Where is my RAM consumed??!

johnsfine · 09-14-2009, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by i92guboj

You can try to install cpufreq (or whatever it's called in ubuntu) if it's not already installed. Then this command might tell you something:

Code:

cpufreq-info

I just tried something similar in Centos 5.3 because I was curious about a specific server I use. Can you interpret the output for me? That may also save some turn around time if Drycola gets similar output.

I just installed cpufreq-utils-005-1.el5.x86_64.rpm
I did not install any other part of cpufreq.
The output from cpufreq-info was

Code:

no or unknown cpufreq driver is active on this CPU

Does that definitely mean there is no hardware support for cpufreq on this system?

Or is there likely to be some kernel module that could be added that would provide cpufreq support? I have the default 64 bit Centos 5.3 kernel, which I expect would have a very wide range of hardware support, but I don't know what obscure hardware support was left out.

Or is the error message misleading and just means the daemon for cpufreq isn't installed?

i92guboj · 09-14-2009, 11:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnsfine

I just tried something similar in Centos 5.3 because I was curious about a specific server I use. Can you interpret the output for me? That may also save some turn around time if Drycola gets similar output.

I just installed cpufreq-utils-005-1.el5.x86_64.rpm
I did not install any other part of cpufreq.
The output from cpufreq-info was

Code:

no or unknown cpufreq driver is active on this CPU

The driver it speaks of is a kernel module. Most modern distros should autodetect and load them in most cases, so it could be that there's no module matching your cpu (or that simply your cpu doesn't support the feature). But it could also be that it's failing to autoload the module for some reason. What kind of cpu are we talking about?

Most cpu's supporting the feature should work with the acpi-cpufreq kernel module if no specific module exist. Others are powernow-k8 (amd k8 cpus), powernow-k7 (for athlon and athlon-xp cpu's and probably some similar ones) and speedstep-centrino and p4-clockmod for intel cpu's, though I don't know much about these two.

As said, I know very little about Ubuntu, but being a jack-of-all-trades distro that supposed to work out of the box, I guess that the stock Ubuntu kernel will include all of them by default. You could try modprobing these one by one and seeing if dmesg or the cpufreq tools report something after each modprobe.

Drycola · 09-14-2009, 02:37 PM

I've used this command

Code:

sudo lspci -v | grep -A20 -i vga

and got this:

Code:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
        Subsystem: Dell Unknown device 0149
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
        Memory at e0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
        Memory at f6f80000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
        Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 1

00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
        Subsystem: Intel Corporation Unknown device 24c0
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
        I/O ports at bf80 [size=32]

00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
        Subsystem: Intel Corporation Unknown device 24c0
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
        I/O ports at bf40 [size=32]

00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
        Subsystem: Intel Corporation Unknown device 24c0
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
        I/O ports at bf20 [size=32]

I could not understand precisely what is this, where exactly is my video card RAM ???

Drycola · 09-14-2009, 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnsfine

The output from cpufreq-info was

Code:

no or unknown cpufreq driver is active on this CPU

Same for me on Ubuntu, what does it mean????

i92guboj · 09-14-2009, 03:12 PM

According to the info above it seems to have 128 mb of dedicated ram.

The cpufreq driver means that there's no driver loaded to enable cpufreqd in your cpu. As I said above, it could mean either that the OS didn't load it for some reason (i.e., it's not been compiled in your kernel or as a module) or that your cpu simply isn't supported or does not have the feature.

syg00 · 09-14-2009, 04:56 PM

The video memory is set in the BIOS - 1M or 8M (the latter only appeared on later BIOS upgrades). After startup the O/S sets the wanted video size - for years on Windoze could do this.
A patch for Linux was built to get around this (855patch is an example) - had to run prior to X start. Then X config had to be set up correctly - these days the i810 and intel drivers handle it automagically. But it is still a dog.
Very old, and very hard to get modern distros to install and work. I have an 1100 running Jaunty and Arch - but it really is getting ready for the bin.

Drycola · 09-14-2009, 07:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by i92guboj

According to the info above it seems to have 128 mb of dedicated ram.

But in windows it appears to be 64MB! So how can I figure out what is exactly my video memory?? (as I have started to think about selling this Inspiron 1100 but I should know its precise details including video memory so as not to get lower price for it)

Thanks

linuxraja · 09-16-2009, 08:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drycola

Hello Everyone

Please guide me to a solution since I'm having slow permormance which 'as I think' is caused of low memory.

I'm running Ubuntu 7.10 on DELL Inspiron 1100 Laptop with 512MB RAM (8M are used exclusively for video card).
I use Gnome, Compiz-Fusion, Emerald, 2 Panels, & 11 Desktops.
I've added the System Monitor applet to trace my hardware performance, the Memory appears almost used up! The indicator tells that:
54% in use by programs
38% in use as cache

When I opened the System Monitor & summed up the processes memory it appeared exactly 76.172MB.
If this memory is the 54% used this will mean that my memory is no more than 141MB instead of 512MB !!!!!

Where IS my memory going?? and what is that cache taking 38% of my 'supposed' memory??? Is it possible to clear that 'cache'??

And how can I reduce my RAM consumption?
Thanks in advance...

Have you thought abt upgrading ur RAM. I remember my college PC had 1 GB RAM - and that was around 8 yrs back !

linux

bendib · 09-19-2009, 05:12 PM

Did you enable swap? If not, do not resize your partiton to get swap, it's dangerous, instead, add an old hard drive internally and use it as a swap disk. 512MB is not a lot, 1GB is now considered too little, but here is what you must remember, when you install linux without swap, it has to load everything into RAM that you launch, and eventually it will run out, seizing up the system. This is why, fedora, a rather large distro can run comfortably and speedily on a system with 256MB of RAM and a P4 1.5Ghz if you give it a gig of swap. If you have swap enabled, 56% is good for 512. Be thankful. XP without it's slow swapfile would be much worse. Linux will just use it's swap partition when it gets low, so don't worry.

EDIT: If you mean you are worried because it says it's only using that much, that is GOOD. It means it only has only written data to that much RAM. That means you have the remaining percentage still free. If you did not realize this, linux may be a little too over your head.

Deviathan · 09-21-2009, 11:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drycola

I've chose this 8MB from BIOS, where I had to choose between 1MB or 8MB for GPU memory (or something like that)
BUT, on WIN-doze, the Graphics memory appears as 64MB. I do not really understand what is this 64M and that 8M ! I don't know much about how video cards work, but I think that my card is capable of 3D graphics (it used to be on WIN-doze..

I think maybe you're looking at the agp aperture size in BIOS? If so, then it's probably fine to be set at 8MB. If windows reports the video card as having 64MB then that's the amount of memory that is actually sitting on the card.

The agp aperture specifies how much of system ram will be allocated to video if the video card's memory is exceeded.