New installation of Ubuntu 17.04 - Swap not Available

**Niccolo999** · April 20th, 2017

I'm a brand new user to Ubuntu and Linux based desktop OS's. I am now dual booting Windows 10 and Ubuntu 17.04 and they are installed on different partitions of the same SSD. I also have a HDD for data. My PC has 8GB of RAM.

On installation I did not create a swap partition, and I'm assuming Ubuntu created a Swap file for me.

When I start System Monitor it says Swap Not Available. I also tried various commands I found on the internet and all show that Swap is not being used. I tried opening all LibreOffice apps and 10 instances of Google Chrome, but I can't get Swap to be shown as working. I tried SuperTuxKart and also Suspend. Nothing.

Is something wrong with my installation? I'm asking because I was trying to change Swappiness, but before I try that I want to confirm the swap file is being used and I want to see if increasing swappiness makes a difference to performance...

Thanks!

**sp40140** · April 20th, 2017

Nothing wrong. with this release of 17.04 Ubuntu have done away with swap partition. If your system needs swap space, you can easily create swap file.
Swap partition was needed in old days when RAM was limited. You have 8Gigs of RAM, you don't need swap.

**RobGoss** · April 20th, 2017

You can also read about the changing of swap partition for swap file here on OMG Ubuntu http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/12/u...ons-swap-files

**Niccolo999** · April 20th, 2017

Thanks for the quick replies!

I understand what a swap partition and swap file is. But isn't the swap file created automatically on a clean install? And if yes why isn't it showing in System Monitor?

**RobGoss** · April 20th, 2017

I haven't installed any of the newest 17.04 so I can't really say, I would think the swap file would be created on the new installation. Did you see if the swap file was created?

**Niccolo999** · April 20th, 2017

I don't know how to do that. I found some terminal commands on internet and all show there is no swap, but maybe they were looking for a swap partition, not file.

**Dennis N** · April 21st, 2017

My Lubuntu 17.04 included an existing swap partition when making /etc/fstab on installation, and the system monitor shows that swap in use. So perhaps the swap file is only used when there is no swap existing?