Z3fold Allocator Slated For Removal From The Linux Kernel

[BeSe]

Hello

First, I would like to say thank you for the excellent easylinuxtipsproject website
and the effort you put in it.

Then I would like to point you to the following article I accidentally discovered:
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-Z3fold-Removal-Coming
because you use z3fold on your page "Speed up your Mint". In order to make this
article future proof you might consider changing from z3fold to zsmalloc in the

/etc/default/grub file:
from
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash zswap.enabled=1 zswap.zpool=z3fold zswap.compressor=lz4"
to
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash zswap.enabled=1 zswap.zpool=zsmalloc zswap.compressor=lz4"

as well as in the
/etc/initramfs-tools/modules file:
from
# raid1
# sd_mod
z3fold
to
# raid1
# sd_mod
zsmalloc

And may I suggest, that you change the command for generating the kernel images
from
sudo update-initramfs -u
to
sudo update-initramfs -uk all

so that not only the active kernel image gets updated but the possibly existing
fallback kernel images too.

I tried it on a linux mint 22.1 Xia cinnamon installation and it seems to work flawlessly.
dmesg | grep zswap
reports in its final line:
zswap: loaded using pool lz4/zsmalloc
and I didn't notice a difference to z3fold but I didn't test it much though.

I also found slides from a speech at a linux conference about swapping:
http://events17.linuxfoundation.org/sites/events/files/slides/zram1.pdf
In it ZRAM and Zswapping are compared to each other as well as zsmalloc gets
compared to zbud (unfortunately not to z3fold and used in ZRAM and not in Zswapping).
But it might be of interest to you anyway.

Thank you again and with kind regards
BeSe


_____________________________

Beat Seeholzer
Rietwiesstr. 14
8735 St. Gallenkappel
_____________________________

[Beheerder Computertip]

Vielen Dank für Ihren Tipp! Ich wusste noch nicht dass es diese wichtige Änderung gab. Schon wieder was gelernt.

Mit freundlichen Grüsse, Pjotr.

Op vrijdag 7 februari 2025 om 11:18:57 UTC+1 schreef BeSe: