Arch Linux

AlexFera

Member

From: Romania

Registered: 2009-08-24

Posts: 10

Arch64, still only 3 GB RAM

I own a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo PI 3540 (which has 4 GB RAM installed). I have Arch64, but the memory available is only 3 GB.

$ free -mt
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          3012        252       2759          0          3         52
-/+ buffers/cache:        196       2815
Swap:            0          0          0
Total:        3012        252       2759

Someone told me that, it's because the graphic card has shared memory and it uses the 1 GB of RAM. But a few months ago, I installed ubuntu with the ubuntu-server kernel (with PAE enabled) and then I had the 4 GB of RAM.
Can someone help me?

wonder

Developer

From: Bucharest, Romania

Registered: 2006-07-05

Posts: 5,941

Website

Re: Arch64, still only 3 GB RAM

it would be usefull if you post the output  of dmesg too.

---

Give what you have. To someone, it may be better than you dare to think.

AlexFera

Member

From: Romania

Registered: 2009-08-24

Posts: 10

Re: Arch64, still only 3 GB RAM

Done.
http://pastebin.com/m6bd59a26

flamelab

Member

From: Athens, Hellas (Greece)

Registered: 2007-12-26

Posts: 2,160

Re: Arch64, still only 3 GB RAM

Possible reasons:

1)Memory remapping options in BIOS should be modified. Search in your BIOS
2)Onboard gfx card that uses your RAM.

AlexFera

Member

From: Romania

Registered: 2009-08-24

Posts: 10

Re: Arch64, still only 3 GB RAM

After some research (http://forum.ts.fujitsu.com/forum/viewt … 90&t=39045), I found that Fujitsu Siemens support claims that:

FujitsuSiemens laptops aren't meant to run 64 bit operating systems

Can you believe that?

Anyway I managed to get all the RAM, booting with the parameter

acpi=off

But this disables all power saving and the ability to access thermal data, battery information. And that's not the worst thing, now my system it's rebooting randomly.

Then I found that my Realtek LAN card it's the culprit, because it's using Power Management version 7, which apparently is not supported by the kernel. http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-977074.html

05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 02)
    Subsystem: Fujitsu Technology Solutions Device 1137
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 29
    I/O ports at 5000 [size=256]
    Memory at f6000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=4K]
    Memory at f4000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=64K]
    [virtual] Expansion ROM at f4010000 [disabled] [size=64K]
    Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 7
    Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
    Capabilities: [70] Express Endpoint, MSI 01
    Capabilities: [ac] MSI-X: Enable- Count=2 Masked-
    Capabilities: [cc] Vital Product Data
    Capabilities: [100] Advanced Error Reporting
    Capabilities: [140] Virtual Channel <?>
    Capabilities: [160] Device Serial Number 5b-01-00-00-ff-ff-00-00
    Kernel driver in use: r8169
    Kernel modules: r8169

Conclusion: Don't buy FujitsuSiemens laptops!
PS: I'm still stuck with 3 GB of RAM.

Wintervenom

Member

Registered: 2008-08-20

Posts: 1,011

Re: Arch64, still only 3 GB RAM

If you don't mind using thirty-two-bit, try compiling your kernel with PAE.

AndyRTR

Developer

From: Magdeburg/Germany

Registered: 2005-10-07

Posts: 1,642

Re: Arch64, still only 3 GB RAM

1) Try to remove the mem setting from root device line in your menu.lst

2) Can you remove the LAN device? If not try to disable it in your BIOS. If that's also not possible look what kernel module is used for it and then modinfo the module and check for powermanagement option you could disable/change in the kernel append line. If you can make sure the module is breaking it try to contact the corresponding upstream kernel module maintainer. See kernel git.

AlexFera

Member

From: Romania

Registered: 2009-08-24

Posts: 10

Re: Arch64, still only 3 GB RAM

1) If I remove the mem=4096m parameter, the computer reboots at "Loading modules"
2) I can't remove the LAN card. I can't disable it from BIOS.  So I disabled the r8169 module and now the computer doesn't reboots when i add acpi=off, but now I have 3 GB RAM. This is the modinfo for r8169, I don't think there is any option for power management.

  $ modinfo r8169
filename:       /lib/modules/2.6.31-ARCH/kernel/drivers/net/r8169.ko
version:        2.3LK-NAPI
license:        GPL
description:    RealTek RTL-8169 Gigabit Ethernet driver
author:         Realtek and the Linux r8169 crew <netdev@vger.kernel.org>
srcversion:     D78B8BF98CA80E879A8F1B2
alias:          pci:v00000001d00008168sv*sd00002410bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00001737d00001032sv*sd00000024bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v000016ECd00000116sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00001259d0000C107sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00001186d00004300sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v000010ECd00008169sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v000010ECd00008168sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v000010ECd00008167sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v000010ECd00008136sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v000010ECd00008129sv*sd*bc*sc*i*
depends:        mii
vermagic:       2.6.31-ARCH SMP preempt mod_unload 
parm:           rx_copybreak:Copy breakpoint for copy-only-tiny-frames (int)
parm:           use_dac:Enable PCI DAC. Unsafe on 32 bit PCI slot. (int)
parm:           debug:Debug verbosity level (0=none, ..., 16=all) (int)