In article <bnf0pi057d@enews1.newsguy.com>,
John Reiser  <jreiser@BitWagon.com> wrote:
quote:
 
>
>Use the same method that the kernel uses.  In a vm86 "DOS box",
>issue the BIOS call "int $0x15" with 0xE820==%ax.
>See arch/i386/boot/setup.S, include/asm/e820.h,
>and arch/i386/kernel/setup.c in the kernel sources.
>


Also of potential interest:
vmstat -s | grep memory

There are a variety of other approaches in between these two extremes
of BIOS call and command-line report ...
--

Cameron Laird <claird@phaseit.net>
Business:  http://www.Phaseit.net

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

claird@lairds.com (Cameron Laird) wrote in message news:<vpmi6kfn0i4jbf@corp.supernews.com>...[QUO
TE] 
>
> Also of potential interest:
>   vmstat -s | grep memory
>
> There are a variety of other approaches in between these two extremes
> of BIOS call and command-line report ...[/QUOTE]

Unfortunately, all of those lines contain information pulled directly
from /proc/meminfo. None of them report the amount of physical memory
on the machine.

For example, on a system with 512MB:
$  vmstat -s|grep memory
515536 kB total memory
507096 kB used memory
225580 kB active memory
252360 kB inactive memory
8440 kB free memory
170656 kB buffer memory

The closest is "total memory", but it reports 503.5MB.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

In article <bnf0pi057d@enews1.newsguy.com>,
John Reiser  <jreiser@BitWagon.com> wrote:
quote:
 
>
>Use the same method that the kernel uses.  In a vm86 "DOS box",
>issue the BIOS call "int $0x15" with 0xE820==%ax.
>See arch/i386/boot/setup.S, include/asm/e820.h,
>and arch/i386/kernel/setup.c in the kernel sources.
>


Also of potential interest:
vmstat -s | grep memory

There are a variety of other approaches in between these two extremes
of BIOS call and command-line report ...
--

Cameron Laird <claird@phaseit.net>
Business:  http://www.Phaseit.net

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

claird@lairds.com (Cameron Laird) wrote in message news:<vpmi6kfn0i4jbf@corp.supernews.com>...[QUO
TE] 
>
> Also of potential interest:
>   vmstat -s | grep memory
>
> There are a variety of other approaches in between these two extremes
> of BIOS call and command-line report ...[/QUOTE]

Unfortunately, all of those lines contain information pulled directly
from /proc/meminfo. None of them report the amount of physical memory
on the machine.

For example, on a system with 512MB:
$  vmstat -s|grep memory
515536 kB total memory
507096 kB used memory
225580 kB active memory
252360 kB inactive memory
8440 kB free memory
170656 kB buffer memory

The closest is "total memory", but it reports 503.5MB.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

In article <bnf0pi057d@enews1.newsguy.com>,
John Reiser  <jreiser@BitWagon.com> wrote:
quote:
 
>
>Use the same method that the kernel uses.  In a vm86 "DOS box",
>issue the BIOS call "int $0x15" with 0xE820==%ax.
>See arch/i386/boot/setup.S, include/asm/e820.h,
>and arch/i386/kernel/setup.c in the kernel sources.
>


Also of potential interest:
vmstat -s | grep memory

There are a variety of other approaches in between these two extremes
of BIOS call and command-line report ...
--

Cameron Laird <claird@phaseit.net>
Business:  http://www.Phaseit.net

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]

claird@lairds.com (Cameron Laird) wrote in message news:<vpmi6kfn0i4jbf@corp.supernews.com>...[QUO
TE] 
>
> Also of potential interest:
>   vmstat -s | grep memory
>
> There are a variety of other approaches in between these two extremes
> of BIOS call and command-line report ...[/QUOTE]

Unfortunately, all of those lines contain information pulled directly
from /proc/meminfo. None of them report the amount of physical memory
on the machine.

For example, on a system with 512MB:
$  vmstat -s|grep memory
515536 kB total memory
507096 kB used memory
225580 kB active memory
252360 kB inactive memory
8440 kB free memory
170656 kB buffer memory

The closest is "total memory", but it reports 503.5MB.

[ Post a follow-up to this message ]