[SOLVED] creating swap after the installation

[TOTAL]

Hi
I am on thinkpad x200 with MX19, 4gb ram, 64 bit.
I did not set up the swap partition at the time of installation. To get a swap partition now, here is what I have done:
in gparted, I created 8mb partition, swap one, right click, swapon.
restarted

The swap partition does not appear to have started working, though - see attached picture, although chrome has claimed all ram less 100MB, and I am getting freezes.

can you please help?

[TOTAL]

Here is system data

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NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0 256.2G  0 disk 
├─sda1   8:1    0   500M  0 part 
├─sda2   8:2    0 148.4G  0 part /media/sda2
├─sda3   8:3    0   512B  0 part 
├─sda4   8:4    0  39.9G  0 part /
├─sda5   8:5    0  59.6G  0 part /media/sda5
└─sda6   8:6    0   7.8G  0 part [SWAP]

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[code]
System:    Host: TOTAL Kernel: 4.19.0-6-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 8.3.0 
           parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.19.0-6-amd64 
           root=UUID=b033579d-3d5b-4d63-832a-7373259139be ro splash resume = /dev/sd6 quiet 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.14.1 tk: Gtk 3.24.5 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm4 dm: LightDM 1.26.0 
           Distro: MX-19_x64 patito feo October 21  2019 base: Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster) 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 7459H73 v: ThinkPad X200 serial: <filter> 
           Chassis: type: 10 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: LENOVO model: 7459H73 serial: <filter> BIOS: LENOVO v: 6DET72WW (3.22 ) 
           date: 10/25/2012 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 0 Wh condition: 42.5/84.2 Wh (50%) volts: 10.7/10.8 
           model: Panasonic 42T4650 type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Charging 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core2 Duo P8600 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Penryn 
           family: 6 model-id: 17 (23) stepping: A (10) microcode: A0C L2 cache: 3072 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 9576 
           Speed: 2284 MHz min/max: 800/2401 MHz boost: enabled Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2394 
           2: 2458 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: Vulnerable 
           Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion 
           Type: mds status: Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode; SMT disabled 
           Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
           Type: spec_store_bypass status: Vulnerable 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, STIBP: disabled, RSB filling 
           Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel Mobile 4 Series Integrated Graphics vendor: Lenovo driver: i915 
           v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:2a42 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: intel resolution: 1280x800~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Mobile Intel GM45 Express v: 2.1 Mesa 18.3.6 
           direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 82801I HD Audio vendor: Lenovo driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
           bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:293e 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.19.0-6-amd64 
Network:   Device-1: Intel 82567LM Gigabit Network vendor: Lenovo driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k 
           port: 1840 bus ID: 00:19.0 chip ID: 8086:10f5 
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Intel Ultimate N WiFi Link 5300 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: 1c60 
           bus ID: 03:00.0 chip ID: 8086:4236 
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 256.17 GiB used: 133.36 GiB (52.1%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Crucial model: CT275MX300SSD1 size: 256.17 GiB block size: 
           physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> rev: R031 scheme: MBR 
Partition: ID-1: / raw size: 39.87 GiB size: 38.99 GiB (97.80%) used: 19.16 GiB (49.1%) fs: ext4 
           dev: /dev/sda4 
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 7.82 GiB used: 512 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap swappiness: 15 (default 60) 
           cache pressure: 100 (default) dev: /dev/sda6 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 72.0 C mobo: 70.0 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): fan-1: 4348 
Repos:     Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           1: deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian buster-backports main
           2: deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian stretch-backports-sloppy main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/antix.list 
           1: deb https://mirrors.evowise.com/mxlinux-packages/antix/buster/ buster main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/atom.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] https://packagecloud.io/AtomEditor/atom/any/ any main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security buster/updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/megasync.list 
           1: deb https://mega.nz/linux/MEGAsync/Debian_10.0/ ./
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb https://mirrors.evowise.com/mxlinux-packages/mx/repo/ buster main non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opera-stable.list 
           1: deb https://deb.opera.com/opera-stable/ stable non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/skype-stable.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.skype.com/deb stable main
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list 
Info:      Processes: 226 Uptime: 7m Memory: 3.75 GiB used: 2.61 GiB (69.6%) Init: SysVinit 
           v: 2.93 runlevel: 5 default: 5 Compilers: gcc: 8.3.0 alt: 8 Shell: bash v: 5.0.3 
           running in: quick-system-in inxi: 3.0.36 

[/code]

[BitJam]

Did you add the swap partition to your fstab file?

We can do this for you with the following command:

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sudo make-fstab --swap-only
sudo swapon -a
free -m

The first line should add the swap partition to your fstab file. The second line enables swap. The third line will verify that swap has been enabled. It should then get enabled automatically when you boot.

HTH

[TOTAL]

It worked, thank you BitJam. The utilisation is small - a dozen percent at most even at 90% of memory usage, but I am assuming this is correct.

[BitJam]

If there is a Swap: line in the "free -m" output then that means swap is enabled.

You can adjust when swap kicks in with the swappiness system parameter. It's value represents the percent of free memory before swap kicks in. If you want to to swap sooner then make that number bigger so it kicks in when there is a greater percentage of free memory (sorry if that doesn't make sense). TL;DR: a bigger number means more and sooner swaping.

You can see the current value with:

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sudo sysctl vm.swappiness

You can change the current value to 20 with:

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sudo sysctl -w vm.swappiness=20

You can change the value for future boots by editing the file /etc/sysctl.d/99-swappiness_mx.conf.

[TOTAL]

Makes perfect sense, thank you.

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$ free -m
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           3842        1774         624         226        1443        1609
Swap:          8002           0        8002

swap is on

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$ sudo sysctl vm.swappiness
[sudo] password for TOTAL: 
vm.swappiness = 15

$ sudo sysctl -w vm.swappiness=20
vm.swappiness = 20

Great, I will check the system at 20 and make it permanent if all is fine. Thank you BitJam.