Incorrect total system memory

[Steve Magoun]

Binary package hint: gnome-system-monitor

System Monitor reports that my workstation has 503.3MB total memory (which is also what /proc/meminfo says). I have 512MB onboard, and a discreet graphics card so all 512MB is available to the OS. Therefore System Monitor should say I have a total of 512MB.

The 503.3MB value may be technically accurate, but end users won't know/care that the extra 8.7MB is in use by the kernel. They are much more likely to know that their computer came with 512MB of RAM, and expect that to be reflected in the System Monitor. A minor thing to be sure, but I think it will improve the experience for end users.

To solve this, consider parsing the output of 'lshw', which knows I have 512MB RAM (installed as 2x256MB RDRAM, even). I'm not sure what the right solution is for those systems using integrated graphics. Consider rounding up the value reported by /proc/meminfo to the nearest 16MB.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Mon Jul 30 09:53:36 2007
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 7.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/gnome-system-monitor
Package: gnome-system-monitor 2.19.5-0ubuntu1
PackageArchitecture: i386
ProcCmdline: gnome-system-monitor
ProcCwd: /home/steve
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gnome-system-monitor
Uname: Linux steve-ubuntu 2.6.22-8-generic #1 SMP Thu Jul 12 15:59:45 GMT 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thanks for your bug report. This bug has been reported to the developers of the software. You can track it and make comments here: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=467684

[Conor (ronocdh)]

I have 1GB of RAM. Gnome System Monitor reports only 990.4MB, and the "lshw" command 1008MB.

[Robert Roth (evfool)]

Where do you see this information? On the resources or on the system tab? What does gnome-control-center Details pane Overview section say? Does that report the same amount of memory?