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maggie

Member

Registered: 2011-02-12

Posts: 255

Advice needed using zramswap from the AUR

I am using a old netbook with 512 MB of RAM memory. I have 1G of swap and even with lxde and light apps, I use most of the RAM (350/512) and am also using about 30-40 % of the swap. I just started to use zramswap from the AUR but am not understanding exactly how it works.

sudo systemctl start zramswap

And status

zramswap.service - Zram-based swap (compressed RAM block devices)
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/zramswap.service; disabled)
   Active: active (exited) since Sat 2013-11-09 13:03:33 EST; 19min ago
  Process: 31383 ExecStart=/usr/lib/systemd/scripts/zramctrl start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
 Main PID: 31383 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

Nov 09 13:03:33 light zramctrl[31383]: Setting up swapspace version 1, size...B
Nov 09 13:03:33 light systemd[1]: Started Zram-based swap (compressed RAM ...).
Hint: Some lines were ellipsized, use -l to show in full.

I see it is running in dmesg output:

zram: module is from the staging directory, the quality is unknown, you have been warned.
zram: Created 1 device(s) ...
Adding 102216k swap on /dev/zram0.  Priority:100 extents:1 across:102216k SSFS

I do not know how to see that it is working, or understand the benefits of using it. Is there a way to monitor how it is working? Do I need to have a swap partition with it?

Last edited by maggie (2013-11-09 18:23:42)

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: Advice needed using zramswap from the AUR

Use zswap instead: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=169585

maggie

Member

Registered: 2011-02-12

Posts: 255

Re: Advice needed using zramswap from the AUR

Well, I do not understand the difference even after reading some google finds. I am now using zswap but again, same question, how to monitor how it is working?

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: Advice needed using zramswap from the AUR

What's the output of 'free -m' before and after zswap activation?

graysky

Wiki Maintainer

From: :wq

Registered: 2008-12-01

Posts: 10,732

Website

Re: Advice needed using zramswap from the AUR

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1843 … -and-zswap

Last edited by graysky (2013-11-09 20:19:04)

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AUR packages • Zsh and other configs

maggie

Member

Registered: 2011-02-12

Posts: 255

Re: Advice needed using zramswap from the AUR

What's the output of 'free -m' before and after zswap activation?

I have been using zswap.enabled=1for this boot and web browsing:

% free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:           499        489          9          0          4         71
-/+ buffers/cache:        413         85
Swap:         1023        345        678

Now I rebooted without zswap.enabled=1 and have been web browsing a bit:

% free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:           499        482         17          0          5        105
-/+ buffers/cache:        370        128
Swap:         1023        206        817

There does not seem to be a real difference.

Last edited by maggie (2013-11-09 19:00:06)

graysky

Wiki Maintainer

From: :wq

Registered: 2008-12-01

Posts: 10,732

Website

Re: Advice needed using zramswap from the AUR

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1843 … -and-zswap

Seems like the OP would benefit from using both simultaneously.

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AUR packages • Zsh and other configs