[Lenovo E450] Run test case 'memory/info' is failed.

[Gabriel Zhi Chen]

CID : 201407-15368 Lenovo E450 (A+A) with 14.04.2 (utopic)

Steps:
1. Install 14.04.2 on E450
2. Install Plainbox and run test case 'memory/info'. (This test checks the amount of memory which is reporting in meminfo against the size of the memory modules detected by DMI.)

Expected result:
Test result should be pass.

Actual result:

 /proc/meminfo reports: 3.13GiB
 lshw reports: 4GiB

FAIL: Meminfo reports 930258944 less than lshw, a difference of 21.66%. Only a variance of 20% in reported memory is allowed.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: linux-image-3.16.0-30-generic 3.16.0-30.40~14.04.1 [modified: boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-30-generic]
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.16.0-30.40~14.04.1-generic 3.16.7-ckt3
Uname: Linux 3.16.0-30-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.7
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Thu Mar 19 06:28:49 2015
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-03-18 (1 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20150218.1)
SourcePackage: linux-lts-utopic
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
---
ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.7
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC1: u 1795 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: u 1795 F.... pulseaudio
CurrentDesktop: Unity
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=2f251004-2f34-4325-bd4f-540d347d0285
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-05-26 (0 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20150218.1)
MachineType: LENOVO 20DEZ08ZUS
Package: linux (not installed)
ProcFB:
 0 radeondrmfb
 1 radeondrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.16.0-30-generic root=UUID=80051895-d940-42e6-b728-40a4fd8ce1c7 ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.16.0-30.40~14.04.1-generic 3.16.7-ckt3
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.16.0-30-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.16.0-30-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.127.11
Tags: trusty
Uname: Linux 3.16.0-30-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups: adm cdrom dip lpadmin plugdev sambashare sudo
_MarkForUpload: True
dmi.bios.date: 10/17/2014
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: HTET37WW (1.09 )
dmi.board.asset.tag: Not Available
dmi.board.name: 20DEZ08ZUS
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: SDK0E50510 PRO
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvrHTET37WW(1.09):bd10/17/2014:svnLENOVO:pn20DEZ08ZUS:pvrThinkPadE455:rvnLENOVO:rn20DEZ08ZUS:rvrSDK0E50510PRO:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 20DEZ08ZUS
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad E455
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO

[Alex Hung (alexhung)]

A boot-up dmesg can be helpful as kernel outputs detailed memory usages such as below:

[ 0.000000] e820: BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x000000000009ffff] usable
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000100000-0x000000001fffffff] usable
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000020000000-0x00000000201fffff] reserved
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000020200000-0x000000003fffffff] usable
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000040000000-0x00000000401fffff] reserved
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000040200000-0x00000000ca7b8fff] usable
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000ca7b9000-0x00000000ca8c0fff] reserved
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000ca8c1000-0x00000000ca90cfff] ACPI NVS
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000ca90d000-0x00000000caa1ffff] reserved
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000caa20000-0x00000000caa27fff] ACPI data
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000caa28000-0x00000000cac29fff] ACPI NVS
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000cac2a000-0x00000000cac4cfff] reserved
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000cac4d000-0x00000000cac4dfff] usable
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000cac4e000-0x00000000cacaefff] reserved
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000cacaf000-0x00000000caccdfff] ACPI NVS
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000cacce000-0x00000000cacf6fff] reserved
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000cacf7000-0x00000000cad39fff] ACPI NVS
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000cad3a000-0x00000000caffffff] usable
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000cb800000-0x00000000cf9fffff] reserved
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000fed1c000-0x00000000fed1ffff] reserved
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000ff000000-0x00000000ffffffff] reserved
[ 0.000000] BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000100000000-0x000000022e5fffff] usable

Often memory can be reserved for other purposes and therefore is not available for OS. A most common example is to be used by integrated VGA. The size can range from 16MB to 512+MB, depending on hardware design.

It can also be BIOS bug if it fails to assign memory above 4GB.

[Alex Hung (alexhung)]

Alternatively, one may also run "sudo fwts memmapdump" to get memory map. Please upload the results.log

[Gabriel Zhi Chen (gabrielzchen)]

@Alex, please refer to fwts.tgz in attachments. Thanks.

[Alex Hung (alexhung)]

dmesg in #4 shows memory map as below:

e820: BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000000000-0x000000000009dfff] usable
BIOS-e820: [mem 0x000000000009e000-0x000000000009ffff] reserved
BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000000e0000-0x00000000000fffff] reserved
BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000100000-0x00000000a5de3fff] usable
BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000a5de4000-0x00000000ae385fff] reserved
BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000ae386000-0x00000000ae4a5fff] ACPI NVS
BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000ae4a6000-0x00000000ae525fff] ACPI data
BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000ae526000-0x00000000afffffff] reserved
BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000fec00000-0x00000000fecfffff] reserved
BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000fed80000-0x00000000fed80fff] reserved
BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000ff800000-0x00000000ffffffff] reserved
BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000100000000-0x000000012effffff] usable

It is seen that memory 4gb is declared so there is nothing wrong with it.
    BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000100000000-0x000000012effffff] usable

The usable memory is allocated in the below two ranges:
     BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000000100000-0x00000000a5de3fff] usable
     BIOS-e820: [mem 0x0000000100000000-0x000000012effffff] usable

The range between fec00000~b000000 is not declared (see below) - that's more 1GB memory space (note: not actual memory). It is not certain whether actual memory is mapped there but used elsewhere (ex. for as VGA memory) but BIOS forgot to allocate it.
    BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000ae526000-0x00000000afffffff] reserved
    BIOS-e820: [mem 0x00000000fec00000-0x00000000fecfffff] reserved

This may need attention or confirmation from OEM and perhaps they can provide a BIOS update.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Gabriel Zhi Chen, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better. Could you please execute the following command, as it will automatically gather debugging information, in a terminal:
apport-collect 1417450

[Gabriel Zhi Chen (gabrielzchen)]

apport information

[Gabriel Zhi Chen (gabrielzchen)]

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[Gabriel Zhi Chen (gabrielzchen)]

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[Gabriel Zhi Chen (gabrielzchen)]

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[Gabriel Zhi Chen (gabrielzchen)]

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[Gabriel Zhi Chen (gabrielzchen)]

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[Gabriel Zhi Chen (gabrielzchen)]

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[Gabriel Zhi Chen (gabrielzchen)]

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[Gabriel Zhi Chen (gabrielzchen)]

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[Gabriel Zhi Chen (gabrielzchen)]

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[Gabriel Zhi Chen (gabrielzchen)]

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[Gabriel Zhi Chen (gabrielzchen)]

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[Gabriel Zhi Chen (gabrielzchen)]

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[Gabriel Zhi Chen (gabrielzchen)]

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[Gabriel Zhi Chen (gabrielzchen)]

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[Gabriel Zhi Chen (gabrielzchen)]

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[Gabriel Zhi Chen (gabrielzchen)]

@Christopher M. Penalver,

Please refer to files in attachment. Sorry for attaching logs late. Thanks.

[Alex Hung (alexhung)]

I noticed that it is an AMD platform (i.e. A+A). It is quite normal that AMD's iGPU requires more memory than Intel's (because it is also more powerful). This should be a normal behaviours.

This can depend on hardware design, but the iGPU device allocates 256M memory space (see lspci or below) and I am also guessing this is the system memory dedicated to iGPU. If the 256M system memory is taken into consideration, ex. the calculation becomes (4x1024 - 256) / (3.13x1024) = 83.4%, this passes the criteria.

00:01.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Kaveri [Radeon R5 Graphics] [1002:1318] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
 Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:5111]
 Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
 Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 Latency: 0, Cache Line Size: 32 bytes
 Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 89
 Region 0: Memory at e0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
 Region 2: Memory at f0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=8M]
 Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=256]
 Region 5: Memory at f0c00000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256K]
 Expansion ROM at f0c60000 [disabled] [size=128K]
 Capabilities: <access denied>
 Kernel driver in use: radeon

[Alex Hung (alexhung)]

A correction to #24, the calculation should be (3.13x1024) / (4x1024 - 256) = 83.4%

[Alex Hung (alexhung)]

I asked a friend who used to work on AMD platforms. He commented that recent AMD iGPU may require more than 512M.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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