLin]

Hi jpeps, thanks so much for your swapfilemanager pet. I've used it successfully. I've also tried winfonts pet to set swap space which in my case makes use of the pagefile.sys in my WinXP partition. Your swapfilemanager has this swappiness feature which winfonts doesn't(though I believe it can be done manually by adding a script somewhere). However,I'm not sure if my comparison is valid,after creating a swapfile with your pet,the bootup time for Puppy is about 1.5 to 2 minutes,whereas for winfonts it's faster,under 1 minute. Just my observation.
For those who do not wish to create a new partition in Windoze,either of these methods is useful,esp for those with less than 512MB RAM;in fact,even with 512 MB RAM,if you run modern browsers and play youtube videos online,it's barely enough,so having a swap file ,preferably equal in size to your RAM capacity,will markedly improve performance.

[jpeps]

However,I'm not sure if my comparison is valid,after creating a swapfile with your pet,the bootup time for Puppy is about 1.5 to 2 minutes,whereas for winfonts is faster,under 1 minute. Just my observation.

I tried with Slacko. I turned swap off and rebooted in 44 seconds. I turned it on and rebooted in 42 seconds.

Edit: Uninstalled swapfile manager and rebooted: 44 seconds. Summary...no increase in boot time.

[PenguinPupLin]

However,I'm not sure if my comparison is valid,after creating a swapfile with your pet,the bootup time for Puppy is about 1.5 to 2 minutes,whereas for winfonts is faster,under 1 minute. Just my observation.

I tried with Slacko. I turned swap off and rebooted in 44 seconds. I turned it on and rebooted in 42 seconds.

Edit: Uninstalled swapfile manager and rebooted: 44 seconds. Summary...no increase in boot time.

Sorry,it could be due to something else then.
Another interesting observation I've made is that after creating pupswap.swp for use in Pup214X-TOP9 but couldn't get it to work - error:swapon - invalid argument - I then rebooted into another puppy(wary511 as well as 431),and the pupswap.swp was automatically recognised on bootup without me having done any swapon setting other than the previous winfonts-set-pagefile procedure;it actually combined the two,i.e pupswap(512MB) + pagefile(768MB) = 1.3 GB as swap ! For now,I've deleted pupswap.swp to save harddisk space until Shinobar or someone else could point me to a solution for Pup214X-TOP9 to use swap file.

[PenguinPupLin]

Hi jpeps,I tried swapfilemanager in Classic Pup 214X-TOP9 to create a swap file but it didn't work. First time I used the name pupswap.swp, swapon said invalid argument. Second time, used the default name swapfile,nothing happened. Free in console no swap available.
This very useful pet works well in my other puppies.eg Wary 511, Lighthouse ,puppy 431, but I haven't tried it in Legacy OS2, am quite sure it will run into the same problem as for Classic Pup as both are based on older kernels,k2.6.18.1 (puppy 2.14).
Hoped you'd look into it and come out with a solution as without swap space,Classic Pup 214X on my notebook runs slow and jerky. Thanks in advance.
Just curious: is your swap file in Linux (ext2/3/4?) partition or ntfs like in my case?