/dev/zram0 - How to Remove It?

[mapes12]

Running Ubu 12.04 LTS. My machine has been behaving oddly just lately. On furth investigation I've discovered that there is a swap file in memory known as /dev/zram0. I've Googled for a removal solution but found nothing that describes the uninstallation in simple English. It appears that Casper may have something to do with why this /dev/zram0 has been created. Also, I've been connecting a FLIP video recorder to the machine periodically to move some video clips ontp my HDD. Some have suggested that this may have been part of the problem as well.

I've attached a scrrenshot.

Can anyone tell me how to get rid of this please?

Mark

[Paqman]

Generally you don't touch anything in /dev, these are the kernel's way of representing hardware (everythin in Linux is a file, even devices).

Have you been able to pin down exactly when this pops up? Zram is a RAM compression system. Is it there right after you boot? Or does it only pop up after you plug your Flip in?

[mapes12]

Have you been able to pin down exactly when this pops up? Zram is a RAM compression system. Is it there right after you boot? Or does it only pop up after you plug your Flip in?

I have no peripheral devices attached and the /dev/zram0 remains as previously stated. Even when I reboot it stays there. I'm not sure if it's related but I also have a /proc file being reported at 140.7TB. The HDD is only 250GB. Screenshot attached. This came to light the other day when I tried to backup my system with Remastersys. Clearly, Remastersys fell over when it found that file.

[dannyboy79]

your first picture clearly shows it under the USB, Firewire, periphial device. Not sure what's going on IF you don't have anything plugged in. Maybe it didn't unmount properly. You say you rebooted?

Proc is always going to be there and I'd leave it alone but I am not sure why it's stating it's TB in size when your HDD is only 250GB

you could try

swapoff /dev/zram0

[grahammechanical]

Now here is a strange thing. When I look at the properties of the proc folder for the Ubuntu install that I am at present using it says:

56,393 items, totaling 140.7TB. I guess that 'proc' = processess. Perhaps 140.7TB is a theoretical limit to the size of the file system that Linux processes can run in and the processes are not limited except by that theoretical limit.

I found this.

/proc is very special in that it is also a virtual filesystem. It's sometimes referred to as a process information pseudo-file system. It doesn't contain 'real' files but runtime system information

The most distinctive thing about files in this directory is the fact that all of them have a file size of 0, with the exception of kcore, mtrr and self. A directory listing looks similar to the following:

http://www.tldp.org/LDP/Linux-Filesy...html/proc.html

And this

Like all other files below /proc the kcore file is only a virtual file. It contains the RAM the kernel can allocate. Therefore this should not be touched or read. It is nothing to worry about. This file doesn't use actual disk space and only exists virtually.

Note: On 64-bit systems the size of /proc/kcore is even 128TB because that's the absolute limit of what 64-bit systems can allocate.

http://www.novell.com/support/kb/doc.php?id=7004153

There are ways of counting bytes that would make 128TB = 140.7TB.

Regards.

[Paqman]

Definitely do not go poking around in /proc, there's nothing user-editable in there. Just think of it as a big dark hole full of weird kernel stuff.

[mapes12]

swapoff /dev/zram0

Thanks Dannyboy79. I ran that code but the /dev/zram0 is still there per my first post.

Grahammechanical - I've booted from a live CD. The live CD session /proc file appears empty but the HDD /proc file is still there at 140.7TB so I have no idea what's going on there?

[MG&TL]

Definitely do not go poking around in /proc, there's nothing user-editable in there. Just think of it as a big dark hole full of weird kernel stuff.

Well...don't go editing anything in there. Some of the files are quite interesting.

[tgalati4]

Post the output of:

free

Do you not have a real, hard disk swap partition? If not, then create one and it will get mounted and possibly not use /dev/zram0.

[mapes12]

free

mark@mark-ubu-laptop:~$ free
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 3043884 1333624 1710260 0 113368 573936
-/+ buffers/cache: 646320 2397564
Swap: 5427472 0 5427472

Do you not have a real, hard disk swap partition? If not, then create one and it will get mounted and possibly not use /dev/zram0.

Yes, It's always had a swap partition:-

mark@mark-ubu-laptop:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for mark:

Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000c2e85

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 172859391 86428672 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 172861438 488396799 157767681 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 480585728 488396799 3905536 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 172861440 480583679 153861120 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order