Have built a new kernel with tradetuxfree suggestions. Anyone want to test it out, you can find it at mepisimo


========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.mepisimo.com/antix/Testing/"
linktext was:"http://www.mepisimo.com/antix/Testing/"
====================================

Seems to be working now! __{{emoticon}}__

Thanks rust collector.

It seems to be working fine here as well.

I also uploaded the antix-snapshot-cli for this kernel

On K6-266 and 128M ram, antiX 12 Pre-final, kernel and antix-apps (daverserver) updated to Jul13/12.
Testing out zram and kernel 3.4.4-antix.2 .
With these specs it is easy to make swapping start, and see what zram is up to. Inxi tells us, smart inxi.

Re overall performance on this low cpu/ram/graphics device:
Used LOwriter to copy/paste text (I'd say OK response to add and edit text, but this isn't a multipage thesis with fancy formatting, yes Abiword is faster). Noted a slowed down response to showing eg icewm or LOwriter menu entries using mouse or keyboard; that's the low slower cpu, onboard graphics, etc in action. The large 2 Gig swap size just happened during installation, much less would be fine. Whether things seem to go faster/better/can-do-more, I cannot tell subjectively on this first sitting, but it is nice to know with some numbers.

On boot up zram did “Creating two devices “ie 2 swapspaces each of size 55648 KiB.
Am going to keep loading more applications on top of each other (though they are not actively doing much, eg web searching, playing videos, whatever, they are there).

****At startup with rox-icewm:
$ inxi -F
System: Host: antiX1 Kernel: 3.4.4-antix.2-486-smp i586 (32 bit)
Desktop: IceWM 1.3.7 Distro: antiX-full Edelweißpiraten 26 May 2012
Machine: System: IBM product: 2153E2N version: 0000000000000000
Mobo: 0000000000000000 model: 0000000000000000 version: 0000000000000000
Bios: ACER version: V3.2 V70EN1X date: 08/18/98
CPU: Single core AMD-K6 3D (-UP-) cache: 64 KB flags: (-) clocked at 266.034 MHz
Graphics: Card: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI 3D Rage Pro AGP 1X
X.Org: 1.12.1.902 drivers: ati,mach64 (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 832x624@75.0hz
GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on softpipe GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 8.0.3
Audio: Card: Ensoniq 5880B [AudioPCI] driver: snd_ens1371 Sound: ALSA ver: 1.0.25
Drives: HDD Total Size: 41.1GB (-) 1: id: /dev/sda model: Maxtor_6E040L0 size: 41.1GB
Partition: ID: / size: 36G used: 4.5G (14%) fs: ext3 ID: swap-1 size: 2.18GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap
ID: swap-2 size: 0.06GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap ID: swap-3 size: 0.06GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap
Info: Processes: 74 Uptime: 3 min Memory: 47.2/120.8MB Client: Shell inxi: 1.8.13

****Adding LibreOffice writer and roxterm:
Partition: ID: / size: 36G used: 4.5G (14%) fs: ext3 ID: swap-1 size: 2.18GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap
ID: swap-2 size: 0.06GB used: 0.01GB (10%) fs: swap ID: swap-3 size: 0.06GB used: 0.01GB (10%) fs: swap
Info: Processes: 74 Uptime: 5 min Memory: 70.2/120.8MB Client: Shell inxi: 1.8.13
*and conky shows ram 74.0M/121M -61% and swap 17.8M/2.14G -0%
---note swap-2/-3 kicked in

****Adding spacefm:
Partition: ID: / size: 36G used: 4.5G (14%) fs: ext3 ID: swap-1 size: 2.18GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap
ID: swap-2 size: 0.06GB used: 0.01GB (24%) fs: swap ID: swap-3 size: 0.06GB used: 0.01GB (24%) fs: swap
Info: Processes: 73 Uptime: 24 min Memory: 85.7/120.8MB Client: Shell inxi: 1.8.13
*conky shows ram 82 -67%, swap 26.7 -1%
---swap-2/-3 a bit more

****Adding iceweasel, which takes say 20 sec to load with this swap load:
Partition: ID: / size: 36G used: 4.5G (14%) fs: ext3 ID: swap-1 size: 2.18GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap
ID: swap-2 size: 0.06GB used: 0.03GB (61%) fs: swap ID: swap-3 size: 0.06GB used: 0.03GB (61%) fs: swap
Info: Processes: 74 Uptime: 29 min Memory: 95.9/120.8MB Client: Shell inxi: 1.8.13
*conky shows ram 93 -77%, swap 70.0 -3%
---swap-2/-3 much more again

****Adding pysolfc:
Partition: ID: / size: 36G used: 4.5G (14%) fs: ext3 ID: swap-1 size: 2.18GB used: 0.01GB (0%) fs: swap
ID: swap-2 size: 0.06GB used: 0.06GB (100%) fs: swap ID: swap-3 size: 0.06GB used: 0.06GB (100%) fs: swap
Info: Processes: 75 Uptime: 46 min Memory: 96.9/120.8MB Client: Shell inxi: 1.8.13
*conky shows ram 96.1 -79%, swap 118 -5%
---swap-2/-3 pushed to 100%
---note pysolfc, a solitaire games collection (ahem, of intellectually stimulating puzzles), can be a little bit of a “ram hog”, but here the ram hit is very little.

****Adding ControlCenter, edit config files (geany) just to look:
Partition: ID: / size: 36G used: 4.5G (14%) fs: ext3 ID: swap-1 size: 2.18GB used: 0.02GB (1%) fs: swap
ID: swap-2 size: 0.06GB used: 0.06GB (100%) fs: swap ID: swap-3 size: 0.06GB used: 0.06GB (100%) fs: swap
Info: Processes: 85 Uptime: 1:03 Memory: 97.8/120.8MB Client: Shell inxi: 1.8.13
*conky shows ram 96.1 -79%, swap 126 -5%
---swap-2/-3 still 100%
---ram usage a little more, but loading CC/geany this way took a while, say 30 secs

****Adding abiword on top of all this:
Partition: ID: / size: 36G used: 4.5G (14%) fs: ext3 ID: swap-1 size: 2.18GB used: 0.02GB (1%) fs: swap
ID: swap-2 size: 0.06GB used: 0.06GB (100%) fs: swap ID: swap-3 size: 0.06GB used: 0.06GB (100%) fs: swap
Info: Processes: 86 Uptime: 1:12 Memory: 96.8/120.8MB Client: Shell inxi: 1.8.13
*conky gives ram 95.7 -79%, swap 134 -6%
---swap-2/-3 still 100%
---note that ram use here is reported as about the same or a little less, even with the added application.

I've updated the script to work with both 3.1-3.3 & 3.4+ kernels as I am also using grsecurity with a 3.2 kernel. The revised script should also work if the module parameter for zram changes back again in a future Linux kernel.

I'm not able to update my post with the script due to the forum"/ bug".

The latest version of the script will now always be on DropBox
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://dl.dropbox.com/u/96561917/zram.zip"
linktext was:"here"
====================================

Hi,
I am running antiX M12 on a PIII Coppermine with 800Mhz and 192 MB RAM.

I just tried this one zram script and it does not work here.

Thanks for help... __{{emoticon}}__

Hi Melodie,

You are getting that error message because your kernel was not compiled with zram support. zram works with the
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://liquorix.net/"
linktext was:"Liquorix kernel"
====================================
(& should work with the current Antix Kernel if zram support is compiled into it)

Which kernel are you using ? in a terminal type: To set the % ZRAM uses create etc/default/zram & add: I have corrected the formatting of the error message & the latest version of the script will now always be on DropBox
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://dl.dropbox.com/u/96561917/zram.zip"
linktext was:"here"
====================================

Hi tradetaxfree,

The kernel is the default one in antiX M12, therefore a i486 3.5.0, with zram configured as module. (The zram debug"is not set". Does that count ?).

I can't give you outputs at the moment because I'm not on the same machine (here : $ uname -a
Linux squirrel 3.4.7-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Sun Jul 29 22:02:56 CEST 2012 x86_64 GNU/Linux ) but you can believe me on word.

I will try your new script tomorrow, thanks !

And if possible I'll bring back the outputs from the very machine.

Hi,

I installed your new zram script and with the antiX M12 default kernel it still does not work. Here is a link to pastebin with my results:

I have activated the liquorix repos and installed it's kernel. I didn' install the headers because it would have triggered the install of cpp and gcc 4.6 (the version being 4.7 in the install). I will reboot to it now and see if I can get it to work.

Hi,

With Liquorix kernel it does not work either. Here are the results:

btw, how come the new entry is not written to Grub ? I had to add an entry to the menu.lst (I used the symlinks created by post-install in the root of the system).

Hi,
I got someone to modify the script, and now it works, at least when I start it manually. At the moment I can't get it to be started at boot !

Here is the version I am using :
Maybe are you interested to look at what has been changed.

And here is the result: (I'll avoid giving the results"before" because it is full of slashes... )
Now I am seeking a way to get it to start. The symlinks have been created, they are named" S20zram" and point to their script in (path-to)init.d

Hi,

Now it starts. Maybe related to last updates ? Or not ? I have yesterday evening added"$local_fs"
here : but yesterday evening it was not yet ok. It was never started after a reboot, and I could each time start it manually (starting the init script from a root console).

Perhaps not updates helped, but rather removal of some services ? Here are packages updated and some removed: The idea to add"something" at # Required-Start: is from him,
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://captnfab.chezlefab.net"
linktext was:"http://captnfab.chezlefab.net"
====================================
, the rest of the modification which allowed me to get it started in that machine is from him:
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://code.google.com/p/mimarchlinux"
linktext was:"http://code.google.com/p/mimarchlinux"
====================================


Is this going to help other people at antiX ? I hope so.

I am very glad that for now, it works. I think it may solve another issue I met, explained here:
========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"antix.freeforu ms.org/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=3832"
linktext was:"[swap] in use while there is a large amount ram available"
====================================
because the zram block device has a much higher priority over the swap partition.

Thanks for this script ! \o/ ! __{{emoticon}}__

melodie, could you post/link to the complete running script and highlight the changes made to the original zram script in released antiX-12. I'll then upload a bug-fixed version.

Thanks.

Here is the content of the script:

and here is a diff :
In the diff,"zram-a" is the original script from tradetaxfree published here:

========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://dl.dropbox.com/u/96561917/zram.zip"
linktext was:"http://dl.dropbox.com/u/96561917/zram.zip"
====================================
and"zram-b" the newer one modified by mimas and captnfab.

Tradetaxfree, the zram script versions Jul 16/12 and Aug 9/12 refused to work for me, even though lsmod | grep zram gave message “zram 6713 1”. That's with kernel 3.5.0-antix.2-486-smp i686, on
antiX-full Edelweißpiraten 06 August 2012.
Bootup message “Your Kernel needs to be compiled with ZRAM support” and , well, failure.


News is, the modified zram script that melodie mentioned does work for me, and automatically on bootup. No need for a manual start.
Simply changed the few lines in your script with geany. Also made sure that this zram in init.d was executable (with dillo) before 'update-rc.d zram defaults'.
EDIT point: the modified script I used was the one melodie pointed to yesterday, Aug10. Haven't read thru' his newest stuff yet. Just in case there is some difference.

Bootup message in the console:
zram devices probed successfully
Setting up swapspace version 1, size = 695780 KiB
no label, UUID= (nice long number here, copied by hand)

inxi gives
Partition: ID: / size: 5.6G used: 2.8G (53%) fs: ext3
ID: swap-1 size: 0.42GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap
ID: swap-2 size: 0.71GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap