Jan 07, 2017 Is it time to swap your Mac for a Windows laptop? Over a decade ago Alex Hern switched from PC to Mac and never looked back. But the new MacBook. A complete reinstall of your Mac’s operating system should be a last resort to fix WiFi problems. Usually, it can be solved without going to such extremes. Usually WiFi connectivity problems on Mac are technical or software related rather than hardware issues.
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Unlike the software developed for Windows system, most of the applications installed in Mac OS X generally can be removed with relative ease. Swap Relocator 1.1.2 is a third party application that provides additional functionality to OS X system and enjoys a popularity among Mac users. However, instead of installing it by dragging its icon to the Application folder, uninstalling Swap Relocator 1.1.2 may need you to do more than a simple drag-and-drop to the Trash.
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When installed, Swap Relocator 1.1.2 creates files in several locations. Generally, its additional files, such as preference files and application support files, still remains on the hard drive after you delete Swap Relocator 1.1.2 from the Application folder, in case that the next time you decide to reinstall it, the settings of this program still be kept. But if you are trying to uninstall Swap Relocator 1.1.2 in full and free up your disk space, removing all its components is highly necessary. Continue reading this article to learn about the proper methods for uninstalling Swap Relocator 1.1.2.
Manually uninstall Swap Relocator 1.1.2 step by step:
Most applications in Mac OS X are bundles that contain all, or at least most, of the files needed to run the application, that is to say, they are self-contained. Thus, different from the program uninstall method of using the control panel in Windows, Mac users can easily drag any unwanted application to the Trash and then the removal process is started. Despite that, you should also be aware that removing an unbundled application by moving it into the Trash leave behind some of its components on your Mac. To fully get rid of Swap Relocator 1.1.2 from your Mac, you can manually follow these steps:
1. Terminate Swap Relocator 1.1.2 process(es) via Activity Monitor
Before uninstalling Swap Relocator 1.1.2, you’d better quit this application and end all its processes. If Swap Relocator 1.1.2 is frozen, you can press Cmd +Opt + Esc, select Swap Relocator 1.1.2 in the pop-up windows and click Force Quit to quit this program (this shortcut for force quit works for the application that appears but not for its hidden processes).
Open Activity Monitor in the Utilities folder in Launchpad, and select All Processes on the drop-down menu at the top of the window. Select the process(es) associated with Swap Relocator 1.1.2 in the list, click Quit Process icon in the left corner of the window, and click Quit in the pop-up dialog box (if that doesn’t work, then try Force Quit).
2. Delete Swap Relocator 1.1.2 application using the Trash
First of all, make sure to log into your Mac with an administrator account, or you will be asked for a password when you try to delete something.
Open the Applications folder in the Finder (if it doesn’t appear in the sidebar, go to the Menu Bar, open the “Go” menu, and select Applications in the list), search for Swap Relocator 1.1.2 application by typing its name in the search field, and then drag it to the Trash (in the dock) to begin the uninstall process. Alternatively you can also click on the Swap Relocator 1.1.2 icon/folder and move it to the Trash by pressing Cmd + Del or choosing the File and Move to Trash commands.
For the applications that are installed from the App Store, you can simply go to the Launchpad, search for the application, click and hold its icon with your mouse button (or hold down the Option key), then the icon will wiggle and show the “X” in its left upper corner. Click the “X” and click Delete in the confirmation dialog.
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3. Remove all components related to Swap Relocator 1.1.2 in Finder
Though Swap Relocator 1.1.2 has been deleted to the Trash, its lingering files, logs, caches and other miscellaneous contents may stay on the hard disk. For complete removal of Swap Relocator 1.1.2, you can manually detect and clean out all components associated with this application. You can search for the relevant names using Spotlight. Those preference files of Swap Relocator 1.1.2 can be found in the Preferences folder within your user’s library folder (~/Library/Preferences) or the system-wide Library located at the root of the system volume (/Library/Preferences/), while the support files are located in '~/Library/Application Support/' or '/Library/Application Support/'.
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Open the Finder, go to the Menu Bar, open the “Go” menu, select the entry:|Go to Folder... and then enter the path of the Application Support folder:~/Library
Search for any files or folders with the program’s name or developer’s name in the ~/Library/Preferences/, ~/Library/Application Support/ and ~/Library/Caches/ folders. Right click on those items and click Move to Trash to delete them.
Meanwhile, search for the following locations to delete associated items:
Besides, there may be some kernel extensions or hidden files that are not obvious to find. In that case, you can do a Google search about the components for Swap Relocator 1.1.2. Usually kernel extensions are located in in /System/Library/Extensions and end with the extension .kext, while hidden files are mostly located in your home folder. You can use Terminal (inside Applications/Utilities) to list the contents of the directory in question and delete the offending item.
4. Empty the Trash to fully remove Swap Relocator 1.1.2
If you are determined to delete Swap Relocator 1.1.2 permanently, the last thing you need to do is emptying the Trash. To completely empty your trash can, you can right click on the Trash in the dock and choose Empty Trash, or simply choose Empty Trash under the Finder menu (Notice: you can not undo this act, so make sure that you haven’t mistakenly deleted anything before doing this act. If you change your mind, before emptying the Trash, you can right click on the items in the Trash and choose Put Back in the list). In case you cannot empty the Trash, reboot your Mac.
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Tips for the app with default uninstall utility:
You may not notice that, there are a few of Mac applications that come with dedicated uninstallation programs. Though the method mentioned above can solve the most app uninstall problems, you can still go for its installation disk or the application folder or package to check if the app has its own uninstaller first. If so, just run such an app and follow the prompts to uninstall properly. After that, search for related files to make sure if the app and its additional files are fully deleted from your Mac.
Automatically uninstall Swap Relocator 1.1.2 with MacRemover (recommended):
No doubt that uninstalling programs in Mac system has been much simpler than in Windows system. But it still may seem a little tedious and time-consuming for those OS X beginners to manually remove Swap Relocator 1.1.2 and totally clean out all its remnants. Why not try an easier and faster way to thoroughly remove it?
If you intend to save your time and energy in uninstalling Swap Relocator 1.1.2, or you encounter some specific problems in deleting it to the Trash, or even you are not sure which files or folders belong to Swap Relocator 1.1.2, you can turn to a professional third-party uninstaller to resolve troubles. Here MacRemover is recommended for you to accomplish Swap Relocator 1.1.2 uninstall within three simple steps. MacRemover is a lite but powerful uninstaller utility that helps you thoroughly remove unwanted, corrupted or incompatible apps from your Mac. Now let’s see how it works to complete Swap Relocator 1.1.2 removal task.
1. Download MacRemover and install it by dragging its icon to the application folder.2. Launch MacRemover in the dock or Launchpad, select Swap Relocator 1.1.2 appearing on the interface, and click Run Analysis button to proceed.3. Review Swap Relocator 1.1.2 files or folders, click Complete Uninstall button and then click Yes in the pup-up dialog box to confirm Swap Relocator 1.1.2 removal.
The whole uninstall process may takes even less than one minute to finish, and then all items associated with Swap Relocator 1.1.2 has been successfully removed from your Mac!
Benefits of using MacRemover:
MacRemover has a friendly and simply interface and even the first-time users can easily operate any unwanted program uninstallation. With its unique Smart Analytic System, MacRemover is capable of quickly locating every associated components of Swap Relocator 1.1.2 and safely deleting them within a few clicks. Thoroughly uninstalling Swap Relocator 1.1.2 from your mac with MacRemover becomes incredibly straightforward and speedy, right? You don’t need to check the Library or manually remove its additional files. Actually, all you need to do is a select-and-delete move. As MacRemover comes in handy to all those who want to get rid of any unwanted programs without any hassle, you’re welcome to download it and enjoy the excellent user experience right now!
This article provides you two methods (both manually and automatically) to properly and quickly uninstall Swap Relocator 1.1.2, and either of them works for most of the apps on your Mac. If you confront any difficulty in uninstalling any unwanted application/software, don’t hesitate to apply this automatic tool and resolve your troubles.
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I looked at the Swap Cop perl script and StartupItems. Interestingly, the author suggested his implementation as a change to Darwin's core, but it never was considered. The discussion of this can be found at the following URL:Cop overrides the /etc/rc method entirely, but it MAY NOT WORK if your selected Swap volume isn't properly mounted.AND after the above referenced discussion, the AUTHOR NO LONGER SUPPORTS SWAP COP!!!This has danger written all over it!! Sure it may work in situation-normal, but in stress testing. Well go ahead and live dangerously!!-Pie.
SwapCop does.NOT. work past OS X 10.1.x!!!If you think you have SwapCop working in Jaguar or Panther, open Terminal and type:codeps -auxww grep dynamicpager/codeIt should return the PID and swapfile path; if it reads '/private/var/vm', then swap is set to the default. If it returns '/Volumes/yourSwapDrivename/private/var/vm' then SwapCop, by some miracle, is working.If you get no return on your 'ps -auxww', your dynamic pager (i.e., your ability to swap) has crashed, possibly due to an outdated version of Memory Meters. Restart to correct.FWIW, rumor has it that the source code for SwapCop is going to merge with SwapSwapVM, the latter of which the developer states is in final testing for public release 'very soon'. If that's your output from Panther, then I would have to suggest you have some other mods going on; J. Schrier himself will tell you that SwapCop 1.1.2 will not function due to a change in load order of Startup Items versus RC code.
If it's working, I'd guess it's because someone commented out the dynamic pager line in /etc/rc, or, you've still got your /etc/rc file from Jaguar.I've just retested installing SwapCop under a virgin Panther, logged in as root, and it does not function. How did you get yours to work?If you don't mind, how about posting the entire text of your /etc/rc file?. As I sed I (and others, people I know that is) have used SwapCop to successfully relocate swap file in 10.1, 10.2 and 10.3. Period.You claim that the way this is achieved by SwapCop is the wrong way. Maybe.The naked evidence is that SwapCop works fine when you use it to relocate the swap files to the first logical partition of a clean 10.1, 10.2 and 10.3 installation.I have no clue why is not working in your hands Federico.I will post my /etc/rc asap.In any event, there is no real risk in using SwapCop: should anythink go wrong (it never did in my hands) boot in single user mode, mount / read-write, and mv /etc/hostconfig.backup.swapcop and /etc/rc.backup.swapcop to /etc/hostconfig and /etc/rc, respectively.Easy, isn't it;-).
I never meant to imply that using SwapCop was at all dangerous - not sure where you read that into my statements - indeed, SwapCop was not only a simple, elegant, easy to use solution in Jaguar, but Joshua Schrier and Scott Boone had the intelligence and foresight to allow SwapCop to fail gracefully in the event that the OS or /etc/rc file were to change in future. For most people under Panther, this is the case.I'm also sensing some animosity towards me, or a sense that I am expressing animosity towards you; I assure you that I am only trying to explore this issue for the benefit of all. If I have somehow offended you, I'm sincerely sorry for having done so.RegardsFrederico. For the sake of completeness, this is /etc/hostconfig (the second file that SwapCop modifies in your system):### /etc/hostconfig### This file is maintained by the system control panels### Network configurationHOSTNAME=-AUTOMATIC-ROUTER=-AUTOMATIC-# ServicesAFPSERVER=-NO-AUTHSERVER=-NO-AUTOMOUNT=-YES-CUPS=-YES-IPFORWARDING=-NO-IPV6=-YES-MAILSERVER=-AUTOMATIC-NETINFOSERVER=-AUTOMATIC-NFSLOCKS=-AUTOMATIC-NISDOMAIN=-NO-RPCSERVER=-AUTOMATIC-TIMESYNC=-NO-QTSSERVER=-NO-WEBSERVER=-NO-SMBSERVER=-NO-DNSSERVER=-NO-COREDUMPS=-NO-VPNSERVER=-NO-VIRTUALMEMORY='/Volumes/Swap/.vm'CRASHREPORTER=-YES-.
Actually you don't need to modify /etc/rc nearly as much on Panther, since it already contains the followin line (which will also check volumes in case of a force reboot) mount -vat hfsthe -a flag mounts any filesystems in /etc/fstab referenced via /dev/disk. directly, i.e. Put the following in /etc/fstab: /dev/disk0s7 /Volumes/Swap hfs rw 1 2and make sure /Volumes/Swap exists (BTW, it doesn't matter if a directory used as a mountpoint contains anything, no need to remove it).the newer reference forms LABEL= and UUID= in /etc/fstab are only understood by autodiskmount which I have been unable to get to run in /etc/rc in Panther (used to work in Jaguar).With this, the only changes necessary in /etc/rc are then to swapdir and appprofiledir as above. I will check both of these methods and update accordingly. But let me throw out a few comments first.
My purpose is to welcome discussion here, not to be critical. BTW, it doesn't matter if a directory used as a mountpoint contains anything, no need to remove it.The reason for the removal is not for a.correctly. mounted Swap volume.
If your Swap FAILS to mount, the vm system will create a swap directory in '/Volumes/Swap' but this will be on your root volume. Then when the Swap Volume.does. mount, it will mount as '/Volumes/Swap 1'. This means your Swap is mounted in the wrong place, and the swap files.still. go on your root volume (now into a directory named '/Volumes/Swap')!
Since that directory exists between reboots, your swap volume will NEVER mount on '/Volumes/Swap' and your vm files will NEVER go onto the separate volume! Ack!So the removal code occurs to fix a (possible) previous failure.See, the trick is not to get this to work when all things are happy and normal. It's to cover your OSes ass! That's why the removal occurs, and so on.Without checking. (that's a caveat), this is why I believe Swap Cop will not work either. Yeah, in situation normal.
But what if you force reboot? Or what if your Swap Volume gets corrupted? Maybe it does work, but, again, I am suspect. For the plain and simple fact that most early Swap-moving implementations in Jaguar didn't work when stress tested as well. (And c'mon, we all have to force reboot sometime or another. And it's unacceptable for this to permanently disable your swap move!)I will check Swap Cop though to see what it does. I will also try the different mount syntax.
I'm all for simplicity, and I would have definitely preferred a.smaller. solution. But I think the mount syntax change will only be a. Mount syntax change! I am dubious on it actually helping. But we'll see.BTW. Feel free to comment on what I've said.
If this leads to a better solution, that would rock!What I'm saying here may be scaring some people away at this point. So let me say this: I have thoroughly tested this solutuon. I even destroyed my Swap volume (accidentally), and this method was STILL able to recover and get my swap running on it without any intervention on my part.So I am.very. confident of its stability, otherwise I would not have posted it!-Pie. Pie, my purpose is to welcome discussion here, not to be critical. Sure, no prob The reason for the removal is not for a.correctly. mounted Swap volume.
If your Swap FAILS to mount, the vm system will create a swap directory in '/Volumes/Swap' but this will be on your root volume. Then when the Swap Volume.does. mount, it will mount as '/Volumes/Swap 1'. I do understand this and know the problem from Jaguar but I don't believe this can occur anymore in Panther with my setup above, a mount as /Volumes/Swap 1 can only occur if mount -vat hfs fails but autodiskmount -va later on (in StartupItems) is successful at mounting the volume. This sort of thing used to happen on 10.1/10.2 but with better support for fstab on Panther it doesn't seem to happen anymore as far as I've seen, but further testing would cetainly be useful to confirm this.See, the trick is not to get this to work when all things are happy and normal.
To get autodiskmount to work in Panther, you need to sleep after the call. IE/sbin/autodiskmount -dsleep 1In Panther, a lot of stuff in the /etc/rc script runs in parallel. The /etc/rc script executes it, but does not wait for it to return before going on to the next step. Doing the sleep ensures that autodiskmount completes before the /etc/rc script gets too far afield.Note that my original version of this hint used autodiskmount rather than mounthfs. But once my swap overflowed the partition (ooh bad!), that method never worked again without intervention on my part.
And was flakey from then on.I still overflowed my swap after implementing the mounthfs method, and much to my surprise it did recover. Without any intervention on my part. And still works!So I do not recommend using autodiskmount in Panther's /etc/rc script! And I say this as one of the original people who suggested it for use in Jaguar, so I'm not making this statement lightly.-Pie. I do understand this and know the problem from Jaguar but I don't believe this can occur anymore in Panther with my setup above, a mount as /Volumes/Swap 1 can only occur if mount -vat hfs fails but autodiskmount -va later on (in StartupItems) is successful at mounting the volume.Yeah I'm pretty sure you're right here.
(I don't have my 10.3 computer because it's getting fixed so I can't check this directly.) But this leads to the nagging question: what happens if the directory at your mount point exists, and has stuff in it? Will the 'mount -vat hfs' work? With other UNIX variants, mount DOES, but it hides what's there already. That means if you have existing swap files at in the '/Volumes/Swap'.directory. on your root partition, they get hidden by the new '/Volumes/Swap'.Volume. being mounted there.
This makes the files in the directory you've mounted over inaccessible, and you can't delete them. So you've got at least 64MB (1 swap file) of wasted disk space on your root that you can never axe.That's what I.think. might happen, anyway! Like I said, I can't test to see.
But.if. this is the case, it still makes the delete section of the rc script necessary.Okay moving on.
The existing, early mount -vat hfs in /etc/rc has no effect with fstab formatted as in your original hint, whereas it does indeed cause the mount and disk check if explicit /dev/disk. is used. That's what makes all the difference and makes your use of mounthfs unnecessary.You're right here. With one little correction. The mount call does not cause the disk check (fsck) to occur.
Moreso, if fsck hasn't occured, mount will fail! The /etc/fstab entry - either of ours - causes an fsck to occur, but it happens in the '/etc/rc.boot' file.
The root file system gets checked by default (if necessary) in '/etc/rc.boot'.and. any filesystem specified in /etc/fstab. I'm betting this also happened in your testing as well. Then, when you hit the 'mount -vat hfs' the fsck has been done, and all is well, so the mount occurs. If the fsck had.not. been done, the mount would have actually failed (with journaling off anyway).And you are also right about my entry for /etc/fstab not working with mount -vat hfs. But, ironically enough, I don't want it to!!!Let's look at when a.populated.
'/Volumes/Swap'.directory. exists - for example, in case a previous boot's mount failed. And my swap overflow issue does cause it to fail! Here, I want to delete all the unneccessary system-created garbage in that directory, and do so at boot time. Before I mount my.real. Swap volume. I don't care wheether the existing '/Volumes/Swap' is a directory that blocks a mount, or simply contains files that get hidden by the 'real' Swap volume once it's mount.
In either case, I need to delete that bogus '/Volumes/Swap' directory.In order for me to do so, the.real. '/Volumes/Swap'.Volume. can NOT be mounted (it's hiding those big 'ol swap files that we never use). That's why I added the umount call in my /etc/rc script - just for this contingency. But it'd be better (performance-wise) if the volume wasn't mounted at all.
That way it doesn't have to be unmounted! (Though the performance hit of mount/unmount/mount is probably negligable during the Panther boot process.) Anyway, that's why I don't care if the mount -vat hfs works: I.always. unmount later so I can get to any extant garbage lying around. And then do the.real. mount afterward so VM works all fine and dandy.Well, I hope I my explanation made sense. It.is. getting late.
I still am loathe to excise the code that deletes old '/Volumes/Swap' garbage, even if your code works as advertised. There's a perfect world, then there's Panther. Or any other OS for that matter. And when I code, I just like to make sure I've covered all the bases.-Pie.
But this leads to the nagging question: what happens if the directory at your mount point exists, and has stuff in it? Will the 'mount -vat hfs' work? Yes it does; as you mention, it indeed just hides the contents of the directory. If you also want to see the contents of the dir underlying the mountpoint, use a union mount, c.f. Man fstabSo you've got at least 64MB (1 swap file) of wasted disk space on your root that you can never axe. But as long as /Volumes/Swap is empty before you install your changes to /etc/fstab this will never become a problem.
It is sounding like both methods do the job, and do it right. I will give yours a shot when I get my computer back from Apple (soon. Please!!!)But in the mean time.That's what I though too, and what the fsck manpage leads one to believe; unfortunately it's not the case, fsck still ignores /etc/fstab on Panther:-( (it only uses netinfo which is not running yet in /etc/rc.boot of course).I had not seen the effects of this because the filesystem referenced in my /etc/fstab was journaled, where it doesn't matter that fsck has not been run, as it always mounts cleanly.Hmm. But as I mentioned, I am not using journaling. And the fsck is most definitely getting done.
Nothing I tried re-mounted the Swap partition after a forced reboot. It was only after I checked the /etc/rc.boot and added the /etc/fstab entry that it worked.I do know that adding an /etc/fstab entry in Jaguar didn't work.
Though what version of Jaguar, I can't remember (all probably!). But in Panther, the entry is causing the fsck to get done, and it's behaving during boot exactly as expected.-Pie. The overall disadvantage of your method is that you have to put explicit /dev/disk. values into /etc/rc; whereas with my method, the unique place the Swap partition is referenced by device name is in /etc/fstab.
This simplifies maintenance.Agreed! I would be happy for a simpler method. Though even with your given arguments, I am still loate to eliminate the code the extricates errant swap files on the root volume.That said, can you please post a full explanation of your solution. IE, what files to change, and exactly how. I have a good idea from your posts already, but something explicit would be handy.TIA!-Pie. The current version of Xupport (beta5?) MAY NOT WORK if you force reboot. I contacted the author about this but received no response.The method he is using is for Jaguar, and his Panther fix is to simply sleep 5 seconds after calling autodiskmount.
Problem one is that this slows your reboot process. Problem two is that 5 seconds is arbitrary and simply may not work: if your Swap is larger than a certain size, autodiskmount will take longer than 5 seconds to fsck the partition.
And thus it won't mount, and your screwed. (Well, until you fix it yourself.)YMMV indeed!-Pie.
If you do move your swap to a new partition with Panther, you must make sure that partition is large enough to not overflow.I tested with a 5GB partition and 1GB RAM. This partition size will always (eventually) overflow, causing random application crashing.After thorough monitoring of Panther's VM, I believe you need at least 8GB, with 10GB or larger being an even safer bet.This varies with the number of applications you run, but in my testing I ran just enough to fill my 1GB RAM. Here is the list of applications I started:FinderClassicTerminalSafariX11iTunesiPhoto (w/1200 photos)SherlockEudora 6ircle 3.1f2FirePhotoshopGraphic ConverterActivity MonitorUsing Activity Monitor, it shows my RAM as almost full, and 6.3GB of VM allocated. But this is without doing any real work in these applications. I just started them until my RAM filled.
Once I begin working with these apps, my VM will need room to grow.-Pie. I would like to try this solution, having had problems both with SwapCop (leftover from Jaguar days) and with Xupport (which as mentioned fails after a hard reboot). However I have two concerns.1) I have no fstab file in the /etc/ dir.
I do have a fstab.hd file which is essentially blank. I assume that it would be okay to create the fstab file - with root permissions, but want to make sure before I do this.2) I do not have a dedicated swap partition, but would like to move the swap files over to a much larger (and more accommodating) partition.
In the code that is placed in the rc file, it appears that with a hard reboot the script would erase the partition volume entirely. Is this correct? Would it be possible to modify this so that it simply removes the old vm files?Thanks for your help.
I have no fstab, but I do have fstab.hd which has this non-commented text in about the file:IGNORE THIS FILE.This file does nothing, contains no useful data, and might go away infuture releases. Do not depend on this file or its contents.I tried creating an fstab and my machine wouldn't boot. I didn't even get to the gray screen, just a couple of lines of text which I will remember to write down next time I see them. Didn't get far enough to write errors to the log either, so I'm guessing that it was the presence of fstab rather than the change to rc.
Given that, it would be useful if someone could post a copy of their fstab. I know it's supposed to be all commented, but maybe it has a shebang at the top.I booted off a backup and checked the alterations I'd made to fstab and rc but they were all fine. So for the moment I've reverted to the old rc and deleted fstab.When I get a chance I might try the same thing with fstab.hd, and am also trying to figure out why I have no fstab. My Panther is an upgrade install on top of 10.2.8.
I have a colleague who did a clean install and does have fstab so maybe that's the difference - Anyone confirm that?Also does anyone know if this Jaguar hint for creating an fstab and adding it to netinfo still works in Panther?. I just added the following line to my fstab. In Panther, this seems to be sufficient to put my swap on a separate partition without any other modifications. I create a partition that I intend to use only for swap.
/etc/fstab:UUID=8AE855ADC404CC8D/private/var/vm hfsrw1 2I used the hints elsewhere to discover the UUID that Disk Utility assigns to partitions and use the UUID so that I can name my partition.Swap, which will cause it not to be visible in the Finder. By mounting the volume where the default swap directory is, I don't have to munge /etc/rc.NOTE: I have not tested this in Jaguar, previous attempts in Jaguar using LABEL= did not work. I believe that Panther fixes some issues with mount that caused the line in /etc/rc that tries to mount all the disks in fstab to fail in Jaguar.Having a separate swap partition may be less of an issue these days as there does seem to be a mechanism that prevents you from filling your drive with swap files. In Jaguar when this happened, open Apps, such as Mail, would not be able to write their prefs out because they would get a 'disk full' error. Panther seems to warn you to quit some apps before you get to this state.
I made a few modifications, namely:Moved the swap location to a bigger partition (not a dedicated partition), named 'aaa'instead of rm /Volumes/aaa if found! (Yes, scarry eventhough logically correct), I used: mv /Volumes/aaa /aaainstead of using label in the fstab, I used the uuid codeI have used this with much success until 2 days ago. I seem to get the crash screen at start up very regularly now. Disk Warrior fixed some rather minor errors, and one 'overlapped extent allocation' (safari related). Using my backup rc file seems to always solve it.
I wonder if any one else is experiencing the same.While on the swap file issue, after each fix, my system seem to boot up without using any swap file. Somehow it feels the same. I wonder if there is going to be problem if I stop the dynamic pager from loading and skip the swap file for a while at least while I am trying to solve this crash issue.I have a 10 gig hard disk and regularly I would max it while working. I usually have to restart every 5 hours or so to get rid of the growing swap files.
I would really like to have a dedicated swap partition, at least it would stop it from growing, no? I have 512mb of ram, and a slowish G4 400mhz Ti BookThanks in advance. This hint is fairly but not completely robust, and works in 10.3.
It makes several essential observations: the use of fstab, the use of umount and mounthfs, and the importance of examining the behavior during forced reboots.I would gently critique this hint as follows:1. As noted in earlier comments, '/dev/disk0s14' is a better syntax than 'LABEL=Swap' for the fstab entry, because the swap partition will then usually mount in time without help, saving the time spent on every boot waiting for mounthfs. The umount and mounthfs should be tried conditionally.2. Even after all the measures taken in this hint, the swap partition can in rare instances fail to mount. One experiences this regularly while experimenting, because experiments can throw the system seriously out of whack.
However, it is wrong to assume that this can't also happen for unknown reasons. Relocating the swapfile should be done conditionally, only if the swap partition successfully mounts. The only reason for the code to remove swap directories is to clean up after botched attempts to move the swapfile. Instead, never make botched attempts, and remove the obsolete swap files from /private/var/vm, as rc also does before modification.3. There is no need to actually replace lines in /etc/rc. Redefining swapdir after the original definition has the same effect, and one can then revert by simply deleting clearly labeled insertions.4. Anyone who needs a lesson in order to use a command line editor would be far better off downloading the demo or pay version of BBEdit, choosing Open Hidden.
From its File menu, showing All Files, and editing in a familiar manner.5. The fstab one-liner in the comments to instead mount the swap partition at /private/var/vm is very clever. However, this may only work if one substitutes the '/dev/disk0s14' syntax, and it does not work after forced reboots.6. The single sentence take-away message from this hint is 'Does your swapfile strategy work after forced reboots?' , yet most comments ignore this question. Various authors then diplomatically ask followup questions, gently trying to get others to address this issue, and then slip away in frustration when they fail to get their message across. There remains no credible evidence that any off-the-shelf program moves the swapfile as robustly as a carefully custom-crafted hack.
If someone wants to counter this assertion, they should explicitly describe the tests that they have carried out, knowing that others are examining their choice of words to assess their understanding, like an orals committee in grad school. Simply asking to have one's word believed won't convince anyone, given the poor signal-to-noise ratio on the internet.I welcome a similar critique of the advice offered in my tutorial, which documents what I was able to confirm by experiment after reading this and other web pages, having moving my swapfile in each release of OS X. There, I offer code that I believe to be more robust. Wow this thread has really grown!I can't comment on any real-world metrics beyond the 1GB RAM range (I really wish I could afford to!!).
However, given my experience in Panther with swap, I would say you want 10GB swap per 1GB RAM. But I can't say for sure.!I do, however want to comment on this. Then I read that with enough ram, swapfiles don't get used.With Panther, this isn't true! I always have at least one swap file in Panther. But that's still not the whole story!In my 1GB RAM/5GB Partition scheme, applications started crashing.
My swap files themselves still had not reached 512 MB total! Yet VM use showed above 5GB using Activity Monitor!
(Hence my apps dropping like flies.)I'm not sure what's going on in the kernel, but you cannot depend on small swap files telling the whole story!!Panther is a lot more persnickity about swap than Jaguar, so the best advice I can give is be careful, and make the biggest swap partition you can!!-Pie. In my 1GB RAM/5GB Partition scheme, applications started crashing.
My swap files themselves still had not reached 512 MB total! Yet VM use showed above 5GB using Activity Monitor! (Hence my apps dropping like flies.)OK. This gives me the sensation that there is another parameter that needs to be adjusted in High RAM configurations. It seems that 512 MB of swap file space is generally plenty. The swapfiles run 80MB a piece, how many are you going to need at once?Something else is making the apps crash, I suspect.
10MB of SwapDisk per 1 MB of RAM is overkill. Most of my experience with virtual memory and swapping is with large math computations, a single process on Unix using more than physical memory. No matter how big swap is, the process starts seriously slogging when it starts swapping. We generally bail and find a bigger machine long before swap runs out.
I've also had Apple hardware since 1980, but the Mac is Unix now, my swap intuitions finally apply.A memory leak has a very different signature from a process that is page-thrashing. By its nature the unreclaimed leaking memory is never used again, the process careens along with NO performance hit until swap runs out, then splat.No one has the patience to watch a page-thrashing process run out of swap. No one realizes anything is wrong, on the other hand, until a leaking process goes splat.Add to this mix confirmed reports of memory leaks in 10.3, and I'd bet that anyone needing a swap 10x memory has a leak.What is less painful to watch is two processes taking turns with physical memory, whose combined usage exceeds physical memory. This is the sort of thing a swap 2x memory is good for.
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January 2023
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