Re: [PLUG] Linux upgrade issues

["Eric at Lucii.org" <eric@lucii.org>]

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On 07/03/2012 03:29 PM, Casey Bralla wrote:
> On Tuesday, July 03, 2012 10:51:19 AM Rich Freeman wrote:
>> On Tue, Jul 3, 2012 at 9:38 AM, Eric at Lucii.org <eric@lucii.org> wrote:
>>> So it is using almost 90% of RAM and almost half of the swap in "normal" conditions. Also, why only 3 GB of RAM?  I have 4 GB of RAM and thought that 64 bit systems would use ALL of it. [ Face palm... will run memory test at next reboot - probably before noon :-( ]
>>> 
>>> Could this be related to a 64 bit kernel and should I just switch back to 32 bit? I'm thinking of trying the 32 bit version of Ubuntu 12.04 and adding KDE to get a usable GUI.
>>> 
>>> Your thoughts and/or suggestions?
>> 
>> 64-bit kernels shouldn't have much impact on memory use (some data structures use more space, but it is a minor difference if you aren't in some really crazy scenario).
>> 
>> Try running ps/atop/etc to figure out where that memory is going. Also check /proc/meminfo for stuff like slab use.  Figuring out what is wrong is a lot easier if you have some idea where the RAM is going, but it isn't always obvious what the root cause is.
>> 
>> Rich
>> 
> 
> I agree with Rich, but you may also want to verify that the RAM is good by running memtest.  Bad RAM can cause some strange errors too.
> 
> Casey Bralla
> 
> Chief Nerd in Residence The NerdWorld Organisation

I'm back to this issue.  Thanks for the suggestions.

The system is still as slow as a lazy cat on a hot day.
See: my couch during a typical 20 hour period for an example
of what this looks like :-)

Better example: the window to compose this email took about 10
seconds to appear on screen.

Memory test is fine - as far as I can tell.
The BIOS POST screen shows:  3072MB OK (Installed Memory Size: 4096MB)
Mem test shows:  Memory   :  3071M  1471  MB/s

I'm getting the feeling that either:
  one of the 4  1GB RAM modules is bad
OR
  The kernel can't recognize more than 3 GB
  (I thought that one of the features of the 64-bit OS is no 32-bit
   memory address limit.)

I thought about adding more memory but, oops, it turns out the ASUS
A8V-VM only supports 4GB RAM.

The darn thing ran just fine with Ubuntu 10.04 32-bit but I just *had*
to update to a newer version :-(

I'm beginning to think that a new mobo+processor+RAM infusion will
solve this.

Eric
- -- 
#  Eric Lucas
#
#                "Oh, I have slipped the surly bond of earth
#                 And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings...
#                                        -- John Gillespie Magee Jr

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