If you need a quick way to find out how much RAM your Linux system supports or to determine the number of DIMM slots available, you can use a command line tool called dmidecode.
dmidecode command is a tool for dumping a computer’s DMI (some say SMBIOS) table contents in a human-readable format. Thanks to this table, you can retrieve this information without having to probe for the actual hardware.
# archlinux yaourt -S dmidecode # ubuntu sudo apt-get install dmidecode
To find out the maximum RAM capacity and the number of RAM slots available, use the following command:
sudo dmidecode -t 16
The Maximum Capacity is the maximum RAM supported by your system, while Number of Devices is the number of memory (DIMM) slots available on your computer.
To see complete memory information, including the info above along with currently installed memory information (RAM speed, size, etc.), use:
sudo dmidecode -t memory