1

I am running 64 bit ubuntu 12.04 on HP Envy Spectre ultrabook, with 4GB of RAM. I have been running into problems with python code which uses RAM very inefficiently, see e.g. here, causing my code to crash. I have increased the swap partition to 8 GB, but crashes still happen. How far can I take it with resizing my swap? 16 GB? 32 GB? At which point will ubuntu be unable to handle it?

Thanks!

4
  • You may have a problem with the RAM. Have you tested your RAM?
    – Mitch
    Mar 22, 2014 at 8:40
  • Yes, I do run the memory test occasionally, not found any problems. Are there any other tests I could run?
    – nikosd
    Mar 22, 2014 at 17:16
  • Which tests have you ran? If you haven't, you can try Memory Check.
    – Mitch
    Mar 22, 2014 at 17:55
  • I occasionally run the built-in memtest86 during boot up, it finds no problems. I also tried the dd/md5 checksum method from your link -all checksums agreed. Also checked memester: no problems, although I am unsure how far I should push it. It doesn't find any problem in tests with up to 2 GB chunks. I guess it's safe to conclude it's not the RAM?
    – nikosd
    Mar 23, 2014 at 0:28

1 Answer 1

2

I don't think it really matters. However, if you're using multiple memory intensive applications, you can allocate as big a partition as you want for swap. How much will be used is another question entirely. Depends on the system.

Personally I don't see any need for a swap partition size larger than twice the amount of ram, not to exceed 8GB. Having such a huge swap, the swapping process will be probably much less effective.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .