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Yesterday, I posted this thread, and got a reply, telling me to install 64-bit Ubuntu. I thought I already had a 64-bit copy, so I went to my system Details, and found that I did, indeed have an x64 copy of Ubuntu GNOME. Then, I found that it said it had only 2.9GiB of memory, which was strange, since I have a full 6GB of RAM installed. Thinking my RAM Cards (2x 2GB and 2x 1GB) simply weren't snapped in to the motherboard all the way, I turned off the machine, unplugged it, grabbed my antistatic wristband and removed and reinstalled all the cards. I plugged it pack in, powered it back on, and it still thought it had 2.9GiB. What shoud I do?

P.S. uname -a returns:

Linux [computer name censored for privacy] 4.2.0-35-generic #40-Ubuntu SMP Tue Mar 15 22:15:45 UTC 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

EDIT: free returns:

             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:       3023024    2330472     692552      31564      65644    1066920
-/+ buffers/cache:    1197908    1825116
Swap:      3086332      30740    3055592

Here's everything with e820 in it from ~/var/log/syslog.txt:

e820: BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
Apr  8 22:27:50 [Computer Name removed for Privacy] kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x000000000009e7ff] usable
Apr  8 22:27:50 [Computer Name removed for Privacy] kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x000000000009e800-0x000000000009ffff] reserved
Apr  8 22:27:50 [Computer Name removed for Privacy] kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000000e0000-0x00000000000fffff] reserved
Apr  8 22:27:50 [Computer Name removed for Privacy] kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000100000-0x00000000bc04efff] usable
Apr  8 22:27:50 [Computer Name removed for Privacy] kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000bc04f000-0x00000000bc07efff] reserved
Apr  8 22:27:50 [Computer Name removed for Privacy] kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000bc07f000-0x00000000bc344fff] usable
Apr  8 22:27:50 [Computer Name removed for Privacy] kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000bc345000-0x00000000bc410fff] ACPI NVS
Apr  8 22:27:50 [Computer Name removed for Privacy] kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000bc411000-0x00000000bd1d3fff] reserved
Apr  8 22:27:50 [Computer Name removed for Privacy] kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000bd1d4000-0x00000000bd1d4fff] usable
Apr  8 22:27:50 [Computer Name removed for Privacy] kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000bd1d5000-0x00000000bd3dafff] ACPI NVS
Apr  8 22:27:50 [Computer Name removed for Privacy] kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000bd3db000-0x00000000bd850fff] usable
Apr  8 22:27:50 [Computer Name removed for Privacy] kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000bd851000-0x00000000bdfe1fff] reserved
Apr  8 22:27:50 [Computer Name removed for Privacy] kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000bdfe2000-0x00000000bdffffff] usable
Apr  8 22:27:50 [Computer Name removed for Privacy] kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000e0000000-0x00000000efffffff] reserved
Apr  8 22:27:50 [Computer Name removed for Privacy] kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000feb80000-0x00000000fec01fff] reserved
Apr  8 22:27:50 [Computer Name removed for Privacy] kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000fec10000-0x00000000fec10fff] reserved
Apr  8 22:27:50 [Computer Name removed for Privacy] kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000fed00000-0x00000000fed00fff] reserved
Apr  8 22:27:50 [Computer Name removed for Privacy] kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000fed40000-0x00000000fed44fff] reserved
Apr  8 22:27:50 [Computer Name removed for Privacy] kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000fed80000-0x00000000fed8ffff] reserved
Apr  8 22:27:50 [Computer Name removed for Privacy] kernel: [    0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000ff000000-0x00000000ffffffff] reserved
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    Possible duplicate of Ubuntu 14.04 (amd64) not detecting all of my memory
    – user115639
    Apr 8, 2016 at 23:30
  • Sounds like your motherboard does not support that much ram. Have a look in /var/log/syslog for the section listing the bios "e820" map and add it to your question.
    – psusi
    Apr 9, 2016 at 0:38
  • Are all the RAM modules the same speed and timing? It sounds like the 1GB modules are probably not the correct speed and/or timing, and your computer simply does not recognizing them, leaving you with 4 GB RAM, and 1 GB allocated to the on-board video.
    – dobey
    Apr 9, 2016 at 2:31

1 Answer 1

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Your kernel is 64-bit. That's why you see that x86_64 GNU/Linux in that output of uname.

You might try posting the output of the Linux command line the free command. It shows how much memory the kernel thinks you have and how much is currently free.

I don't know why you would see less memory than you think you have. If you interrupt the boot sequence in the BIOS SETUP program, usually you can see what the basic hardware/firmware thinks you have installed. If that's not 6GB as you believe then maybe you have a bad memory stick or a bad motherboard or CPU?

One other possibility is that your machine may be using a lot of memory for video RAM. This is really unlikely to use that much memory, but maybe?

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