● Covered by 1 source · 1 reportLow impact1 neutral
Configuring Swap, ZRAM, Zswap, and Hibernate on NixOS for Desktops and Laptops
Key points
- Swap is required for hibernation functionality.
- NixOS supports hibernation with both swap partitions and swap files.
- The recommended configuration uses zswap with disk-backed swap.
- A 'swappiness' value of 100 is suggested for optimal performance on some systems.
Swap for Hibernation
The article focuses on configuring swap for desktop and laptop environments, particularly for enabling suspend-then-hibernate functionality. This feature first suspends to RAM (ACPI S3) and then transitions to hibernate (S4) after a delay, requiring swap space to save the system state to disk.
Swap File vs. Swap Partition
The discussion covers both swap files and swap partitions. While swap files can complicate hibernation due to the need for initramfs to locate swap space before filesystems are mounted, NixOS can handle the nuances of hibernation with swap files, including figuring out offsets. Examples of both swap partition and swap file configurations on NixOS are provided.
Recommended Configuration with Zswap
The current recommended configuration involves enabling zswap alongside disk-backed swap. This setup is based on recommendations for optimizing swap usage. The configuration is concise, requiring only a few lines in the NixOS configuration.
Swappiness Value
The article suggests setting the 'vm.swappiness' kernel parameter to 100. This value controls the relative cost of swapping versus filesystem paging and is recommended for certain hardware configurations to achieve optimal performance.
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Reporting from
This article details how to configure swap, zram, zswap, and hibernate features on NixOS, specifically for desktop and laptop use cases. It explains the necessity of swap for hibernation and discusses the differences between swap partitions and swap files, noting NixOS's handling of swap files for hibernation.