Thinkpad C13 Yoga only 5.7GB RAM available

Support Linux Support
1

Hello, first time poster here.

First off, I want to say thank you to all the folks doing great work and helping people out reviving our Chromebooks.

I installed Mr. Chromebox’s firmware on my C13 Yoga with Ryzen 3500c and it’s almost perfect. The only thing not working is the trackpoint, but I hear that’s expected.

What bothers me a bit is that after the firmware flash, both Linux (tried several distros) and Windows 11 only recognize about 5.73GB of memory out of the 8GB installed. The Mr. Chromebox’s BIOS says 8GB installed, but Ubuntu only reports 5.73GB.

Is this expected, and if not, how can I get back my 2+ GB memory back?

Thanks!

1 Like
2

If you want to DM @MrChromebox he can make a custom release for you that enables the trackpoint. I might grab that too, if it’s rebased on a newer coreboot base than what I have.

3

I just dd’d my disk the other day but I’ll try installing openSUSE again and check to see if it also reports this. It might be normal though.

4

Not sure how to DM him. Not used to the UI on this forum yet.

5

Looks like the openSUSE Tumbleweed KDE install that completed on my C13 Yoga is showing 2.41gb/7.68gb used when running fastfetch.
To DM him, click his name there and send a message. Try not to send a ton though, he can get busy.

6

I just installed OpenSUSE KDE just to test it out.

Fastfetch says Memory: 1.13 GiB / 5.75 GiB

So something is definitely off.

What is your firmware version?

Mine is MrChromebox-4.21.1-4-g28bc0853503

7

Screenshot_20231211_212116
Screenshot_20231211_2121161920×1080 163 KB

Yours is newer I believe

8

Here’s the relevant info from dmidecode. Now I’m even more confused. Looks like Ubuntu sees two 4GB SODIMMs, but it only reports 5.73GB total available.

Handle 0x0000, DMI type 0, 26 bytes
BIOS Information
Vendor: coreboot
Version: MrChromebox-4.21.1-4-g28bc0853503
Release Date: 12/03/2023
ROM Size: 16 MB
Characteristics:
PCI is supported
PC Card (PCMCIA) is supported
BIOS is upgradeable
Selectable boot is supported
ACPI is supported
Targeted content distribution is supported
BIOS Revision: 4.21
Firmware Revision: 0.0

Handle 0x000A, DMI type 16, 23 bytes
Physical Memory Array
Location: System Board Or Motherboard
Use: System Memory
Error Correction Type: None
Maximum Capacity: 8 GB
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Number Of Devices: 2

Handle 0x000B, DMI type 17, 40 bytes
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0x000A
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: 64 bits
Data Width: 64 bits
Size: 4 GB
Form Factor: SODIMM
Set: None
Locator: Channel-0-DIMM-0
Bank Locator: BANK 0
Type: DDR4
Type Detail: Unknown Synchronous
Speed: 3200 MT/s
Manufacturer: Micron
Serial Number: 00000000
Asset Tag: Channel-0-DIMM-0-AssetTag
Part Number: MT40A512M16TB-062E:J
Rank: 1
Configured Memory Speed: 2400 MT/s
Minimum Voltage: 1.2 V
Maximum Voltage: 1.2 V
Configured Voltage: 1.2 V

Handle 0x000C, DMI type 17, 40 bytes
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0x000A
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: 64 bits
Data Width: 64 bits
Size: 4 GB
Form Factor: SODIMM
Set: None
Locator: Channel-1-DIMM-0
Bank Locator: BANK 0
Type: DDR4
Type Detail: Unknown Synchronous
Speed: 3200 MT/s
Manufacturer: Micron
Serial Number: 00000000
Asset Tag: Channel-1-DIMM-0-AssetTag
Part Number: MT40A512M16TB-062E:J
Rank: 1
Configured Memory Speed: 2400 MT/s
Minimum Voltage: 1.2 V
Maximum Voltage: 1.2 V
Configured Voltage: 1.2 V

Handle 0x000D, DMI type 19, 31 bytes
Memory Array Mapped Address
Starting Address: 0x00000000000
Ending Address: 0x001FFFFFFFF
Range Size: 8 GB
Physical Array Handle: 0x000A
Partition Width: 2

Handle 0x000E, DMI type 20, 35 bytes
Memory Device Mapped Address
Starting Address: 0x00000000000
Ending Address: 0x000FFFFFFFF
Range Size: 4 GB
Physical Device Handle: 0x000B
Memory Array Mapped Address Handle: 0x000D
Partition Row Position: Unknown
Interleave Position: Unknown
Interleaved Data Depth: Unknown

Handle 0x000F, DMI type 20, 35 bytes
Memory Device Mapped Address
Starting Address: 0x00100000000
Ending Address: 0x001FFFFFFFF
Range Size: 4 GB
Physical Device Handle: 0x000B
Memory Array Mapped Address Handle: 0x000D
Partition Row Position: Unknown
Interleave Position: Unknown
Interleaved Data Depth: Unknown

9

You can also just do codes for exactly what you want from dmidecode instead of dumping everything.
Example: sudo dmidecode -t bios would just show bios information and sudo dmidecode -t memory would just show memory information. I’ll add my memory output here to compare.

10 
s31bz@morphius:~> ddc -t memory
[sudo] password for root: 
# dmidecode 3.5
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 3.0.0 present.

Handle 0x000A, DMI type 16, 23 bytes
Physical Memory Array
        Location: System Board Or Motherboard
        Use: System Memory
        Error Correction Type: None
        Maximum Capacity: 8 GB
        Error Information Handle: Not Provided
        Number Of Devices: 2

Handle 0x000B, DMI type 17, 40 bytes
Memory Device
        Array Handle: 0x000A
        Error Information Handle: Not Provided
        Total Width: 64 bits
        Data Width: 64 bits
        Size: 4 GB
        Form Factor: SODIMM
        Set: None
        Locator: Channel-0-DIMM-0
        Bank Locator: BANK 0
        Type: DDR4
        Type Detail: Unknown Synchronous
        Speed: 3200 MT/s
        Manufacturer: Kingston
        Serial Number: 00000000
        Asset Tag: Channel-0-DIMM-0-AssetTag
        Part Number: K4A8G165WC-BCWE
        Rank: 1
        Configured Memory Speed: 2400 MT/s
        Minimum Voltage: 1.2 V
        Maximum Voltage: 1.2 V
        Configured Voltage: 1.2 V

Handle 0x000C, DMI type 17, 40 bytes
Memory Device
        Array Handle: 0x000A
        Error Information Handle: Not Provided
        Total Width: 64 bits
        Data Width: 64 bits
        Size: 4 GB
        Form Factor: SODIMM
        Set: None
        Locator: Channel-1-DIMM-0
        Bank Locator: BANK 0
        Type: DDR4
        Type Detail: Unknown Synchronous
        Speed: 3200 MT/s
        Manufacturer: Kingston
        Serial Number: 00000000
        Asset Tag: Channel-1-DIMM-0-AssetTag
        Part Number: K4A8G165WC-BCWE
        Rank: 1
        Configured Memory Speed: 2400 MT/s
        Minimum Voltage: 1.2 V
        Maximum Voltage: 1.2 V
        Configured Voltage: 1.2 V
11

the only real difference I’m seeing here are the differences in manufacturer?

12

Which, of course, shouldn’t make any difference.

The firmware BIOS reports 8192 MB of RAM, so for some reason 2+GB get lost between the BIOS and the OS on my C13.

Is it possible that for some reason on my machine 2.2GB gets reserved for the iGPU, while on yours only 0.2GB gets reserved for the same reason? I can’t think of anything else.

13

Yesterday I confirmed that the 4.21.1 update is what caused this issue. Reverting to 4.21.0 made the OS show the correct amount of ram.

14

How do I revert to 4.21.0?

15

looks like I’m on a “dirty” version of MrChromebox-4.21.1-3 so that may also be why mine works- it has the trackpoint patch

16

I’m also interested in the trackpoint patch while I’m at it.

How do I get my hands on the 4.21.1-3 “dirty” firmware? I do have a Susie Q cable for flashing.

17

MrChromeBox noted to me that the -3 version has the trackpoint enabled and the -4 version has it disabled. Asking if there’s an easy way for you to downgrade.

18

Poked MrChromeBox again and the only difference between -3 and -4 for us seems to be the trackpoint being enabled, and nothing that concerns reported memory.

19

I thought you confirmed that reverting to 4.21.0 fixes the memory problem?

20

@WeirdTreeThing mentioned that, so they may have more to share there