Arch Linux

@leksey

Member

From: Russia

Registered: 2011-06-24

Posts: 19

[SOLVED] Kernel doesn't see 8gb

Sometime ago, i installed arch_x86_x64, and it use all of 8gb RAM.
I just used "pacman -Syu" for full system update. And yesterday, i learned, my system sees only 4gb RAM.
I have server with 8 gb and there I didn't update system, and it sees all 8gb RAM.

Desktop: (8GB installed, and only 4GB used)

[aleksey@archy ~]$ uname -a
Linux archy 2.6.39-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon Jun 6 22:37:55 CEST 2011 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9300 @ 2.50GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

[aleksey@archy ~]$ free 
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:       3351220    1031240    2319980          0      38508     244420
-/+ buffers/cache:     748312    2602908
Swap:      2097148          0    2097148

Server (with old kernel, 8GB installed, and all of 8GB used)

[aleksey@europe ~]$ uname -a
Linux europe 2.6.38-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Mar 30 08:47:36 CEST 2011 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6320 @ 1.86GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

[aleksey@europe ~]$ free
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:       8193592    8057876     135716          0      61420    1527112
-/+ buffers/cache:    6469344    1724248
Swap:      2097148          0    2097148

Do you have any advice for me?

Last edited by @leksey (2011-06-24 09:55:13)

graysky

Wiki Maintainer

From: :wq

Registered: 2008-12-01

Posts: 10,600

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel doesn't see 8gb

Very weird... does you machine see all 8 GB in the BIOS or in memtest?  I have an up-to-date box running kernel26-ck with the same configuration as you and all 8 are there...  how about approaching this the other way around: downgrade all the packages you upgraded and see if the amount changes if this isn't a hardware thing.  You can inspect /var/log/pacman.log to see are potentials.

$ uname -a
Linux mars 2.6.39-ck #1 SMP PREEMPT Sat Jun 18 14:19:01 EDT 2011 x86_64 Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU X3360 @ 2.83GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

$ free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          8003        946       7057          0         52        406
-/+ buffers/cache:        487       7516
Swap:            0          0          0

Last edited by graysky (2011-06-24 08:27:13)

---

CPU-optimized Linux-ck packages @ Repo-ck  • AUR packages • Zsh and other configs

@leksey

Member

From: Russia

Registered: 2011-06-24

Posts: 19

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel doesn't see 8gb

graysky
Thanks for answer, yes machine see all 8Gb in the BIOS...
When start grub it show only 37xx mbytes memeory. (the top of the screen)

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel doesn't see 8gb

When start grub it show only 37xx mbytes memeory. (the top of the screen)

That's how 32-bit systems see it. Weird.

Last edited by karol (2011-06-24 08:49:46)

@leksey

Member

From: Russia

Registered: 2011-06-24

Posts: 19

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel doesn't see 8gb

i think, It will be simple to reinstall...

@leksey

Member

From: Russia

Registered: 2011-06-24

Posts: 19

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel doesn't see 8gb

Thank you guys for helping!
I solved my issue. I don't know what happened, but about couple of month ago, I bought a new video card 9600 (PCI-E), and just put into the slot.
Today i started to investigate my BIOS setting, and saw "Memory Remap Feature" settings, it was disabled.
I decided to load default BIOS settings, and after it the system found 4Gb RAM!
Full description BIOS settings:
Memory Remap Feature [ENABLED] (It was disabled)
   PCI MMIO Allocation : 4Gb to 3328MB (It is written gray color)

Thanks!

Jimi

Member

From: Brooklyn, NY

Registered: 2009-09-25

Posts: 125

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel doesn't see 8gb

This is so weird! I had the same exact situation today!
8G of RAM desktop, only shows 4G; turns out it was my BIOS because I threw in a new HDD.

It was so weird that you just so happened to have the problem just before me. I can't believe I even saw this topic.

---

github

@leksey

Member

From: Russia

Registered: 2011-06-24

Posts: 19

Re: [SOLVED] Kernel doesn't see 8gb

Jimi
Yep, it is so weird, but i am glad if my topic helped you to solve your issue!