Change Linux swap size
2020, Sep 20
When you already have a swap partition installed and configured but you want to add a few Gigs you can do it without having to reinstall your Linux by following these simple steps.
First before starting with the configuration part check if you have swap enabled by using the following command :
sudo swapon --show
The output will be some information about your current swap configuration
NAME TYPE SIZE USED PRIO/dev/dm-1 partition 980M 0B -2
Important. All the commands must be run as a sudo user !
1. Create swap file
sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/swapfile bs=1024 count=1048576
for more information about dd use (dd –help)
2. Set correct permission on the swap
sudo chmod 600 /swapfile
3. Use the mkswap tool to set up a Linux swap area on the file:
sudo mkswap /swapfile
4. Enable the swap file
sudo swapon /swapfile
5. Make the changes permanent
Sometimes the swapfile must be added to the fstab to make the change permanent. On the Ubuntu 20.04 it seems to be unnecessary.
Open the /etc/fstab file
sudo vi /etc/fstab
and add the line :
/swapfile swap swap defaults 0 0
6. Check the swap modification
You can use some of the following commands :
free -hsudo swapon --show