Linux recognize only partial memory
Hi Everyone,
I tried different 64bit linux distros (Ubuntu 12.10 Gnome Remix, Fedora 18, Bridge Linux) on my new laptop but all of them have a problem with memory. My laptop has 4 GB memory but Ubuntu recognize only 2,4 GB. Obviously both BIOS and Windows 8 recognize all 4GB. My laptop configuration: Lenovo B590 CPU: Intel Core i5-3210M Ram: 4 GB DDR3-SDRAM Chipset motherboard: Intel HM77 Express Integrated graphics: HD Graphics 4000. it may be possible that the lost memory is borrowed from Intel HD Graphics? if it's true, it always borrows fixed maximum memory?! Some useful command outputs: Code:
midecode --type memory |
You have 4 GB Memory installed .
Some is allocated by the system and by the Graphic card . So not all the 4 Memory is free . The allocated amount is always the same Although I find 1.6 GB high |
themind24,
You might want to consider the second of these two lines from your log. It would seem that Linux is aware of all the physical memory your machine has, but there is some set aside for other purposes. Code:
[ 0.000000] PM: Registered nosave memory: 00000000ffc20000 - 0000000100000000 |
Is it possible that free -m and cat /proc/meminfo don't show the correct values, at least not the way we would interpret them?
I was curious about this issue, and ran free -m and cat /proc/meminfo, too. I have 4 GB RAM, and those commands show this for me: Code:
# free -m The xfce4-systemload-plugin on the other hand shows only a short bar and says something about 1125 MB used, which is a lot more likely. HardInfo also shows 1142 of 4044 MB used. |
Quote:
The other RAM is being used as cache buffer for previously accessed data, which would otherwise require being fetched from disk. |
OK, then forget my comment. Then the original problem is somewhere else.
|
Thanks to everyone.
So I can conclude that there's always about 1,6gb allocated for the Graphics Card? (the maximum shared memory for Intel HD Graphics 4000 is 1720MB, it is approximately equal to the amount of "memory lost"). However, if it's true, I think that is a bad behavior for Linux. |
Why? Windows is doing the same thing, but lying about the available memory as it isn't reporting the required reserve that isn't generally available.
As for "always", it depends on the graphics card... |
The problem disappeared with new kernel 3.8.0-19-generic.
The system recognize 3,7GB of Memory now. Thanks to everyone. |
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