StarTools

Hi Ivo. Once again, loving ST.

Not sure if ST uses a swap file. I'm getting crashes on all but the smallest file in ST. If ST uses swap memory, can I relocate it? I notice files in /tmp which is located on the / partition.

My Linux box has 3 partitions, including Swap, '/' and '/home'. The / partition is getting pretty full and I have relocated the swap memory to /home for another program, to solve out of memory problems.

Where should I look?

Regards,

Rowland.

Hi Rowland,

StarTools indeed uses a number of 'swap' files (.trk files), which, on Linux and MacOSX are located in the /tmp folder.
Using the tmp folder on these systems is best practice as they guarantee clean up on reboot, and in some systems (including mine) the tmp/ folder is mapped to fast-access media such as SSD or RAM disk.
On my 16Gb system, for example, the /tmp folder is mapped to a RAM disk, which allows StarTools to make the most of my RAM. Linux allows you to do all this cool stuff
The files in question are only needed in specific situations and specific times during processing (mostly when finishing a module), hence the decision to not leave it to the OS, but to take care of it myself - it's a vast improvement in speed and also allows 32-bit systems to allocate more than the theoretical 3.2Gb (often just 2Gb) in these specific cases.

SSD drives have become really cheap and (if you can afford it), are a fantastic way of enhancing system performance. I got a second 128Gb drive the other day for 90 AUD, but already have a 64Gb drive in use that comfortably fits the OS.

Cheers,

Thanks Ivo. I noticed an immediate improvement in ST performance after moving the other program swap file to my home directory.

Mapping /tmp to RAM is an excellent idea. Not sure how, but there will be a tutorial somewhere on-line. I have 8GB. Not sure of expansion slots in my machine - will have to look.

Rowland.

OK. I have edited /etc/fstab

none /tmp tmpfs defaults 0 0

Files loading at lightning speed. But the very large .fit files are crashing occassionally. Reduced size to 71% and working like a dream. Of course I could convert to 16bit which would be fine.

Thanks Ivo.

Good to hear things are working better!

I just happened upon this (for us Aussies);
http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/106436

Some very good prices for an SSD upgrade! (obligatory disclaimer that I'm not affiliated with any of these companies obviously)

Is it on the roadmap to add the ability to designate where the trk files are stored? Being a Windows user, I'd love to setup a RAM disk and just point StarTools to that for the swap...

david81 wrote:Is it on the roadmap to add the ability to designate where the trk files are stored? Being a Windows user, I'd love to setup a RAM disk and just point StarTools to that for the swap...

Hi,

Yep - a lot of folks seem to have the same request, so I'll be adding this for the final 1.3.5 release. Stay tuned!