8GB RAM in system, only finds 3.2GB

[wiltors]

Hello, I'm new to the forums as this is my first post. I'm a long time computer user and I've been using Ubuntu Linux for about 4 months, but I have a few year's experience with the Linux system, BASH and Gnome.

Just today I built myself a new system, which uses the EP45-UD3P motherboard by Gigabyte. It works great, (and looks great, acrylic case) so far, except for one problem.

I bought, and properly installed 8 GB of DDR2 RAM, yet when I check my system monitor, it says there is only 3.2 GB of memory and 2.9 GB of swap. Is this a problem with Ubuntu? Does anybody who has this board have this problem too? Halp please.

Thanks,
Wiltors

(pic attached, my new system :D)


http://photos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v2056/205/12/1226052227/n1226052227_30322632_1428.jpg

[taurus]

Sounds like you are installing the x86 (32bit) version. If you want to use all the RAM on your machine, you can either install the server version (x86) or the x86_64 (64bit) version.

[wiltors]

Okay, I'll try that. Thanks.

[mhh91]

the 32-bit systems can't detect more than 4 GB's of memory,that's from what i've heard


try installing the 64-bit version :)

[Brebs]

You just need a kernel that's compiled with PAE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension) - see thread (http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-4103165.html#4103165).

$ free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 6083 485 5598 0 42 240

That's 6 gigs.

$ grep PAE /usr/src/linux/.config
CONFIG_X86_PAE=y

[Mindless Automata]

I think that nowadays it's generally a good idea to go 64-bit when you can. All (?) new processors that have been coming out for awhile now are 64-bit and you'd be missing the benefit 64 bit gets on x86. Most of the kinks and compabitility issues have been ironed out since the introduction of 64-bit processors (oh, what a pain in the *** things were back then!) and the upsides at this point outweigh, for the most part, the few (if any) downsides left.

Now if more programs were just compiled for 64-bit...

[IanW]

All (?) new processors that have been coming out for awhile now are 64-bit

Netbook CPUs (Intel Atom/Via C7-M) are still 32-bit.

Wiltors - The others are correct. Ubuntu64 is the way to get all 8GB to show.

[binbash]

there is a tutorial at tutorial section about this.Read it

[boof1988]

there is a tutorial at tutorial section about this.Read it

Can you post a link... please?

[steveneddy]

Just run the 64 bit version.