This is part of The Pile, a partial archive of some open source mailing lists and newsgroups.
Subject: RH 7.0 and SWAP partition From: Tonko de Rooy <tderooy@raleigh.ibm.com> Date: 26 Sep 2000 09:17:28 +0000 I just tried to start the RedHat 7.0 installation. The system already had a Linux partition with RH 6.2 installed, but I first thought to just do a clean install as it did not have anything important on it. So I selected the Custom Install path, and in Disk Druid selected the / partition, and to save the changes. Disk Druid then gave me an error saying that a swap partition had to be created!!!!! Why do I _need_ to create a swap partition? I thought this had finally been fixed in RH 6.2, but its back again! How about giving options like, "You have not selected to create any swap partitions. Please select one of the following options: - go back and create a swap partition - continue without a swap partition - use a swap file" In any case, as it is clearly not possible to do a clean install of RedHat 7.0 (as repartitioning is out of the question), I had to go for the upgrade path. It looks like any new installations of RedHat will require me to first install 6.2, then to upgrade to 7.0 to avoid the swap partition. Sorry for being so negative, but I often have to do complicated installs with multiple operating systems, and this silly swap partition requirement is just a pure nuisance. === Subject: Re: RH 7.0 and SWAP partition From: Grant Nygren <nygren@sympatico.ca> Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2000 06:14:30 -0400 At 09:17 AM 9/26/2000 +0000, you wrote: > Hi, > > I just tried to start the RedHat 7.0 installation. > > The system already had a Linux partition with RH 6.2 installed, > but I first thought to just do a clean install as it did not > have anything important on it. So I selected the Custom Install > path, and in Disk Druid selected the / partition, and to save > the changes. Disk Druid then gave me an error saying that a swap > partition had to be created!!!!! > > Why do I _need_ to create a swap partition? I thought this had > finally been fixed in RH 6.2, but its back again! Disk Druid is a bit brain dead in this area. I had the same problem going from 6.0 to 6.2. All you have to do is redesignated the old swap partition as a swap partition. I had to do the same thing with the root partition too. === Subject: Re: RH 7.0 and SWAP partition From: Tonko de Rooy <tderooy@raleigh.ibm.com> Date: 26 Sep 2000 13:16:11 +0000 Disk Druid is a bit brain dead in this area. I had the same problem going > from 6.0 to 6.2. All you have to do is redesignated the old swap partition > as a swap partition. I had to do the same thing with the root partition too. That's not the problem. The system simply does not have a swap partition, and does not need one either. I have run into this problem loads of times in the past (before RH 6.2), and was relieved RH 6.2 install finally allowed me to continue without one. But its back again ;-( === Subject: Re: RH 7.0 and SWAP partition From: Charles Galpin <cgalpin@lighthouse-software.com> Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2000 10:06:05 -0400 (EDT) On 26 Sep 2000, Tonko de Rooy wrote: > Hi, > > I just tried to start the RedHat 7.0 installation. that's what you get for taunting the rest of us :) > The system already had a Linux partition with RH 6.2 installed, > but I first thought to just do a clean install as it did not > have anything important on it. So I selected the Custom Install > path, and in Disk Druid selected the / partition, and to save > the changes. Disk Druid then gave me an error saying that a swap > partition had to be created!!!!! did you try fdisk? === Subject: Re: RH 7.0 and SWAP partition From: Vidiot <brown@mrvideo.vidiot.com> Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2000 10:54:37 -0500 (CDT) Why do I _need_ to create a swap partition? I thought this had > finally been fixed in RH 6.2, but its back again! And why would you possibly want to run a Unix system without swap? > Sorry for being so negative, but I often have to do complicated > installs with multiple operating systems, and this silly swap > partition requirement is just a pure nuisance. Since when is swap silly? === Subject: Re: RH 7.0 and SWAP partition From: Tonko de Rooy <tderooy@raleigh.ibm.com> Date: 26 Sep 2000 16:00:22 +0000 On 26 Sep 2000, Tonko de Rooy wrote: > > > Hi, > > > > I just tried to start the RedHat 7.0 installation. > > that's what you get for taunting the rest of us :) > > > The system already had a Linux partition with RH 6.2 installed, > > but I first thought to just do a clean install as it did not > > have anything important on it. So I selected the Custom Install > > path, and in Disk Druid selected the / partition, and to save > > the changes. Disk Druid then gave me an error saying that a swap > > partition had to be created!!!!! > > did you try fdisk? fdisk does not allow you to designate mountpoints. After your done with fdisk you still have to go through Disk Druid to set these mountpoints, and thats when it refuses to continue. === Subject: Re: RH 7.0 and SWAP partition From: Rick Warner <rwarner@Resonate.com> Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2000 09:32:15 -0700 (Pacific Daylight Time) There are good and bad things about swap. Myself, I come down on the side that the good outweighs the negatives and with disk space being so cheap these days there is no reason to skimp. If you had a lot of memory, wanted to go cheap on disk space, and could foresee that your use would be so light relative to your real memory that your machine would never hit swap, then having swap may not be for you. I have a couple of fairly heavy duty servers with 2Gb of RAM each; neither has used any swap since last rebooted almost 6 weeks ago, but I still have 2Gb of swap space allocated on each - just in case. But if someone wants to risk running out of memory when they try printing a web page from Netscape (try printing www.mslinux.org), then they should be allowed to do so. - rick warner === Subject: Re: RH 7.0 and SWAP partition From: Tonko de Rooy <tderooy@raleigh.ibm.com> Date: 27 Sep 2000 12:43:17 +0000 Why do I _need_ to create a swap partition? I thought this had > > finally been fixed in RH 6.2, but its back again! > > And why would you possibly want to run a Unix system without swap? > > > Sorry for being so negative, but I often have to do complicated > > installs with multiple operating systems, and this silly swap > > partition requirement is just a pure nuisance. > > Since when is swap silly? > I'm not saying swap is silly. I'm saying that its silly not to allow the installation to continue without a swap _partition_. I can setup a swap _file_ myself after installation instead (or the installer could be nice enough to help with it). Or in theory I could even have so much memory that swap space should not be needed at all. === Subject: Re: RH 7.0 and SWAP partition From: Vidiot <brown@mrvideo.vidiot.com> Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000 09:42:04 -0500 (CDT) I'm not saying swap is silly. >I'm saying that its silly not to allow the installation to continue >without a swap _partition_. Personally, I believe one should ALWAYS have swap. You never know... >I can setup a swap _file_ myself after installation instead (or the >installer could be nice enough to help with it). Or in theory I could >even have so much memory that swap space should not be needed at all. That is very true, you can. I have 256 MB of RAM and swap is still being used. Of course, I'm running the box as my web server :-) ===