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TOPIC: Use Flash memory for swap space on a PS3

The following topic was written by Ilian Tzankov

Aside from the great looks and being a truly remarkable machine, I bought a PS3 was the fact that I could install Linux on it. As soon as I found the Terra Soft website I started the YDL 5.0 download and ran to the shop to get my PS3. Abount an hour later my linux booted, and I realized there are few things I had not considered. These are as I see them the main disadvantages of the PS3, when it comes to Linux:

It runs linux in a hipervisor - this means disk access is very slow, video is confined to framebuffer only and is very slow as well
The system memory is extremely limited.

In this article I want to share a cool solution I've found to these limitations. When running Linux on the PS3, the limited amount of memory causes the system to swap a lot (i.e. it uses the hard disk for memory). Now considering the slow disk IO (26MB/s!) starting and even using programs can be a real pain.

The solution I have is using flash storage to improve this. Since flash card access is also quite slow also I use 2 storage devices:

a 512MB SD card
a 1GB usb stick

Under my system the SD card shows up as "/dev/sdd" and the USB key as "/dev/sdf", these might not be same for you. This procedure assumes your flash devices have been previously formated for you and contain a partition table.

WARNING! This procedure will destroy all data on the SD card and the USB key!

Open a terminal
Enter the following commands:
su
[type in your root password]
/sbin/mkswap /dev/sdd1
/sbin/mkswap /dev/sdf1
/sbin/swapoff -a
/sbin/swapon -p 1 /dev/sdd1
/sbin/swapon -p 1 /dev/sdf1
You are now running with swap space evenly distributed between the two flash devices.
Edit the following file:
/etc/fstab
Remove the line that contains the word "swap" in it.
Add these two lines:
/dev/sdd1 swap swap pri=1 0 0
/dev/sdf1 swap swap pri=1 0 0

You are done!
Ilian Tzankov

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