Linux doesn't seem to particularly like a second swap area

[David Tonhofer, m-plify S.A.]

Hello,

I have two swap areas ("man swapon") of equal size on the same disk:

$ cat /proc/swaps
Filename                                Type            Size    Used    Priority
/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol01         partition       3145720 3047372 -1 = "higher"
/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00         partition       3145720 122880  -2 = "lower"

Linux (RHES 2.6.9-11.ELsmp) likes to fill up the high-priority swap
area but holds back on filling up the second swap area, actually
it looks like it positively tries to keep it empty!

Here's a little graph, showing that swap usage is flat and
suspiciously close to the size of one swap area:
<http://yui.m-plify.net/SwapGraph.gif>

I expected Linux to fill the first swap area and use the second one
if so needed.

Any pointers or comments?


Best

-- David