Upgraded ram to 2gb and debian only sees 1 still

AgentD · 01-23-2009, 06:42 PM

I upgraded my ram to 2gb today but debian is only registering 1gb. Windows and the bios both recognize 2gb so the ram is not deffective. Is there a config setting i need to change? I'm new linux so please spell it out in detail.

pljvaldez · 01-23-2009, 06:51 PM

What indication do you have that linux only sees 1GB?

AgentD · 01-23-2009, 07:35 PM

top says Mem: 906792k total

System Monitor says user memory: 157.8mb of 885.5mb

let me know if there is another output you prefer to use.

Dutch Master · 01-23-2009, 07:58 PM

What is the output of:

Code:

uname -a
cat /proc/meminfo | grep MemTotal

Copy/paste each command to the terminal, then copy/paste the answer back. Use the code tags for your data in the reply!

Quakeboy02 · 01-23-2009, 09:07 PM

Is this an older version? Sarge maybe? In any case, 883MB or 885MB is usually an indication that you need a different kernel; the one that is HIGHMEM4G enabled. If you tell us which version of Debian you're using maybe someone can give you the help you need. For some reason, I'm thinking that the first kernel upgrade from Debian on a new Etch install fixes this.

AgentD · 01-23-2009, 11:07 PM

debian:~# uname -a
Linux debian 2.6.18-6-486 #1 Fri Dec 12 16:18:30 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux

debian:~# cat /proc/meminfo | grep MemTotal
MemTotal: 906792 kB

I'm running debian etch(4.0R3)

Quakeboy02 · 01-23-2009, 11:20 PM

I think you need the -686 instead of the -486 in the version to get the bigmem kernel. Bring up synaptic and see what you get when you search on "linux-image". In Lenny, it's linux-image-2.6.26-1-686-bigmem. I don't know what it is in Etch. You should really think about installing Lenny, BTW.

AgentD · 01-23-2009, 11:32 PM

I found a new linux-image and will try that. As far as upgrading to lenny, where would I find the iso at? Is Lenny the new stable release or is it experimental?

AgentD · 01-23-2009, 11:42 PM

I tried installing a new linux-image with synaptic but when I rebooted and ran uname i got the same output. Do I have to do something special to install a new kernel?

AgentD · 01-24-2009, 12:03 AM

I reinstalled grub onto the MBR of my main drive and it listed the new image. I now have Linux debian 2.6.18-6-686 #1 SMP Fri Dec 12 16:48:28 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux
installed. It's not the bigmem as I only have 2 gigs of ram and this one works fine. Thanks for the help!

Quakeboy02 · 01-24-2009, 12:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AgentD

I reinstalled grub onto the MBR of my main drive and it listed the new image. I now have Linux debian 2.6.18-6-686 #1 SMP Fri Dec 12 16:48:28 UTC 2008 i686 GNU/Linux
installed. It's not the bigmem as I only have 2 gigs of ram and this one works fine. Thanks for the help!

Glad we could help!

Lenny is not yet the "stable" Debian, but it will be soon. I've been using it for months, and it's a big improvement over Etch, IMO. The only thing of note (to me) that's missing at this point is "xwine" although "wine" is there.

AgentD · 01-24-2009, 01:23 PM

a little off topic but I downloaded and installed lenny as a third boot on my machine (windows and etch are the other two) but I can't seem to install kde4. Any ideas where the packages are listed in synaptics using lenny? what should my sources.list look like? My current sources is as follows.

Code:

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ lenny main non-free contrib
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ lenny main non-free contrib

deb http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main non-free contrib
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main non-free contrib

mase · 01-24-2009, 01:29 PM

Look here:

http://kde4.debian.net/