Swap partition errors. sudo mkswap /dev/sda4 issue

[Bendihossan]

Hey all. Been looking for a solution to this but haven't found anything that has helped here or elsewhere.

My swap partition is not in use and for whatever reason I cnn't enable it. The OS seems to run fine without it. After running several processer-intensive application the swap still is left inactive. I've tried the following to no avail:


sudo swapon -a
sudo mkswap /dev/sda4
mkswap /dev/sda4 returns the following strange error:


Setting up swapspace version 1, size = 4038606 kB
no label, UUID=0eca6dc5-55eb-41df-8ae8-2974cbbe59c6
Also /etc/fstab contains the following line:

# /dev/sda4
UUID=d58bf1cb-d27a-487d-b337-056767fd5ad6none swap sw 0 0Also if this helps at all the free command returns the following:


total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 2066024 1127408 938616 0 59892 581724
-/+ buffers/cache: 485792 1580232
Swap: 0 0 0
fdisk -l:

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x6503dd57

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 1274 10233373+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 * 1275 10383 73162752 6 FAT16
/dev/sda3 10383 18966 68945312+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 18967 19457 3943957+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Any help and progress made is greatly appreciated. :)
Ps. As an after thought: is it preferable to have a swap partition or file to use as swap space? It could also be possible to remove that partition and use a swap file instead if recommended? Thanks again!

[fava]

You have 2gb of ram, and almost 1GB free. The swap file is not being used because its not needed.

You need to run memory intensive apps to exercise swap, not processor intensive.

The mkswap command output is normal, there is no error. If you want a label you need to use mkswap -L yourlabel /dev/sda4

[taurus]

# /dev/sda4
UUID=d58bf1cb-d27a-487d-b337-056767fd5ad6 none swap sw 0 0
There should be a space between the UUID and the word none in /etc/fstab.

Also, what's the output of this command in a terminal?


sudo blkid

[caljohnsmith]

You have 2gb of ram, and almost 1GB free. The swap file is not being used because its not needed.

According to the output of "free", Bendihossan does not have any swap even available, so that's the issue right now, not that the swap wasn't needed at the time he ran that command.

Bendihossan, how about trying the following:

sudo mkswap -U d58bf1cb-d27a-487d-b337-056767fd5ad6 /dev/sda4
Also, it looks like your fstab needs correcting:


# /dev/sda4
UUID=d58bf1cb-d27a-487d-b337-056767fd5ad6none swap sw 0 0
Notice you don't have a space between the UUID and "none", so how about doing:

gksudo gedit /etc/fstab
And then put a space so it looks like:

# /dev/sda4
UUID=d58bf1cb-d27a-487d-b337-056767fd5ad6 none swap sw 0 0
Then do:

sudo swapon -a
free
And please post the output.

[Bendihossan]

Thanks for the quick response! The gap was just a copy and paste typo by me, sorry.

Output of blkid was:

/dev/sda1: UUID="06c0d619-e529-440d-bd5c-8fbf4721747e" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sda2: UUID="C090E58C90E5896C" LABEL="ACER" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda3: UUID="48EC1C11EC1BF840" LABEL="DATA" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda4: TYPE="swap" UUID="0eca6dc5-55eb-41df-8ae8-2974cbbe59c6"

and output of sudo mkswap -U d58bf1cb-d27a-487d-b337-056767fd5ad6 /dev/sda4

Setting up swapspace version 1, size = 4038606 kB
no label, UUID=d58bf1cb-d27a-487d-b337-056767fd5ad6


and output of swapon -a

swapon: cannot canonicalize /dev/disk/by-uuid/d58bf1cb-d27a-487d-b337-056767fd5ad6: No such file or directory
swapon: cannot stat /dev/disk/by-uuid/d58bf1cb-d27a-487d-b337-056767fd5ad6: No such file or directory


output of free is identical to before.

[caljohnsmith]

OK, how about rebooting, and please post the output of:

sudo blkid -c /dev/null
sudo swapon -a
free

[Bendihossan]

OK, how about rebooting, and please post the output of:

sudo blkid -c /dev/null
sudo swapon -a
free

Think the above solved it!


steffy@bendihossan:~$ sudo blkid -c /dev/null
[sudo] password for steffy:
/dev/sda1: UUID="06c0d619-e529-440d-bd5c-8fbf4721747e" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/sda2: UUID="C090E58C90E5896C" LABEL="ACER" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda3: UUID="48EC1C11EC1BF840" LABEL="DATA" TYPE="ntfs"
/dev/sda4: TYPE="swap" UUID="d58bf1cb-d27a-487d-b337-056767fd5ad6"
steffy@bendihossan:~$ sudo swapon -a
steffy@bendihossan:~$ free
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 2066024 646212 1419812 0 14504 293548
-/+ buffers/cache: 338160 1727864
Swap: 3943948 0 3943948
steffy@bendihossan:~$

[caljohnsmith]

Looks like you should be all set now.

[Bendihossan]

Thank you for that. I'll play with it and test just to ensure it will be used when memory gets tight.