TrueNAS missing memory after migration from Windows 10

[herrvonbaum]

Hi all,

I've only ever exclusively used Windows, and have never used a BSD/Unix-based OS, so please forgive my lack of familiarity with shell commands etc.

Some background--I have an old machine that served as a former HTPC on Windows 10 for a few years, after being decommissioned to my garage. After reading a bit about Home NAS's I decided to dust it off, and see if it still worked after a fresh install of Windows 10. Thankfully it did, but it was terribly slow with CPU utilization constantly at 99% (reminding me while I relegated it to the garage). Considering I only intend to use the machine as an NAS, I did some further research, found out about OMV and TrueNAS, and decided to give the latter a go.

It's been a weekend of struggle (for example, choosing 'UEFI' at install resulted in no boot, forcing a reinstall using 'Bios' at install), but after reading up a bit, was able to add one of my 2x 2TB drives to a pool, exported all of the data to it off the other NTFS-formatted drive, and expanded the pool with that final drive, so that they're now mirroring... pretty darn cool. I also created a Dataset for the pool for Samba shares on the network. After spending hours troubleshooting ACL permissions, I can finally write to the dataset (feeling pretty accomplished!).

However, after all of the struggle, one issue has eluded me. TrueNAS's dash reports only 3.7GB of memory out of the 8GB of memory (2x twin sticks) I have installed. I know the memory works, because the Bios confirms both are active. Furthermore, Windows 10 reported both as active before I migrated over to TrueNAS. My system profile is below (I understand it's very dated, but again, no issues in Windows 10, other than 99% CPU utilization):
- Motherboard: ASRock E350M1
- CPU: AMD E-350 APU (1.6GHz, Dual-Core)
- Memory: G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1066 (PC3 8500) Desktop Memory Model F3-8500CL7D-8GBRL
- HDD: 1x Seagate BarraCuda Green ST2000DL003 2TB 5900 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive; and, 1x HGST/Hitachi (HUA723020ALA641) Ultrastar 7K3000 2TB 64MB 7200RPM 3.5" (Enterprise Grade) SATA III 6.0Gb/s Hard Drive
- Case: In Win BP655 mini ITX case w/ 200W PSU
- OS: TrueNAS-12.0-U2

My Bios is current. I've messed around with the bios settings as to 'shared video memory.' There is no setting to turn off 'shared video memory.' When I set 'shared video memory' to auto, TrueNAS reports 3.7GB memory. When I set 'shared video memory' to 32MB, TrueNAS reports 3.9GB memory. I've also set the video card to 'PCI-Express' rather than 'On Board' (since I'm not using a screen, and there's no card in the PCI-Express slot anyway--however, the system apparently still reverts to the On Board card if I plug it into a display). All this to say, I don't believe 'shared video memory' is causing a full stick not to register in TrueNAS, but perhaps that's a potential culprit.

I've come this far after spending a lot of hours this weekend, and really want to see if I can get the machine fully operational as-is (particularly since it's a low power (200W) computer, and I'm not looking to do much more than mirrored NAS storage at the moment).

One last thing, if you suggest something using shell commands (non-GUI), I'd really appreciate it if you'd dumb it down for me (to something a non-BSD/Unix user can understand)--as I'm just learning the terminology and OS (I've only just learned that 'shell' exists as the 'DOS' of BSD). And, most importantly, thank you for any insights you can offer! Much appreciated!

 

[JohnDigital]

If your BIOS sees all 8GB then I dont know of any reason why you wouldnt see all 8GB in TN.

if you click shell in the GUI left hand menu and type

grep memory /var/run/dmesg.boot

What does it say?

 

[herrvonbaum]

John--thanks for the reply! I ran that command and got the following:
real memory = 8589934592 (8192 MB)
avail memory = 3998838784 (3813 MB)

Odd. It seems to recognize the full 8 gigs as 'real' (not sure what the distinction is). However, you can see from my dashboard, that only the 3.9GB are available:

 

[SweetAndLow]

Random side note: can you also post the output of zpool status in code tags? Formatting matters. I just want to make sure your pool layout is what you think it is.

If your bios sees the memory there is no reason freenas won't.

 

[herrvonbaum]

Random side note: can you also post the output of zpool status in code tags? Formatting matters. I just want to make sure your pool layout is what you think it is.

If your bios sees the memory there is no reason freenas won't.

Sweet--I appreciate the help. However, not quite sure what a 'code tag' is? Is this sufficient for purposes of what you're looking for?

 

[JohnDigital]

John--thanks for the reply! I ran that command and got the following:
real memory = 8589934592 (8192 MB)
avail memory = 3998838784 (3813 MB)

Odd. It seems to recognize the full 8 gigs as 'real' (not sure what the distinction is). However, you can see from my dashboard, that only the 3.9GB are available:
View attachment 45160

This seems odd, its not letting you realize all 8gb like its 32bit limited or something, which cant be. Try reseating that ram, alternate slots etc.. What happens if you boot with only one stick? Make sure you shut down to do this.

Keep your video to onboard in the bios. Maybe its looking for a PCIe video and cant find it... Idk. Disable anything extra in the bios you arent using audio, serial ports, other fancy settings. Set video to onboard and the lowest possible setting, maybe possible to disable altogether and still get terminal output, not sure..

 

[JohnDigital]

Sweet--I appreciate the help. However, not quite sure what a 'code tag' is? Is this sufficient for purposes of what you're looking for?

If you put "[ code]this is code[ /code]" without a space before before code it does this which makes it easier to read for us.

Code:

this is code

 

[JohnDigital]

So i discovered this from 2014 with almost identical hardware. He basically is doing what I was thinking. Others have experienced this as well. Worth a shot?

From @clownphish

This issue raised its ugly head again after my latest upgrade from 9.2.1 to FreeNAS-9.2.1.2-RELEASE-x64. It's annoying, but now I think I have the process down to a fine art! Here it is (hopefully it helps someone else)
Upgrade & reboot. System Information shows 4GB of RAM while the BIOS detects all 8GB (looking at dmesg, real memory= 8GB, avail memory =4GB as per my earlier post)
Shutdown, take out RAM from slot 1. Reboot. System sees 4GB of RAM
Shutdown, take out RAM from slot 2 and re-install the RAM from slot 1. System sees 4GB of RAM
Shutdown, insert both sticks of RAM and boot. System sees full 8GB.
Subsequent reboots are fine (I suspect until I perform an upgrade). I don't understand this behaviour and why it only happens on upgrade but at least I know a work around. I'd be interested if anyone else has any suggestions on how to fix this (other than changing the motherboard!) or if they have the same issue / solution? My motherboard is an Asus E45M1-I Deluxe (AMD E-450 processor)

 

[herrvonbaum]

So i discovered this from 2014 with almost identical hardware. He basically is doing what I was thinking. Others have experienced this as well. Worth a shot?

Great find--Will give that a try and report back!

 

[herrvonbaum]

So i discovered this from 2014 with almost identical hardware. He basically is doing what I was thinking. Others have experienced this as well. Worth a shot?

So I followed the guide to the letter and...


We're golden! Thanks a lot, John!

 

[JohnDigital]

My pleasure