When i installed ubuntu in my x86 machine, I had to configure some memory as 'swap area'.What is the use of this memory and what is the importance of this memory in linux file systems?How can I determine the exact size of 'swap area' in a machine for the safe working of linux inside in it?
What is the use/meaning of 'swap area' while linux installation?
filesystems;swap
A very untechnical explanation:Swap area is hard drive space that is reserved to act as extra RAM for when your computer needs more RAM than what is available. Note that when this happens your computer might slow down noticably.The Ubuntu help website recommends that you have double the ammount of RAM as SWAP. So if you have 1GB of RAM, you should have 2GB SWAP, however your computer should work fine with less SWAP.