The terminal just needs a bit of experience for a user to begin to feel comfortable. One needs to be very clear about using the terminal as root, and using it as user.
Using it as root, one ought to know exactly what one is doing. As user, using the terminal is less risky. One major aspect of using the terminal as user, is know exactly what one is doing when using the remove command: rm, so one doesn't lose what they may wish to keep.
That said, I'll address the issue mentioned in post #1:
To check the existing state of memory modules in the machine, the following command will provide all the information you need, and it's run as user:
Code:
$ inxi -v 8 | awk '/Memory:/,/PCI Slots:/' | sed '/PCI/d'
Memory:
System RAM: total: 16 GiB available: 15.27 GiB used: 2.77 GiB (18.1%)
Message: For most reliable report, use superuser + dmidecode.
Array-1: capacity: 128 GiB slots: 4 modules: 2 EC: None
max-module-size: 32 GiB note: est.
Device-1: Controller0-ChannelA-DIMM0 type: no module installed
Device-2: Controller0-ChannelA-DIMM1 type: DDR5 detail: synchronous
size: 8 GiB speed: 4800 MT/s volts: note: check curr: 1 min: 1 max: 1
width (bits): data: 64 total: 64 manufacturer: Crucial Technology
part-no: CT8G48C40U5T.M4A1 serial: E8E39868
Device-3: Controller1-ChannelA-DIMM0 type: no module installed
Device-4: Controller1-ChannelA-DIMM1 type: DDR5 detail: synchronous
size: 8 GiB speed: 4800 MT/s volts: note: check curr: 1 min: 1 max: 1
width (bits): data: 64 total: 64 manufacturer: Crucial Technology
part-no: CT8G48C40U5T.M4A1 serial: E8E392F7
Note that the command may take a moment or two to produce its output.
The output tells you how many RAM slots, which ones are occupied and which are free, the speed of the RAM, the maximum memory that can be installed, the type of memory and the manufacturer or brand.
The above information is necessary to add a memory module, but the following considerations are also relevant:
Memory module sockets are usually arranged in parallel lines adjacent to the cpu, as shown in the diagram in post #2. A user needs to know which sockets to insert the memory modules in if there are more than one such socket. In the above example there are 4 sockets. The manual for this particular motherboard indicates which sockets should be used for varying numbers of memory modules. In this case the configuration is as follows where x indicates the inserted module:
Code:
Memory sockets
CPU 1 2 3 4
Number of modules:
1 module.................... x
2 modules................... x x
4 modules................... x x x x
Notice that if there is only one module, it is located in the socket furthest from the cpu, and when there are 2 modules they are not next to each other. These configurations may be counterintuitive but they are important to allow memory modules to take advantage of what's called Dual Channel Memory Technology when 2 or 4 memory modules are used, if it's available. It makes a difference.
Another consideration is when using multiple memory modules. To ensure optimal performance, they should be identical, which means that they should be the same type, same size, same brand and same speed. In the above example the details are:
Type: DDR5
Size: 8GiB
Brand: Crucial Technology
Speed: 4800 MT/s
The machine you have may only have two slots, which makes it easier to add a second memory module because there's only one place it can go. Note however, the optimal performance will be more ensured if both memory modules are the same as described above.
