RAM fully detected, but not completely, not everywhere.

Shwardz · 2024-01-29 20:00:05

Hi ! I am a newcomer in the Arch community and I tried to install Steam, as the player I am. My problem is that my RAM (which should be ~ 8GB) is not recognized completely, I don't know how to explain, you will understand by reading. So, here is the output of free -m :

               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:            5864        4407         333          76        1436        1456
Swap:           2931          87        2844

As you can see, I only have 5.8 GB RAM. But if I do sudo lshw -C memory, I get :

  *-firmware                
       description: BIOS
       vendor: Insyde Corp.
       physical id: 0
       version: V1.12
       date: 11/05/2020
       size: 128KiB
       capacity: 4608KiB
       capabilities: pci upgrade shadowing cdboot bootselect edd int13floppynec int13floppytoshiba int13floppy360 int13floppy1200 int13floppy720 int13floppy2880 int9keyboard int10video acpi usb biosbootspecification uefi
  *-cache:0
       description: L1 cache
       physical id: 5
       slot: L1 - Cache
       size: 384KiB
       capacity: 384KiB
       clock: 1GHz (1.0ns)
       capabilities: pipeline-burst internal write-back unified
       configuration: level=1
  *-cache:1
       description: L2 cache
       physical id: 6
       slot: L2 - Cache
       size: 2MiB
       capacity: 2MiB
       clock: 1GHz (1.0ns)
       capabilities: pipeline-burst internal write-back unified
       configuration: level=2
  *-cache:2
       description: L3 cache
       physical id: 7
       slot: L3 - Cache
       size: 4MiB
       capacity: 4MiB
       clock: 1GHz (1.0ns)
       capabilities: pipeline-burst internal write-back unified
       configuration: level=3
  *-memory
       description: System Memory
       physical id: b
       slot: System board or motherboard
       size: 8GiB
     *-bank:0
          description: SODIMM DDR4 Synchronous Unbuffered (Unregistered) 2667 MHz (0.4 ns)
          product: HMA851S6JJR6N-VK
          vendor: Hynix
          physical id: 0
          serial: 2061AC9B
          slot: DIMM 0
          size: 4GiB
          width: 64 bits
          clock: 2667MHz (0.4ns)
     *-bank:1
          description: SODIMM DDR4 Synchronous Unbuffered (Unregistered) 2667 MHz (0.4 ns)
          product: HMA851S6JJR6N-VK
          vendor: Hynix
          physical id: 1
          serial: 2061ADB3
          slot: DIMM 0
          size: 4GiB
          width: 64 bits
          clock: 2667MHz (0.4ns)

Here's the corrected version:

As you can see in the memory section, I actually have 8 GiB of RAM, which is not 5.8 GB at all. When I was using Pop_OS!, Fedora, or even Windows for gaming, I never encountered any problems. While playing F1 22 on Windows, it indicated that I only had 5.7 GB of RAM, but I never experienced any issues with that. I read someday that basically, when my RAM was too busy, the missing part would merge to ensure enough RAM. Maybe it works like that, but, in any case, it obviously doesn't work with Arch. Can somebody help me? c: Thanks a lot.

Last edited by Shwardz (2024-01-29 20:02:53)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2024-01-29 20:19:12

Is this with an integrated AMD GPU? Some will reserve 2GiB, check the journal for confirmation (or share it here).

There is a vramlimit parameter for the amdgpu module but I think it only frees the RAM up for system usage if there is an corresponding option in the firmware settings: https://unix.stackexchange.com/question … -vramlimit

c00ter · 2024-01-30 00:31:15

Are you using zswap or zram? https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Zswap

Shwardz · 2024-01-30 09:52:20

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

Is this with an integrated AMD GPU?

No, it is a GeForce GTX 1650.

c00ter wrote:

Are you using zswap or zram?

I have zswap and the only proposed command when I do zram in the terminal is zramctl that gives me this output :

NAME       ALGORITHM DISKSIZE   DATA COMPR  TOTAL STREAMS MOUNTPOINT
/dev/zram0 zstd          2.9G 986.6M 87.3M 107.9M       8 [SWAP]

So, if I think well, I have zram too.

seth · 2024-01-30 10:11:41

You've zram and combining that w/ zswap makes no sense: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Zram#Usage_as_swap
Add a swapfile, disable the zram and see what happens to your RAM

Shwardz · 2024-01-30 15:38:56

seth wrote:

Add a swapfile, disable the zram and see what happens to your RAM

I just did this, and nothing changed concerning the displayed amount of RAM but I now have a Swap.

seth · 2024-01-30 15:40:10

Please post your complete system journal for the boot:

sudo journalctl -b | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

Shwardz · 2024-01-30 17:06:02

seth wrote:

Please post your complete system journal for the boot:

Here it is : http://0x0.st/HDaD.txt

I cannot send it directly because it's too long, I hope it works.

seth · 2024-01-30 17:12:52

Jan 30 17:41:58 Arch-Stan kernel: Memory: 5920648K/6228620K available (16384K kernel code, 2141K rwdata, 13228K rodata, 3436K init, 3760K bss, 307712K reserved, 0K cma-reserved)

Most likely because

Jan 30 17:42:02 Arch-Stan kernel: amdgpu: ATOM BIOS: 113-PICASSO-117

and the nvidia GPU doesn't look like a VGA device (ie. there's no crtc)

lspci

Shwardz · 2024-01-30 19:44:29

Seth, sorry but I did not understand your answer. Maybe because of my lack of experience. Btw, what is the link between RAM and GPU ? And here is the output of lspci :

00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Root Complex
00:00.2 IOMMU: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 IOMMU
00:01.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 17h (Models 00h-1fh) PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
00:01.1 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 PCIe GPP Bridge [6:0]
00:01.2 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 PCIe GPP Bridge [6:0]
00:01.6 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 PCIe GPP Bridge [6:0]
00:01.7 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 PCIe GPP Bridge [6:0]
00:08.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 17h (Models 00h-1fh) PCIe Dummy Host Bridge
00:08.1 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Internal PCIe GPP Bridge 0 to Bus A
00:08.2 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Internal PCIe GPP Bridge 0 to Bus B
00:14.0 SMBus: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SMBus Controller (rev 61)
00:14.3 ISA bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH LPC Bridge (rev 51)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Device 24: Function 0
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Device 24: Function 1
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Device 24: Function 2
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Device 24: Function 3
00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Device 24: Function 4
00:18.5 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Device 24: Function 5
00:18.6 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Device 24: Function 6
00:18.7 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven/Raven2 Device 24: Function 7
01:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation TU117M [GeForce GTX 1650 Mobile / Max-Q] (rev a1)
02:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: SK hynix BC501 NVMe Solid State Drive
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 25)
04:00.0 Network controller: Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter (rev 32)
05:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Picasso/Raven 2 [Radeon Vega Series / Radeon Vega Mobile Series] (rev c2)
05:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Raven/Raven2/Fenghuang HDMI/DP Audio Controller
05:00.2 Encryption controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 17h (Models 10h-1fh) Platform Security Processor
05:00.3 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven USB 3.1
05:00.4 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Raven USB 3.1
05:00.6 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] Family 17h/19h HD Audio Controller
06:00.0 SATA controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] FCH SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 61)

seth · 2024-01-30 20:38:37

Btw, what is the link between RAM and GPU ?

Scroll up to comment #2, the correct answer is "yes, I have and I'm now gonna check my firmware settings"

Shwardz · 2024-01-31 11:37:40

seth wrote:

Scroll up to comment #2, the correct answer is "yes, I have and I'm now gonna check my firmware settings"

Yes, sorry. I misunderstood the answer. Despite this, I see now that I have no option to disable my integrated graphic card in my BIOS. I tried to reduce the size of VRAM used by the iGPU but with inconclusive results. Is it able to disable my iGPU and, if yes, how is it possible, please ? Thanks a lot for helping.

seth · 2024-01-31 13:34:37

Tried how and why and how exactly were the results "inconclusive2?
You can ignore the iGP but that's not very likely to add some RAM (it's not announced by the DMI, the fix will have to come from the firmware)

dmesg | grep 'kernel: Memory:'

is the relevant line here.

If anything you could maybe https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Swap_on_video_RAM

Shwardz · 2024-01-31 17:50:19

That's okay, I just bought new and larger RAM because, anyway, it was way too light for my needs. Thank you all for your answers. They helped me understand the problem, and I now know that's normal. See you

Arch Linux

#1 2024-01-29 20:00:05

RAM fully detected, but not completely, not everywhere.

#2 2024-01-29 20:19:12

Re: RAM fully detected, but not completely, not everywhere.

#3 2024-01-30 00:31:15

Re: RAM fully detected, but not completely, not everywhere.

#4 2024-01-30 09:52:20

Re: RAM fully detected, but not completely, not everywhere.

#5 2024-01-30 10:11:41

Re: RAM fully detected, but not completely, not everywhere.

#6 2024-01-30 15:38:56

Re: RAM fully detected, but not completely, not everywhere.

#7 2024-01-30 15:40:10

Re: RAM fully detected, but not completely, not everywhere.

#8 2024-01-30 17:06:02

Re: RAM fully detected, but not completely, not everywhere.

#9 2024-01-30 17:12:52

Re: RAM fully detected, but not completely, not everywhere.

#10 2024-01-30 19:44:29

Re: RAM fully detected, but not completely, not everywhere.

#11 2024-01-30 20:38:37

Re: RAM fully detected, but not completely, not everywhere.

#12 2024-01-31 11:37:40

Re: RAM fully detected, but not completely, not everywhere.

#13 2024-01-31 13:34:37

Re: RAM fully detected, but not completely, not everywhere.

#14 2024-01-31 17:50:19

Re: RAM fully detected, but not completely, not everywhere.

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