[nzlug] machine pre loaded with linux

[Daniel Lawson]

> Surely it would be both cheap and simple for thin-clients to use flash
> for a swap partition?
>
> An onboard SD connector is a few cents, it could connect as a USB
> device if the designer has no engineering skills, and suddenly you
> have 512MB of swap for <US$10.
>
> Along the same lines - since these devices all have USB, is adding a
> card-reader with 1+GB of flash and using that as swap a worthwhile
> expansion option? Can the kernel handle swap on removable devices? Can
> you force it to?

USB mass storage devices present as a SCSI device. There's no difference
to the kernel from this point.

However, flash is relatively slow, and has a limited write lifetime.  
That said, if all you are doing is preventing overcommit killing your
apps, then this is probably fine. Constant swapping will kill your flash
faster of course.

If you factor in replacing the flash devices periodically then it might
work out for you. Something that people won't be tempted to yank from a
running system would be useful too :)