[SOLVED] Missing RAM? [Slackware 12.2]

RaptorX · 07-27-2009, 11:48 AM

I am fairly fresh to linux (still) but I decided that a good way to go was messing with LFS...

in there I learned while installing Procps that I have a nice command that gives you info about your RAM...

so this was my result

Code:

[/sources]$ free
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:       3373300    3277196      96104          0      69656    2731656
-/+ buffers/cache:     475884    2897416
Swap:      1060248          0    1060248

[/sources]$ free -g
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:             3          3          0          0          0          2
-/+ buffers/cache:          0          2
Swap:            1          0          1

the interesting thing is that I have 2 RAM of 2048 each...

is there something Im missing here?

does free report ALL the RAM or is there something that it doesnt report?

note:
Im using a custom kernel based on the Generic one, im not sure if there is something that i have to activate there...

RaptorX · 07-27-2009, 11:51 AM

now that i just posted that i would like to know why is my memory being sucked up??

it says that i only have 96104k free!!

I only have 4 things up:

Xserver
Firefox
Vuze - Azureus
and VLC

I know that Azureus consumes and that sometimes firefox does its part but why from 3G 90% is used??

rworkman · 07-27-2009, 11:56 AM

A 32bit system can only address 4 GB of RAM, and due to the way the kernel addresses it, you basically have 3G usable. You can enable PAE in your kernel to see all of the memory, but individual processes will still be limited to a 3GB allocation each. IOW, it's not worth your time to enable PAE. :-)

For the second question, memory is *supposed* to be used. If you don't want it to be used, then take it out of the system. Have a look at the output of "free -m" and notice the amount of cached memory, and then think about what "cache" means, and then keep in mind that the cache will be flushed if something else comes along and *needs* that memory.

RaptorX · 07-27-2009, 12:01 PM

I understand... the thing is that I have been a windows user for long time and there usually i saw my memory usage in a very low state all the time.

Since I switched to linux my PC is ultra faster but I was kind of wondering because in windows high memory usage usually leads to a slow pc... doesnt it work the same here?

thanks for the quick answer

knudfl · 07-27-2009, 01:37 PM

Quote:

windows ... doesn't it work the same here?

A real downside of windows is poor memory allocation.

In Linux, it works as it is meant to : Not "use up", but
'take advantage of' all the memory.

.....

RaptorX · 07-27-2009, 03:14 PM

if you put it that way it sounds better... because for me "using up" is synonym of "eating up" the resources... in a bad way...

thanks for the explanation guys this is cleared up for me then.