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I've installed Ubuntu on one partition which utilizes all disk space (if we're ignoring the NFTS partitions). I forgot to define a swap partition.

  1. How do I make a swap partition after installation? I need to "borrow" from the current one.
  2. I defined the current partition as logical and not primary. Is that a problem? Should/Can I change it?

Thanks!

blueplusgreen
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1 Answers1

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2 Schools of thought here.

A) If you have a fairly up-to-date system with more than 8GB RAM - Linux will likely never touch the swap unless you are running intensive rendering applications. So, if you meet that standard, I wouldn't sweat the swap partition. I run two boxes with no swap... no problems.

B) Another school of thought is to define a swap partition because, it is a fallback safety valve which, I admit, is always nice to have.

If you adhere to the "B" school of thought, you can use GParted (sudo apt-get install gparted) and CAREFULLY select a partition to be resized. Then use your mouse to drag the right side of that partitions graphical image to reduce that partition's size... by 2-4GB (or whatever you feel is appropriate) This creates "unallocated space" which (after applying the above changes) can be defined as a new partition; (again using GParted) which, can be "formatted as" type:SWAP. Apply those changes. et voila! Swap partition.

Another cchool of thought "C" would be to use the swap FILE method detailed in the answer referenced by @mniess above. I've never used that method. So, I do not have any opinion on it.

Orian
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