In section 6., the reccommended size of the swap partition is >= 2X RAM. This is will not work for smaller systems. A better reccomendation would be to start with a minimum total memory of 640megs. The reason being that large package compiles such as gcc can eat up as much as ~512megs of total memory or more depending on a number of factors. A minimum total memory of 640 megs should cover just about any conceivable installation related memory requirement. For a 128 meg system with a 256 meg SWAP for a total memory of 384 megs, large package compiles such as gcc and OOo will most likely not go to completion. Further, experience (mine and others) has shown that systems with large amounts of RAM >= 512 megs require very little or no swap in practice for most people. This statement excludes servers! My personal reccomendation to people is actually to plan on a total RAM and SWAP of 768 megs (I'm pretty conservative in reccomendations). Following this formula, I would therefore set up SWAP partitions like so:: 048 megs RAM -- 720 megs SWAP 064 megs RAM -- 702 megs SWAP 128 megs RAM -- 640 megs SWAP 512 megs RAM -- 256 megs SWAP For RAM amounts 768 megs and higher, I reccomend only a 128 meg swap. And this is simply because I'm not sure how 'graceful' the kernel is if there isn't any swap at all if it runs out of RAM. From a practical standpoint, I have built full Gentoo systems including functions like OOo, xchat, abiwrod, moxilla 1.2.1, blackdown 1.4.1 beta and more all running under fluxbox on systems with as little as 46 megs. The key was to have a larg enough swap file. FWIW: I no longer build Gimp on systems with less than 96 megs ram. While it is possible to build Gimp on systems with only 48 megs, Gimp itself will simply not run on systems with less than 96 megs. However, all the other applications I've tried will indeed run on such small systems. They may take forever and a day to load, but they will run.
commited, thanks for the suggestion
