Freenas shows 4GB RAM , NAS4Free shows 8GB of ram ?

[orconomix]

Hello.

I am new to Freenas and just experimenting with it .

I am using this version : http://download.freenas.org/9.3/STABLE/201506042008/x64/FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201506042008.iso

which i assume is a 64Bit version.

My computer is

- C-50 AMD cpu
- 2x 4GB RAM
- 8GB flash drive
- 250GB HDD.

I upgraded the ram from 4GB to 8GB and freenas only sees 4GB of the 8GB RAM , even after a fresh reinstall .

When i run NAS4Free on the same computer , it shows all the 8 GB of RAM available.

Is there a way to fix that ?

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

Is there a way to fix that ?

Probably not on that hardware.

If you're just experimenting to familiarize yourself with FreeNAS, go ahead and run it with 4GB and see what happens, but don't put anything important on it and don't be surprised if it's unstable

Your hardware isn't suitable for running FreeNAS in production. You'd probably be better of with something Linux-based if you plan to use that hardware.

 

[depasseg]

I think his problem is that he has 8GB installed, but FreeNAS is only seeing 4G. I've seen one other post that was similar to this. I don't know what the resolution, if any, was. What happens when you run Memtest? Googling shows similar issues where the computer will only see half the RAM.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I think his problem is that he has 8GB installed, but FreeNAS is only seeing 4G.

I realize that, I just don't see any point devoting time and energy into diagnosing the root cause on that hardware.

 

[orconomix]

Well , i went to FreeNAS-9.2.1.9-RELEASE-x64 (2bbba09) and i can see 8 GB of RAM.

Gotta see if that is a fluke and if it will also work on V9.3.x or not.
Maybe something went wrong during the installation of 9.3.x .

 

[orconomix]

It seems like something must have gone wrong during the installation.
I downloaded FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201506162331 and did these steps...

1 . i wiped the installation USB flash drive with easus partition master
2 . i wiped the USB flash drive where freenas was supposed to be installed on with easus partition master.
3 . installed freenas again , but this time i didn't remove the installer flash drive as asked by the installer , i forced my computer in boot menu and started from the system flash drive.
4 . logged in freenas and there were 7889MB of ram.

i wonder if quick format of the installation medium or system flash drive were the culprits. maybe some left over data or partitions were lingering on the system flash drive.

now i have to test it and see if it stays that way or reverts back to 4GB

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

It seems like something must have gone wrong during the installation.
I downloaded FreeNAS-9.3-STABLE-201506162331 and did these steps...

Did you verify the checksums on your downloads?

 

[orconomix]

no , i didn't.

But i noticed that the freenas installer would say that some table of the system USB flash drive is corrupt and that it would use the 2nd table.

That is why i wiped both flash drives . after wiping the system USB flash drive , that error didn't come back anymore.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

... the freenas installer would say that some table of the system USB flash drive is corrupt ...

Partition table? If so, then wiping them probably did fix it.

Edit: I mean 'fix the install error', not 'fix the RAM issue'.

 

[orconomix]

Yes , it fixed the install error as well as the RAM issue.

I wonder if there was some left over data/partitions from a previous 32bit freenas installation that caused that.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

I think that's extremely unlikely.