How do you determine the amount of system memory?

[Ben Scott]

On Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 10:34 AM, Bill McGonigle <bill at bfccomputing.com> wrote:
>  sudo dmidecode -t 6 | grep Installed | grep -v Not | cut -f 2 -d :
> | cut -f 2,3 -d ' '

  Some more datapoints:

  On a Gateway "server" running CentOS 5.x with current updates
(kernel  2.6.18-92.1.6.el5), that tells me I've got two 256 MB modules
(correct).  Doing that math, that yields 524288 KB.  /proc/meminfo
MemTotal reports 515492.

  On an Intel SRMK2 running CentOS 4.x with current updates, except
kernel is still 2.6.9-55, that yields an error, "-t: No such file or
directory".  I think the dmidecode utility from that system must not
support the -t switch.  Manual interpretation of dmidecode default
output shows four 256 MB modules (correct).  So 1048576 KB.  MemTotal
= 1034460.

  On a Dell Precision 380 running Fedora 8, somewhat behind on
updates, running kernel 2.6.24.3-34.fc8, that command yields no
output.  I think I must have different DMI records for memory, like
Shawn.  Manual interpretation of dmidecode default output shows two
512 MB modules (correct).  1048576 KB again.  MemTotal = 1033392.

  Situation seems to be getting murkier by the minute.  :)

-- Ben