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    Why is my system using swap even with 3GB of RAM unused ?

    Discussion in 'Linux Compatibility and Software' started by wearetheborg, Oct 29, 2009.

  1. wearetheborg

    wearetheborg Notebook Virtuoso

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    Debian Lenny
    Total ram: 5GB
    Used ram: 1.4GB
    Swap: 315MB


    Why is it going to swap ?
    ?? :confused:
     
    wearetheborg, Oct 29, 2009
    #1
  2. Thomas

    Thomas McLovin

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    http://www.linux.com/news/software/applications/8208-all-about-linux-swap-space

    Good read ^
     
    Thomas, Oct 29, 2009
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  3. wearetheborg

    wearetheborg Notebook Virtuoso

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    Thanks. My swappiness value is the default, 60. I guess thats why its swapping pages ? Even with 3.5GB of free ram.
     
    wearetheborg, Oct 29, 2009
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  4. Thomas

    Thomas McLovin

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    It's not always a bad thing to have some swap used, you know.
     
    Thomas, Oct 29, 2009
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  5. wearetheborg

    wearetheborg Notebook Virtuoso

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    What is the upshot of it with 3.5GB of free ram ?
     
    wearetheborg, Oct 29, 2009
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  6. Thomas

    Thomas McLovin

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    Well, if an application needs certain file to open, but doesn't use them much at all, it's more beneficial to have it on swap, so other programs can take advantage of more of your RAM.
     
    Thomas, Oct 29, 2009
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  7. Th3_uN1Qu3

    Th3_uN1Qu3 Notebook Deity

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    This would have been true with 256MB RAM maybe.
     
    Th3_uN1Qu3, Oct 31, 2009
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  8. Pitabred

    Pitabred Linux geek con rat flail!

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    Only if you're running a 2.4x kernel. Programs keep getting larger, as well as data files. Why would you want to keep an entire video in memory when you're only transcoding part of it at a time? Things like that. Swap is still useful, even with massive amounts of memory, mostly because we're dealing with larger and larger data sets.
     
    Pitabred, Nov 1, 2009
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