swap partition ?

I was experimenting in installing this 'etch CD' on
an old 32MB-RAM PC.
The installer warned of 'low-mem' and suggested
<setup swap as soon as possible>.

I selected all the packages except *pcmia* to be installed,
and eventually the PC hung, and the 2nd VT, via dmesg
showed <out of memory>.

Later I retried, selecting fewer packages.
But before that, as soon as the 2nd VT was live I did:
mkswap /dev/hda14 and swapon -a /dev/hda14.
hda was already a swap, as confirmed by etch's fdisk.

When it hung again, dmesg showed <no swap used
& no swap available>.

Q. how should I <make swap available, as advised by the
installer>

Most installations, prepare the destination and swap
partition/s before <selecting the package to install>.

Does this 'etch' CD sound right?

== TIA.