Way Too Much Ubuntu
I have a System 76 Lemur laptop with 4GB RAM, what's the most RAM I can put in this, what type of RAM should I buy.
Is this correct?
System76 Laptop Lemur Compatible Memory / RAM Upgrades
https://www.mrmemory.co.uk/memory-ra...6/laptop/lemur
It recommends DDR3 PC3-12800 1600MHz 204-pin SODIMM but doesn't say the max.
When I find links online to System 76 Lemur specs they just take me to a System76 Laptops page, because they are not selling the Lemur now.
Gee! These Aren't Roasted!
type 16 will give max and type 17 will list banks and memory types.Code:sudo dmidecode -t16 -t17
Way Too Much Ubuntu
I think this tells me that max RAM is 16GB. Is that correct?
"Maximum Capacity: 16 GB" That seems pretty clear.
sudo dmidecode -t16 -t17
Code:# dmidecode 3.0 Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs. SMBIOS 3.0.0 present. Handle 0x0018, DMI type 16, 23 bytes Physical Memory Array Location: System Board Or Motherboard Use: System Memory Error Correction Type: None Maximum Capacity: 16 GB Error Information Handle: Not Provided Number Of Devices: 2 Handle 0x0019, DMI type 17, 40 bytes Memory Device Array Handle: 0x0018 Error Information Handle: Not Provided Total Width: 64 bits Data Width: 64 bits Size: 4096 MB Form Factor: SODIMM Set: None Locator: ChannelA-DIMM0 Bank Locator: BANK 0 Type: DDR3 Type Detail: Synchronous Speed: 1600 MHz Manufacturer: Samsung Serial Number: 25855033 Asset Tag: 9876543210 Part Number: M471B5173QH0-YK0 Rank: 1 Configured Clock Speed: 1600 MHz Minimum Voltage: Unknown Maximum Voltage: Unknown Configured Voltage: 1.35 V Handle 0x001A, DMI type 17, 40 bytes Memory Device Array Handle: 0x0018 Error Information Handle: Not Provided Total Width: Unknown Data Width: Unknown Size: No Module Installed Form Factor: Unknown Set: None Locator: ChannelB-DIMM0 Bank Locator: BANK 2 Type: Unknown Type Detail: None Speed: Unknown Manufacturer: Not Specified Serial Number: Not Specified Asset Tag: Not Specified Part Number: Not Specified Rank: Unknown Configured Clock Speed: Unknown Minimum Voltage: Unknown Maximum Voltage: Unknown Configured Voltage: Unknown
Last edited by deadflowr; October 11th, 2017 at 06:57 PM. Reason: added code tags
Gee! These Aren't Roasted!
Yes, you have 2 slots that can total 16GB.Originally Posted by webmanoffesto
4 GB is a bit low depending on what you are doing and what desktop environment you are running, but the real way to know if you need memory is to see if the system is swapping. There are a number of ways you can do that: The system monitor gui under the process tab will give a graph of memory and swap in use. The "top" command will also show it along the the bottom of the top section. You can also use the vmstat command. The so/si columns will show blocks swapping in/out.
Last edited by untrustytahr; October 11th, 2017 at 05:23 PM. Reason: remove superfluous info
Way Too Much Ubuntu
Yes, according to Top it is swapping. Swap space is about 4GB.
Which raises another question.
If I upgrade this to (what seems to be its max of) 16GB, would I have to repartition in order to get 16 GB swap space?
Gee! These Aren't Roasted!
Yes, you would need to reallocate space if you wanted to match your RAM size. How that's done depends on how the system was initially installed (LVM w/encryption or just straight partitiions). I believe newer non-encrypted installs now use a swap file instead of a partition (but don't quote me on that, I just remember reading something about it).
Is this on a SSD or a regular HDD? Rather than bump it up to 16 GB you could bump it to 8GB (either 2x4GB or 1X8GB) and put the savings towards a SSD. Even if it does still swap, swapping to a ssd is still faster than writing to hdd. If you went the 1x8GB path, you could always still put another 8 in the unused slot if it was still swapping. Quadrupling your ram in one shot is an awfully big bump. I guess it would depend on how much your swap was being used. Just my opinion though... I'm no expert by any means.
Ubuntu addict and loving it
A tool I find easy to interpret is htop. It's found in the repository, runs in a terminal window and is quite light on resources. Starting with I think 17.04, Ubuntu no longer creates a swap partition by default. If you want swap, create a swap file as untrustytahr recommends. The only limitation I'm aware of with the swap file is that you can't use hibernation. Suspend works fine, hibernation does not. If you go with an SSD - the best upgrade available IMO - you'll find booting fast enough that I doubt you'd miss hiberation (even if you were able to get it to work reliably).
It sounds like you have an empty memory slot. If it were me, I'd check Ebay for a vendor offering a SODIMM with the correct specs and preferably the same manufacturer and fill that other slot. Then look at SSDs. Now is not a great time to be shopping for things that use NAND - prices are high compared to where they were and I don't know that they're expected to drop much for some time. There's lots of demand for flash storage and not much new manufacturing capacity in the very near future. I've read maybe mid 2018, NAND and DRAM prices may decrease. It'll be interesting to see what prices do during the holiday shopping season.
Ubuntu Cappuccino Scuro
No, you can create a swap space as a real file on the disk, say for example:
This can be done on a running system, and in fact I've done so in emergency situations. Edit: Actually in one case I can think of the file has been there for several years on a production system.Code:sudo dd if=/dev/null of=/swapfile bs=1024 count=(whatever number of kilobytes you want your file to be) sudo mkswap /swapfile sudo swapon /swapfile
You would need to modify /etc/fstab if you want the swap space to be permanent.
You can have as many swap spaces as you like, but if you want to hibernate you'll need to have at least one file which can completely contain all of RAM.
Last edited by 1clue; October 11th, 2017 at 07:07 PM.
Ubuntu addict and loving it
Here are another set of instructions to create a swap file. It's fairly verbose. I've used it in the past with no ill effect that I'm aware of.
https://www.digitalocean.com/communi...n-ubuntu-16-04
Ubuntu Cappuccino Scuro
Yeah, never occurred to me to use fallocate before.
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