Country Block

mentalhemroids

Are you blocking outbound traffic?

Yes, I tried this website and made sure it resolved to Russia and it still lets me go to it.
http://www.prodisney.ru/index.php?page=clones.php

My system logs keep showing this.. and after saving settings I get the exit code message.

Sep 21 09:28:03 php: /packages/countryblock/countryblock.php: The command 'rm lists/temp' returned exit code '1', the output was 'rm: lists/temp: No such file or directory'
Sep 21 09:27:47 php: /packages/countryblock/countryblock.php: The command 'rm lists/temp' returned exit code '1', the output was 'rm: lists/temp: No such file or directory'
Sep 21 09:05:39 root: Countryblock was found not running
Sep 21 09:05:34 root: IP-Blocklist was found not running
Sep 21 09:05:22 root: Countryblock was found not running
Sep 21 09:05:16 root: IP-Blocklist was found not running

mentalhemroids

Just tried the site again after saving and applying - squid isn't letting it come up now. I'm going to try a couple others.

194.226.127.34 - http://eng.kremlin.ru/ is blocked now.
203.199.104.241 - http://www.airindia.in is blocked… so maybe it is working...

I'll keep testing. Thanks!

Update Since a little bit ago I'm getting these again...

Sep 21 10:09:45 php: /pkg_edit.php: Reloading Squid for configuration sync
Sep 21 10:09:45 check_reload_status: Reloading filter
Sep 21 10:09:45 check_reload_status: Syncing firewall
Sep 21 10:09:44 check_reload_status: Reloading filter
Sep 21 10:09:44 php: /pkg_edit.php: Reloading Squid for configuration sync
Sep 21 10:01:40 root: Countryblock was found not running
Sep 21 10:01:35 root: IP-Blocklist was found not running
Sep 21 10:01:23 root: Countryblock was found not running
Sep 21 10:01:17 root: IP-Blocklist was found not running
Sep 21 10:01:12 php: /pkg_edit.php: Reloading Squid for configuration sync
Sep 21 10:01:11 check_reload_status: Reloading filter
Sep 21 10:01:11 check_reload_status: Syncing firewall
Sep 21 10:01:11 check_reload_status: Reloading filter
Sep 21 10:01:11 php: /pkg_edit.php: Reloading Squid for configuration sync

tommyboy180

The way you have your system configured (addons or packages) is causing your filter to be re-generated. Countryblock only reacts to that event and restarts. What your seeing is the package responding to system events.

mentalhemroids

@tommyboy180:

The way you have your system configured (addons or packages) is causing your filter to be re-generated. Countryblock only reacts to that event and restarts. What your seeing is the package responding to system events.

So you are saying that these kind of messages are normal to see and are not concerning? I'm just trying to make sure I don't put more effort than needed with troubleshooting. Thanks! :)

Sep 21 11:11:19 php: : The command '/usr/local/pkg/pf/countryblock.sh start' returned exit code '1', the output was 'not running root: Countryblock was found not running Status: 404 Not Found Content-type: text/html No input file specified. 1 table deleted. 134 19 rm: /tmp/rules.debug.tmp: No such file or directory rm: /tmp/rules.debug.tmp: No such file or directory 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189
Sep 21 11:11:19 root: Countryblock was found not running
Sep 21 11:11:19 php: : The command '/usr/local/pkg/pf/IP-Blocklist.sh start' returned exit code '1', the output was 'not running root: IP-Blocklist was found not running 0 table deleted. 1 table deleted. rm: /tmp/rules.debug.tmp: No such file or directory rm: /tmp/rules.debug.tmp: No such file or directory 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 20
Sep 21 11:11:19 root: IP-Blocklist was found not running
Sep 21 11:11:13 check_reload_status: Reloading filter
Sep 21 11:11:11 check_reload_status: Syncing firewall

mentalhemroids

Just checked it again and it stopped running and is not even enabled anymore and I can get to sites again - I have this error above SAVE.

Current Status = NOT running
/tmp/rules.debug:119: cannot load "/usr/local/www/packages/ipblocklist/lists/ipfw.ipfw": No such file or directory
You are blocking 0 Networks

When I try to restart or enable and SAVE the message comes up again and the enable box is deselected.

woc38

@tommyboy180:

The logs can be ignored. There is a lot of output that is a little confusing. You get a lot of errors because there are several different installs out there and the package is built for stability on multiple install types. Those errors are repeated because the firewall filter gets regenerated when a system change occurs, which can be very frequent depending on your setup, and countryblock runs its script to ensure it's running when this happens.

Basically if it says it's running and there are networks being blocked then it's working 100% because it queries that directly from the firewall rules.

Ok, thanks. I will 'ignore' the entries in the system log and look at the package page for its status.

tommyboy180

Countryblock Version 2.4 released!

Country selection is saved on system to ease updates
Corrected issues with uninstall
Removed Email
Widget is now available for pfsense 2.0

woc38

@tommyboy180:

Countryblock Version 2.4 released!

Country selection is saved on system to ease updates

Corrected issues with uninstall

Removed Email

Widget is now available for pfsense 2.0

Thanks! I updated the package (by using the pkg button in the Installed Packages menu). Seems to work fine for now.

Can you tell me more about the Widget? I'm running 2.0 Release, but I can't find the widget in the "add-list" in the dashboard…

tommyboy180

If you did a re-install from the menu then you will need to uninstall and re-install. That may be why you don't have the widget.

FYI everyone: The re-install package button does not work for a reason. You will need to uninstall and re-install.

woc38

Thanks, the widget is working now!

D0X

Does this plugin makes any sense on a pfsense installation with no inbound WAN rules?
When everything incoming is being blocked, does this package add something?
Does it work outbound?

And secondly, where can i find the logs for this package, Enable logging is checked?

tommyboy180

@D0X:

Does this plugin makes any sense on a pfsense installation with no inbound WAN rules?
When everything incoming is being blocked, does this package add something?
Does it work outbound?

And secondly, where can i find the logs for this package, Enable logging is checked?

This questions have been answered many time in this topic. Please search next time.

It does make sense. You can't prevent a DDoS/DoS attack even if you block all incoming. What about port scans, or any unwanted traffic? This does that.
It does block outbound. Logs are stored in the firewall logs.

There are 2 billion users connected to the Internet - China is the leader and U.S. is second
There are 2015 more devices connected than people
There are 260 billion Facebook views per month
There are 68,000 hacker tools on the web
Botnet sends out 69 billion messages every day
Samsung smart phones were shipped with malware
U.S. customs confiscated 5.6 million fake chips
Social networking exploitation is expected to take over email exploitation
There are 50 billion devices online - 2 trillion GB of data
There is an average of 10 million lines of code in the average car coming off the assembly line
There are 25 million apps
There are millions of malicious web sites every year - 95% of threats comes from web sites
Attacks have moved down from the application layer to the BIOS and CPU layer
There are 2000 new root kits per da
MacAfee labs get about 200,000 malicious codes to review every day
There are about 65 million malware out in the wild (Mobile malware, Botnet infections, and new malware every sites per day)
We are 95% unprotected - Security is not being built into apps etc.

Counutryblock gives you that much more power to help secure your network even more. Turn that 95% unprotected into 30% unprotected.

Nachtfalke

Hi,

I am using i386 release and installed Country Block today the first time:

I got this in System Logs:

Oct 7 21:59:54 	php: /packages/countryblock/countryblock.php: The command 'sh execute.sh' returned exit code '1', the output was '0 table deleted. 98 18 rm: /tmp/rules.debug.tmp: No such file or directory rm: /tmp/rules.debug.tmp: No such file or directory 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152'
Oct 7 21:59:53 	php: /packages/countryblock/countryblock.php: The command 'rm lists/temp' returned exit code '1', the output was 'rm: lists/temp: No such file or directory'
Oct 7 21:59:27 	php: /packages/countryblock/countryblock.php: The command 'sh execute.sh' returned exit code '1', the output was '0 table deleted. 96 18 rm: /tmp/rules.debug.tmp: No such file or directory rm: /tmp/rules.debug.tmp: No such file or directory 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150'
Oct 7 21:59:26 	php: /packages/countryblock/countryblock.php: The command 'rm lists/temp' returned exit code '1', the output was 'rm: lists/temp: No such file or directory'
Oct 7 21:58:15 	php: /packages/countryblock/countryblock.php: The command 'sh execute.sh' returned exit code '1', the output was '0 table deleted. 94 18 rm: /tmp/rules.debug.tmp: No such file or directory rm: /tmp/rules.debug.tmp: No such file or directory 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148'
Oct 7 21:58:14 	php: /packages/countryblock/countryblock.php: The command 'rm lists/temp' returned exit code '1', the output was 'rm: lists/temp: No such file or directory'
Oct 7 21:57:45 	php: /packages/countryblock/countryblock.php: The command 'sh execute.sh' returned exit code '1', the output was '0 table deleted. 92 18 rm: /tmp/rules.debug.tmp: No such file or directory rm: /tmp/rules.debug.tmp: No such file or directory 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146'
Oct 7 21:57:44 	php: /packages/countryblock/countryblock.php: The command 'rm lists/temp' returned exit code '1', the output was 'rm: lists/temp: No such file or directory'
Oct 7 21:57:33 	php: /packages/countryblock/countryblock.php: The command 'rm errorOUT.txt' returned exit code '1', the output was 'rm: errorOUT.txt: No such file or directory'
Oct 7 21:57:33 	php: /packages/countryblock/countryblock.php: The command 'rm -R /usr/local/www/packages/countryblock/lists' returned exit code '1', the output was 'rm: /usr/local/www/packages/countryblock/lists: No such file or directory'
Oct 7 21:57:23 	php: /packages/countryblock/countryblock.php: The command 'rm errorOUT.txt' returned exit code '1', the output was 'rm: errorOUT.txt: No such file or directory'
Oct 7 21:57:22 	php: /packages/countryblock/countryblock.php: The command 'rm -R /usr/local/www/packages/countryblock/lists' returned exit code '1', the output was 'rm: /usr/local/www/packages/countryblock/lists: No such file or directory'
Oct 7 21:56:32 	php: /packages/countryblock/countryblock.php: The command 'rm errorOUT.txt' returned exit code '1', the output was 'rm: errorOUT.txt: No such file or directory'
Oct 7 21:56:32 	php: /packages/countryblock/countryblock.php: The command 'rm -R /usr/local/www/packages/countryblock/lists' returned exit code '1', the output was 'rm: /usr/local/www/packages/countryblock/lists: No such file or directory'
Oct 7 21:49:02 	php: : The command '/usr/local/pkg/pf/countryblock.sh start' returned exit code '1', the output was 'not running root: Countryblock was found not running Status: 404 Not Found Content-type: text/html No input file specified. 0 table deleted. 89 18 rm: /tmp/rules.debug.tmp: No such file or directory rm: /tmp/rules.debug.tmp: No such file or directory 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144'

In countries I selected all countries but mine (Germany), then I clicked on "commit countries" and then enabled county block and then "Save/Update"

On the bottom I see this:

Current Status = NOT running
no IP address found for __csrf_magic
You are blocking 0 Networks

I am using two WAN and one LAN.
WAN1 and WAN2 is in LoadBalancing (if this is neccessary).

Am I doing something wrong ?

D0X

Ok, thanks for that response. I should have searched better.

An issue I encountered is the following;

The package regularly stops working, or doesn't work at all after restarting.
It says it is enabled and all, but I still can access websites form blocked countries.
When it does work it does not log it's actions in the regular firewall log?

I am blocking 212 countries, just for testing purposes.

edit:

Two minutes after enabling the Country Blocker service it just stops.

Oct 7 22:15:49	root: Countryblock was found not running

edit 2:

Upon stopping and starting the service again, this shows up in the log:

Oct 7 22:35:25	php: /packages/countryblock/countryblock.php: The command 'rm lists/temp' returned exit code '1', the output was 'rm: lists/temp: No such file or directory'
Oct 7 22:35:16	php: /packages/countryblock/countryblock.php: The command 'rm lists/temp' returned exit code '1', the output was 'rm: lists/temp: No such file or directory'
Oct 7 22:34:55	php: /packages/countryblock/countryblock.php: The command 'rm errorOUT.txt' returned exit code '1', the output was 'rm: errorOUT.txt: No such file or directory'
Oct 7 22:34:55	php: /packages/countryblock/countryblock.php: The command 'rm -R /usr/local/www/packages/countryblock/lists' returned exit code '1', the output was 'rm: /usr/local/www/packages/countryblock/lists: No such file or directory'
Oct 7 22:34:49	php: /packages/countryblock/countryblock.php: The command 'rm errorOUT.txt' returned exit code '1', the output was 'rm: errorOUT.txt: No such file or directory'
Oct 7 22:34:49	php: /packages/countryblock/countryblock.php: The command 'rm -R /usr/local/www/packages/countryblock/lists' returned exit code '1', the output was 'rm: /usr/local/www/packages/countryblock/lists: No such file or directory'
Oct 7 22:33:43	php: /packages/countryblock/countryblock.php: The command 'rm errorOUT.txt' returned exit code '1', the output was 'rm: errorOUT.txt: No such file or directory'
Oct 7 22:33:43	php: /packages/countryblock/countryblock.php: The command 'rm -R /usr/local/www/packages/countryblock/lists' returned exit code '1', the output was 'rm: /usr/local/www/packages/countryblock/lists: No such file or directory'

edit3:

After a night of sleep I reinstalled my whole pfsense box.
Coutry Block still refuses to work.
The message below:

Current Status = NOT running
no IP address found for __csrf_magic
You are blocking 0 Networks

I tried to enable it several times, like in the howto, and did reboot the box.
It displays this in the system log:

php: /packages/countryblock/countryblock.php: The command 'sh execute.sh' returned exit code '1', the output was '0 table deleted. 77 16 rm: /tmp/rules.debug.tmp: No such file or directory rm: /tmp/rules.debug.tmp: No such file or directory 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123'

I am getting the feeling this package doesn't like me or is just way to much beta.

mentalhemroids

I had to do a fresh install of 2.0 to get Country and IP Blocker to stop giving messages in the system log. After that it seems like Country Blocker is working okay; I am still getting this message in the system log Oct 8 08:04:06 php: /packages/countryblock/countryblock.php: The command 'rm lists/temp' returned exit code '1', the output was 'rm: lists/temp: No such file or directory'

I've tested previously posted sites and they are getting blocked. For me it seems to work better after a clean 2.0 install.

** Update **
I am getting these messages on both servers though and the Country Block still says it is running; if I say SAVE/UPDATE it starts working again.

Oct 8 19:18:36 root: Countryblock was found not running
Oct 8 19:18:29 root: Countryblock was found not running

Update After telling it to SAVE/UPDATE the service stopped again… does it seem related to the alarms?
Oct 9 07:19:53 root: Countryblock was found not running
Oct 9 07:19:47 root: Countryblock was found not running
Oct 9 07:19:40 check_reload_status: Reloading filter
Oct 9 07:19:40 check_reload_status: Reloading filter
Oct 9 07:19:30 apinger: alarm canceled: WAN(70.239..) *** down ***
Oct 9 07:19:30 apinger: ALARM: WAN(70.239..) *** down ***
Oct 9 07:19:12 root: Countryblock was found not running
Oct 9 07:19:08 root: Countryblock was found not running
Oct 9 07:19:00 check_reload_status: Reloading filter
Oct 9 07:19:00 check_reload_status: Reloading filter
Oct 9 07:18:50 apinger: alarm canceled: WAN(70.239..) *** down ***
Oct 9 07:18:50 apinger: ALARM: WAN(70.239..) *** down ***
Oct 9 07:17:32 root: Countryblock was found not running
Oct 9 07:17:31 dhclient: Creating resolv.conf
Oct 9 07:17:31 dhclient: RENEW
Oct 9 07:17:27 root: Countryblock was found not running
Oct 9 07:17:20 check_reload_status: Reloading filter
Oct 9 07:17:20 check_reload_status: Reloading filter
Oct 9 07:17:10 apinger: alarm canceled: WAN(70.239..) *** down ***
Oct 9 07:17:10 apinger: ALARM: WAN(70.239..) *** down ***
Oct 9 07:12:46 php: /packages/countryblock/countryblock.php: The command 'rm lists/temp' returned exit code '1', the output was 'rm: lists/temp: No such file or directory'

Luzemario

Hello,

My machine is a Celeron 1.7GHz with 256MB ram only. I am getting the error below:

Current Status = NOT running
/tmp/rules.debug:87: cannot define table countryblock: Cannot allocate memory
You are blocking 0 Networks

What are the minimum prerequisites for 0.2.4 version?

Thanks

tommyboy180

There are no minimum requirements; It all depends on your usage. You can either minimize countryblock's usage or expand your RAM.

Luzemario

Sorry… An memory module was badly inserted, giving only 128MB of ram to system.

I am wondering how much ram memory CIDR table needs to get loaded.

System activity (CountryBlocks not running):

last pid: 61581; load averages: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00 up 0+02:26:21 13:27:14
104 processes: 2 running, 85 sleeping, 17 waiting

Mem: 40M Active, 34M Inact, 40M Wired, 32M Buf, 108M Free
Swap: 512M Total, 512M Free

PID USERNAME PRI NICE SIZE RES STATE TIME WCPU COMMAND
11 root 171 ki31 0K 8K RUN 140:01 98.19% idle
56575 root 48 0 34140K 21968K piperd 0:07 1.66% php
12 root -32 - 0K 136K WAIT 0:47 0.00% {swi4: clock}
0 root 76 0 0K 56K sched 0:41 0.00% {swapper}
12 root -68 - 0K 136K WAIT 0:10 0.00% {irq11: vr0 ehci0}
6364 root 76 20 3656K 1496K wait 0:05 0.00% sh
45484 root 44 0 3316K 1336K select 0:05 0.00% apinger
56548 root 76 0 33116K 19020K accept 0:04 0.00% php
50217 root 44 0 6588K 4808K kqread 0:03 0.00% lighttpd
12 root -68 - 0K 136K WAIT 0:02 0.00% {irq10: ral0 uhci}
14 root -16 - 0K 8K - 0:02 0.00% yarrow
60024 dhcpd 44 0 8436K 5100K select 0:01 0.00% dhcpd
4 root -8 - 0K 8K - 0:01 0.00% g_down
22 root 44 - 0K 8K syncer 0:01 0.00% syncer
3 root -8 - 0K 8K - 0:01 0.00% g_up
27717 root 44 0 4944K 2512K select 0:01 0.00% syslogd
2 root -8 - 0K 8K - 0:01 0.00% g_event
2651 root 64 20 7824K 5880K select 0:01 0.00% {siproxd}

tommyboy180

Like I said it depends on your usage. If you block a small country range then you won't need much RAM at all, but if you're blocking large ranges then you will need more RAM.

Luzemario

Thanks for the info. Usually I let only my country unblocked (Brazil), leaving all other countries checked. Despite this, I can't understand why I have 512MB of swap, and it is not used during table loading. Could you explain how loading is done (it is a RAM-only function)?

Thank you for your time.