How to Lift Ubuntu Linux Ram Limit

by Chinmoy Kanjilal | Translate | Print
Tuesday, 27th Oct 2009 | Share


Share How to Lift Ubuntu Linux Ram Limit on Twitter Share How to Lift Ubuntu Linux Ram Limit on Facebook Save How to Lift Ubuntu Linux Ram Limit To Delicious Favorites Stumble How to Lift Ubuntu Linux Ram Limit Share How to Lift Ubuntu Linux Ram Limit on Digg Get Instant Updates as RSS Feeds from Techie Buzz

All 32-bit systems have a RAM limit of 3 GB. This limits the maximum amount of RAM a system running on a 32-bit Linux can support. So, even if you have more than 3 GB of ram installed, it will show only 3 GB.

There was a previous workaround which allowed us to use more than 3GB of ram in Linux by installing the server Kernel. This provided us with a kernel which had PAE enabled. This could also be done by recompiling the Linux kernel with PAE enabled. But, this is no longer possible now as the i386-server flavor of Linux is being dropped according to the Ubuntu Wiki.

Thankfully, instead many OEM’s have made a request for a 32-bit Ubuntu with PAE enabled. In response to this, Karmic Koala has options to use PAE. This has been possible due to the meta package linux-generic-pae, which has been added to the Karmic Koala build and allows us to enable PAE for the desktop version.

To enable more than 3 GB, enter this in a terminal. This command will install the PAE packages.

sudo apt-get install linux-generic-pae

Now after restarting the sytem, your Ubuntu should use the full RAM resource of your computer.

For more information on PAE, see the Wikipedia page here.

For more information on meta packages, see the Ubuntu help page here.

[ Via Web Upd8 ]



Share

2 Responses so far | Share Your Opinions!

  1. Jean-Francois Messier
    November 4th, 2009 at 6:57 pm #

    I ran the command, and it was actually showing that it was already installed. My laptop is a Toshiba A100, with 4G of RAM, as confirmed by the startup status and config.

    However, when I check the status, it only shows 2.9G of RAM, not the 4G of RAM. Any idea why ?

    Reply to this comment

    Chinmoy Kanjilal Reply:

    The startup is independent of the OS. It is a low-level subsystem readying your system. It will detect anything you have as hardware, but the OS will not use it if it has no support.

    Reply to this comment

Leave a Comment

Note: We discourage users from using keywords in their names while posting comments, most of them get caught by spam, also it really would be more fruitful in knowing people who comment by their real name, rather than by using a name no one relates to. In future we reserve the right to delete comments from users using a name other than their own.

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>