only 3.2GB of 4GB ram recognised by 64bit F8

[JacekZ]

Hi,
Having installed the 64bit version of F8 (x86_64 - Install DVD), complete with updates, I was hoping to see all 4GB of available RAM show up in the system monitor. But only 3.2 GB shows up - exactly the same as I had with the 32bit version. I've read elsewhere that the answer is to install "kernel-PAE", but there is no such package available. Any ideas how to get the extra 0.8GB to show up? Just to add, the BIOS shows all 4 GB so the hardware seems OK.
Thanks
Jacek

[Seve]

Hello:
The standard 64bit kernel should be all you need and I can attest (from one of my own installs) that it recognizes all 4Gig of memory.

It may be due to the make/model of your motherboard or the BIOS version that you have installed?

Does
cat /proc/meminfo

show you the same results ?

Seve

[icydog]

What is the output of "uname -a"?

[JacekZ]

The machine is a Dell Inspiron 530n that came with Ubuntu, so I expect the hardware to be friendly:

$ cat /proc/meminfo
MemTotal:      3353400 kB
MemFree:       2748804 kB
Buffers:         14920 kB
Cached:         197104 kB
SwapCached:          0 kB
Active:         370232 kB
Inactive:       139432 kB
SwapTotal:     7807580 kB
SwapFree:      7807580 kB
Dirty:             192 kB
Writeback:           0 kB
AnonPages:      297648 kB
Mapped:          60816 kB
Slab:            34208 kB
SReclaimable:    11096 kB
SUnreclaim:      23112 kB
PageTables:      16056 kB
NFS_Unstable:        0 kB
Bounce:              0 kB
CommitLimit:   9484280 kB
Committed_AS:   618532 kB
VmallocTotal: 34359738367 kB
VmallocUsed:     53892 kB
VmallocChunk: 34359676923 kB
HugePages_Total:     0
HugePages_Free:      0
HugePages_Rsvd:      0
HugePages_Surp:      0
Hugepagesize:     2048 kB

$ uname -a
Linux desktop2 2.6.24.4-64.fc8 #1 SMP Sat Mar 29 09:15:49 EDT 2008 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[Hlingler]

Seve is right: I just read about this recently, but can't remember where; it doesn't matter if the OS and hardware can handle the RAM, if the BIOS/mobo can't, then it doesn't matter.... I remember saying: "Why on earth would <insert mfr name> sell a machine with hardware that can handle 4GB RAM, an OS that can handle 4GB RAM, and a BIOS/mobo that can't?"

V

EDIT: Here it is, the whole gory fiasco: http://forum.fedoraforum.org/forum/s...d.php?t=183125

[cgrim]

I'm in the same situation

I bought two another 1GB RAM modules into my (till yesterday lovely) motherboard ASUS P5LD2 and BIOS stole me 896MB from 4GB. In BIOS setup I see that it can work with 4GB but 896MB is "appropriated". I tried BIOS upgrade but with no success.

I found some article about it, where was written, that this memory is for PCIe cards. In some cases the solution is to enable memory remapping in BIOS setup. But my motherboard's chipset cannot remap memory

[JacekZ]

Originally Posted by Hlingler

..it doesn't matter if the OS and hardware can handle the RAM, if the BIOS/mobo can't, then it doesn't matter....

..Except that my BIOS does see all 4GB of RAM. It's the OS that doesn't see it. Elsewhere I read that it was the 32 bit OS's which reserve the remaining 0.8GB for memory addressing, so I'm not sure if the conclusion from the linked articles is the right one here.

Thanks for the research anyhow..

[sideways]

You need to enable memory-hole remapping in the bios.

google "pci memory hole", or search this forum for previous posts (by me and others) which explain the technicalities.

[cgrim]

Originally Posted by sideways

You need to enable memory-hole remapping in the bios.

google "pci memory hole", or search this forum for previous posts (by me and others) which explain the technicalities.

I wish ASUS will release new version of bios for P5LD2, where option of memory hole remap will be implemented! Now I can only dream about more RAM or buy new board ...

[A.Serbinski]

This would be a chipset limitation, not bios, not operating system. Congratulation, you have a 32bit memory controller and a 64 bit processor. Isn't intel fun?

[sideways]

It's not wholly down to intel, just a legacy problem from 32bit computing that will take a while to be properly fixed

http://techfiles.de/dmelanchthon/files/memory_hole.pdf

[A.Serbinski]

Not to be contrary, but it is FULLY related to intel. You don't get this problem with AMD since the memory controller is ON THE CPU where it belongs.

[Hlingler]

That was my understanding: it's either the BIOS, and if not, then the chipset that "can't handle the truth".

V

[cgrim]

You are right, it's chipset limitation (Intel 945p) in my case and the only solution for this is to buy new board with i955 chipset at least, because it has memory remap functionality.

[QuantumKnot]

I've got the exact problem with my (expensive) Dell Precision M90 Notebook. I upgraded the RAM to 4GB and can only see 3.3 GB. It is rather disappointing that what-used-to-be top of the range notebook offering from Dell just can't handle 4 GB

Does this mean that there is no point installing a 64-bit OS on it?