Is a swap partition necessary while installing Suse?

[Arun the Gr8]

Guys.. This is the 1st time I am installing SUSE and I wanted to clear some of my doubts:

I have the following computer specs:
Core i3
2 GB RAM
320 GB HDD
ATI Mobility Radeon 4330

1. Is creating a swap partition necessary while installing Suse 11.2?

2. Will I be able to install 64-bit version of Suse on my computer?

3. Will I be able to run Windows 7 side by side?

4. Will I have any compatibility issues with my Display Adapter since I have had problems previously on Ubuntu with my onboard ATi Graphics..

[Faun]

1. Yes, otherwise you can always bear the consequences.
2. Yes, no problemo.
3. Yes, absolutely. Just install Linux after installing Lindows.
4. Dunno...lol

[FilledVoid]

1. Is creating a swap partition necessary while installing Suse 11.2?

This is technically not necessary , but if your memory fills up you are in serious trouble. Further more no matter what amount of memory you have , having a Swap partition actually does increase the performance of your syste. If I have understood right at least. Anyway there are numerous threads about this .

2. Will I be able to install 64-bit version of Suse on my computer?

Yes

3. Will I be able to run Windows 7 side by side?

Yes

4. Will I have any compatibility issues with my Display Adapter since I have had problems previously on Ubuntu with my onboard ATi Graphics..

Ati is known to be a pain to configure usually however I think you should be able to use it fine if you go through the trouble of actually configuring it.

[hellknight]

Nope.. regarding drivers.. no problem.. I also have ATI 3300 HD onboard and it is running fine.. for SUSE, try install mesa-drivers.. which i have installed on my system, works flawlessly here..

[Arun the Gr8]

Firstly, thanks to all you guys for your help (and that too such quick one)

And now after reading all the posts, I have some new doubts. I hope you guys won't get frustrated answering all my questions..

Note: Please bear in mind that I might get my RAM upgraded to 4 GB soon enough. So please give your answers accordingly..

5. I have decided to get a swap partition after reading the posts. So now I think what size?

6. What must be the size of the partition in which I intend to install Suse?

7. I do understand that if one has more than 4 GB RAM, then having the 64-bit version is a must. But if I have exact 4 GB RAM, will installing 32 bit version show it less than 4 GB (as it is in case of Windows)?

[hellknight]

Regarding the swap size.. go with 4 GB... that will be enough.. and go with 64-bit version of OpenSUSE.. you have awesome hardware.. installing 64-bit will help you to encode your DVD's faster.. if you want to go with the 32-bit version, then go online and search how to compile your kernel so that it addresses 4 GB RAM...

[Faun]

Remember to create separate partition for /home and /(root).

I usually prefer this kind of layout:
1. /boot (100MB)
2. / (10GB)
3. /home (10GB)
4. swap (2.4GB because my ram is around 3GB)

[Rahim]

I have a 2 GB Swap and 512 MB RAM and i have never seen my swap usage go beyond 300 MB!! Correct me if i am wrong but swap is used to copy resume image while Hibernating,and is checked for while re-booting/resuming right? I do see one line mentioning while booting that it is checking swap for resume image and when not finding one, attempts to do normal boot.
So having a large swap partition is a wastage of space (if we still use 80 GB HDD that is )

[aashish.joshi]

Originally Posted by kanjar

1. Yes, otherwise you can always bear the consequences.

I've used ubuntu 7.10 to 9.10 on my laptop (centrino 1.9GHz, Intel 945 mobo, 2.5 GB RAM, WD 250 GB SATA, onboard GFX) over the years(among other distros)...i used swap when my RAM was 512 MB, but after i got it upgraded, I have never felt the need to waste 1-2 GBs of HDD space, space which could be used to store a movie or two

that said, i would like to clarify that the most intensive thing my laptop had to do, was run compiz effects in all their glory and play the occasional game of CS!!!
if you plan on doing something which would require an insane amount of memory, i would recommend you probably use a decent amount of swap space

[thewisecrab]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAH THIS IS EPIC SPAM

Reporting

[vignesh]

Hey,

You can skip creating a swap partition. If you always feel the need you can create a page file and do swapon. But I would recommend having atleast 256Mb of swap. The general rule is 2x ram size but I would say unless you are doing some heavy stuff, 256 megs will be enough.

[duh]

Originally Posted by vignesh

Hey,

You can skip creating a swap partition. If you always feel the need you can create a page file and do swapon. But I would recommend having atleast 256Mb of swap. The general rule is 2x ram size but I would say unless you are doing some heavy stuff, 256 megs will be enough.

from his post, i will assume, he is a rookie, and i will also assume its a he.
if i were him? i will never got for a swap, i will have a custom kernel, with unwanted drivers stripped off, and a stock kernel, and will have /boot left un-encrypted, and rest in / fully encrypted with UUID and twofish encryption and inside it will have a flat file used as a swap. but then again. thats my way.
and then again, he can create many more swaps later and may either add them in fstab ot just hand mount them as and when need is felt.
# dd if=/dev/zero of=swapfile-1 bs=1M count=1024
# dd if=/dev/urandom of=swapfile-1 bs=1M count=1024
# mkswap -c -v1 -p4096 -L extra-swapfile-1 swapfile-1
# swapon -v swapfile-1
# swapoff -v swapfile-1
and this step is optional
# echo "path-to/swapfile-NX none swap 0 0" >> /etcfstab

this is open source, so there are too many ways to do things, isnt it?
i used /dev/urandom instead of /dev/zero because this gives better randomization but it is time consuming and takes a hell lot of time.