Mini 9 kernel update?

yakinikku,

Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.

You can install a 2 gig stick of ram in the mini 9. There is only one slot on this system. Check out crucial.com for memory prices. I installed 2 gigs on my mini that I purchased when they first stated shipping.

the question wasnt about weather or not the ram would physically install in the system.  if you purchased your mini 9 with ubuntu before dell started to sell them with 2gb of ram as an option the Kernel is set by dell to not read more than 1gb of ram (it will only show up as, and you can only use 883mb of it).  dell needs to release a kernel update to the rest of us.  sure, we could recompile the kernel ourselves (the option you are looking for is HIMEM i believe) but I dont think that fits the whole "customer/business" relationship very well.

yakinikku,

I have a meeting with the engineers shortly. I will ask them this question.

yakinikku,

They tell me it is already available. Go to the update manager.

Thank you sir.  I will give it a go when I get home!

Hi Yakinikku,

just wonder if it is working for you? I'm doing the update now with my mini and have a 2gb ram on its way from newegg. If the update works then it'll save me time to install a new os in order to use the 2gb ram.

shes workin nice.

Thanks! That's great news! I just got the 2gb ram in my office, can't wait to go home and try it out!

So which kernel should I be running? I've done update, upgrade, and dist-upgrade. Conky still says 2.6.24-19 for the kernel. I haven't seen a new kernel come through. I'd like to upgrade to 2gb, and I'd like to order a 2nd one of these, but I want to make sure I'm running the right kernel for 2gb.

Anyone running 2gb with a Dell lpia kernel please tell me what version kernel they're using. It would be fun if it turns out I have the right kernel already.

David,

I flashed the bios to A04, and went to update manager and have it downloaded and installed all the updates. After that I exchanged the 1gb ram with the 2gb and the system reconized it. I really don't know much about the process since I'm a Linux newbie. My wife is travelling with the mini right now, I'll check for the kernel version next week, well... if I can find where to look for it.

There was a largish update bolus that was pushed out about 3-4 weeks ago, and that may have updated the kernel. But if so, then Dell's kernel update script also deleted the previous kernel version because I can't find it. Thus my confusion.

Two easy ways to check your kernel version:

1.

# uname -a

You'll probably find that you're running the 2.6.24-19 kernel

2.

# ls /boot

The /boot directory is where your kernel images are stored. You'll likely find that the only thing you have there are the 2.6.24-19 kernel and its associated files. But not any previous kernel version.

Anyways, I'm told that "3-4 weeks ago" (well before Dell started selling 2gb Minis) the kernel was patched up to support 2gb. But the Dell-buntu hides your updates from you so you'd never actually know that it was changed if you did an update (as I do, regularly).

On faith that it will work, I already ordered the 2gb stick that I need. Hopefully it shows up today. 

In deed my kernel version is 2.6.24-19.  But when I check my bios, the main page shows system memory 640 kb, extended memory 2038 mb.

I installed the BIOS update A04 and the kernel update using update manager. Now my built in webcam has a problem when I try to run Skype or Cheese. The webcam light comes on and I get a image for an instant then the image breaksup. I went back to BIOS A00 with no luck. I then installed A04 back and booted a thumb drive with Ubuntu 8.10 on it. The webcam works perfect. I can only assume the kernel update is the problem. Any suggestion?

matracb:

In a terminal session, enter:

# uname -a

Tell me what the version of your kernel is. It should read:

2.6.24-19-lpia

1. Are you running the stock Ubuntu that came with the Dell Mini (8.04.1 lpia aka "Dell-Ubuntu"), or something else? I'm assuming you are, and that 8.10 is only running from a stick.

2. When you did the kernel update, did you update everything else needed or did you selectively update only the kernel itself? Skype and Cheese share a commonality with a webcam kernel module that may not have updated properly. So its not that the -19 kernel is the problem, but that its not loading the right module to handle the webcam. Or the HAL is corrupted. You may need to do a simple dpkg-reconfigure, but I suspect that the module didn't update normally, and that would be what happens if you selectively updated only the kernel and not the associated restricted-modules package.

3. After finding that generic x86 Ubuntu 8.10 works fine, did you then boot back to whatever is installed internally and find the webcam now works fine?

4. Prior to doing your BIOS updating, did you reset the BIOS to "default"? Have you ever changed any of the BIOS settings? Would you please humor me and go into your BIOS settings and manually set them to default, then boot back to the "Dell-Ubuntu"? Just trust me on this one please.

None of my Minis have webcams. Didn't want them. Maybe that was the rebelious Luddite in me tossing a sabot in the works. So I can't confirm your glitch. But I think that should give you ideas to start with.