why ubuntu LTS installs all in a single partition?

[Liam Proven]

On 5 August 2013 13:22, Kent Borg <kentborg at borg.org> wrote:

Please bottom-quote on the list.

> RAM is relatively expensive, disk space is cheap. The folks who program
> kernel swap behavior are damn smart. Therefore, having some swap seems a
> good idea.  To a point.

[...]

Sure. I have nothing against swap in general.

All I am saying is that with modern systems, with lots of RAM, in
typical use, they barely ever or never use swap. Thus, if you do not
need hibernation support, the `swapspace` tool in the standard Ubuntu
repositories can create swap *files* in /var on demand as used. This
can replace a dedicated swap partition, meaning a simpler disk config
and more free space.

And remember, this thread started with the OP asking about
partitioning layouts for Ubuntu. I advocated a single big partition
unless one has special, particular requirements. Using swap files
rather than a swap partition means that one can do away with a whole
partition, meaning the simplest possible disk config.

> Still, I bought the cheapest computer I could at a Microcenter, and it has
> two CPU cores, a 500GB hard disk and 2GB of RAM.  I gave it 8GB of swap.

That's very generous - the old default recommendation used to be
2xRAM. You have 4xRAM.

> Yes, I could use a swap file, but I am not convinced that is as fast,

There has been no performance difference since kernewl 2.4, many years ago.

References:

https://lkml.org/lkml/2006/5/29/3

https://lkml.org/lkml/2005/7/7/326

> and making sure it doesn't grow without bounds when something goes wrong is
> a concern

That's true and it is a small potential risk.


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