Comment 20 for bug 454301

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Eric D (eric-dunbar) wrote :

Ok, I figured there had to be a simple work-around. There is! Create a swap file and use that instead of a swap partition. This will drastically reduce the number of unnecessary writes that your (irreplaceable) internal SD has to experience (especially if you have 0.5 GB of RAM).

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SwapFaq

What you need to do is the following:
1. Disable your swap partition or re-install Ubuntu Redux 9.10 without the swap partition.
2. Use a USB memory key or an SDHD/SD card that you leave in the card reader and create on that solid state device the swap-file.

You can also do some other tweaks to reduce the number of writes that take place. See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EeePC/Using#Reducing%20Drive%20Writes for details.

Caveat re swap-file vs. swap partition:

I'm guessing that this method will force extra steps on you whenever you want to access other SD cards in the card reader.

You will have to turn OFF your computer and remove the card before turning it on (I'm sure there's a way for you to turn off the swap-file interactively but I'll leave that up to the experts to do). You'll obviously be running a system without a swap (virtual memory) at that point so you'll be limited to the 0.5 GB or 1 GB of your Eee PC/netbook but at least you'll be able to access the files on another SD card.

Once you're done, simply turn off the computer and insert your swap SD card.