16.04 Install on SSD: How Much SWAP for 64Gb RAM & Where to Put it? SSD or HDD? How?

[sudodus]

Since I no longer wish to have a dual-boot machine, my question is: is there any reason to install Ubuntu in EFI mode on an Ubuntu-only machine? I have actually tried to look that up, but all I find is the how, not the why. Basically, I am happy to switch off secure-boot etc and install Ubuntu in "legacy mode", unless there is a reason installing in EFI mode is superior.

No, you can continue with BIOS (as long as your computer's system will allow it)

BIOS is simpler and I see no advantage with UEFI. I think UEFI is used by big companies to lock the computers to their systems. In theory there are advantages, but it is often tweaked outside the official specifications.

[Bucky Ball]

Bucky... I'm guessing you had to format it to NTFS so Windows could access it (which really isn't ideal - it's a rather primitive filesystem).

You need not such hindrances. Ubuntu only, EXT4 would be where I'd be going. I have Win8 (from memory) on this machine but no NTFS data partition as Win only used for the odd hardware configuration app when I can't get something working in Ubuntu (like my wireless printer). In reference to an earlier comment re. having one partition per HDD; on this machine, both OSs on a 128Gb SSD and three 1Tb HDDs for storage with ONE BIG partition on each.

[OzzyFrank]

UEFI is used by big companies to lock the computers to their systems

That's pretty much the only "benefit" I've seen, and I have done a fair bit of reading up on it since buyers of Windows 8 machines started screaming that it wouldn't let them install Linux (or they could install it just fine, but not actually boot into it). Yep, I'll just stick with the legacy mode.

[alexjpowell]

RE: what you put on the SSD

It probably doesn't matter
It's just nice to talk about what's best

[oldfred]

I prefer to only partition in advance with gparted and make sure you select gpt first. I have used gpt since 10.10 and then booting in BIOS mode. With Windows XP on MBR drive. When you partition in advance you still have to use Something Else install option.

If you never use swap how can you wear out SSD? Never understood that argument.
I am in the camp of at least some swap. For whatever reason I had swap on every drive, but my installs then auto find both and I comment out the other one. I do have multiple installs on every drive. And make sure at least one on other drive is fairly current as emergency boot.
Some user that seemed very knowledgeable commented that swap really required some % of RAM like 80% and commented that swapfaqs was wrong but he did not have rights to edit.
But there may be exceptions like video editing where you cannot have too much RAM and may then need larger swap. And then SSD would probably be better as faster, but still orders of magnitude slower than RAM.

Also now SSD have life similar to hard drives, both of which is not forever. So if life is comparable it should not matter what is on SSD or on HDD.
Small sample, so not totally valid.
http://hothardware.com/news/google-d...than-mlc-flash
SSD life test 2015 final
http://techreport.com/review/27909/t...heyre-all-dead


GPT Advantages (older 2010 but still valid) see post#2 by srs5694:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1457901
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php...antages_of_GPT
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified...ware_Interface
http://askubuntu.com/questions/62947...br-why-not-mbr
UEFI Advantages
http://askubuntu.com/questions/64730.../647604#647604
http://askubuntu.com/questions/44696...y-vs-uefi-help
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified...ware_Interface

[kurt18947]

The *buntu installs I've done on machines with adequate RAM - 4 GB+ - seem to work fine without swap. On machines with marginal RAM, I've created a swap file. This has worked well for my purposes. I've noticed small amounts of swap being used when a swap file was present though usually not more than a couple hundred MB. I doubt that a swap file would work for hibernation though I've never tried it Hibernation has been unreliable in the past and either suspending or shutting down has worked fine. I don't have many programs open at once nor do I run large/demanding programs so that may affect my experience. I've installed htop to help monitor RAM & CPU usage so can tell if I'm 'pushing my luck'.