"upgraded" rig and ubuntu question/problem

[jasonz]

Hi,

I recently "upgraded" a build and put Ubuntu on it. I had a few ?'s concerning both adding hardware and the OS.

Currently the machine has 512 RAM, and I have another 512 stick that I would like to add. But I was talking to a friend and he said that you cannot just add ram, it has to be the same as what you already have, or something like that. How would I go about checking the current RAM specs? Is there a way to display hardware properties in Ubuntu? Or is it safe to just pull it out and look.
The new stick I have has a sticker with "512MB DDR PC2700 CL2.5" on it. If I find out the other, I will post it for comparison.

Also, Ubuntu seems to be sluggish and hangs up on boot at times and I have to restart the system. Is there some reason for this. I have a 128MG graphics card adn like i said 512MB current ram. Not sure on the CPU speed, havent figured out how to check that yet. Will the added ram help any?

Thanks in advance for any help.

-Jason

 

[PC eye]

Are you running ubuntu as a stand alone or dual booting along with Windows there? If you are dual booting a free program like the System Info for Windows(SIW) tool will show the makes and models of the board as well as other hardwares. http://www.gtopala.com/

Once you download it and save it to a folder you simply right click on the file itself to create a desktop shortcut since there is no installer. You can rename the shortcut once dragged onto the desktop as SIW for short and that will display all system information. Ubfortunately that's a free Windows not Linux tool there.

Counting on labels found on dimms isn't advisable to start with in the event that a dimm is found mislabeled. The additional 512mb of memory certainly won't hurt while the boot problem is common if you used the installer on a live cd version to see ubuntu go on and not the install only or full tarz packs you download separately for the manual installation.

 

[jasonz]

Thanks for the reply,

It is ubuntu only. Is there some way to display this info from within ubuntu? And the installer I used was the regular one from the ubuntu website. I burned the iso and installed straight from a dvd. I would also like to know the CPU speed, just out of curiosity.

As far as the memory, can I just put it in and see if it works or will that mess something up?

And, does this seem sufficient to smoothly run linux, with the g-card and a gig of ram, etc?

I appreciate the help,

-Jason

 

[PC eye]

If you are not sure about the second dimm try running that by itself to see if there are any problems in the event that it was mislabeled by chance. If it's simply a PC3200 while you are running a board that takes PC2700 it will run at that speed and not the faster default speed if compatible.

If slower it would will slow the first dimm down when both are used together. But if the second is actually a second PC2700 dimm the only other factor would be Latency and a possible slight voltage difference depending on type. Mixing a performance dimm with value ram doesn't work out well in most cases.

The information on the make and model board you have there would be the thing to look over anyways to see what is supported. That will provide the general information on the hardwares supported.

 

[jasonz]

crap!!!

I tried the other memory, it didnt work so I put only the initial memory back. Now the monitor doesnt work. The machine starts up and stuff, but there is no output to the monitor. I know the monitor works cuz i tried it on my laptop and it worked before. Did I fry the graphics card or completely screw up my computer. I liked ubuntu and liked having 2 computers.....

thanks

 

[porterjw]

Another person falling victim to PC Eye...oye. Forget what he told you, ignore anything else he posts; he's utterly useless on these Forums. Search for other Threads he's posted in and see how badly he's proved wrong on a daily basis. It would actually be pretty funny if he didn't screw up folks' systems.

What should have been mentioned first was that there really isn't a need for higher amounts of RAM on a Linux system. Your Swap Partition will pretty much offset any lack of physical memory, provided you have the minimum amount of RAM to run the Live CD. Ubuntu can pretty much fly on a system with 512 MB RAM and a 1.5 GB Swap. I'd do a fresh install of Ubuntu and redo the way you set up your partitions. A Swap of 1 - 2 GB will be all you ever need for 512 MB RAM.

Also, you can right-click on the task menu at the top of the screen and select the 'Add' option. There are a few things you can add and have displayed on the bar (CPU speed, System info, etc.). Feel free to PM me if you need some in-depth help as far as partitioning goes or if any questions come up after the Install.

 

[jasonz]

thanks imasati, that helped. I got everything working pretty good. I have the 2nd drive detected and mounted (after new install), but there is only a folder that says lost+found, and I can not read/write to the drive. I also cannot access the permissions.

Thanks

 

[porterjw]

Most welcome. Every so often, Ubuntu will run a file system check upon booting (every 'x' days or 'y' boots type of thing) just to make sure everything is good. Lost&Found is basically a repository for 'rescued files' in case any bad mojo happens. It's a bit more in-depth than that, but that's the gist of it.

You can change the permissions on folders, but you'll need to give yourself Root access to do it. If you open a Terminal and type 'sudo nautilus' (w/o the quotes), hit enter, then enter your Root password, you will have complete control over the file system (be careful!). Once you've done that, you can navigate to any folder, right-click, and change the permissions.