How do I permanently disable the swap service?

If you take away execute permissions from scripts in /etc/init.d they will not run in any runlevel.  So maybe you did not quite hit the right order of things.

sudo chmod -x /etc/init.d/dphys-swapfile

sudo swapoff -a

sudo rm /var/swap

Then and after reboot free shows 0 swap.

efflandt@raspberrypi ~ $ ls /var

backups  cache  lib  local  lock  log  mail  opt  run  spool  tmp

Hi David,

Actually, the problem is with the Element14 SDCardElement14 SDCard, itself. It mysteriously becomes read-only after a month of use.

Marcos

I guess one other thing that should be done to avoid an error when symbolic links in runlevels try to run dphys-swapfile when it no longer has execute permission is to remove the symlinks with:

sudo update-rc.d -f dphys-swapfile remove

Can you still flash a new image to an SD card that became read-only?  If not, make sure that the little write protect switch on left side of SD is pushed away from you towards the contacts.  Some people have also had that issue of flash memory becoming read only in Ubuntu PC Linux, but I never have.  I did corrupt an SD card while overclock testing a Pi, but have never had any SD or other flash memory ever fail to the point that it could not be reflashed or formatted.

> make sure that the little write protect switch on left side of SD is pushed away from you towards the contacts.

I don't think this would help at all, since the RPi hardware doesn't connect up

the write-protect switch, as noted here:

http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=10775&start=1

One user suggests editing /etc/fstab to make the file system readonly:

http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=10775&start=9

With the newest Raspbian Version (on a Pi4 Rev. 1.1 / 4GB) I just changed the the Parameter CONF_SWAPSIZE to 0 in the file /etc/dphys-swapfile. After a reboot there was no Swap anymore (check with free - second line)

1. sudo nano /etc/dphys-swapfile

2. change CONF_SWAPSIZE=0

3. Save and Reboot

Thats it. This way I don't have to disable the swapservice and in case I would like to change the Swap size later it can be done by just repeating the steps above.