Multi-Boot Swap Partition Question

carlos seramos wrote:

> Is there any harm, on a multi-boot system, for two distributions
> (Slackware & Redhat) to share the same swap partition?
>
> Do all Linux distributions use the swap space in essentially the same
> manner?

..... i've got somewhere in the neighborhood of 8-10 distros on
a machine, all distros sharing the same swap and i've never
experienced any sort of issue
..
--
/// Michael J. Tobler: motorcyclist, surfer, skydiver, \\\
\\\ and author: "Inside Linux", "C++ HowTo", "C++ Unleashed" ///
"The human brain is like an enormous fish -- it is flat and slimy
and has gills through which it can see." - Monty Python

Jonas Alver <Sheik_X.TakeThisOut@hotmail.com> randomly warbled in alt.os.linux:

>
> "carlos seramos" <pottercarl.TakeThisOut@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:efa53c9b.0310200729.771ba947@posting.google.com...
>> Is there any harm, on a multi-boot system, for two distributions
>> (Slackware & Redhat) to share the same swap partition?
>
> no
>
>> Do all Linux distributions use the swap space in essentially the same
>> manner?
>
> yes

Rather terse, don't you think? And probably wrong - in this instance.
I don't know where you got this from, but my money's on Paul for this
kind of thing - rather than on someone who just says "no" without even
bothering to mention why.

--
Jeroen Geilman

All your bits are belong to us.

"Jeroen Geilman" <nospam.TakeThisOut@notadaptr.nl> wrote in message
news:3f955598$0$58697$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl...

> Rather terse, don't you think? And probably wrong - in this instance.
> I don't know where you got this from, but my money's on Paul for this
> kind of thing - rather than on someone who just says "no" without even
> bothering to mention why.

Well, I've done it successfully with the two mentioned distros.

He (Paul Lutus) has another experince with some other distro.
So he gave the OP a heads up, good.

Why you bothered to post still beats me.

-Jonas

In alt.os.linux Jeroen Geilman <nospam.RemoveThis@notadaptr.nl> wrote:
> Jonas Alver <Sheik_X.RemoveThis@hotmail.com> randomly warbled in alt.os.linux:
> > "carlos seramos" <pottercarl.RemoveThis@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> > news:efa53c9b.0310200729.771ba947@posting.google.com...
> >> Is there any harm, on a multi-boot system, for two distributions
> >> (Slackware & Redhat) to share the same swap partition?
> > no

Correct.

> >
> >> Do all Linux distributions use the swap space in essentially the same
> >> manner?
> > yes


In absolutely the same manner.

> Rather terse, don't you think? And probably wrong - in this instance.

No, completely correct. Swap space is just that - space. There is no
"format" except for a signature at the front. You can even share swap
space between linux and windo9ws - just be sure to write the correct
signature at the front when you boot (or when you shutdown - I used
to do it on shutdown when I experimented with this kind of thing. See
various windows + linux howtos).

> I don't know where you got this from, but my money's on Paul for this

I know precisely where he got it from. The list of perfectly obvious
truths that everyone knows just by using their eyes ears and nonce.

> kind of thing - rather than on someone who just says "no" without even
> bothering to mention why.

There is no point in saying why. It's as silly a question as "can I use
the same garage for a pontiac and a jaguar" (not at the same time).
The thing is SPACE. If you didn't like the kind of space it was you
could always do a mkswap on it at the front of your boot sequence, just
before you do the swapon.

Peter

LEE Sau Dan <danlee DeleteThis @informatik.uni-freiburg.de> wrote:
> But how can one set up a swap PARTITION, so that one can leave
> something there that survives a reboot? The swap partition, by
> design, won't leave anything behind after a reboot. It is

Well, obviously.

> automatically (actually 'implicitly) emptied upon system boot. Like
> tmpfs. It's simply impossible to have something left there after a
> reboot.


> Maybe that distro stupidly set up an ext2 partition and then made a
> swap FILE (as well as other temp. files) there. That'd a stupid

That is not a real possibility. There are TWO real possibilities that I
can think of. One is that the swap file signature changed between
linux kernels 2.0 and 2.2. The other is something that PL won't know
about and won't even have heard of and so I won't mention.

> decision. And if that is the case, you should have said that's a swap
> *FILE* on a (ext2/ext3/whatever) partition, rather than a swap
> *PARTITION*.


> Paul> If you want things to make sense, take up
> Paul> mathematics. Choose some field without quite so much human
> Paul> behavioral latitude as a given.

> Obviously, you didn't know what you were talking about at all. And
> when challenged about that, you start insulting.

Well, yes, that too.

Peter