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    #1

    Recall memory after BIOS update

    Hi everyone, new to the forums

    So I recently got this Lenovo v110 laptop. It wasn't until after a few days of running Kubuntu 17 that I noticed that I had 3,2GB of RAM available (4GB installed). So I updated the BIOS and checked back. Still 3,2GB of RAM
    I then tried Kubuntu live, and the amount of RAM available there was up to 3,5GB. Just to make sure the new BIOS had less hw reserved memory I cloned the system, installed Win 10 and checked the task manager: again 3,5GB of RAM available, some 580MB of hw reserved.

    So is there a way to reclaim those 300MB that the new BIOS released without having to reinstall Kubuntu?

    Thanks
    Last edited by dazz..; Jun 13, 2017, 02:02 AM.
    Tags: None
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    #2
    What does "free -m" give you?
    Mine shows:
    Code:
    [FONT=monospace][COLOR=#000000]$ free -m[/COLOR]
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           5807        1825         830          82        3151        3505
Swap:             0           0           0
[/FONT]
    I have 6Gb of RAM. lshw shows
    Code:
        *-memory
          description: System memory
          physical id: 0
          size: 5807MiB
    Last edited by GreyGeek; Jun 12, 2017, 06:47 PM.
    "A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
    – John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.
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      #3
      Code:
      [FONT=monospace]$ free -m
           total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           3231         617        1604          77        1009        2293
Swap:          8191           0        8191

[/FONT]
      Also I noted down the output of "more /proc/meminfo"

      On my current Kubuntu install, MemTotal: 3309512 kB
      On Kubuntu live,       MemTotal: 3607740 kB
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        #4
        My lswh output:

        Code:
        [FONT=monospace]*-memory
         description: System memory
         physical id: 0
         size: 3231MiB

[/FONT]
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          #5
          OK, so looks like I was wrong and the BIOS update had nothing to do with the difference between the memory available in my Kubuntu install and the live one.
          What causes the memory to vary is the BIOS setting where you pick to boot in UEFI mode or legacy mode. In UEFI mode the system detects 3,5GB while in legacy mode only 3,2GB. In fact, if I boot to my USB live Kubuntu in legacy mode it also shows 3,2GB available

          I installed Kubuntu in legacy mode, so I guess I need to run a boot repair to be able to boot in UEFI mode (and hopefully have those extra MB of RAM back)
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            #6
            Boot repair didn't work. It looked promising when it initially detected that UEFI had been activated in the BIOS and suggested creating a boot partition. Unfortunately after it finished doing it's thing, the system got stuck in the BIOS' boot selection menu, as if there was no OS installed at all.
            I (sort of) know it can be done because I tried reinstalling Kubuntu from scratch, this time with UEFI enabled, and the fresh install had 3,5GB available.

            Restoring the system from my backup now. Maybe I can restore an sda1 backup on the sda1 partition of a fresh Kubuntu install with Clonezilla... running out of ideas.
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              #7
              You could install Kubuntu--from scratch--in UEFI mode, right?
              An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
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                #8
                Originally posted by Qqmike View Post
                You could install Kubuntu--from scratch--in UEFI mode, right?
                Correct. So I can always do that and start from scratch, but I'd really prefer not to. It took me days to install everything I need.

                An update on the progress, or lack-thereof LOL. I noticed I had no Grub partition after running boot repair, so run it again and realised that boot repair doesn't create it for you. Instead it suggest you create one yourself (FAT32, 100-250MB and boot flag)
                So I did that, rerun boot repair and now I get this error:

                Code:
                failed to open \EFI\BOOT\grubx64.efi not found
                I fired Kubuntu Live again and checked the Grub partition, and the \EFI\BOOT\grubx64.efi file is there. Not sure what's going on here
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                  #9
                  Here's the output of efibootmgr -v in case it helps

                  Code:
                  [COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]BootCurrent: 0016[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]Timeout: 0 seconds[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]BootOrder: 0000,0013,0014,0015,0016,0017,[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]0018,0019,001A[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]Boot0000* ubuntu        HD(2,MBR,0x4294967244,0x800,[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]0x7d000)/File(\EFI\ubuntu\[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]shimx64.efi)[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]Boot0010  Setup FvFile(721c8b66-426c-4e86-[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]8e99-3457c46ab0b9)[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]Boot0011  Boot Menu     FvFile(86488440-41bb-42c7-[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]93ac-450fbf7766bf)[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]Boot0012  Diagnostic Splash     FvFile(a7d8d9a6-6ab0-4aeb-[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]ad9d-163e59a7a380)[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]Boot0013* USB FDD:      VenMsg(bc7838d2-0f82-4d60-[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]8316-c068ee79d25b,[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]6ff015a28830b543a8b8641009461e[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]49)[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]Boot0014* ATA HDD: KINGSTON SUV400S37120G                 [/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]      PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x12,0x0)/[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]Sata(0,0,0)..bYVD.A...O.*..[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]Boot0015* ATAPI CD: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GUE0N                       PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x12,0x0)/[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]Sata(1,0,0)...!N.:^G.V.T[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]Boot0016* USB HDD: Kingston DataTraveler G3     PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x15,0x0)/[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]USB(0,0)3.!..3.G..A...[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]Boot0017* USB CD:       VenMsg(bc7838d2-0f82-4d60-[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]8316-c068ee79d25b,[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]86701296aa5a7848b66cd49dd3ba6a[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]55)[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]Boot0018* PCI LAN: EFI Network (IPv4)   PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x13,0x0)/[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]Pci(0x0,0x0)/MAC(54ee75c55b74,[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]0)/IPv4([/FONT][/COLOR][URL="http://0.0.0.0:0/"]0.0.0.0:0[/URL][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]<->[/FONT][/COLOR][URL="http://0.0.0.0:0/"]0.0.0.0:0[/URL][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial],[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]0,0)x.J.+*.N...=8.[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]Boot0019* USB LAN:      VenMsg(bc7838d2-0f82-4d60-[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]8316-c068ee79d25b,[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]e854bca4cae7704ca322b00da03763[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]22)[/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]Boot001A* PCI LAN: EFI Network (IPv6)   PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x13,0x0)/[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]Pci(0x0,0x0)/MAC(54ee75c55b74,[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]0)/IPv6([::]:<->[::]:,0,0)x.J.[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#222222][FONT=arial]+*.N...=8.[/FONT][/COLOR]
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                    #10
                    I'm literally on my way to a doctor's appointment in 5 minutes. About all I know is this:
                    https://www.kubuntuforums.net/showth...l=1#post379977
                    and it looks like you also know those basics. I also know that there are occasions where certain things--like boot file locations!--may be hard-coded into the kernel upon installation. In any case, I can leave you with the thinking of the UEFI guru, Rod Smith (author of gdisk and rEFInd, among other things) on this subject of fixing things after installation:
                    http://www.rodsbooks.com/linux-uefi/#troubleshooting
                    An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
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                      #11
                      Deleted this post because it was the exact same text as my previous post above.
                      An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
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                        #12
                        Originally posted by Qqmike View Post
                        Deleted this post because it was the exact same text as my previous post above.
                        Thanks for that. Much appreciated!
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                          #13
                          Great diagnostics, Dazz..., thanks for posting it.
                          "A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
                          – John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.
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                            #14
                            Thanks guys

                            I'm about to try again by manually creating the ESP and running boot repair. Hope adding the ESP flag in addition to the BOOT one will do the trick.
                            Problem is my partition table is reported as msdos in GParted, which I believe is MBR, while I need GPT to boot in UEFI mode if I understood it correctly. *gulp*
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                              #15
                              As I recall, Rod Smith--somewhere on his extensive UEFI/GPT website--tells how to convert MBR to GPT. In fact, I believe his gdisk (should be in repositories) utility can do that--his web pages would give guidance. It's been a couple years that I messed with this stuff at this level. Here it is, found it:
                              Converting to or from GPT
                              http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/mbr2gpt.html
                              (Back from eye doc, but he sure messed up my clarity with all his eye drops!)
                              An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
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