the first 2 are the most obviouse,
1) buy more memory.
2) use knoppix and qtparted to re-size your parttions
3) the little known easy method.
You may not know, but linux has a loop driver in the /dev/ folder that allows a file on the hard disk to act as a disk drive / disk partiton. you can use it in exactly the same way your would use /dev/hda1 or /dev/cdrom.
here is how to use it to quickly add extra virtual memory.
before we start, make sure your loop driver is loaded... have a look in the /dev/ folder for files named loopX where X is a number between 0 and 7, possably by using the ommand "ls /dev/ | grep loop"
if its not there, then as root run "modprobe loop" and look again.
all these commands need to be done as root user.
to become root user run the command "su -" and enter the root password.
when you have finished, be sure to run "exit" to giveup the root privilages.
first, create the file that will contain the virtual disk drive.
CODE
dd if=/dev/zero of=/SWAP.img bs=1M count=256
the abouve command will copy 256 * 1Megabyte from the file /dev/zero into the file /SWAP.img.
/dev/zero is a pretend file, which dontains an infinite number of "0"'s for more info, read "man dd"
replace 256 with the extra amount of memory you require.
secondly, we need to setup the loop driver, to create a /dev/ interface to the file.
their are 8 loop devices, somtimes the first one or 2 is in use, so to be save, lets use the 6th.
now /dev/loop5 will act as a disk drive, and save all its information to the /SWAP.img file automatically.losetup /dev/loop5 /SWAP.img
for more information about losetup, read "man losetup" (you can delete a loop device like so "losetup -d /dev/loopX" where X is the loop number.
thirdly... we need to format the disk as swap.
finally, activate the swapmkswap /dev/loop5
if you ever need to remove the swap file, first de-activate, then delete the interface, then delete the file.swapon /dev/loop5
to make the added swap activate automatically add the following lines to the end or your rc.local startup script. this script is in different places for different distro's but i will be somwhere in your /etc/ folder.swapoff /dev/loop5
losetup -d /dev/loop5
rm /SWAP.img
most likely /etc/init.d/rc.local
losetup /dev/loop5 /SWAP.img
swapon /dev/loop5
). Bus please remember- spam is not tolerated. For example, i'm not worying about loosing points in this way, because is such way i get more respect from admin and other forum members (that is also important)
