Bonum Certa Men Certa

Messing With ZRAM Again Because IBM Software is Barely Possible to Document and Changes if You Do

Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer.

It turns out that when I was setting up Debian, I set up my “zram-generator” systemd configuration file wrong.



systemd is Hell because they never commit themselves to the idea that once you learn how to do anything with it, it will stay working, most of its components are full of bugs and security vulnerabilities, and many things replace something that some other part of the operating system was already doing a lot better.



I cringe every time I give it some new responsibility over my system, waiting for how it will go wrong. I would be using systemd-oomd to handle potential out-of-memory situations, but I’ve read so much about how it handles memory pressure bizarrely and worse than the kernel’s oom-killer, even with the Fedora defaults, that I figure I’ll just leave it alone unless it becomes “mandatory” at some point.



I hear (on Reddit) that systemd-oomd does crazy shit, like, “There are 32 GB of RAM in this system. 12 GB are in use. 20 GB are free. Let’s go on a murder spree and shut down some Chrome tabs and LibreOffice with unsaved work!”



ZRam is a compressed block device that you can use for a compressed swap file in memory. The idea isn’t a bad one, but IBM has made figuring out how to set it up unnecessarily painful because of course it is handled by systemd. You’d think setting up ZRam would be too simple for systemd to bring too much of its usual incompetence to, but nooooo.



Today I actually looked at zramctl and it told me the compression type was lzo-rle, not zstd as I wanted (and was the default on openSUSE and I’m sure that’s what it said when I set it up on Debian and started the service).



Whatever.



Looking around the Web, I found that I needed the line compression-algorithm = zstd in my /etc/systemd/zram-generator.conf file.



So I added it and rebooted, and checked sudo zramctl again and I had zstd compression. Yay!



But when I was looking at the manpage for “zram-generator”, it said that the method by which to specify the fraction of the size of RAM to use was obsolete.



zram-fraction = 1.00 does work, but it’s “obsolete”.



So now it tells me that the “current” way to do the same thing is zram-size=ram/x, where ram is the amount of ram and x is the amount to divide by.



So ram/2 would make the device half of RAM, ram/1 would make it all of your RAM, which is what I wanted.



So now my file looks like this:



# This config file enables a /dev/zram0 swap device with the following
# properties:
# * size: 50% of available RAM or 4GiB, whichever is less
# * compression-algorithm: kernel default
#
# This device’s properties can be modified by adding options under the
# `[zram0]` section, or disabled by removing the section header.
# Additional zram devices can be created by appending new `[zramX]`
# sections and setting the appropriate options for each device.
#
# See /usr/share/doc/systemd-zram-generator/zram-generator.conf.example
# and/or zram-generator.conf(5) for a list of available options.
[zram0]
zram-size=ram/1
compression-algorithm = zstd



I’m not exactly sure why IBM Red Hat keeps screwing around changing the way you do this. They make you memorize something only to make pointless changes to the way it’s done, but then the stupid thing doesn’t want to break existing setups, so they just say the old one is “obsolete”.



$ sudo zramctl
NAME ALGORITHM DISKSIZE DATA COMPR TOTAL STREAMS MOUNTPOINT
/dev/zram0 zstd 15.4G 4K 64B 4K 8 [SWAP]



At least this thing is finally set up right, I think.



They never let you get too sure that you did it right or it wouldn’t be “modern”.



As to the debate about zstd vs lzo-rle, they’re both decent choices.



I can see the logic of defaulting to either one, depending on who you think your users are.



If you have a multi-core x86 PC with lots of CPU performance to burn, zstd makes more sense because of higher compression ratios.



If you have some little ARM system that you bought down at the Micro-Center and don’t want to overload it, but still do want to use ZRam, lzo-rle is a respectable choice.



If anything, ZRam with zstd has gotten faster since the kernel developers have last updated the default and I suspect it deserves another look.

Recent Techrights' Posts

They Don't Tell Us that 'Digitalisation' (Now Sold as "Hey Hi") Just Means Customers Become Unpaid Staff and Are Made Accountable
People are being conditioned to associate technology with something undesirable, at times even unbearable
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Has Layoffs and Microsoft Gaming/Entertainment Division Has an Uncertain Future
it's good to see all those horrible things crashing and burning
 
Make No Assumptions (or Demands) About the Screen Resolution Used by Other People
There are usability aspects, aside from accessibility aspects
Why Wayland (and XWayland) Won't Solve the Key Problem It Proclaims to be Tackling (the Same Is True for Rust)
The problem isn't Wayland per se but the false promises and efforts to force everybody to move to it whilst insulting or demonising everyone who won't play along
Diplomatic Immunity Should Not Exist for Anybody
The EPO in its current form gradually 'normalises' the end of European democracy
Brett Wilson LLP Stopped Sending Me Papers When I Showed It had Sent Me Over 5 Kilograms of Legal Papers
A week ago we lodged our third lawsuit
Microsoft Mass Layoffs and Shutdowns Became the New Normal at Microsoft
Microsoft mass layoffs became a topic of everyday media coverage since May
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 21, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 21, 2025
FSF "Raised Almost $139,000 During This Summer Campaign"
"Thank you for making a stand against dystopia!"
Gemini Links 22/07/2025: VPS Exploited and Fear of View
Links for the day
LLM Bots vs Techrights
Slows things down a bit
New Publication Sheds Lights on Abuse of Workers at the European Patent Office (EPO)
Put in simple terms, they're killing the Office, harming remaining staff, try to hire rubber-stampers
Links 21/07/2025: Hardware, Health, and Imperialism
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/07/2025: "When Buying Isn't Owning" and "CMS Special Edition"
Links for the day
Links 21/07/2025: Indie Web and Toxic Politics
Links for the day
[Meme] Microsoft Lawyers Throwing Stones in Glass Houses
threatened me with bankruptcy
Google "AI Overview" is Not AI and Not Overview
do not be misled; what Google does isn't smart, it's just ripping off the sites it already crawled for as long as 27 years
Making the Case to Dump Microsoft and GAFAM for National and Digital Sovereignty
"Sovereignty is difficult"
The Tactics of the Opposition (Microsoft Lunduke): Associate With K00ks, Throw in Vaccines to Muddy the Water
Who stands to gain from this?
Europe's Second-Largest Institution (EPO) and Largest Patent Monopoly Office Needs More Transparency, Not Less Transparency
In the EPO, what good are elections when one candidate literally bribes all the voters?
How Not to Report News About Microsoft
This pattern of misreporting is so widespread that it's hard to believe it's not intentional
Computer Science is Under Attack, They Want Everyone to be a Consumer
If people can no longer acquire Computer Science education and real Computer Science experience, they will not know how to control their own digital destiny or emancipate the very same universities that now control the syllabus and instead of teaching Computer Science encourage the outsourcing of systems
The Best Tools Are the Simplest Tools
There's a hidden message here about the merits of sticking with X
Ofcom Online Safety Group Speaks of Protecting Women Online, Will Brett Wilson LLP Ever Listen?
They've essentially became like the Taliban's "burka police"
Social Control Media Relies on Advertisers, So It'll Always Be Hostile Towards Free Software
Sales, sales, sales
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 20, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 20, 2025
Fragmentation of Data
Life is too short to "hoard" data
In Defence of "Spinning Rust"
Just because something is "old" (or older) doesn't mean it ought to become extinct
Using Free Software to Prepare Legal Documents
LibreOffice is openly complaining about OOXML as an obstacle
Tech and Technology Are Not the Same Anymore
"Are you into tech, Sir?"
Our Articles About SLAPPs Receive Recognition and Interest
This week we shall continue writing about the 3 lawsuits we filed
Are You Served?
For many people, advocacy of Free software and GPL enforcement are assumed to be happening
Conspiracy or grooming? Alex Jurado, Voice of Reason compared to Outreachy
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 20/07/2025: Security Breaches and Former 'Open' 'AI' Engineer on Hype and Culture Issues
Links for the day
Links 20/07/2025: Fending Off BRICS and US Government Attacks Its Own Media (Like China and Russia)
Links for the day
Framed by social control media: Alex Belfield, Voice of Reason
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 20/07/2025: Summertime and OCC25 Wrap-up
Links for the day
Jamie Zawinski Complained About Wayland, Then Decided to Give It a Go, Now Complains Again About Wayland
Ask IBM (Red Hat) why it's worth throwing so much away just for Wayland fanaticism
Slopwatch: Planet Ubuntu, LinuxSecurity, and More
former "Linux" blogs which basically became slopfarms
Russia Set to Ban Facebook?
If WhatsApp is made to "leave", that means Facebook or "Meta".
Links 20/07/2025: More GAFAM Lawsuits, Layoffs, and SLAPPs
Links for the day
Taking Stock of a Good and Productive Week
We shall now be taking a break, unpacking the new hard drive (8 TB), and making backups of everything
Nice Recovery (From Actual Fire) by PCLinuxOS, New Version of PCLinuxOS Released, Now Top of DistoWatch
PCLinuxOS is a community-driven distro
More Microsoft Shutdowns That Mostly Slipped Under the Radar
Remember what happened to books 'sold' by Microsoft?
Microsoft Lunduke Still Fighting Cancel Culture With... Cancel Culture
There will be no "winners" in such 'debates'
The History of Daily Links and Politics
"I support Wayland, but I also support abortion..."
Ageism in Tech
Your protocol is "old"...
Microsoft is at 0% "Market Share" in Most Areas
Depending on the taxonomy chosen, there may be dozens of categories other than desktops and laptops
"The moment MSFT stock fails to start tumbling, that’s the beginning of another corporate giant going under."
There are far more layoffs at Microsoft than at Intel, but you would not get this impression based on Wall Street media
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 19, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 19, 2025