swap-file-creator

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Adds encrypted swap file to the system.

Introduction

swap-file-creator adds an encrypted swap file to the system. On every boot, it creates a new encrypted swapfile with a random password.

This is useful for systems with low RAM such as those inside virtual machines. Prevents common cases of freezing of VMs with low RAM during upgrades.

It has an ENOUGH_RAM setting which defaults to 1950 MB. If there is more than enough RAM, it will not advice to increase RAM.

An optional option exists to shred the swapfile on shutdown but this is slow.

For further information, see: https://github.com/Kicksecure/swap-file-creator

Installation

Platform dependent.

• Kicksecure: Available. Installed by default. Otherwise, see footnote.
• Kicksecure-Qubes: Unsupported.

Configuration

The config file is located at /etc/default/swap-file-creator. Here you can change various parameters for the swapfile creation such as the path for where to create the swapfile at startup.

Open file /etc/default/swap-file-creator in an editor with root rights.

Kicksecure

See Open File with Root Rights for detailed instructions on why to use sudoedit for better security and how to use it.

sudoedit /etc/default/swap-file-creator

Kicksecure for Qubes

NOTES:

• When using Kicksecure-Qubes, this needs to be done inside the Template.

sudoedit /etc/default/swap-file-creator

• After applying this change, shutdown the Template.
• All App Qubes based on the Template need to be restarted if they were already running.
• This is a general procedure required for Qubes and unspecific to Kicksecure for Qubes.

Others and Alternatives

• This is just an example. Other tools could achieve the same goal.
• If this example does not work for you or if you are not using Kicksecure, please refer to this link.

sudoedit /etc/default/swap-file-creator

For example, to set a custom swap file size of 1024 MB, add.

SWAP_FILE_SIZE_CUSTOM_MB=1024

Save.

Done. Settings will be applied after reboot (or when swap-file-creator is restarted).

Other configuration options.

• SWAPFILE=/var/swapfile

Check Swap File Size

sudo du -sh /var/swapfile

Functionality Test

To check it is working correctly, check the amount of free and used memory in the system.

free -m

Next, enable swapping and display the swap usage summary.

sudo swapon -s

For troubleshooting purposes, Check Daemon Log and search for unit-name: swap-file-creator.

Live Mode

swap-file-creator does not run if live mode is detected.

Debugging

Only required in case of issues. Otherwise the user can skip this wiki chapter.

Error States

In case swap-file-creator is failing at boot time, it does not break the boot process.

For example, host kernel versions other than the one recommended on the recommended VirtualBox version wiki page are are likely to break VirtualBox VMs in many ways if these are unsupported by VirtualBox. In this case, swap-file-creator might be broken and this being the only visible error but this still does not break the boot process. However, when using kernel versions unsupported by VirtualBox, many other things will be broken and the system will be unbootable anyhow.

Manual Swap File Creation

TODO: document

Disable

sudo systemctl stop swap-file-creator

sudo systemctl disable swap-file-creator

sudo rm -f /var/swapfile

Development

• main source code file: https://github.com/Kicksecure/swap-file-creator/blob/master/usr/share/swap-file-creator/swap-file-creator
• systemd unit file: https://github.com/Kicksecure/swap-file-creator/blob/master/usr/lib/systemd/system/swap-file-creator.service
• https://github.com/Kicksecure/swap-file-creator

See Also

• RAM Adjusted Desktop Starter

Footnotes

Kicksecure A secure by default operating system with the latest security research in place.

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