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    Live key not releasing swap (sort of)

    Discussion in 'Linux Compatibility and Software' started by hakira, Nov 1, 2010.

  1. hakira

    hakira <3 xkcd

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    I'll explain a little bit. I have Win7 and ubuntu 8.8 loaded onto my lappy, and I have an additional ubuntu 8.8 loaded onto a usb stick, which I mostly use for a safe testing environment. I can swap back and forth between Win7 and ubuntu (loaded onto the HDD's) all day long with no problems; but not so with the usb stick.

    Basically, I'll be running a persistent environment on the usb key and be doing whatever. Then I decide that everything is fine and want to take a break/play a game under windows. Rebooting initially is fine, windows loads no problem, but if I try and access my drives too quickly after landing on the windows desktop, the system will hang. It took me a while to figure out why it only happens when going from the usb > windows; right now I'm going with the theory that the live key is using the system swap, and is not releasing it quickly when I go back to windows. I can use windows like normal if I leave it sitting on the desktop and do NOTHING for about 4 minutes, during which time the HDD is spinning like crazy, I'm assuming it is rebuilding the swap/cache/whatevers.

    So, how do I force the system (under either environment) to clear the cache without waiting? This might sound dumb but it's just a patience issue. I'm also aware I could just force the live key to not use the swap file AT ALL, but this can make work on the key quite a bit slower.
     
    hakira, Nov 1, 2010
    #1
  2. debguy

    debguy rip dmr

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    There is no Ubuntu version called 8.8. The latest one is 10.10, before that it was 10.04, 9.10, 9.04 and so on*. So which one are you using?
    If you have no clue just post the output of the following command:
    Code: 
    uname -a
    By default Ubuntu has a completely different swapping mechanism than Windows. There is no way both can interfere with each other.

    I suspect that Windows is trying to read the EXT file system on your stick which is not successful, because Windows still isn't able to read anything else but FAT, NTFS and UDF out of the box.
    If I'm right, removing the stick before booting Windows should solve your problem.

    All systems do that automatically during the shutdown sequence. If you want to force Ubuntu (or any Linux) to do that manually, just call:
    Code: 
    sync
    Depending on the cached data this might take some time, but if you do it directly before the shutdown, you will save the same amount of time during the shutdown itself.


    *) Except for 6.06 instead of 6.04, but that doesn't matter here.
     
    debguy, Nov 1, 2010
    #2