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#1 2009-01-28 18:16:29

betamike
Member
Registered: 2009-01-28
Posts: 4

System reports less RAM then physically available

I recently had my first Arch Linux install, and everything went wonderfully save this:

The amount of RAM reported (checked via "grep MemTotal /proc/meminfo") is less then the 4GB I have.  The amount reported varies, sometimes showing up as 384MB sometimes 3.2GB, and sometimes it actually is the correct amount.

I've tried searching the forum and wiki, but I must not have phrased the queries correctly to find any information relating to this kind of problem.

Any ideas?

(Some additional info; running the i686 version on an Intel Core 2 Quad)

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#2 2009-01-28 18:27:20

SamC
Member
From: Calgary
Registered: 2008-05-13
Posts: 611
Website

Re: System reports less RAM then physically available

I presume you're on 32bit? In order to get the full amount of ram showing, you need to upgrade to 64bit or enable PAE. Also, there are many, many posts about this issue already here.

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#3 2009-01-28 18:29:47

u_no_hu
Member
Registered: 2008-06-15
Posts: 453

Re: System reports less RAM then physically available

What did you search the forum and wiki with? Because i just searched for "ram" and got this http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=63768 .  Not sure whether its helpful.


Don't be a HELP VAMPIRE. Please search before you ask.

Subscribe to The Arch Daily News.

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#4 2009-01-28 18:31:43

davvil
Member
Registered: 2008-05-06
Posts: 165

Re: System reports less RAM then physically available

I think the i686 installation is the key. The x86_64 should find the whole 4GB. For i686 there is also a kernel option for handling 4GB of memory, however it is not activated per default in arch (I think it had problems with some drivers). I don't remember the name of the option, but googling for it should find matches, I expect. If you decide to stay on i686, then you have to compile your own kernel.

Edit: Ups! SamC was quicker than me smile

Last edited by davvil (2009-01-28 18:32:54)

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#5 2009-01-28 18:32:04

betamike
Member
Registered: 2009-01-28
Posts: 4

Re: System reports less RAM then physically available

Thanks for the quick reply.  I did see the posts relating to PAE, I just hadn't seen anyone mention symptoms similar to what I was experiencing (weird amounts of ram showing up on different boots).

If PAE will fix this problem, then I'll go ahead and work on that.  Thanks again.

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#6 2009-01-28 18:36:28

betamike
Member
Registered: 2009-01-28
Posts: 4

Re: System reports less RAM then physically available

@u_no_hu for whatever reason, I never thought to just search "ram" I was going with more complex queries which ended up finding maybe 3 threads at most... next time I will definitely do a more extensive search (or at least try simplier search terms).

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