Update process to enable to full 512MB RAM

Hello - I thought it might be helpful to highlight the process of updating a SD card to take advantage of the full 512MB on the new Raspberry Pi (Rev 2.0).  I am using an element14 pre-programmed SD card .  It contains Raspbian "Wheezy" with kernel and firmware from July 15th (per modification dates in /boot).  This is recent enough to boot the 512MB Rev 2.0 model, but only 256MB of the 512MB RAM will be recognized.

After booting the Pi, you can access the command prompt (called the "shell" in Linux) using LXTerminal.  You can launch that application by clicking in the lower left hand corner to open the programs menu (where the start menu would be in Windows), selecting the Accessories group and then clicking LXTerminal.

Before updating the Pi, you'll need to make sure that your Raspberry Pi has a Internet connection.  To start the update, enter the following command into the terminal window (based on instructions from a previous discussion thread):

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install raspi-config libraspberrypi*

You should see output similar to the following:

pi@raspberrypi ~ $ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install raspi-config libraspberrypi*

Hit http://archive.raspberrypi.org wheezy InRelease

Hit http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy InRelease

Hit http://archive.raspberrypi.org wheezy/main armhf Packages

Ign http://archive.raspberrypi.org wheezy/main Translation-en

Get:1 http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/main armhf Packages [7378 kB]

Get:2 http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/contrib armhf Packages [23.3 kB]

Get:3 http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/non-free armhf Packages [47.8 kB]

Get:4 http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/rpi armhf Packages [14 B]

Ign http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/contrib Translation-en

Ign http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/main Translation-en

Ign http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/non-free Translation-en

Ign http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org wheezy/rpi Translation-en

Fetched 4 B in 47s (0 B/s)                                                                                                                                   

Reading package lists... Done

Reading package lists... Done

Building dependency tree      

Reading state information... Done

Note, selecting 'libraspberrypi0' for regex 'libraspberrypi*'

Note, selecting 'libraspberrypi-bin' for regex 'libraspberrypi*'

Note, selecting 'libraspberrypi-dev' for regex 'libraspberrypi*'

Note, selecting 'libraspberrypi-doc' for regex 'libraspberrypi*'

The following extra packages will be installed:

  raspberrypi-bootloader triggerhappy

The following NEW packages will be installed:

  triggerhappy

The following packages will be upgraded:

  libraspberrypi-bin libraspberrypi-dev libraspberrypi-doc libraspberrypi0 raspberrypi-bootloader raspi-config

6 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 192 not upgraded.

Need to get 64.7 MB of archives.

After this operation, 14.1 MB disk space will be freed.

Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y

Get:1 http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/ wheezy/main libraspberrypi-dev armhf 1.20121025-1 [561 kB]

Get:2 http://mirrordirector.raspbian.org/raspbian/ wheezy/main triggerhappy armhf 0.3.4-2 [31.2 kB]

Get:3 http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/ wheezy/main libraspberrypi-doc armhf 1.20121025-1 [31.4 MB]

Get:4 http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/ wheezy/main libraspberrypi-bin armhf 1.20121025-1 [121 kB]                                                      

Get:5 http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/ wheezy/main libraspberrypi0 armhf 1.20121025-1 [384 kB]                                                         

Get:6 http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/ wheezy/main raspberrypi-bootloader armhf 1.20121025-1 [32.3 MB]                                                 

Get:7 http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/ wheezy/main raspi-config all 20121028 [6654 B]                                                                  s

Fetched 64.7 MB in 3min 0s (359 kB/s)                                                                                                                       

perl: warning: Setting locale failed.

perl: warning: Please check that your locale settings:

          LANGUAGE = (unset),

          LC_ALL = (unset),

          LC_TIME = "en_US.UTF-8",

          LC_MONETARY = "en_US.UTF-8",

          LC_ADDRESS = "en_US.UTF-8",

          LC_TELEPHONE = "en_US.UTF-8",

          LC_NAME = "en_US.UTF-8",

          LC_MEASUREMENT = "en_US.UTF-8",

          LC_IDENTIFICATION = "en_US.UTF-8",

          LC_NUMERIC = "en_US.UTF-8",

          LC_PAPER = "en_US.UTF-8",

          LANG = "en_GB.UTF-8"

    are supported and installed on your system.

perl: warning: Falling back to the standard locale ("C").

locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory

(Reading database ... 56308 files and directories currently installed.)

Preparing to replace libraspberrypi-dev 1.20120714-1 (using .../libraspberrypi-dev_1.20121025-1_armhf.deb) ...

Unpacking replacement libraspberrypi-dev ...

Preparing to replace libraspberrypi-doc 1.20120714-1 (using .../libraspberrypi-doc_1.20121025-1_armhf.deb) ...

Unpacking replacement libraspberrypi-doc ...

Preparing to replace libraspberrypi-bin 1.20120714-1 (using .../libraspberrypi-bin_1.20121025-1_armhf.deb) ...

Unpacking replacement libraspberrypi-bin ...

Preparing to replace libraspberrypi0 1.20120714-1 (using .../libraspberrypi0_1.20121025-1_armhf.deb) ...

Unpacking replacement libraspberrypi0 ...

Preparing to replace raspberrypi-bootloader 1.20120714-1 (using .../raspberrypi-bootloader_1.20121025-1_armhf.deb) ...

Adding 'diversion of /boot/bootcode.bin to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/bootcode.bin by rpikernelhack'

Adding 'diversion of /boot/fixup.dat to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/fixup.dat by rpikernelhack'

Adding 'diversion of /boot/fixup_cd.dat to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/fixup_cd.dat by rpikernelhack'

Adding 'diversion of /boot/kernel.img to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/kernel.img by rpikernelhack'

Adding 'diversion of /boot/kernel_cutdown.img to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/kernel_cutdown.img by rpikernelhack'

Adding 'diversion of /boot/kernel_emergency.img to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/kernel_emergency.img by rpikernelhack'

Adding 'diversion of /boot/start.elf to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/start.elf by rpikernelhack'

Adding 'diversion of /boot/start_cd.elf to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/start_cd.elf by rpikernelhack'

Unpacking replacement raspberrypi-bootloader ...

Selecting previously unselected package triggerhappy.

Unpacking triggerhappy (from .../triggerhappy_0.3.4-2_armhf.deb) ...

Preparing to replace raspi-config 20120715 (using .../raspi-config_20121028_all.deb) ...

Unpacking replacement raspi-config ...

Processing triggers for man-db ...

locale: Cannot set LC_ALL to default locale: No such file or directory

Setting up raspberrypi-bootloader (1.20121025-1) ...

Memory split is now set in /boot/config.txt.

You may want to use raspi-config to set it

Removing 'diversion of /boot/bootcode.bin to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/bootcode.bin by rpikernelhack'

Removing 'diversion of /boot/fixup.dat to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/fixup.dat by rpikernelhack'

Removing 'diversion of /boot/fixup_cd.dat to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/fixup_cd.dat by rpikernelhack'

Removing 'diversion of /boot/kernel.img to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/kernel.img by rpikernelhack'

Removing 'diversion of /boot/kernel_cutdown.img to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/kernel_cutdown.img by rpikernelhack'

Removing 'diversion of /boot/kernel_emergency.img to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/kernel_emergency.img by rpikernelhack'

Removing 'diversion of /boot/start.elf to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/start.elf by rpikernelhack'

Removing 'diversion of /boot/start_cd.elf to /usr/share/rpikernelhack/start_cd.elf by rpikernelhack'

Setting up libraspberrypi0 (1.20121025-1) ...

No existing /etc/asound.conf, creating one with preferred config

Setting up libraspberrypi-dev (1.20121025-1) ...

Setting up libraspberrypi-doc (1.20121025-1) ...

Setting up libraspberrypi-bin (1.20121025-1) ...

Setting up triggerhappy (0.3.4-2) ...

Error opening '/dev/input/event*': No such file or directory

Setting up raspi-config (20121028) ...

Following the update, the raspi-config configuration utiltity can now be run to set desired amount of memory that with be allocated for the CPU versus the GPU.  In the terminal, enter the command:

sudo raspi-config

Select the "memory_split" menu item using the down arrow key and press enter:

This will open the memory allocation configuration screen.  On this screen, you can input the amount of memory (e.g. RAM) that you want to allocate to the GPU (graphics processor):

The remaining memory is then allocated to the CPU (general purpose processor).  The default is 64 MB for the GPU which would leave 448 MB for the CPU on the 512MB Rev 2.0 Raspberry Pi.  Allocating more memory to the GPU may improve performance for some 3D graphics or media applications.  However, this may reduce the number of applications that can be run at once and also reduce the performance for other types of programs.

After choosing the desired value, select the <Ok> button and hit Enter.  Finally select the <Finish> button on the main menu and select <Yes> when asked if the system should reboot.

Following the reboot, launch LXTerminal and enter this command to open a system performance utility called "top":

top

The utility should appear similar to this screenshot:

Notice the hilighted text "448996" just right of "KiB Mem:" which indicates that the system is using the full 512MB memory less the 64MB allocated the GPU.

Cheers,

Drew