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I have a HP Pavilion g4-2368la with Ubuntu Desktop 22.04 with 8GB of RAM, now according with the following official specs of HP:

The laptop supports as maximum 8GB of RAM.

According with Crucial and MrMemory pages, it supports 16GB. Even more, according with the dmidecode command, it reported 16GB too.

I want to go the Computer store to test if it is true, if works the pair of 8GB is going to be buy it, otherwise removed and returned

The reason of this post:

Question

  • What are the considerations to upgrade memory RAM with Ubuntu already installed?

It mostly due because the current Swap is based on File Swap - and it was automatically established when Ubuntu was installed from the beginning and considering only 8GB of RAM.

The point is avoid get an unexpected behavior such as lost data or the OS itself through the procedures as follows: either if the upgrade works (8 to 16) or if does not work (8 to 16 to 8)

Note

I know Ubuntu is solid, but perhaps I should be notified - by you - about some important consideration before and after to accomplish this upgrade test. So I am taking precautions according with your experience

Extra Question

If the upgrade is successfully - 16GB works in peace - therefore:

  • What is the correct procedure post-upgrade about to upgrade the Swap File?

Remember that It was created based on 8GB - now is 16GB. So for common sense, it should be increased too.

Manuel Jordan
  • 2,082

1 Answers1

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The point is avoid get an unexpected behavior such as lost data or the OS itself through the procedures as follows: either if the upgrade works (8 to 16) or if does not work (8 to 16 to 8)

The risk of that is slim to none if the RAM works. If the RAM is faulty you may experience crashes.

Remember that It was created based on 8GB - now is 16GB. So for common sense, it should be increased too.

Depends on how you use the machine. If you use hibernate (not sleep), you need a swap file that's big enough to hold all used Swap + RAM. If you do not use hibernate, you don't need a swap file big enough to hold all RAM. I have 16GB RAM and a 2GB swap file for instance.

So in short - upgrade your RAM. There's no need to do anything more unless you use hibernate, which is rather rare these days.

vidarlo
  • 23,497