RHEL 5.1 (32 bit) shows 3GB RAM though there's 16GB physical

Wed Dec 23 11:39:38 UTC 2009

Hi Sunhux,

As I told you earlier you need to install PAE kernel so that Linux shows the
correct memory.

Install these packages

kernel-PAE-2.6.18-128.1.14.el5
kernel-PAE-2.6.18-164.el5
kernel-PAE-2.6.18-128.1.1.el5

They are present in the Linux DVD under "<DVD DRIVE>\server" directory.

Once you install this follow the below steps

1. Install the RPM
2. Reboot the system
3. during the boot loaded screen press arrow keys
4. Here you will find 2 options, one with the normal Kernel and one with PAE
5. Choose the PAE kernel version and press enter.
6. Now your system should load the PAE kernel and the memory shows up.
7. Use "free" command to check the physical memory.

Hope this helps. Once your memory is showing correctly go to grub.conf to
set the PAE kernel as the default option to boot your system. If you dont do
that everytime you reboot it will take the normal kernel and your phy.
memory will not show up again.

Regards,
Ram

On 12/23/09, ESGLinux <esggrupos at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> just one thing, in my servers with 32 bits I need to install de kernel PAE
> as they have said you:
>
> uname -a
> Linux server 2.6.18-164.el5PAE #1 SMP Tue Aug 18 15:59:11 EDT 2009 i686
> i686
> i386 GNU/Linux
>
> rpm -qa | grep -i pae
> kernel-PAE-2.6.18-128.1.14.el5
> kernel-PAE-2.6.18-164.el5
> kernel-PAE-2.6.18-128.1.1.el5
>
> I think you need this kind of kernel, I don´t know why other servers show
> you the memory correctly
>
> Greetings
>
> ESG
>
> 2009/12/23 sunhux G <sunhux at gmail.com>
>
> > For other RHEL servers that shows the RAM amt correctly,
> > "uname -a" & "dmesg" show the following :
> >
> > # uname -a
> > Linux SvrWith_8GBRam 2.6.9-67.0.7.ELsmp #1 SMP Wed Feb 27 04:48:20 EST
> 2008
> > i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
> >
> > # dmesg | grep -i mem
> > 8320MB HIGHMEM available.
> >
> >
> > For the "weird" server, the uname, dmesg & top are as follows :
> > (I'll collect "dmidecode | grep -e Memory\ Device$ -A5" tomorrow)
> >
> > # uname -a
> > Linux SvrWith_3GbRam 2.6.18-53.el5 #1 SMP Wed Oct 10 16:34:02 EDT 2007
> i686
> > i686 i386 GNU/Linux
> >
> > # dmesg | grep -i mem
> > 3200MB HIGHMEM available.
> > 896MB LOWMEM available.
> > Memory for crash kernel (0x0 to 0x0) notwithin permissible range
> >  HighMem zone: 819200 pages, LIFO batch:31
> > Memory: 3365612k/4194304k available (2080k kernel code, 40228k reserved,
> > 869k data, 220k init, 2489644k highmem)
> > Freeing initrd memory: 2468k freed
> >  MEM window: f2000000-f5ffffff
> >  MEM window: f6000000-f60fffff
> >  MEM window: disabled.  <== anything wrong with this?
> >  MEM window: disabled.  <== anything wrong with this?
> >  MEM window: disabled.  <== anything wrong with this?
> >  MEM window: disabled.  <== anything wrong with this?
> >  MEM window: disabled.  <== anything wrong with this?
> >  MEM window: disabled.  <== anything wrong with this?
> >  MEM window: disabled.  <== anything wrong with this?
> >  MEM window: disabled.  <== anything wrong with this?
> > highmem bounce pool size: 64 pages
> >
> >
> > top - 00:18:20 up 3 days, 12:32,  2 users,  load average: 0.14, 0.07,
> 0.02
> > Tasks: 155 total,   1 running, 154 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
> > Cpu(s):  0.0%us,  0.2%sy,  0.0%ni, 99.8%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,
> >  0.0%st
> > Mem:   3369208k total,  3284572k used,    84636k free,   185648k buffers
> > Swap:  8193108k total,      200k used,  8192908k free,  2756496k cached
> >
> >
> > # more /proc/meminfo
> > MemTotal:      3369208 kB
> > MemFree:         84760 kB
> > Buffers:        185668 kB
> > Cached:        2756484 kB
> > SwapCached:          0 kB
> > Active:         508672 kB
> > Inactive:      2635140 kB
> > HighTotal:     2489644 kB
> > HighFree:        12244 kB
> > LowTotal:       879564 kB
> > LowFree:         72516 kB
> > SwapTotal:     8193108 kB
> > SwapFree:      8192908 kB
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Dec 23, 2009 at 8:35 AM, Ramakrishnan Seshadhri <
> > ramakrishnan42 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > What is your Linux Kernel Version. Is it a PAE kernel (Physical Address
> > > xtension)
> > >
> > > Provide the output of  # uname -a.
> > >
> > > If your kernel is not a PAE kernel it wont detect your physical memory
> > more
> > > than 3072 MB.
> > >
> > > Hope it helps your situation.
> > >
> > > Ram
> > >
> > > On Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 10:32 PM, Eugene Vilensky <evilensky at gmail.com
> > > >wrote:
> > >
> > > > >> why is "top" or "dmesg" showing only 3GB RAM
> > > > >> instead of 4GB if 4GB is the max the 32 bit RHEL
> > > > >> can support?
> > > > >>
> > > > >> Supposedly there's 16GB physical RAM inserted
> > > > >> in the hardware
> > > >
> > > > Could you copy/paste your exact top output as well as the output of
> > > > "dmidecode | grep -e Memory\ Device$ -A5"
> > > >
> > > > --
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