Will shared swap bite me?

[Bill Davidsen]

John Summerfield wrote:
> Chuck Anderson wrote:
>> On Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 06:06:35PM -0400, Bill Davidsen wrote:
>>> I have to set up a machine as dual boot 32/64 bit and I would really 
>>> love to not waste space on swap partitions being duplicated if I 
>>> don't have to. That said, if I do two installs and use the same swap 
>>> partition, what evil will come of it?
>>
>> No problems.  I do it all the time when testing/switching between 
>> different Fedora releases.
>>
>>> The only obvious issue I see is suspending the non-default kernel and 
>>> trying to boot the other (found that in FC6) and I can avoid that. 
>>> Any other know issues I have to avoid?
>>
>> Yeah, you definately don't want to hibernate to swap on one OS and try 
>> to boot the other.  You'll just lose your hibernated system and leave 
>> the filesystems in inconsistent state.  In general it is very bad to 
>> boot /anything/ other that the original hibernated kernel when after 
>> you have hibernated.  That's why grub doesn't show you a menu when you 
>> boot up in a hibernated state.
> 
> _I_ don't think I'd like that. I _can_ hibernate Windows, run Linux, 
> then resume Windows. I've not hibernated Linux at all except 
> accidentally (FC3 I recalled resumed then shutdown, I lost interest then).
> 
>>
>>> The object is to run one 64 bit program without reinstalling the 
>>> whole stable 32 bit environment.
>>
>> Why not go all 64-bit?  I've been using it, and have had zero issues 
>> with 32/64 bit compatibility.
>>
> I've been running pure 64-bit Fedora and SL5 with no problems that 
> concerned me: I don't know what, if any, browser plugins work, and don't 
> really care. I don't like flash!
> 
What has "like" to do with it? Both my professional (meeting replays and 
training sessions) and personal (news) life requires both flash and realaudio. I 
can't really see remaining ignorant of what's going on in the world because it's 
not served on the right format. And I sure can't see having a Windows machine 
just to keep informed.

I really can't see ignoring things I don't like, ignorance is *not* bliss, old 
sayings aside.

-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot