Ubuntu does not see all of my memory.

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khary23 · #1 Post by **khary23** » Sun Jan 23, 2011 7:25 pm

I recently upgraded from 1GB of RAM toGB 3, but Unbuntu as well as the Sun VirtualBox only see 1.4GB. Is there any way I can get them to see and use all 3GB?
Thanks in advance.

T60p type 8741
Windows XP SP 3
Unbuntu 10.04

#2 Post by **Harryc** » Sun Jan 23, 2011 8:44 pm

How much does XP see?

khary23 · #3 Post by **khary23** » Sun Jan 23, 2011 9:24 pm

XP sees 3GB

#4 Post by **Harryc** » Sun Jan 23, 2011 9:38 pm

OK, excuse me but I don't know your experience level with Linux. How are you determining that it only sees 1.4GB? What is the result of the following command run from Terminal ;

free -t

khary23 · #5 Post by **khary23** » Sun Jan 23, 2011 11:34 pm

I was looking in the system monitor for the memory level. I was able to raise it from 512MB to 1.5 GB through the VirtualBox, but that is as high as it will go.

I tried the free -t and got a message saying command not found

#6 Post by **Harryc** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 5:46 am

I see. You need to run 'sudo free -t' or 'sudo free -m'
Here's a reference guide for sudo. Are you a new Ubuntu Linux user?
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UsingTheTerminal

Neil · #7 Post by **Neil** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 8:08 am

You've mentioned VirtualBox a couple of times, are you running Ubuntu in VB with XP as your host OS, or are you dual booting?

khary23 · #8 Post by **khary23** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 3:56 pm

Harryc wrote:I see. You need to run 'sudo free -t' or 'sudo free -m'
Here's a reference guide for sudo. Are you a new Ubuntu Linux user?
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UsingTheTerminal

I used it a few years ago as an undergrad for a class.
thanks for the link

khary23 · #9 Post by **khary23** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 3:57 pm

Neil wrote:You've mentioned VirtualBox a couple of times, are you running Ubuntu in VB with XP as your host OS, or are you dual booting?

I am running it in the VBox with XP as the host.

jdrou · #10 Post by **jdrou** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 4:12 pm

What version of VirtualBox are you running? From the v4.0 changelog:

VMM: support more than 1.5/2 GB guest RAM on 32-bit hosts

khary23 · #11 Post by **khary23** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 4:26 pm

Found through the terminal using "free" that the total memory is 1507724, but I don't know what units are being used.

khary23 · #12 Post by **khary23** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 4:28 pm

jdrou wrote:What version of VirtualBox are you running? From the v4.0 changelog:

VMM: support more than 1.5/2 GB guest RAM on 32-bit hosts

I am using version 3.2.12.

#13 Post by **Harryc** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 5:31 pm

khary23 wrote:Found through the terminal using "free" that the total memory is 1507724, but I don't know what units are being used.

That is 1.5GB. So, since you running Ubuntu under Virtualbox, the OS won't see more than it's assigned virtual memory. Does that answer your original question?

craigmontHunter · #14 Post by **craigmontHunter** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 5:36 pm

Then you are running into an issue where *no* (there are obviously exceptions, especially VM software) 32-bit application in 32 bit windows can use more than 2gb of ram total. That is one of the big pushes to go to 64-bit - you can allocate as much ram as you want. (one of the selling features of 64-bit office is the ability to open files >2gb in excel and project.

Since v4.0 seems to have solved this problem, I would recommend the upgrade, unless you can live with only 1.5gb of ram. Since you have a t60, It is not worth it to upgrade to a C2D and 64 bit, since in my tests, w7pro x64 uses a gb of ram idle, so you are not really gaining everything, because of the chipset max of 3gb (on a t61 or newer, that would be a diffrent story)

khary23 · #15 Post by **khary23** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 5:49 pm

Thank you for the help. I guess that means I need a separate Lunix machine for my simulations.

craigmontHunter · #16 Post by **craigmontHunter** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 7:24 pm

another option would be a program like wubi, so that you can run a second linux install that is installed as a program from windows, but it can access all of the avilable memory, but you can access your windows partition and files.

MrPeter1985 · #17 Post by **MrPeter1985** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 11:46 am

craigmontHunter wrote:another option would be a program like wubi, so that you can run a second linux install that is installed as a program from windows, but it can access all of the avilable memory, but you can access your windows partition and files.

Agreed...

If you need all of the 3gigs of Ram for something in Ubuntu, then I would use a image program to load the ISO image and install Ubuntu inside Windows like any other program. Doing that will allow you to choose Windows or Ubuntu at bootup.

Now if you need both at the same time, then you would need a second PC as you mentioned.

Another option would be to give Ubuntu more swap space as this acts like ram, but I am unable to explain how to do that, a google search will help.

My 2 Cents...

craigmontHunter · #18 Post by **craigmontHunter** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 2:08 pm

(Yet another option) - use vpc, which seems to enable you to use >2gb ram, provided that you leave eneough for the base OS. (I don't know how transferrable your setup is)

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