In article <
op.tjqb7rchjr3qzh@localhost.localdomain> Mike wrote:
> lshw? List Hardware? That's a new one! I always thought there was a
> command like this! Thanks for sharing. I had to apt-get it but here is
> what the relevant section says.....
>
> *-memory
> description: System Memory
> physical id: 21
> slot: System board or motherboard
> size: 384MB
> capacity: 512MB
> *-bank:0
> description: DIMM EDRAM
> physical id: 0
> slot: BANK_0
> size: 64MB
> *-bank:1
> description: DIMM EDRAM
> physical id: 1
> slot: BANK_1
> size: 64MB
> *-bank:2
> description: DIMM EDRAM
> physical id: 2
> slot: BANK_2
> size: 64MB
> *-bank:3
> description: DIMM EDRAM
> physical id: 3
> slot: BANK_3
> size: 64MB
> *-bank:4
> description: DIMM EDRAM
> physical id: 4
> slot: BANK_4
> size: 128MB
> *-bank:5
> description: DIMM EDRAM [empty]
> physical id: 5
> slot: BANK_5
>
> Hmmmmm... looking at the output it seems as if I had a dishonest salesman!
> I bought 3 128MB chips (so he said). I don't know what this 'slot 5' is.
Calm down. No need to jump to erroneous conclusions. The above shows 3
128MB DIMMS. Each slot has 2 banks. Two of the DIMMs use 2 64MB banks
each and one DIMM uses a single 128MB bank.
In theory, you could put in two 256MB DIMMs for a total of 512MB,
but I wouldn't add more memory without replacing the motherboard/cpu.
Let's back up a bit. Nothing you have shown would indicate that you
are low on memory. See below.
> All of the RAM slots have something in them and there are only 3. It must
> be something to do with the manufacturing and onboard memory.
>
> I really appreciate your guys help.
>
> 3852645 KB = total memory
> 768 M = system memory + banks 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4. Is my system really not
> accessing all of it's memory?
Redo your arithmetic, you have 384MB.
> bmike1@1[~]$ top
> top - 07:04:21 up 48 min, 2 users, load average: 3.86, 2.94, 2.46
> Tasks: 86 total, 4 running, 82 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
> Cpu(s): 66.4% us, 29.6% sy, 0.0% ni, 0.3% id, 0.3% wa, 2.9% hi, 0.5%
> si
> Mem: 385264k total, 356868k used, 28396k free, 14972k buffers
> Swap: 1025000k total, 0k used, 1025000k free, 172972k cached
This looks good. You are not low on memory. In fact, you're not using
any swap space. You have the misconception that having a low number for
the "free" number above is a bad thing. It is good. A good OS tries
to minimize this number.
Memory is used for three broad categories-- active, IO buffers and cached.
From the above, you have 385264K total memory. 172972K is cached,
meaning that it holds data or programs that are currently unused but
might be re-used in the near future. 14927K is currently used for I/O
buffers. Approximately 385264K - (172972K + 14927K) = 197320K is in
active use.
I repeat, a low value for free memory doesn't indicate high memory
contention.
While, in general, it is good to use programs that minimize their memory
use, you don't need to be overly concerned at this point. Your system
is not "out of memory".
From the "top" output that you previously posted, it looks like opera,
X, and a terminal program are using all of your cpu. I suspect that's
why your system feels sluggish.
-Dale
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