How can I tell if a machine has PAE?
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.
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.
- As you can tell, the processor in this example does not.
- and this one does.
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.