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lofidevops
Asked: 2012-05-01 01:16:02 +0800 CST

How can I tell if a machine has PAE?

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I want to help someone upgrade an oldish laptop from 11.10 to 12.04, which requires PAE. I am not sure whether they have PAE or not.

I know it is likely that they do have it after all, but how can I tell before trying to upgrade?

pae

4 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Citing https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EnablingPAE:

    To check if your processor supports PAE, try

    grep --color=always -i PAE /proc/cpuinfo

    If it outputs something, you have PAE support. Otherwise, the output will be empty.

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  2. Another option (which uses a GUI) involves using Hardinfo (System Profiler and Benchmark.

    • Under devices, select Processor.
    • From here, you can see the processor's capabilities (along with their simple descriptions).
    • If PAE is not listed, your processor does not support it.

    enter image description here

    • As you can tell, the processor in this example does not.

    enter image description here

    • and this one does.
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  3. From the terminal, simply type the following.

    cat /proc/cpuinfo

    Scroll down and check the flags. PAE will be listed in the flags if supported.

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  4. Try:

    inxi -f

    Or, to see it in red color (if present):

    inxi -f | grep -i pae
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