Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!ucbcad!pasteur!ames!umd5!decuac!felix!zemon
From: karl@grebyn.com (Karl A. Nyberg)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.ultrix
Subject: Re: Multiple swap partitions across drives/controllers
Message-ID: <19258@felix.UUCP>
Date: 21 Jan 88 22:52:38 GMT
References: <19009@felix.UUCP>
Sender: zemon@felix.UUCP
Reply-To: karl@grebyn.com (Karl A. Nyberg)
Lines: 51
Approved: zemon@felix.UUCP
Reply-Path:

> Alas, attempts to add extra partitions (say
> /dev/ra0b) with swapon merely gives me the error message "swapon:/dev/ra0b no

  ^^^^^^^^^
I presume that is a typo, or just a bad example, since 0b is ALWAYS a swap
partition (isn't it?).

> such device."  After talking with the DEC person who originally installed the
> OS he said it always does this.  So I checked but it doesn't add the
> partition.  So now we are swapping on /dev/ra3g (40MB is much better than
> 17MB) but I've got three 17MB partitions floating out there going to waste.

You can reconfigure your partitions.  You don't HAVE to swap on partition(s)
B of the other drives.  You can do other things with those partitions as
well, such as putting /tmp on them, or /usr/spool/news (OK, 17MB is a little
small for news!).  Check out the chpt(8?) command.  Do anything you want
with them!  You can configure the system to swap on any partition of the
second (third, etc.) drives if you want.  I never could understand the logic
of having the second .. Nth drives with that silly little a and b
partitions.

On to more constructive (?) solutions:

========================================================================

Make sure your conf file says where the swapping is (e.g., ra1b below):

	config	vmunix	root on ra0a  swap on ra0b and ra1b dumps on ra0b  

And that your /etc/rc file has:

	/etc/swapon -a			>/dev/console

Although you said you do that by hand and get the error message.

Check your /etc/fstab file to make sure that it knows these are swap
partitions:

	/dev/ra0b::sw:0:0:ufs::
	/dev/ra1b::sw:0:0:ufs::

========================================================================

That's about all the advice I can think of.  Good luck.

-- Karl --

Karl A. Nyberg				Grebyn Corporation
karl@grebyn.com				P. O. Box 1144
nyberg@ajpo.sei.cmu.edu			Vienna, VA 22180
{decuac,umd5,vrdxhq}!grebyn!karl	703-281-2194