Ubuntu 18.04 not detecting full RAM size

Question

I have Ubuntu 18.04 dual booted with Windows 10. Windows 10 shows full 8 GB RAM.

But in Ubuntu it shows only 6.8 GB.

Is there any way to make it near 8 GB or is this natural?

~$ free
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:        7097484     1775180     3633172       67964     1689132     4994508
Swap:       1000444           0     1000444

After turning the swap area off,

~$ free
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:        7097484     1776700     4761256      111464      559528     4949096
Swap:             0           0           0

Output

~# dmesg | grep -i memory:
[    0.000000] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0x00000000-0x00000fff]
[    0.000000] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0x00087000-0x00087fff]
[    0.000000] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0x000a0000-0x000bffff]
[    0.000000] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0x000c0000-0x000fffff]
[    0.000000] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0x09b00000-0x09dfffff]
[    0.000000] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0x09f00000-0x09f09fff]
[    0.000000] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0x6427a000-0x64b79fff]
[    0.000000] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0x6b58f000-0x6b78efff]
[    0.000000] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0x6b78f000-0x6d78efff]
[    0.000000] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0x6d78f000-0x6f78efff]
[    0.000000] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0x6f78f000-0x6f7fefff]
[    0.000000] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0x6f800000-0xafffffff]
[    0.000000] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0xb0000000-0xf7ffffff]
[    0.000000] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0xf8000000-0xfbffffff]
[    0.000000] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0xfc000000-0xfebfffff]
[    0.000000] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0xfec00000-0xfec00fff]
[    0.000000] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0xfec01000-0xfec0ffff]
[    0.000000] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0xfec10000-0xfec10fff]
[    0.000000] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0xfec11000-0xfed7ffff]
[    0.000000] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0xfed80000-0xfed80fff]
[    0.000000] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0xfed81000-0xfedfffff]
[    0.000000] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0xfee00000-0xfee00fff]
[    0.000000] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0xfee01000-0xff7fffff]
[    0.000000] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0xff800000-0xfff4ffff]
[    0.000000] PM: Registered nosave memory: [mem 0xfff50000-0xffffffff]
[    0.000000] Memory: 6929972K/7238032K available (12300K kernel code, 2472K rwdata, 4248K rodata, 2408K init, 2416K bss, 308060K reserved, 0K cma-reserved)
[    0.039763] Freeing SMP alternatives memory: 36K
[    1.147121] Freeing initrd memory: 54212K
[  141.519341] Freeing unused kernel memory: 2408K
[  153.310684] Freeing unused kernel memory: 2008K
[  153.317976] Freeing unused kernel memory: 1896K
[  153.869546] [TTM] Zone  kernel: Available graphics memory: 3548742 kiB
[  153.869547] [TTM] Zone   dma32: Available graphics memory: 2097152 kiB

Solution 1

This line:

[    0.000000] Memory: 6929972K/7238032K available (12300K kernel code, 2472K rwdata, 4248K rodata, 2408K init, 2416K bss, 308060K reserved, 0K cma-reserved)

indicates that BIOS is giving the kernel 7238032K of memory. The rest of the memory is being used by the BIOS:

8,388,608 K Total - 7,238,032 K Kernel = 1,150,576 K reserved by BIOS.

That is an unusually large amount for BIOS to reserve. You would have to look at your BIOS settings to perhaps try to figure out why.

Solution 2

From: Why my acer nitro 5 (AN515-42, Radeon RX 560X) 8gb ram but its just 6.9gb ram usable?

This can only be "fixed" in the bios! But not all bios allow you to change the pre-allocated memory of the video card, because there is a risk of the notebook turning a brick! Can you take a picture of this setting?

Comments

[David Spillett]

It is possible that the BIOS is reserving a large amount of memory for an on-board GPU (despite it not being used, in favour of the add-on one with its own RAM supply). That would be the first set of settings I'd look at if a BIOS was holding back such a large chunk of physical RAM from the OS.

[Abraham Francis]

Can you help me here : askubuntu.com/questions/1091846/… ?

[Ian Kemp]

@cat uh, no. pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/58834/discrete-graphics