Replace /Swap partition with Swap file?

[mishathegoat]

Hello everyone,
I currently have Ubuntu Desktop 10.10 installed and have a great setup. However, I'm trying to install another OS on the hard drive and need to remove a partition. I've read online that I can remove the Swap partition and use a "Swap file". My question is this:

Is it possible to replace the Swap partition with a "swap file" without having to re-install linux? And if so, how do I accomplish this?


Dual-booting: Mac OS X 10.6.3 / Ubuntu Desktop 10.10
Macbook Pro 6,1
2.8 GHz Intel Core i7, 4 GB RAM

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,
Misha

[MooPi]

I'm currently using a swap file, created with instructions from this page https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwapFaq
Nice horns

[dcstar]

Hello everyone,
I currently have Ubuntu Desktop 10.10 installed and have a great setup. However, I'm trying to install another OS on the hard drive and need to remove a partition. I've read online that I can remove the Swap partition and use a "Swap file". My question is this:

Is it possible to replace the Swap partition with a "swap file" without having to re-install linux? And if so, how do I accomplish this?
........

You can also just resize your existing partitions using an Ubuntu install CD (search for detailed instructions).

After reading up on this, the main issue with a Swap file is the potential for it to be created in a non-contiguous manner (not using a continuous portion of disk space) which may affect performance compared to a Swap partition which is usually created in one single block of disk space.

I had thought that a Swap file would be affected by/affect the filesystem it was associated with, but the Linux kernel bypasses all filesystem components and accesses the disk directly for Swap IO.

[forcecore]

from 10.04 to 10.10 i use swapspace software and it works great, it creates swap file when needed.

[mishathegoat]

I'm currently using a swap file, created with instructions from this page https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwapFaq
Nice horns

Likewise Heh heh
Thanks for the quick response, the FAQ was just what I needed.

You can also just resize your existing partitions using an Ubuntu install CD (search for detailed instructions).

After reading up on this, the main issue with a Swap file is the potential for it to be created in a non-contiguous manner (not using a continuous portion of disk space) which may affect performance compared to a Swap partition which is usually created in one single block of disk space.

I had thought that a Swap file would be affected by/affect the filesystem it was associated with, but the Linux kernel bypasses all filesystem components and accesses the disk directly for Swap IO.

Thanks for the useful info!

from 10.04 to 10.10 i use swapspace software and it works great, it creates swap file when needed.

Thanks, do you happen to remember the name of the software?

[forcecore]

swapspace is name search from synaptic