Is this a bug? 2 linux installs but one swap?

[choochooal]

I've installed linux mint, cinnamon, several times along side of another linux install. Every time I install the 2nd linux and tell it to make a swap, and IIRC even if I don't, the installer wants to use the swap from the 1st linux system. Thus I have 2 swaps.

Easy enough to fix post install, just edit the fstab and take one out, but I shouldn't need to.

Is this a bug? And should I, and where should I report it?

[Dan-cer]

I can't answer directly, but if you have a newer computer with 8GB or more RAM, creating a separate swap partition is no longer necessary.

However, your question is not uninteresting.

[Cosmo.]

Not a bug. A swap partition can be shared by several linux systems and if a swap partition does exist, it gets used by other systems by default. This is so far not a problem, except in one case:

If you use hibernation and wake the computer, you must carefully watch, that the last used and now hibernated system gets selected in the grub menu. As soon as you boot instead another system, the hibernated system cannot get reactivated anymore and this means in the consequence: data-loss. If no hibernation gets used, sharing swap is not a problem.

[zcot]

if you have a newer computer with 8GB or more RAM, creating a separate swap partition is no longer necessary.

That's really not good advice, no swap. A newer or older computer with RAM, should have swap. Maybe there's some debatable point with a much larger amount of RAM where it could be said that swap is not needed, but then even having a 1GB swap might at least prevent a direct system dump in a runaway case or something.


Whether a /swap partition is used or /swapfile should not make a difference.

Also, there's not a problem with using multiple swap spaces, you can span and prioritize as well.

/swapfile is automatically created within the root partition on Mint 20 or 21. But an existing /swap partition is mounted automatically during a live session, a convenience feature, and that will be used as set in the installer since it becomes a live functioning part. If you add more swap that it becomes functional also. You can unmount a swap partition in the live session before installation and it will be ignored in that case and any other swap you specify will be used(or automatically created).

[Cosmo.]

if you have a newer computer with 8GB or more RAM, creating a separate swap partition is no longer necessary.

That's really not good advice, no swap.

I agree, no swap is not a good advice. But not creating a swap partition - creating one means, that there is not already one existing - is a correct advice, as with the by default created swap file this is superfluous and makes probably later changes for the partition layout unnecessarily circumstantial, especially with a MBR partition table.