arch does not use swap and just gives up

[faint leaf]

hi so like this has been a problem since the day i got arch and its gotten to the point where i need to REISUB nearly daily because of this problem.

I have 6gb of swap space but the system does not use it, if the system runs out of ram it gives up freezes and doesn't think twice.. unfortunately even running apps like VSCode cause a REISUB streak even multiple times a day, and to be fair my system is more than capable, i can run genshin impact fine with sm fps but then it just gives up on me

what the hell do i do im completely out of choices

i just captured system monitor as soon as it just froze

here are the results

and also it didnt stall at the loading screen like this last time

i actually got ingame

and i was running around

then it fucked itself when i opened the settings gui 💀

[stuck elm]

Depending on you filesystem, the way to make a swap@faint leaf

[faint leaf]

huh

[stuck elm]

But you should prefer a swap file and zram

.aw swap

[little pawn]

Swap

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Swap

[stuck elm]

.aw zram

[little pawn]

Zram

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Zram

[stuck elm]

.aw performance

[little pawn]

Performance

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Performance

[faint leaf]

yeah so what should i do first

should i nuke my old swap?

and make a new one

[stuck elm]

The swap article teaches how to make a swap file enable it then make your system boot with it

[faint leaf]

well as seen in my system monitor picture the swap is definitely working

its just unused

like it doesn't use it enough

[stuck elm]

1st, give some more details like how you made the swap and reply to the bot

.s litany

[little pawn]

Please follow the Standard Litany when asking a question:
• What was your environment? What was your operating system, configuration?
• What did you do? What did you run or test? Where?
• What actually happened? What were the exact results, complete log contents, exact error messages?
• What did you expect? What were you aiming to achieve? What result were you looking for?

Vague or superficial questions will yield vague or superficial answers. False information leads to false solutions.

Also see this similar guide on how to ask smart questions.

[stuck elm]

I always recommend a swap file over partition

[faint leaf]

look i think we are better off making a fresh swap since my old swap involves some shit mechanics i did because im autistic

[stuck elm]

Idk how you made your swap

[faint leaf]

i encrypted it i think 💀💀

im autistic so dont judge

i wanted to make a bunch of stats i found go green 💀

blame me im fucking stupid

[stuck elm]

No. I mean idk if it's swap partition or file
Also idk your filesystem

[faint leaf]

swap file
BTRFS

[stuck elm]

Idk if you can encrypt your swap but I recall you shouldn't do it

So be sure about this

The more info you provide the better

[faint leaf]

im very sure i literally see it on boot

encrypted swap mount

look like i said before i wanna start with a fresh swap

[stuck elm]

On BTRFS, you can just disable and remove the swap file then make a new one

.aw BTRFS

[little pawn]

Btrfs

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Btrfs

[faint leaf]

alright

[stuck elm]

How about you try to not encrypt it?

[faint leaf]

yeah i won't

[stuck elm]

Maybe that's why it freezes

[faint leaf]

its bc im autistic ok 😭

i found a bunch of security stats

and i wanted them all to go green 💀💀

its satisfying to me

[stuck elm]

I also have BTRFS and swap file but mine is not encrypted so it just works

[faint leaf]

yeah i see

[stuck elm]

Sure. Security good but sometimes things can break

And iirc encrypting swap only calls for issues

[faint leaf]

alright

so what should i do when i make my new seap

swap

[stuck elm]

Just follow arch and BTRFS wikis to make a new one but don't encrypt it

You may wait for other users to help you soon

[faint leaf]

it says invalid argument

when i try to do swapon

[stuck elm]

Show

I don't remember rn the commands but you need to use specific BTRFS commands for this

[faint leaf]

i have a BTRFS part for my old swapfile i had

so i deleted the swapfile

and made a new one

but now it says invalid argument

[stuck elm]

On BTRFS you should use @swap subvolume

Not a swap partition

[faint leaf]

yes i am

i am bro

[stuck elm]

Share your lsblk

[faint leaf]

Setting up swapspace version 1, size = 9 GiB (9663672320 bytes)
no label, UUID=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
mizook@misonomika/$ sudo swapon swap/swapfile 
swapon: /swap/swapfile: swapon failed: Invalid argument
mizook@misonomika/$ 

NAME        MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda           8:0    0 465.8G  0 disk 
└─sda1        8:1    0 465.8G  0 part 
nvme0n1     259:0    0 238.5G  0 disk 
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1    0   260M  0 part 
├─nvme0n1p2 259:2    0    16M  0 part 
├─nvme0n1p3 259:3    0 236.4G  0 part /mnt/windows
├─nvme0n1p4 259:4    0   840M  0 part 
└─nvme0n1p5 259:5    0   999M  0 part 
nvme1n1     259:6    0 465.8G  0 disk 
├─nvme1n1p1 259:7    0   512M  0 part /efi
└─nvme1n1p2 259:8    0 465.3G  0 part /home
                                      /swap
                                      /
mizook@misonomika/$ 

[stuck elm]

Check if that's the right command for BTRFS by checking BTRFS wiki

[faint leaf]

oh yeah true

[stuck elm]

Do it again now with th -f flag

[stuck elm]

Because BTRFS uses a different way for swap files

[faint leaf]

it doesent work

ERROR: cannot set NOCOW flag: Invalid argument
mizook@misonomika/$ 

[stuck elm]

Archwiki even states this

[faint leaf]

then why doesent it woro now

work

[stuck elm]

Maybe because you already made one

[faint leaf]

I DELETED IT BRO

AND ITS SAYING THIS

[stuck elm]

So roll back on the steps

[stuck elm]

Please no need for caps

[faint leaf]

im abt to crash out bro

[stuck elm]

Take a break, then come back to troubleshoot

foxSip

[faint leaf]

BRO ITS 9:30PM I WANNA PLAY GENSHIN

MY PARENTS R GONNA FORCE ME INTO BED

IN 30 MINS

NVM IN 20 MINS

PLEASE

I BEG

chattr: Invalid argument while setting flags on /swap
mizook@misonomika/$ 

@stuck elm

HELP ME BRO

BRO

WHAT TF ARE U DOING HELP PLZ

I IN SUPPORT SO HELP

HEELEP

ILL GIVE MOENY

ILL PAY U

I JS WANNA PLAY GENSHIN IN PEACE

@stuck elm WAKE TF UP

@stuck elm PLZ

@stuck elm HELP ME MAKE A GOD DAMN UFCKINJG SWAP YOU PIECE OF SHIT

[faint leaf]

@stuck elm am sry ok

[stuck elm]

You good. Come back later so we can solve this issue

!give @faint leaf :3

[uncut shell]

pot of received a cookie of friendship from ⭐ • Reon 6/6 🎵 =]

[faint leaf]

WAT A COOKIE

OOOOOOO

TY

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1030399686638575656/1396173188505014322/mika.gif

!give @stuck elm command_block

[uncut shell]

⭐ • Reon 6/6 🎵 received a cookie of friendship from pot of =]

[faint leaf]

what

oh nice

command block of a cookie 💀

[ancient glacier]

Zram doesn't work well with a swapfile or swap partition

It also does not make the system use swap more, there are other settings for that

[ancient glacier]

If there's already a partition then why switch to a file? There's no difference

Show output of these

cat /proc/cmdline
sudo grep -r . /sys/kernel/debug/zswap/
zramctl

@faint leaf

[faint leaf]

im in bed now so tmr

ty

[stuck elm]

Mb, I misremembered things. Please help em out when they are back

[faint leaf]

i think regenerating the swap did the job already but i wouldn't say we have fixed this issue yet since the freezing could happen at any damning time

so i think we should js wait

in the meantime

i need to know where i should put my swap

while i have created a working swap

its on btrfs root

meaning when i open dolphin or smt i see this yucky @ and @home at my root

can you please help me get it right or smt 😭

@ancient glacier

[ancient glacier]

You're using btrfs top-level subvol as your rootfs instead of a subvol called @ as the rootfs?

https://btrfs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/Subvolumes.html

In that case you can't

[faint leaf]

@ is the rootfs

i just MOUNTED the top level

on the fstab

then made a folder for swap

[ancient glacier]

Why did you mount it in your fstab

Either put the swap subvol in /swap
or mount the top-level subvol and make a @swap subvol there and mount the @swap subvol in your fstab to /swap

[faint leaf]

bc btrfs swap command was being so fussy if i did it in a subvolume

OH DO I NEED TO MAKE THE SWAP IN TOP LEVEL?

[ancient glacier]

Lol after typing this I noticed this tip

[faint leaf]

i already had a subvolume so i did it in there

[ancient glacier]

no

[faint leaf]

yeah i had a subvolume @swap

it was in /swap

my old goofy swap i deleted

then i tried to make a new one

in /swap

realised i should do it from the subvolume itself at top level

please do not ask about how autistic my old swap was 💀

[ancient glacier]

After you're sure you have swap (swapon --show) run the commands I sent

[ancient glacier]

.

[faint leaf]

ok i still haven't gotten on yet js talking to u abt it rn

[faint leaf]

@ancient glacier new bug

i did nothing

and this is fucking happening now

it said server authentication

then that crashed

then it reopened plasma

then it said server authentication

then it crashed

i cant access my desktop

please help

[ancient glacier]

... tty

[little pawn]

#15700 📣 To open a TTY (virtual console) press and hold Control, Alt and then press F1 through F6

[faint leaf]

i know

@ancient glacier do you know why its doing this

@ancient glacier it works if i connect to my hotspot but if i connect to the damning school wifi my whole plasma goes insane

its the fucking locked down internet

man

[ancient glacier]

journalctl -b -0 to read the current boot journal

journalctl -b -0 | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st to send current boot journal

[faint leaf]

its okay we can blame the wifi

i dont mind having to hotspot on boot

i do it anyway with my windows laptop since proton vpn got updated and it requires auth on startup

so yeah basically the same routine for me

ill run those commands in a minute just finishing my swap off

[faint leaf]

@ancient glacier mizook@misonomika/~$ cat /proc/cmdline BOOT_IMAGE=/@/boot/vmlinuz-linux-zen root=UUID=60d8d52b-bea8-4567-a880-ae79b51aeb65 rw rootflags=subvol=@ debug loglevel=3 quiet zswap.shrinker_enabled=1 zswap.enabled=1 zswap.compressor=zstd zswap.max_pool_percent=25 zswap.zpool=zsmalloc lockdown=integrity mem_sleep_default=s2idle mizook@misonomika/~$ sudo grep -r . /sys/kernel/debug/zswap/ [sudo] password for mizook: /sys/kernel/debug/zswap/stored_pages:1621 /sys/kernel/debug/zswap/pool_total_size:3411968 /sys/kernel/debug/zswap/written_back_pages:0 /sys/kernel/debug/zswap/decompress_fail:0 /sys/kernel/debug/zswap/reject_compress_poor:0 /sys/kernel/debug/zswap/reject_compress_fail:0 /sys/kernel/debug/zswap/reject_kmemcache_fail:0 /sys/kernel/debug/zswap/reject_alloc_fail:0 /sys/kernel/debug/zswap/reject_reclaim_fail:0 /sys/kernel/debug/zswap/pool_limit_hit:0 mizook@misonomika/~$ zramctl mizook@misonomika/~$

[faint leaf]

@ancient glacier is turning up the swappiness too much a bad thing?

[faint leaf]

nice

i think just remaking the swap fixed it

i test performance

by playing genshin

on arch

its struggling

it still struggling

i think we added too much swappiness

YES LAST ONE

WE GETTING SOMEWHERE

we in..

omg

we actually loaded in

but i need to decrease swappiness

bc its using more swap than ram

its doing pretty good for ram however

the cpu is struggling

but yeah who cares i cant solder a new one in 💀

now we teleport to somewhere for testing hehe

teleporting is as usual

i got from one place to another FASTER than windows can do it

good job genshin hehe

genshin is spitting out more fps than windows can too

thats epic

i think our freezing problem might be fixed

tested combat

it works flawlessly

better FPS than windows even when there is 5 billion particles everywhere when fighting

[ancient glacier]

Check zswap stats

[faint leaf]

i think it struggles more with disk since it took ages to open the wings when i jumped off like the texture took a bit to load

[faint leaf]

im using btrfs swap not anything z or anything

[ancient glacier]

You're using zswap in front of the swap space

[faint leaf]

oh yeah i have boot args

should i keep them?

yeah its struggling with IO such as gui elements

like it has to load a menu for example

it takes its time to load it

but main gameplay is absolutely flawless

its just loading thats the problem

[ancient glacier]

Yeah as it reduces swapping to the disk

[faint leaf]

loading from disk

[faint leaf]

alright

[ancient glacier]

when the kernel swaps memory to disk it first goes to zswap and is then compressed and stored in memory until the zswap pool is full

[faint leaf]

alright

[ancient glacier]

non compressable data is sent to disk right away

[faint leaf]

i see

[ancient glacier]

Of course since it's swapping and the disk is slow compared to ram

and it also has to read from the disk

and then that's probably sent to the disk too...

[faint leaf]

😭😭

[ancient glacier]

Check the zswap stats for how full the pool is

[faint leaf]

how to

[ancient glacier]

sudo grep -r . /sys/kernel/debug/zswap/

[faint leaf]

@ancient glacier how come every time i open a tty then the x11 server crashes

like its just a typing indicator in the top left

[proper frost]

usually if you switch to a TTY you get thrown out of your Wayland or X session

[faint leaf]

but when i was on wayland it was fine

[proper frost]

wdym, when youre on X and then switch to a TTY its just a blinking cursor nothing else?

[faint leaf]

yes

on wayland this bug didnt exist

but i switched to x11 because wayland didnt start an x server properly

[proper frost]

Hmm yeah thats definitively not normal.

Wayland wont start an X session from what I know.

Im not too familiar with wayland but my GF is on wayland and she doesnt have anything related to X

[faint leaf]

i had to create the file myself that lets sddm know that i can start an x11 session

it never created it for me even when i installed x11

[proper frost]

Thats cuz you'd have both installed yes, but you can only pick one or the other.

like when login

[faint leaf]

i can click any of them now at login

wayland or x11

i pick

defaults to my last used so its always x11 now

[proper frost]

yes so are you really launching a TTY (pressing ctrl alt F1-F7) ? or do you mean that when you login with X11 you only get a blinking cursor and no desktop?

because you dont need a greeter, a DE or X (or Wayland) to access a TTY...

[faint leaf]

i can login fine but if i open a tty well the tty works obviously but once i switch back to the DE then its just blinking cursor

if i open a tty at greeter time and go back to the greeter after and login normally its blinking cursor

i logout and everything

[proper frost]

okay well you need to start X again

I think the command is startx on top of my head

[faint leaf]

why do we need to start x again?

also i cant really start x if the cursor is just blinking like that

[proper frost]

So let me get this straight you
-login into an Xsession
-switch to a TTY with lets say CTRL+ALT+F3
-Then you try and switch back to Xorg with CTRL+ALT+F1 Im assuming?
And theres just a blinking cursor?

[faint leaf]

yes

[proper frost]

If you replace the last step by startx instead of CTRL+ALT+F1 what does it do?

[faint leaf]

well wont it run in that tty then?

[proper frost]

Nvm it doesnt work

Hmm I... never went back to desktop after going into a tty tbh

Why do you need to swap from desktop to a tty though?

[faint leaf]

no particular reason..

ykw its fine

[proper frost]

Its not a bug because my machine does this too but I do admit I am curious about making this work

[faint leaf]

hmmm i see

[proper frost]

@faint leaf okay thanks for your patience

[uncut shell]

pot of received a thank you cookie!

[proper frost]

If you wanna come back to your desktop from tty

(Youre using sddm as a greeter?)

[faint leaf]

ye

[proper frost]

You can simply sudo sddm it should start back your desktop

Also bonus tip ctrl+alt+backspace reloads your Xsession.

Least for me thats what works right now.
From X to TTY with ctrl+alt+F2 then I launch back the greater with sudo lightdm (sddm in your case), and Im back on my desktop.

But really the TTY is just used as a lifesaver so I dont see all this being very practical. Good info to know I guess so thanks for the learning exp

Consider closing the thread if everything is resolved for you.

Also feel free to make another one for other issues.

... solved

[little pawn]

#17680 📣 If there is nothing else that we can do for you, please close this thread by adding "[SOLVED]" to the title.

• You can do this on desktop by clicking the three dots on the top right of the page, and pressing "Edit Post".
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Your title should be like so: http://0x0.st/8Rt9.png
Thank you

[faint leaf]

OH MY FUCKING CHRIST

ITS FUCKING BACK

MY PC IS FUCKING FREEZING AGAIN

ALL I DID WAS OPEN GOD DAMN FUCKING STEAM AND THE WHOLE FUCKING THING FUCKING FROZE

IM SICK OF HAVING TO REISUB EVERY FUCKING DAY

[proper frost]

Everytime I tried reisub it never worked.

[proper frost]

Do you think the hardware could be at fault perhaps?

[faint leaf]

no

i used windows on this laptop for 5 years

now im arch user

[proper frost]

Was the hardware working well on other distros?
Could consider Memtest8 and SMART test, these are fairly easy to do. And perhaps a cpu stress test.

Okay

[faint leaf]

yeah i have done all of that all by playing genshin impact 💀

[proper frost]

Well, i still find it curious it crashes so dam much

[faint leaf]

every day i have to fucking reisub

[faint leaf]

it only happens under RAM stress not cpu stress

the whole way through genshin gameplay today i was at 100% cpu

it was fine

[proper frost]

Memtest is real easy and fast to do.

[faint leaf]

i think i have done a memtest in the past

and nothing showed up

[proper frost]

What does the logs say? Have you poked at journalctl?

Also jumping from windows straight into arch is quite a leap.

[faint leaf]

eh but once i reisub its gone isnt it

[proper frost]

No

journalctl -k -r -b -1 --lines=100 to see what happens at shutdown.

Well, last shutdown

So after a crash reboot and type this to see the last 100 journal lines before the REISUB.

[faint leaf]

i got this

[proper frost]

You would need to show me above the SIGTERM line

[faint leaf]

thats the reisub itself

i dont see any errors or anything up there

[proper frost]

I would still share the logs so we can look at it.

[faint leaf]

h o w

[proper frost]

You could journalctl -k -r -b -1 --lines=150 >> ~/REISUBcrash.log and send the file here.

[faint leaf]

okok

[proper frost]

Or wtv ways of sharing text that floats your boat.

Like pastebins and such

[proper frost]

Sorry had to fetch it on my PC

Ehh thanks but very cryptic to me... I cant even pin point when the system actually froze.