Linux Format forums

[kord]

Put this in here as it seems more a "talk about it".

Maybe depending on distro and how the disk layout is set - like plain partition, encrypted, LVM - you see an entry in the Grub menu line: resume=xxxxx/swap where xxxxx relates to the layout.

I have never been interested in Hibernation or Suspend of any O.S. I've used and I generally edited the entry on any distro install to say: noresume.

Here's my query.

Do you reckon that with only the 1 swap it might cause trouble for multiple distro installs if not just for a lone install?

I was checking out a distro on laptop and doing restores from a backup and rechecking with using its Synaptic software manager to update some apps and libraries. This has a 'History' entry under the File menu which shows the date/time and what was upgraded/installed/removed.

I was getting puzzled because after deleting all the dirs, even renaming them before deletion, and restoring the working install back, when I opened the History entry I saw the most recent entry which shouldn't have been there. And there were wrong items in the main columns of what was upgradeable or had been upgraded.

That is, a known good install had say History entries for 22.00 and 22.10 and I'd exit and boot to a cd and copy all the dirs to an ext disk. If I did another update at 22.20, that would appear in History but if it caused trouble I'd boot to cd and delete everything and copy the good install back. I open the History and that 22.20 entry was there!!!

I couldn't see how that was possible and tried the renaming of dirs before delete thinking that somehow 'inodes' were being magically reallocated and allowing older file content back in!

Also, this was using LUKS encryption for both / and swap and the only way I began to think of where it might be coming from was the 'resume' on the swap.

I changed the line to 'noresume', copied the good install back and.... voila!!! History only going to 22.10.

It's interesting that Synaptic changes were "resumed" but it made me think what other problems might be caused.

What do people think or know about the workings going on?

Is that 'resume' meant to be related to hibernate/suspend?

I didn't try a 2 main partition double install of the same distro and seeing if that History error might show up in the other. That's why I wondered about multiple distros and 1 swap, like is certain "code" laid down by the booted distro that's alien to the next booted distro which would ignore it?

[johnhudson]

In my menu.lst resume points to swap; so I assume it is to do with hibernating.

I have never heard of any problems from using the same swap partition for different distros; some Live CDs ask for permission to use it - I presume they wouldn't if it was likely to cause problems.

[nelz]

The resume kernel option refers to resuming from hibernation, so if you never hibernate it won't do anything. Hibernating from one distro and then booting another with the same resume setting may do nothing (the kernel may recognise that the suspended data does not match it) or it may cause thousands of kittens to die agonizing deaths.

I'd p[lay safe and only use hibernation from one distro, and I don't even like cats.
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Unix is user-friendly. It's just very selective about who it's friends are.

[towy71]

[nelz]