Hi
i have installed fedora 14 32 bit my machine have 8 gb RAM and fedora14 shows on 3 gb i have checked in /proc/meminfo it shows 3 gb only same machine on fedora 11 shows complete 8 gb ...?
what is the issue ??

You need a PAE kernel for 32 bit Linux to use that ram.

The PAE kernel should be a package you can install with YUM or YAST or whatever you are using for package management.

But I don't use Fedora myself, so I don't know the name of the package you need.

BTW, any kernel package you install requires a reboot before it takes effect.

Edit: Using google for your question brought me to this page, which should either help you or give a good hint of what similar thing to look for:
http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat....i686.rpm.html

32-bit is limited to 3GB. This is the case on any OS, including Windows. If you want to use all 8GB, you either need the PAE kernel, or a 64-bit OS.

If you just installed the OS, as your post implies, I would recommend going back and re-installing the 64-bit version of Fedora.

Misleading.
Correct.

Having already installed 32-bit, switching to kernel-PAE is easy. Switching to 64-bit is not easy.

The OP may have had a good reason for selecting 32-bit. A switch to 64-bit might be a good idea, or it might be a bad idea, or it might be significant extra effort making no significant difference. So I'll stick with my suggestion of installing the kernel-PAE package as the direct answer to the OP's situation. Re-installing with 64-bit Linux is obviously and alternative, but I don't see it as the direct answer to the situation.

If your processor is PAE capable then fedora automatically download and install a PAE enabled kernel when it detects more than 4GB of RAM (Just like Ubuntu). But if for some reason it doesn't install the PAE kernel, then it's not hard to install it and get rid of the "plain" i686 kernel.

There are two reasons somebody would need more than 3GB
1) They are using a large program that consumes more than 3GB
2) They are using many programs, which collectively consume more than 3GB

The PAE kernel only solves #2, a full 64-bit OS solves both. If #1 is even a remote possibility somewhere in the distant future, he would be MUCH better served installing the 64-bit OS now, rather than hitting a brick wall later on when the system has been fully customized and set up for his needs. Reinstalling the OS at this point (assuming he just installed the 32-bit) would only take a couple of hours, compared to days of reinstalling software, reconfiguring preferences, etc. later on if/when he decides he actually needs to use more than 3GB in a single process.

Telling him that all he needs to do is install the PAE kernel and he's set, is only telling him half of the story, and might be doing him a disservice later on down the road. The best answer is to give him the full story and let him decide on his own which path he wants to take.

Before the OP answers if he needs more than 3GB for a single task or for the system in general I take the freedom to somewhat modify your post.
Ergo: Arguing if a PAE kernel or a 64 bit system would be better is simply pointless without asking the OP what the use case of that machine actually is.

Having said that:

@dev@linuxquestion#, two questions:
1. Why have you chosen to install the unsupported Fedora 14 (the only currently supported versions are 15 and 16)?
2. What is the intended use for that machine?

Thanks all for you reply i tried and both worked for me to 1)kernel-PAE and 2)64 bit also thanks again