It’s a lossless compression algorithm.

if so that’s pretty dope!

I’ve run Arch without swap for many years without issues. The key of course is that you need enough RAM for what you are trying to do with your computer.

There’s no reason why a 32GB RAM + 0GB swap system should have more problems than a 16GB RAM + 16GB swap system with the same workload. If anything, the former is going to run much better.

I run a lot of VMs; I typically run 2 at the same time in addition to running other programs in the background, my usecase is more eccentric than most users in the Linux space which is already pretty niche

What is finicky about a swap file?

It’s just this:

mkswap -U clear --size 4G --file /swapfile
swapon /swapfile

Done

I’m using BTRFS with LUKS-based Full Disk Encryption, the last time I used swapfiles with BTRFS with FDE it was in 2019 and it was painful to say the least, I rememeber spending several weeks scouring Stack and the Arch forums in order to get it to work properly.

• usecases and preferences will differ from user to user, so I wouldn’t advise assuming a one-size-fits-all solution

If anything it’s way easier to create a file in your filesystem than having to (re-)partition your drive to have a swap partition. Much more flexible too if you want to change your swap configuration in the future.

swapfiles are great in that you can resize them at will, however after trying all 3 options I found myself questioning when would I even want to resize swap for a single system, so at a certain point I felt that swapfiles were more of a gimmick cause again you don’t really want to depend on swap if can.

• if you’re consistently reaching your physical memory limits, upgrading your ram will most likely be the best bet for both system stability and hardware durability

after a quick preliminary search,
a couple of things I’ve found out:

this might not necessarily be adopted by the mainstream desktop users, due to the nature of zram compressing data in addition to disallowing hibernation

Hibernating to swap on zram is not supported, even when zram is configured with a backing device on permanent storage. logind will protect against trying to hibernate to a swap space on zram.

• data compression by nature incurs dataloss so there are both pro & con tradeoffs to which should be communicated to the user otherwise they might receive an unnecessary worse user experience:
  • “why is my computer so buggy?”
    • (the system is working as it’s coded but not working in they way the user expects it to)
      • this would be unfortunate as they might leave back to Windows or MacOS
  • I could be completely wrong about this, if so please comment or disregard this section entirely

to me atm; zram seems great for server based systems rather than for desktop users’ systems

one other method for zram mainstream adoption is to encourage an eccentric system that I’m currently using, which is to have the host system only contain minimal packages to run Virtual Machines:

• zram compression might be fine as the main services/programs are run within their relevant and/or separated VM containers
  • this simultaneously achieves:
    • Wikipedia - Separation of Concerns
    • enhanced security as the host is further firewalled/bubblewrapped from the guest like Flatpaking/containerization (and malware is less likely to activate due to malicious users being unhelpful in letting their programs run in a VM 😢🤗)
• hibernation can still be achived by save-stating VMs (VM restoration at will basically achieves hibernation so it doesn’t really matter if the host is shutdown so long as all VMs are saved by the user before host shutdown)

sorry for the long comment!
stuff like this interests me the most so I’ve spent a lot of time in learning and tinkering around🤗

definitely agreed on against using swap as memory as much as you can especially since it can needlessly wear out your ssd (m.2 on most if not all on modern systems)

allocating swap is still necessary as it provides features such as:

• mitigating OOM scenarios (but doesn’t prevent them completely)
• enabling system hibernation(suspend-to-disk)

On my journey to learning Arch Linux I’ve personally tried:

• 0 swap: which was pretty awful with constant unexpected system freezes/crashes
• swap file: finicky but doable
• swap partition: typical default/ol’reliable

the last two doesn’t guarantee 0 problems as user errors such as allocating too much system memory to VMs can cause issues for the host system, but it does tend to mitigate the majority of issues that prevent the perception of system stability in comparison to Windows or Macs

Resources:

• Archlinux Wiki - Swap
• [Mental Outlaw] A Clarification of Swap Space on Linux
• [Chris Titus Tech] Linux Swap | Different Kinds and How to Use It

fuck yeah✊

ditto😆

Intel really set themselves up for a perfect memefest😂

Thanks Steve

If I recall correctly, Canada got rid of carrier lock-in several years ago

yup, you’re more likely to have a better time with Linux if you have an AMD gpu

currrently if you get an NVIDIA gpu, you’d miss out on features like explicit sync and triple buffering, NVIDIA’s getting better about supporting Linux via open source drivers, although with their current focus/obsession on AI (and decrease on the gaming market based on Jenson’s recent behavior towards gamers at Computex 2024) it’s hard to tell what efftect that might have for driver support

• so I’d still typically recommend most to use an AMD gpu for a better time

by crossposting here I’m hoping to help people who’d like some help getting started with Linux/or solving Linux related problems🤗

Triple edit: omg thank you all for the (totally not useless) awards!!

Mental Outlaw’s vid is probably a good place to start, afterwards I’d recommend reading Libreboot’s documentation

Edit:

how can I check the ROM after I run the command $ ./build roms t440plibremrc_12mb

ah rip, I didn’t catch this part sorry

unfortunately I’m not the right person to answer that, hopefully someone else might know

guess we replaced Google
Noice🤌

NixOS on my laptop and Arch on desktop

desktop’s having occasional graphical issues but that’s primarily due to my gtx1080 showing it’s age

Laptop’s doing good although I’ll never buy an Asus laptop ever again (battery charging issues)

• most likely gonna switch to Framework if they release an affordable AMD laptop in the near future

maybe the scheduler cron in combination with git might work for you?

for us admins we generally tend to let the community mods handle their community’s reports

and for communities that are either:

• not on our instance or
• is on our instance but has no current active mods,

then we’ll take over for moderating those communities till we find people who want to try becoming moderators🤗

sure why not

I’d be down to help as I have experience with various distros at this point🤗

heads up the GPU drivers are proprietary as of posting:

The SpacemiT K1 also doesn’t have any upstream open-source graphics driver as another disappointing aspect.

on distros that have more recent packages, like Fedora.

ah you’re right!

😳I asked a stupid question as I should’ve checked the Tech Compendium (ArchLinux Wiki) before asking😅

thanks! +1

A third player is absolutely welcome to the game

definitely agreed as more competition drives better products for lower prices to consumers✨

just wondering but do you happen to know if Intel’s gpus are good for all Linux distros?

• last I heard was that they’re primarily supporting Ubuntu (I could be wrong about this)