SWAP Space: How do you increase it above the default 5 meg?

[Boyd Ostroff]

In article <1991Apr8.081311.18416 at cbnewse.att.com> jcd at spock.att.com (Jack Dixon) writes:
>I have a dim memory of a discussion concerning increasing the size of the swap
>space partition, but I don't think I ever saw a posted solution.  

Perhaps the new, improved utility disk lets you do this - don't know since
I've never bothered to get a copy.  You can certainly do it "by hand",
though the same way you create any other disk partitions you need.

Take a look at the manual page for iv.  Note, however that iv -i, which is
supposed to format the disk and perform a surface test does not work.  You
will have to format your drive using the utility disk (disk 1 of the foundation
set).  Unless you think you need to reformat the drive, though you can skip
that step.

I don't have the manual here, but I just re-partitioned my drive last weekend,
so I think I can outline the procedure.  Find the iv description table for
your hard disk in /usr/lib/iv.  The default will have 3 partitions:

 0 - loader
 1 - swap
 2 - /

Note that the iv description contains the number of the first logical block
of each partition (read the man page for details).  To make a bigger swap
partition, just increase the address for the start of partition #2.  If you
want to make any additional partitions, just add them to the table also.
WARNING: unless you're using 3.51m, you can only mount 3 filesystems in 
addition to / (including floppies).

Once you're sure you have this right (and have backed up everything :-),
make a floppy filesystem and boot disk (as per the FAQ) - make sure you
copy iv, your description file and anything else you might need (mkfs?) to 
the floppy.  Boot off the floppy and use "iv -uv descriptionfile" to
re-partition the drive.  If you have created any new filesystems, you'll
need to use mkfs to initialize them (not for the swap, though).

>and figured that I may as well
>add a few more meg to the swap partition now while it's not much trouble.

That's how to do it, but I'm not sure if you really gain anything by
doing it (unless you're swapping out LOTS of processes).  Perhaps someone
else can answer this one.....