From the looks of the swaps proc;

ubuntu:~$ cat /proc/swaps

Filename                Type        Size    Used    Priority

/dev/sdc2                               partition   4104188 0   -1

ubuntu:~$ 

And from top:

ubuntu:~$ top



top - 09:35:37 up  9:07,  9 users,  load average: 1.43, 0.80, 1.09

Tasks: 206 total,   3 running, 202 sleeping,   0 stopped,   1 zombie

Cpu(s):  4.4%us,  2.2%sy,  0.0%ni, 50.5%id, 42.5%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.3%si,  0.0%st

Mem:   3088492k total,  2619440k used,   469052k free,   238536k buffers

Swap:  4104188k total,        0k used,  4104188k free,  1769788k cached

Both say that zero swap is actually being used.

I'm using a 64bit capable core2 duo dell laptop with 4gigs of ram running 32bit ubuntu precise on a persistent live USB stick.

I may be answering my own question but I wonder if the liveUSB stick nature of the environment is somehow related...

Let me know if you need more information.