trope wrote: ⤴Fri Aug 17, 2018 1:10 am
I am planning a new install/transfer of my data to another computer that has 4 GB of memory, but I will upgrade it to 8; should I initially create a 9 GB swap when installing mint? I don't remember making the decision before but since I have a 8 GB swap now, it must have been default in the mint installation. I did some reading online and see recommendations for the swap to be twice the RAM. This is not necessary anymore?
I see another post recommending 20% of RAM as swap:
viewtopic.php?f=90&t=274157#p1504040
Swap size is an interesting topic for conversation. MY formula (based on MY style of computing) for swap size is RAM + 1GB because, on a laptop, I want the ability to hibernate - this might be important if you are running on battery and you battery gets low and you don't notice it until the machine gives you the "I'm about to hibernate" warning and you know there is not enough time to shut down in an orderly fashion... the machine will hibernate and when you get it to AC power again, you can resume your session. I never intentionally hibernate any of my machines...
On a desktop machine that will never hibernate, for MY computing style, on a machine with 8GB of RAM, I would use probably about 2 GB of swap size.
Swap is the kind of thing that I want as little as possible that will still get the job done without crashing or disaster... You can change the size of the SWAP partition without consequence when it is not hibernated and not in use... with this in mind. On your new install, make the SWAP partition size
initially as large as you could ever (within reason) need - 25 GB strikes me as a good initial size with 8 GB of RAM (but it's YOUR call). Then create all your other partitions and do the installation... After the installation is complete and updated, shut down without hibernating. Then boot the machine to the Live USB stick, start Gparted and shrink the SWAP partition to whatever size you want to
test out... say 10 GB... apply the change and shut down... then boot the HD installed OS and run with your 10 GB SWAP partition. If it works great and you are happy, your done. If you are not happy with 10 GB of SWAP, boot that Live USB and change it to whatever you like. Rinse and repeat as necessary...
Best of luck with your new install!
- R -