Using zram and zswap in Linux

In this video I describe the differences between zram and zswap, their use cases, and how to set them up.

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zram commands:

zram

options zram num_devices=1

KERNEL=="zram0", ATTR{disksize}="512M",TAG+="systemd"

[Unit]
Description=Swap with zram

[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=true
ExecStartPre=/sbin/mkswap /dev/zram0
ExecStart=/sbin/swapon -p 5 /dev/zram0
ExecStop=/sbin/swapoff /dev/zram0

[Install]

sudo systemctl enable zram

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zswap commands:

Check if zswap is enabled / supported
cat /sys/module/zswap/parameters/enabled

sudo vim /etc/default/grub

[LeeZhenYong]

6:33 zswap is such a great feature! It seems to work similarly to how macOS compresses idle RAM. I have 16GB RAM and 10GB of swap, but decided to enable zswap anyway because it's just a much better use of resources.

[jarroddeskins]

Hey thanks! Even two years later its relevant. I want to use zram for temporary. Because it will increase lifespan of SSD because they can only do so many overwrites. Browsing the internet pretty much chews up my SSD. It hasn't gone bad yet, but it will one day. I just hope it doesn't require SystemD because I prefer other init. Anyway thanks!

[cosmo_]

i have-
physical ram: 4G
/swapfile size: 4G
zram size: 512M
zswap: enable

what can i change to impove performance.

[cosmicusstardust]

I had to disable zram swap because I experienced a strange issue where Firefox would load directly into it, even though I have 128 GB of RAM. Also, whenever the 4 GB swap got filled by Firefox, it would result in a hard crash.

[linuxinside]

I use artix linux, which has runit as init system, will this work ?
Can you show like runit service script for that ?

[juanluucas]

i got 32gb ram but my manjaro only use ~3gb, can Zswap help me to get better performance ?.

[chrisdanger-godlike]

what is your hint?
i am using 4gb swap partition an 32gb ram.
now, i need more swap. can i create 10gb swap file and add with zswap the 4gb partition?

[AmidMajd]

Super good and helpful video, Thanks!

[rustydust]

can you please tell me how to change compression algorithm in zram?

[linusman]

Will Zram be better for an eMMC laptop with 4GB ram?

[Bonezr]

You sound almost exactly like the guy from The Action Lab on youtube. 😃

[RohithGolle]

actually priority in linux goes this way -20 highest priority to 19 lowest priority

[ariel_chess]

Is it only me or do you kinda sound like Stitch?

[lordofthemound]

I thought lower numbers -3 vs -2 or, say 0 actually have a HIGHER priority (i.e. -20 is highest priority and 19 is lowest priority).

[fatpanda]

sudo apt install zram-tools
sudo nano /etc/default/zramswap -->

ALGO=lz4
PERCENT=25


Done. Nothing more to change.