[lug] Adding memory to a KRUD 7.x system

[Elyse Grasso]

I just ordered some more memory for my Linux laptop (Dell is having a sale: 
25% off plus free shipping), and it occurs to me that 2.4.x kernels are 
cranky about swap space vs physical ram size. When I upgraded from Redhat 7.0 
that came installed on the system to KRUD 7.1, the installer insisted on 
increasing my swap space. 

I currently have (with 128 megs of ram):

[root at xerxes /root]# swapon -s
Filename                        Type            Size    Used    Priority
/dev/hda7                       partition       136512  26704   -1
/SWAP                           file            125944  0       -2

I will be upgrading my memory to 512Megs, maxing out the machine. 

Does anyone know what I will need to do to increase the swap space?  
Can I avoid repartitioning my 20 Gig hard drive as the installataion package 
seems to have done? 
Would I be better off repartitioning my hard drive? Is there a way to do that 
without dumping and reloading the all of the partitions? (I have Partition 
Magic on my other machine, so I have gotten spoiled.)

Note: the Laptop came with Linux installed and is not dual boot. I should be 
receiving KRUD 7.2 any day now, and do plan to upgrade. (Should I wait 'til 
the new ram arrives and do both upgrades at once?)

Elyse Grasso

ps. I feel old. The very first hard drive I owned was 20 megs, and I think I 
still have an old hard drive mounted in one of my machines that is smaller 
than 512 megs.