Missing ram on slackware 13 (can't remember 64 or 32 bit)

ps1x0 · 07-16-2011, 08:56 AM

Hey,

I had to restart my machine after some time (~200 days), and after the restart it had only 2 GB ram out of 6 GB (2213MB). I can't go in person to the machine... Any suggestions?

george-lappies · 07-16-2011, 08:58 AM

Well if its 32 bit is it running a PAE kernel with 64GB ram enabled? Did it pickup all the ram before and now not anymore?

ps1x0 · 07-16-2011, 09:00 AM

If it's 32 bit, yes. I usually re-compile the kernel using PAE. But it had 6 gb's of ram before I rebooted the machine.

dugan · 07-16-2011, 09:01 AM

If you have remote access to the machine, then you can easily tell whether it's 32-bit or 64-bit. You can check /var/log/packages or for the existence of /usr/lib64.

trademark91 · 07-16-2011, 09:03 AM

or just run

Code:

uname -m

ps1x0 · 07-16-2011, 09:04 AM

uname -m
i686

disturbed1 · 07-16-2011, 08:55 PM

Look for PAE and HIGHMEM support in the running kernel -

Code:

zcat /proc/config.gz |grep PAE
CONFIG_X86_PAE=y

zcat /proc/config.gz |grep CONFIG_HIGHMEM
# CONFIG_HIGHMEM4G is not set
CONFIG_HIGHMEM64G=y
CONFIG_HIGHMEM=y

If the kernel is configured to support more than 4GiB RAM, then it's possibly a hardware failure, or (gasp!) someone took parts out of your machine.

You can check what the bios reports as installed RAM with dmidecode (caution lots of output pipe through less). Though - if a module has failed the BIOS will treat the failed module the same as it would an uninstalled module.

Code:

dmidecode |less
-------stuff------

This might work as well

Code:

dmidecode |grep -A7 "Memory Module Information"
Memory Module Information
        Socket Designation: A0
        Bank Connections: 1
        Current Speed: 155 ns
        Type: Other Unknown EDO
        Installed Size: 1024 MB (Double-bank Connection)
        Enabled Size: 1024 MB (Double-bank Connection)
        Error Status: OK
--
Memory Module Information
        Socket Designation: A1
        Bank Connections: 2
        Current Speed: 155 ns
        Type: Other Unknown EDO
        Installed Size: 2048 MB (Double-bank Connection)
        Enabled Size: 2048 MB (Double-bank Connection)
        Error Status: OK
--
Memory Module Information
        Socket Designation: A2
        Bank Connections: 3
        Current Speed: 155 ns
        Type: Other Unknown EDO
        Installed Size: 2048 MB (Double-bank Connection)
        Enabled Size: 2048 MB (Double-bank Connection)
        Error Status: OK
--
Memory Module Information
        Socket Designation: A3
        Bank Connections: 4
        Current Speed: 155 ns
        Type: Other Unknown EDO
        Installed Size: 2048 MB (Double-bank Connection)
        Enabled Size: 2048 MB (Double-bank Connection)
        Error Status: OK

As you can see I have 4 sticks of RAM in that PC, 3 x 2GiB and 1 x 1GiB
cat /proc/meminfo
MemTotal: 7158192 kB

ps1x0 · 07-16-2011, 10:15 PM

Code:

zcat /proc/config.gz |grep PAE
zcat /proc/config.gz |grep CONFIG_HIGHMEM
CONFIG_HIGHMEM4G=y
# CONFIG_HIGHMEM64G is not set
CONFIG_HIGHMEM=y

Code:

dmidecode |grep -A7 "Memory Device"
Memory Device
        Array Handle: 0x003B
        Error Information Handle: Not Provided
        Total Width: 72 bits
        Data Width: 64 bits
        Size: 1024 MB
        Form Factor: DIMM
        Set: 1
--
Memory Device Mapped Address
        Starting Address: 0x00000000000
        Ending Address: 0x0003FFFFFFF
        Range Size: 1 GB
        Physical Device Handle: 0x003D
        Memory Array Mapped Address Handle: 0x003C
        Partition Row Position: 1
        Interleave Position: 1
--
Memory Device
        Array Handle: 0x003B
        Error Information Handle: Not Provided
        Total Width: 72 bits
        Data Width: 64 bits
        Size: 1024 MB
        Form Factor: DIMM
        Set: 2
--
Memory Device Mapped Address
        Starting Address: 0x00040000000
        Ending Address: 0x0007FFFFFFF
        Range Size: 1 GB
        Physical Device Handle: 0x003F
        Memory Array Mapped Address Handle: 0x003C
        Partition Row Position: 1
        Interleave Position: 1
--
Memory Device
        Array Handle: 0x003B
        Error Information Handle: Not Provided
        Total Width: 72 bits
        Data Width: 64 bits
        Size: 1024 MB
        Form Factor: DIMM
        Set: 1
--
Memory Device Mapped Address
        Starting Address: 0x00080000000
        Ending Address: 0x000BFFFFFFF
        Range Size: 1 GB
        Physical Device Handle: 0x0041
        Memory Array Mapped Address Handle: 0x003C
        Partition Row Position: 1
        Interleave Position: 1
--
Memory Device
        Array Handle: 0x003B
        Error Information Handle: Not Provided
        Total Width: Unknown
        Data Width: Unknown
        Size: No Module Installed
        Form Factor: DIMM
        Set: 2
--
Memory Device
        Array Handle: 0x003B
        Error Information Handle: Not Provided
        Total Width: 72 bits
        Data Width: 64 bits
        Size: 1024 MB
        Form Factor: DIMM
        Set: 3
--
Memory Device Mapped Address
        Starting Address: 0x000C0000000
        Ending Address: 0x000FFFFFFFF
        Range Size: 1 GB
        Physical Device Handle: 0x0044
        Memory Array Mapped Address Handle: 0x003C
        Partition Row Position: 1
        Interleave Position: 1
--
Memory Device
        Array Handle: 0x003B
        Error Information Handle: Not Provided
        Total Width: Unknown
        Data Width: Unknown
        Size: No Module Installed
        Form Factor: DIMM
        Set: 4
--
Memory Device
        Array Handle: 0x003B
        Error Information Handle: Not Provided
        Total Width: 72 bits
        Data Width: 64 bits
        Size: 1024 MB
        Form Factor: DIMM
        Set: 3
--
Memory Device Mapped Address
        Starting Address: 0x00100000000
        Ending Address: 0x0013FFFFFFF
        Range Size: 1 GB
        Physical Device Handle: 0x0047
        Memory Array Mapped Address Handle: 0x003C
        Partition Row Position: 1
        Interleave Position: 1
--
Memory Device
        Array Handle: 0x003B
        Error Information Handle: Not Provided
        Total Width: 72 bits
        Data Width: 64 bits
        Size: 1024 MB
        Form Factor: DIMM
        Set: 4
--
Memory Device Mapped Address
        Starting Address: 0x00140000000
        Ending Address: 0x0017FFFFFFF
        Range Size: 1 GB
        Physical Device Handle: 0x0049
        Memory Array Mapped Address Handle: 0x003C
        Partition Row Position: 1
        Interleave Position: 1

Code:

cat /proc/meminfo 
MemTotal:        2266824 kB
MemFree:          728736 kB
Buffers:           28068 kB
Cached:           873732 kB
SwapCached:            0 kB
Active:           819300 kB
Inactive:         650300 kB
Active(anon):     567952 kB
Inactive(anon):        0 kB
Active(file):     251348 kB
Inactive(file):   650300 kB
Unevictable:           0 kB
Mlocked:               0 kB
HighTotal:       1387384 kB
HighFree:           3348 kB
LowTotal:         879440 kB
LowFree:          725388 kB
SwapTotal:       9871932 kB
SwapFree:        9871932 kB
Dirty:                 0 kB
Writeback:             0 kB
AnonPages:        567808 kB
Mapped:            68184 kB
Slab:              31192 kB
SReclaimable:      19424 kB
SUnreclaim:        11768 kB
PageTables:         1520 kB
NFS_Unstable:          0 kB
Bounce:                0 kB
WritebackTmp:          0 kB
CommitLimit:    11005344 kB
Committed_AS:     892916 kB
VmallocTotal:     122880 kB
VmallocUsed:       12740 kB
VmallocChunk:     107776 kB
DirectMap4k:        8184 kB
DirectMap4M:      901120 kB

On dmidecode |grep -A7 "Memory Module Information" I get nothing.

disturbed1 · 07-16-2011, 10:26 PM

zcat /proc/config.gz |grep PAE
-------blank-------
CONFIG_HIGHMEM4G=y
# CONFIG_HIGHMEM64G is not set

There you go

You're kernel will not support more than 4GiB RAM. PAE is NOT set, nor is HIGHMEM64G (which selects PAE

)

Quote:

CONFIG_HIGHMEM4G
Select this if you have a 32-bit processor and between 1 and 4
gigabytes of physical RAM
Symbol: HIGHMEM4G [=n]
Type : boolean
Prompt: 4GB
Defined at arch/x86/Kconfig:1057
Depends on: <choice> && !X86_NUMAQ [=n]
Location:
-> Processor type and features
-> High Memory Support (<choice> [=y])

Quote:

CONFIG_HIGHMEM64G:
Select this if you have a 32-bit processor and more than 4
gigabytes of physical RAM.
Symbol: HIGHMEM64G [=y]
Type : boolean
Prompt: 64GB
Defined at arch/x86/Kconfig:1064
Depends on: <choice> && !M386 [=n] && !M486 [=n]
Location:
-> Processor type and features
-> High Memory Support (<choice> [=y])
Selects: X86_PAE [=y]

ps1x0 · 07-16-2011, 11:03 PM

Strangest thing is, that there were no problems before I rebooted the machine and I'm sure that I re-compiled the kernel with high mem support. And even if I didn't, shouldn't there be 3+ gb of ram.
For a few months now I was planning on "migrating" to debian but I was too lazy to do that. Now's the time

Thanks

disturbed1 · 07-17-2011, 01:41 AM

The amount of RAM reported on a 32bit system not using PAE varies greatly. Anywhere from 2GiB - 3.9GiB can be seen. Depends on too many factors - hardware address space being used (number of devices), bios, kernel, software layer ....

If it did report 6GiB before, perhaps you have multiple kernels, and your boot loader is set up to automatically choose a different kernel.

ps1x0 · 07-17-2011, 02:27 AM

Yep. Thought about that. Only one option is added in lilo.