linux doesnt see all the ram i have

ekaqu · 10-01-2004, 05:08 PM

I have 2 sticks of 512kb of ram in my computer, windows picks it up as being 1 gig, my bios picks it up as 1 gig, linux picks it up as being 884mbs of ram. why does linux find less ram? I am using debian unstable.

is what i see with free:

ekaqu@debian:~$ free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 884 809 74 0 124 364
-/+ buffers/cache: 320 563
Swap: 611 8 603

is what i see with top:

Mem: 905332k total, 829604k used, 75728k free, 127468k buffers
Swap: 626524k total, 8244k used, 618280k free, 373340k cached

amosf · 10-01-2004, 05:18 PM

Have you tried enabling High Memory Support? (ie 4GB)

Does it see all mem when the kernel is compiled with the High Memory Support option?

ekaqu · 10-01-2004, 05:21 PM

im still using the kernel that came with the install (2.4.36) and i dont know if high memory support is on it, how would i check?

amosf · 10-01-2004, 05:35 PM

Probably not with the default kernel, tho easy to add in when you compile the kernel...

J.W. · 10-01-2004, 06:56 PM

This article does a good job of explaining this phenomenon. -- J.W.