Creating Swapfile (am I doing something wrog) Vix1.3

[silverfox0786]

A swap is for your internal memory spill so a swap on internal cant happen as its too small for it and is pointless as it there to ease load off internal memory

USB or HDD you can create a swap on a standard 1gb usb is fine for swap

 

[leecovuk]

Thanks, Silverfox.

I suppose I am familiar with the 'swap file' concept and its location within Windows, whilst this sounds a little different.

Is a 'HDD' an extra drive? ie when I bought my Duo there was an option of fitting it with a drive, but I didn't go for that. So presumably I don't have a 'HDD'?

If that's the case, I might try to get a swap file working on a USB disk.
Should I expect significant performance improvements by doing so?

Presumably we would always want to use the option to start the swap file when the receiver starts up. Why would we not want to do that? Is it in case the USB disk isn't in place all the time?

Does it matter which USB slot is used for the USB disk for swap file purposes?

Can the USB disk be used for any other purpose in the receiver whilst it is providing a swap file? (assuming it has spare capacity)

Thanks again,
Lee
UK

 

[silverfox0786]

the HDD is for recording and you can fit one in afterwards i did so on mine

the swap will give improvements as it will save from too many green screens due to memory shortage

the swap can be set to autostart and will need to stay connected to box

the spare capasity can be used for other things i use mine for epg data and picons and i put some recodings on it as i have a large usb

 

[leecovuk]

okay, thanks again, Silverfox.

I've put a USB disk into the front USB slot.
Device Manager shows:
Size: 1959MB
Device: /dev/sda1
Mount: /media/hdd
Type: 6 FAT16

I formated the disk in Device Manager then used Swap Manager to make a swap file on it.
However the maximum size in the options was only 96MB
Is that going to make much of a difference?

 

[silverfox0786]

96mb is the max swap size and very much efficiant but you will need to change the mount point to /media/usb not media/hdd

 

[leecovuk]

ok, thanks, I'll do that.

I haven't actually seen many green screens, certainly not on a regular basis, so maybe I don't need to use a swap file anyway?

 

[silverfox0786]

the green screens where bad in 1.2 vix but fixed in 1.3 but we still recommend a swap just incase its needed

 

[leecovuk]

ok, thanks.
Does a swap file help avoid the 'rotating ViX logo' as well?

 

[silverfox0786]

the spinner is there like windows hourglass it indicates to you that your box is working and not frozen its not because the box is slowing down

 

[leecovuk]

ok thanks, I see.
Thanks for your help and advice, Silverfox. I see you're in full supporting mode tonight.
I for one can give you some rest now.


Lee

 

[silverfox0786]

Thanks lee i am always on full support mode

you take care

 

[leecovuk]

oh just to add,
The 'default skin' and '750S' skins don't show Device Manager properly. Not for me, anyway.
I don't know if you guys are aware of that.

 

[silverfox0786]

will have a look at that mate

 

[leecovuk]

I've abandoned trying to use a USB swap file, because for me it seems to make the receiver hang/stall when booting up from powered off.
If the only significant benefit of using a swap file is to avoid 'green screens', I don't get any of those anyway.

Lee
UK

 

[andyblac]

I've abandoned trying to use a USB swap file, because for me it seems to make the receiver hang/stall when booting up from powered off.
If the only significant benefit of using a swap file is to avoid 'green screens', I don't get any of those anyway.

Lee
UK

if your only using one epg data (ie 28.2) you should be fine with no swap, i took great pains in recoding everything for vix 1.3 to be less memory hungry than vix 1.2 was

 

[leecovuk]

ok, thanks Andy.
My EPG could actually get quite big because I have access to four satellites and their various packages. However I have yet to fully understand or get the EPG functions to work properly.

Are you aware of the problem I mentioned with a USB swap file causing the receiver to hang/stall on boot up? I have no idea if it's disk-brand specific. I have tried 2 USB disks but they are both Maxell disks.

I suppose I could try disabling 'start swap file on start up' and start it manually every time I boot the receiver, so I might have to do that if I get green screens without a swap file.

Lee

 

[andyblac]

ok, thanks Andy.
My EPG could actually get quite big because I have access to four satellites and their various packages. However I have yet to fully understand or get the EPG functions to work properly.

Are you aware of the problem I mentioned with a USB swap file causing the receiver to hang/stall on boot up? I have no idea if it's disk-brand specific. I have tried 2 USB disks but they are both Maxell disks.

I suppose I could try disabling 'start swap file on start up' and start it manually every time I boot the receiver, so I might have to do that if I get green screens without a swap file.

Lee

if you read this thread you will understand why this happens, it al down to you flash drives' speed