4GB RAM shows up as 3GB on x86_64

[x61-stand]

This is kind of a long-standing issue with all Linux versions I've used on the X61 tablet. Mint has fixed so many other issues, maybe this one too.

The 64 bit OS Linux Occulus 3.5.0-25-generic only registers 3GB of my 4GB physical RAM. What is happening? I've gone through dmesg without finding anything obvious.

The X61 tablet bios doesn't report memory correctly to grub when >= 4GB, so, the boot hangs unless you use the mem=4000MB boot option. That part works. So, I've explicitly told the OS that I have 4GB. Is it ignoring me? Do I need to tell it elsewhere that I have 4GB?

[xenopeek]

What kind of graphics card do you have? If you have an IGP (integrated graphics processor) and not a discrete graphics chip, your IGP will use part of the system memory for its own use. 1 GB sounds a bit much, but misconfiguration in the BIOS could do that.

To check some things, please run the following command on the terminal and copy the output here. You can copy text to/from the terminal, see its Edit menu. Running the command, you will be asked to type your password but note that the terminal doesn't show any characters or move the cursor as you type a password.

Code: Select all

free -m ; sudo lshw -C memory

The command will take a few seconds to complete.