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Date:      Tue, 08 Nov 2022 11:26:51 -0600
From:      Mike Karels <mike@karels.net>
To:        Ronald Klop <ronald-lists@klop.ws>
Cc:        jmg@freebsd.org, freebsd-arm@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: adding swap when expanding root filesystem
Message-ID:  <7DAEBB8E-6B50-453F-B858-5354FA19DE47@karels.net>
In-Reply-To: <95847460.127804.1667908570062@localhost>
References:  <202211071610.2A7GAcHl090048@mail.karels.net> <95847460.127804.1667908570062@localhost>

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On 8 Nov 2022, at 5:56, Ronald Klop wrote:

> Van: Mike Karels <mike@karels.net>
> Datum: maandag, 7 november 2022 17:10
> Aan: freebsd-arm@freebsd.org
> CC: jmg@freebsd.org
> Onderwerp: adding swap when expanding root filesystem
>>
>> This question is not really arm-specific, but I couldn't think of a be=
tter
>> mailing list for it.
>>
>> There are peridic issues reported on small systems like Raspberry Pi
>> where people are running buildworld or poudriere and running out of
>> memory.  As the user gets no control over the disk layout when install=
ing,
>> there is no option to add swap space on the install image.  I have add=
ed
>> swap space on a USB disk, but this is often not an option.  It occurre=
d
>> to me that it might be reasonable to add swap space before expanding
>> the root filesystem if there is sufficient space.  I have a prototype,
>> and wondered if this is a good thing to do.  Granted, this will often
>> create swap on microSD, which is not optimal, but probably better than
>> nothing.
>>
>> The current prototype creates a swap partition which is 1/10 of the di=
sk
>> if the disk is at least 15 GB and the initial root partition is no mor=
e
>> than 1/3 of the disk, but only up to 1.5x of physical memory.  I would
>> probably enable this by default, but provide a way to disable it via a
>> kenv variable and/or a variable in /etc/rc.conf.
>>
>> Thoughts?
>>
>>         Mike
>>
>
>
> Hi,
>
> Would you mind sharing your prototype?

I=E2=80=99ll send you a pointer.  If anyone else wants to check it out, l=
et
me know.  It is full of debug prints still, and missing some required
changes.  It is somewhat tested with MBR, not with GPT.  If anyone
has a setup to test with GPT, I=E2=80=99d be grateful.  I haven=E2=80=99t=
 tested
with ZFS either, although that part shouldn=E2=80=99t require changes.

Responding to some earlier comments:

- The current limit on swap partition size is 1.5x physmem, as mentioned.
I am considering raising it, but I don=E2=80=99t think I want to go beyon=
d 2x.

- I am considering whether to allow the size to be overridden from kenv
and maybe /etc/rc.conf, including a value to disable.  Right now it is
possible to disable via kenv (untested).

- I agree that not everyone needs swap space; that=E2=80=99s true of =E2=80=
=9Cnormal=E2=80=9D
installs too, which pick a default but allow override with manual
partitioning.  My hope is that it=E2=80=99s a small enough amount that th=
e
default size isn=E2=80=99t too large a drop in root capacity.

		Mike

> Regards,
> Ronald.



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