Linux - Newbie This Linux forum is for members that are new to Linux.
Just starting out and have a question?
If it is not in the man pages or the how-to's this is the place! |
Notices |
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
Are you new to LinuxQuestions.org? Visit the following links:
Site Howto |
Site FAQ |
Sitemap |
Register Now
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
|
 |
09-17-2008, 02:29 PM
|
#1
|
Member
Registered: Aug 2007
Location: Salvador, Brazil
Distribution: Debian, Ubuntu
Posts: 185
Rep:
|
512mb from 4Gb is not recognized on Debian
Hi, I use Debian 4.
I recently installed 1 more Gb of Ram memory (2x512MB) in my machine. The BIOS setup recognizes it, but linux doesn't.
Code:
# uname -a
Linux hostname 2.6.14-2-686-smp #1 SMP Mon Nov 14 14:56:10 UTC 2005 i686 GNU/Linux
# free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 3291 1880 1410 0 100 1341
-/+ buffers/cache: 438 2852
Swap: 760 0 760
What can be happening?
Regards
|
|
|
09-17-2008, 03:13 PM
|
#2
|
LQ Guru
Registered: Nov 2006
Location: Belgium
Distribution: Ubuntu 11.04, Debian testing
Posts: 5,019
Rep: 
|
Yeah, well, 86 bit does not support 4GB of RAM. Check whether you can install the 86 bit kernel-server or move on to 64 bit.
|
|
|
09-17-2008, 03:26 PM
|
#3
|
Senior Member
Registered: Nov 2006
Distribution: Debian Linux 11 (Bullseye)
Posts: 3,410
Rep: 
|
Since it's displaying more than 3GB of memory, I don't think it's a kernel config problem, so I doubt switching to a different kernel will change anything. Plus, 32 bit works just fine with up to 4GB. But, as to where the memory went, I dunno, unless there's some set-aside for a graphics card or something like that.
|
|
|
09-17-2008, 04:03 PM
|
#4
|
Member
Registered: Jul 2003
Location: England
Distribution: Debian Jessie, FreeBSD 10.1 anything *nix to get my fix
Posts: 329
Rep: 
|
I think your kernel needs to have the right module support for large ram. you need to say what kernel version you are running
|
|
|
09-17-2008, 04:05 PM
|
#5
|
Senior Member
Registered: Nov 2006
Distribution: Debian Linux 11 (Bullseye)
Posts: 3,410
Rep: 
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by neilcpp
I think your kernel needs to have the right module support for large ram. you need to say what kernel version you are running
|
He did. It's in the original post:
|
|
|
09-17-2008, 04:15 PM
|
#6
|
Senior Member
Registered: Nov 2006
Distribution: Debian Linux 11 (Bullseye)
Posts: 3,410
Rep: 
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by Quakeboy02
He did. It's in the original post:
|
Hmm, having said that, brgsousa, where did you actually get this kernel from? I don't see it on sarge, etch, or lenny.
|
|
|
09-18-2008, 07:22 AM
|
#7
|
Member
Registered: Aug 2007
Location: Salvador, Brazil
Distribution: Debian, Ubuntu
Posts: 185
Original Poster
Rep:
|
I got it from aptitude:
Code:
# aptitude show linux-image-2.6.14-2-686-smp
Package: linux-image-2.6.14-2-686-smp
State: installed
Automatically installed: no
Version: 2.6.14-3
Priority: optional
Section: base
Maintainer: Debian Kernel Team <debian-kernel@lists.debian.org>
Uncompressed Size: 51.8M
Depends: yaird | initramfs-tools | linux-initramfs-tool, module-init-tools (>= 0.9.13)
Suggests: linux-doc-2.6.14 | linux-source-2.6.14, lilo (>= 19.1) | grub, fdutils
Conflicts: hotplug (< 0.0.20040105-1)
Provides: linux-image-2.6, linux-image
Description: Linux kernel 2.6.14 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4 SMP machines
This package provides the binary image and pre-built loadable modules for Linux kernel 2.6.14 on multi-processor Pentium Pro/Celeron/Pentium II/Pentium
III/Pentium 4 machines.
This packages is produced using an updated kernel packaging system and replaces older kernel-image packages
Now i am thinking that might not be the right kernel for me:
Code:
# aptitude search linux-image
v linux-image -
v linux-image-2.6 -
v linux-image-2.6-386 -
p linux-image-2.6-486 - Linux kernel 2.6 image on x86
p linux-image-2.6-486-etchnhalf - Linux 2.6-etchnhalf image on x86
p linux-image-2.6-686 - Linux kernel 2.6 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
p linux-image-2.6-686-bigmem - Linux kernel 2.6 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
p linux-image-2.6-686-bigmem-etchnhalf - Linux 2.6-etchnhalf image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
p linux-image-2.6-686-etchnhalf - Linux 2.6-etchnhalf image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
p linux-image-2.6-686-smp - Linux 2.6 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4 SMP - transition package
p linux-image-2.6-amd64 - Linux kernel 2.6 image on AMD64
p linux-image-2.6-amd64-etchnhalf - Linux 2.6-etchnhalf image on AMD64
p linux-image-2.6-k7 - Linux kernel 2.6 image on AMD K7
p linux-image-2.6-k7-smp - Linux 2.6 image on AMD K7 SMP - transition package
p linux-image-2.6-vserver-686 - Linux kernel 2.6 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
p linux-image-2.6-vserver-k7 - Linux kernel 2.6 image on AMD K7
p linux-image-2.6-xen-686 - Linux kernel 2.6 image on i686
p linux-image-2.6-xen-vserver-686 - Linux kernel 2.6 image on i686
i linux-image-2.6.14-2-686-smp - Linux kernel 2.6.14 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4 SMP machines
p linux-image-2.6.18-4-486 - Linux 2.6.18 image on x86
p linux-image-2.6.18-4-686 - Linux 2.6.18 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
p linux-image-2.6.18-4-686-bigmem - Linux 2.6.18 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
p linux-image-2.6.18-4-amd64 - Linux 2.6.18 image on AMD64
p linux-image-2.6.18-4-k7 - Linux 2.6.18 image on AMD K7
p linux-image-2.6.18-4-vserver-686 - Linux 2.6.18 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
p linux-image-2.6.18-4-vserver-k7 - Linux 2.6.18 image on AMD K7
p linux-image-2.6.18-4-xen-686 - Linux 2.6.18 image on i686
p linux-image-2.6.18-4-xen-vserver-686 - Linux 2.6.18 image on i686
p linux-image-2.6.18-5-486 - Linux 2.6.18 image on x86
p linux-image-2.6.18-5-686 - Linux 2.6.18 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
p linux-image-2.6.18-5-686-bigmem - Linux 2.6.18 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
p linux-image-2.6.18-5-amd64 - Linux 2.6.18 image on AMD64
p linux-image-2.6.18-5-k7 - Linux 2.6.18 image on AMD K7
p linux-image-2.6.18-5-vserver-686 - Linux 2.6.18 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
p linux-image-2.6.18-5-vserver-k7 - Linux 2.6.18 image on AMD K7
p linux-image-2.6.18-5-xen-686 - Linux 2.6.18 image on i686
p linux-image-2.6.18-5-xen-vserver-686 - Linux 2.6.18 image on i686
p linux-image-2.6.18-6-486 - Linux 2.6.18 image on x86
p linux-image-2.6.18-6-686 - Linux 2.6.18 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
p linux-image-2.6.18-6-686-bigmem - Linux 2.6.18 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
p linux-image-2.6.18-6-amd64 - Linux 2.6.18 image on AMD64
p linux-image-2.6.18-6-k7 - Linux 2.6.18 image on AMD K7
p linux-image-2.6.18-6-vserver-686 - Linux 2.6.18 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
p linux-image-2.6.18-6-vserver-k7 - Linux 2.6.18 image on AMD K7
p linux-image-2.6.18-6-xen-686 - Linux 2.6.18 image on i686
p linux-image-2.6.18-6-xen-vserver-686 - Linux 2.6.18 image on i686
p linux-image-2.6.24-etchnhalf.1-486 - Linux 2.6.24 image on x86
p linux-image-2.6.24-etchnhalf.1-686 - Linux 2.6.24 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
p linux-image-2.6.24-etchnhalf.1-686-bigmem - Linux 2.6.24 image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
p linux-image-2.6.24-etchnhalf.1-amd64 - Linux 2.6.24 image on AMD64
p linux-image-486 - Linux kernel image on x86
p linux-image-686 - Linux kernel image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
p linux-image-686-bigmem - Linux kernel image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
p linux-image-amd64 - Linux kernel image on AMD64
p linux-image-k7 - Linux kernel image on AMD K7
p linux-image-vserver-686 - Linux kernel image on PPro/Celeron/PII/PIII/P4
p linux-image-vserver-k7 - Linux kernel image on AMD K7
p linux-image-xen-686 - Linux kernel image on i686
p linux-image-xen-vserver-686 - Linux kernel image on i686
|
|
|
09-18-2008, 07:35 AM
|
#8
|
Member
Registered: Aug 2007
Location: Salvador, Brazil
Distribution: Debian, Ubuntu
Posts: 185
Original Poster
Rep:
|
I am quite sure if a install linux-image-2.6.18-6-686-bigmem it will be fine
|
|
|
09-18-2008, 09:14 AM
|
#9
|
LQ Guru
Registered: Dec 2007
Distribution: Centos
Posts: 5,286
|
IIRC, a 32-bit kernel can be configured for one of four levels of memory support.
1) Up to 896Mb (I think)
2) Up to 3 and a fraction GB (where the BIOS, not Linux, determines the size of that fraction, typically about 1/4 or 1/2).
3) Up to 16GB
4) Up to 64GB
So it sounds like you have kernel support at the 3 and fraction GB level and want the up to 16GB level. You don't want the up to 64GB level (it has overhead and other issues you don't want).
I'm not sure whether "bigmem" in a prebuilt Debian kernel means up to 16GB or up to 64GB. But I expect it would be up to 16GB. Running a 32-bit kernel on a system with over 16GB would be very strange, doing that and using Debian distribution and wanting to use a prebuilt kernel would be way beyond strange. So it would make no sense for the Debian repository to provide a 32-bit kernel with support for over 16GB.
Last edited by johnsfine; 09-18-2008 at 09:24 AM.
|
|
|
09-18-2008, 09:27 AM
|
#10
|
Gentoo support team
Registered: May 2008
Location: Lucena, Córdoba (Spain)
Distribution: Gentoo
Posts: 4,083
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by jay73
Yeah, well, 86 bit does not support 4GB of RAM. Check whether you can install the 86 bit kernel-server or move on to 64 bit.
|
I guess you mean x86, 32 bits.
You are going to need HIGHMEM enabled if you want to use all your ram under x86 (at a slight penalty), you can as well migrate to 64 bits and use all your ram normally without any problem.
http://kerneltrap.org/node/2450
|
|
|
09-18-2008, 06:46 PM
|
#11
|
LQ Guru
Registered: Nov 2006
Location: Belgium
Distribution: Ubuntu 11.04, Debian testing
Posts: 5,019
Rep: 
|
Quote:
I guess you mean x86, 32 bits.
|
Yes, LOL, obviously. I should re-read my messages before I post them.
|
|
|
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 02:40 PM.
|
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.
|
Latest Threads
LQ News
|
|