Tiny Core Linux

Tiny Core Base => TCB Q&A Forum => Topic started by: baz on March 24, 2010, 08:05:51 AM

Title: TC only recognizes 2gb of 6gb ram
Post by: baz on March 24, 2010, 08:05:51 AM
I installed TC 2.10 on my core i7 desktop with 6gb of ram, however TC only reports 2 gb total. What's the story?

Cheers,
Baz
Title: Re: TC only recognizes 2gb of 6gb ram
Post by: Juanito on March 24, 2010, 09:25:32 AM
tc is 32-bit and thus can only access up to 4gb ram - I would have thought you would see 3.5gb or so available, not 2gb...
Title: Re: TC only recognizes 2gb of 6gb ram
Post by: gutmensch on March 24, 2010, 11:10:17 AM
In general the ram you can address when using a 32 bit version of any operating system is the amount of 4 GB minus the memory of every other pci device, because that memory will be mapped before using any more ram.

In this case: 6 GB reduces to 4 GB because of 32 bit addressing, and maybe 4 GB - 1 GB because of your graphics adapter memory, and some other stuff you get a total of 2 GB usable ram, the rest is needed for adressing the mentioned graphics memory etc.
Title: Re: TC only recognizes 2gb of 6gb ram
Post by: bmarkus on March 24, 2010, 01:18:11 PM
In general the ram you can address when using a 32 bit version of any operating system is the amount of 4 GB minus the memory of every other pci device, because that memory will be mapped before using any more ram.

In this case: 6 GB reduces to 4 GB because of 32 bit addressing, and maybe 4 GB - 1 GB because of your graphics adapter memory, and some other stuff you get a total of 2 GB usable ram, the rest is needed for adressing the mentioned graphics memory etc.

Onboard video with 1GB RAM? Possible, but I doubt.
Title: Re: TC only recognizes 2gb of 6gb ram
Post by: gutmensch on March 24, 2010, 01:22:35 PM
hm I don't think he will only have onboard gfx with a core i7 and 6 gb of ram?! maybe both - onboard and pci express graphics and that's why the memory mapping is taking so much memory ;-)
Title: Re: TC only recognizes 2gb of 6gb ram
Post by: baz on March 24, 2010, 04:43:12 PM
When I was running Ubuntu I got closer to the 4gb. I have a swanky nvidia card, nothing onboard. Is there a way to check what's going on?
Title: Re: TC only recognizes 2gb of 6gb ram
Post by: gutmensch on March 24, 2010, 04:57:55 PM
well the core i7 is brand new hardware, the 2.6.29 kernel from tinycore is over 1 year old... so there will surely be some issues (maybe the bios is reporting "strange" things and the 2.6.29 reduces the ram to 2 GB), the best thing would be to wait for tc 3.x with kernel 2.6.33 or above as it also comes with a x64 version ;) then you should be able to use your complete ram.
Title: Re: TC only recognizes 2gb of 6gb ram
Post by: althalus on March 24, 2010, 06:32:53 PM
I've noticed numerous times on these forums that my machine with 4 GB of RAM only reports about 2.8 GB. Debian reports about 3.5GB.

Fortunately, it's not really an issue (for me) as I have to be doing something REALLY silly to come close to using even 80% of the available RAM whilst running TC.

You could always recompile the kernel for x64 and build your own remastered TC in the mean time, as most all apps should still work well.
Title: Re: TC only recognizes 2gb of 6gb ram
Post by: baz on March 24, 2010, 08:07:28 PM
With the recent release of virtualbox, my ram needs have skyrocketed. Win7 struggles with 1.5gb, usually I give it 3gb. I'd love a 64bit kernel - come on guys 2.10 has been out for almost a week! When is 3.x coming!!!  ;D ;D
Title: Re: TC only recognizes 2gb of 6gb ram
Post by: curaga on March 25, 2010, 05:40:06 AM
I'd love a 64bit kernel - come on guys 2.10 has been out for almost a week! When is 3.x coming!!!  ;D ;D
A whole week *gasp*? Damn, we better get to work! ;)