From the looks of the swaps proc;
ubuntu:~$ cat /proc/swaps
Filename Type Size Used Priority
/dev/sdc2 partition 4104188 0 -1
ubuntu:~$
And from top:
ubuntu:~$ top
top - 09:35:37 up 9:07, 9 users, load average: 1.43, 0.80, 1.09
Tasks: 206 total, 3 running, 202 sleeping, 0 stopped, 1 zombie
Cpu(s): 4.4%us, 2.2%sy, 0.0%ni, 50.5%id, 42.5%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.3%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 3088492k total, 2619440k used, 469052k free, 238536k buffers
Swap: 4104188k total, 0k used, 4104188k free, 1769788k cached
Both say that zero swap is actually being used.
I'm using a 64bit capable core2 duo dell laptop with 4gigs of ram running 32bit ubuntu precise on a persistent live USB stick.
I may be answering my own question but I wonder if the liveUSB stick nature of the environment is somehow related...
Let me know if you need more information.