Swap-file error or computer about to explode?

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

My 'puter began freezing up every now and then. And the desktop widget showing hd use went blank. So I started up ksysguard…

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v481/Bingohanz/ksysguard-noswapuse-01.png

Yes. No use of the swap file at all. CPU and RAM near full. (That is what I’m seeing right?) When I look at the list of processes it’s just flickering like crazy, like it’s updating every other nanosecond!

Tried the 11.1 DVD auto-repair and bootloader fix but that doesn’t help. Searched the archives only to get some suggestion for bug hunting.

# swapon -s
Filename                                Type            Size    Used    Priority
/dev/sdb1                               partition       1052216 0       -1
/myswapfile                             file            524280  0       -2


 cat fstab
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Maxtor_6Y120P0_Y32PEA9E-part1     swap                 swap       defaults              0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST380215A_9QZ4WWGX-part1 /                    ext3       acl,user_xattr        1 1
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST380215A_9QZ4WWGX-part2 /home                ext3       acl,user_xattr        1 2
proc                 /proc                proc       defaults              0 0
sysfs                /sys                 sysfs      noauto                0 0
debugfs              /sys/kernel/debug    debugfs    noauto                0 0
usbfs                /proc/bus/usb        usbfs      noauto                0 0
devpts               /dev/pts             devpts     mode=0620,gid=5       0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Maxtor_6Y120P0_Y32PEA9E-part2 /maxtor120           ext3       defaults              1 2
/myswapfile          extraswap          swap       defaults           0 0

Please help - what is wrong here? I can access all files like normal, no problem. So the hard disks apparently works. Or do you think they are about to die?

#2

Argh! Also tried…

# mount
/dev/sda1 on / type ext3 (rw,acl,user_xattr)
/proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
debugfs on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,mode=0620,gid=5)
/dev/sda2 on /home type ext3 (rw,acl,user_xattr)
/dev/sdb2 on /maxtor120 type ext3 (rw)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)

…and…

# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 Gb, 80026361856 byte
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylindre of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0004c6be

    Enhed Opstart   Start         ****     Blokke   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        2611    20972826   83  Linux
/dev/sda2            2612        9661    56629125   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 122.9 Gb, 122942324736 byte
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14946 cylinders
Units = cylindre of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x21dbfd46

    Enhed Opstart   Start         ****     Blokke   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1         131     1052226   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb2             132       14946   119001487+  83  Linux

So despite my fstab looking good as far as I can tell the swap(s) won’t mount!!!

OR is my computer just crap… ksysguard and widgets unable to show the swap use for other reasons?

#3

> /dev/sdb1 1 131 1052226 82 Linux swap / Solaris
>
> So despite my fstab looking good as far as I can tell the swap(s) won’t
> mount!!!

sure, your swap is mounted…

and, you should expect swap to be heavily used, if at all…if you
have enough ram it should remain empty…

and, the ram should always be close to full too…

everything looks normal kinda…

freezing? what do you mean? does it kinda hang a second or so…and,
then go on with something?

have you disabled beagle? what do you have going on in the background?
turn off desktop effects and see if that helps…

relax.

–
platinum
Give a hacker a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach man and you feed him for a lifetime.

Note: Accuracy, completeness, legality, or usefulness of this posting
may be illusive.

#4

> and, you should expect swap to be heavily used, if at all…

sorry, inadvertently left out a word…that should read:

you should not expect swap to be heavily used, if at all…

–
platinum

#5

Thanks for answering.

The freezes were of about 5 to 15 seconds of complete inactivity. Couldn’t even move my mouse.

It appears you are right - the swap(s) start filling up only after some uptime and simultaneously using several programs. I wasn’t aware of this and didn’t cancel my panic after fixing the fstab file even though I hadn’t had any freezes yet.

Still can’t see the list of processes though. Got any idea why?

#6

Which process list? Try ‘top’ in a terminal

#7

> Still can’t see the list of processes though. Got any idea why?

in a terminal, try

ps -eF | less

see, man ps

–
platinum
Give a hacker a fish and you feed him for a day.
Teach man and you feed him for a lifetime.