How do I increase swap memory in debian?

Question

how to increase swap memory in debian?

Answer 1

In a pinch, you can create a new swap partition or file.

For a partition:

1. Format the new partition with mkswap /dev/sdx1
2. Add the new swap partition to /etc/fstab.
3. Run swapon -a to activate the new swap.

To add a swap file:

1. Create the file. This command creates a 1 gigabyte file: dd if=/dev/zero of=/swap bs=1M count=1000
2. Format the swap file: mkswap /swap
3. Add the new swap file to /etc/fstab: /swap swap swap defaults 0 0
4. Run swapon -a to activate the new swap.

Answer 2

Run the following commands

dd if=/dev/zero of=/swap bs=512k count=1024
mkswap /swap
chmod 0600 /swap
swapon /swap

you will also have to add this line to /etc/fstab

/swap swap swap defaults 0 0

You can run free -m to find the swap space used in megabytes before and after the allocation of swap space.

Answer 3

Good info on several ways to increase/change swap partition size here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwapFaq. Follow the steps mentioned in section: How do I add more swap?

This needs a few changes.

1. You need to do swapoff -a after you update the /etc/fstab with the new swap partition info. Without this, after you run swapoff at a later stage, it will show both partitions.

2. Even if you use hibernation, you may not need to add the new swap's UUID in GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX in /etc/default/grub file.

The other steps steps are fine and works.