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I just did a full disk encryption installation and it created a swap partition. In most manual install guides I see people making a swap file instead. So am curious to know if there is any pros / cons to have one over the other? I understand you can have both, just want to get educated on the difference between the two approaches.

Aztek
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  • @guiverc Thanks for that link, I had seen it before. Reason I posted my question is to check if there has been any update since that qustion was posted (appx 4 years ago). I also noticed the question references Ubuntu 17.04 moving from partition to file. The most recent distro 20.04 actually creates a swap partition instead of a file, so it seems they moved back to partitions now? Was wondering if there was any change that drive that rollback? – Aztek Nov 28 '20 at 00:33
  • I believe you're wrong about default being swap partition, for the latest 20.10, nor prior 20.04 (though as I mainly test *flavors* that don't I can't be sure), My own box (*hirsute*) was using both (swap partition & swap file), until I needed space so I removed the swap file. I like swap partition as I can share it with the dual boot system (older Ubuntu), but I'm not aware of anything new over that duplicate. – guiverc Nov 28 '20 at 00:45
  • Another difference between a swapfile and a swap partition is that you need a `resume_offset` when using hibernate with a swapfile and not with a swap partition. – C.S.Cameron Nov 28 '20 at 03:24
  • @guiverc What I meant by most recent distro was the latest LTS version. That is is still 20.04. Just did a reinstall and didnt get any option to do a file vs partition. It just created a 1GB partition no questions asked. Sounds like they switched it back to a swap file in 20.10? – Aztek Nov 29 '20 at 02:43
  • There were many changes to booting in *groovy*, but not to *swap* that I can recall. "most recent distro" isn't very descriptive; latest *stable* release is 20.10 or the 2020-October release. Why can I *mind-read* that you're ignoring non-LTS releases if you don't say so? Also there are multiple ISOs available for 20.04, which use different installers (`ubiquity`, `subiquity` etc) so unless you're specific as to which you're using we can only guess at what you're talking about unless we're given that detail. For specific responses, we need specific details. – guiverc Nov 29 '20 at 02:53
  • If you want full control; the use "*Manual Partitioining*", "*Something else*" or like options as offered by whichever ISO & installer you've chosen to use (*unstated* in your question) – guiverc Nov 29 '20 at 02:54
  • @guiverc I downloaded the ISO from the Ubuntu website (https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop) and created a bootable USB to install. How do I get a different installer? Is there one that gives more control on the installation options? – Aztek Nov 29 '20 at 09:14
  • Ubuntu will use multiple swap partitions if you have them, plus a swapfile. to turn them all on type `sudo swapon -a` to list all the swap spaces being used type `sudo swapon -s`. – C.S.Cameron Nov 29 '20 at 10:45

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