Swap - add during the install or afterwards : and how much would you reccomend!?

[otrott]

hello and good day,

well: currently install EOS on a ThinkPad x220 with 4 Gigs of RAM
(note: will definintly add more RAM in the winter holiday. but at the moment i do not have time for that:

that said: Setting up swap during installation is pretty common, as it gives the operating system virtual memory to use when RAM runs out,

But how much SWAP would you add here:

keepin in mind that this may help preventing crashes and allowing the installation to complete.
my Friends told me that modern Linux distributions like Debian or (perhaps Arch Too) typically create a swap file by default instead of a dedicated swap partition, but both methods achieve the same purpose. - is this true!?

well - i also could add swap after running the Installation - that is possible too!!? Is there any differende in the procedures!?

Look forward to hear from you

[dalto]

It is hard to say without understanding your workload. I good default number would be 4GB.

@otrott

well - i also could add swap after running the Installation - that is possible too!!?

Sure, you can easily add a swapfile.

[otrott]

thank you so much - this helps alot!

[SemLraug]

There’s been an interesting exchange of thoughts about swap partition, zram and swap file, which may be useful:

Zram vs swap partition vs swapfile

To end the discussion in the “show your desktop” about swap partition yes/no. I want to hear your thoughts about swap and why you use it or not. Personally i have a system up and running with btrfs and 32GB of ram WITHOUT swap enabled. System runs very smooth compared to my Pop! OS install on the same notebook. I do notice improvements with Endeavour OS (like moving a window). So i really wonder what benefits a swap partition would have. Pop OS uses zram + a swap partition. From my reading onl…

[mbod]

@otrott

But how much SWAP would you add here:

For a laptop that wants to do hibernation you need as much swap as you have RAM. And if you use a swap file you can easily change swap size at any time.

swap partitions are not that flexible. I would install without swap partition and add a swap file after installation.

[wolfn]

@mbod

I would install without swap partition and add a swap file after installation.

It is for sure the easiest and most scalable variant.
But I would expect a better performance on a separate swap-partition, and if hibernate is needed, I think you need a partition. Not sure if a swapfile will do.
Swapsize (on disc) I think, is cheap enough today, so I would not be too savy…

[dalto]

@wolfn

But I would expect a better performance on a separate swap-partition

The performance impact is very minimal. Nothing to be worried about for a standard desktop use case.

@wolfn

if hibernate is needed, I think you need a partition.

You can hibernate to a swapfile.

[mbod]

@wolfn

But I would expect a better performance on a separate swap-partition

If there is a performance difference it will not be noticeable. I never noticed any performance issue. But if you are concerned about performance you can use zswap in conjunction with your swap file.

@wolfn

and if hibernate is needed, I think you need a partition.

No. swap file is fine for hibernation. This is what I use.

[wolfn]

Oh, thanks! Never mind…
Next stop I will test this

[cactux]

@mbod

if you are concerned about performance you can use zswap in conjunction with your swap file.

Just for clarity, zswap is a kernel feature and at least in officially supported kernels in Arch is enabled by default. If you add a swapfile or swap partition it will be used automatically.