Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: kashani <kashani-list@××××××××.net>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: [gentoo-user] weird 4GB RAM and kernel issue
Date: Sun, 02 Apr 2006 00:08:39
Message-Id: 442F14F1.1090000@badapple.net
1 I've made my problem go away, but I'm a bit curious about why it was
2 happening.
3
4 I've got nine or so Dell 1850's with 2 x 2GB chips. When I compile
5 gentoo-source 2.6.15-r1 (and 2.6.14-r5) with support for 4GB I see only
6 3GB. 1GB lowmem and 2GB highmem.
7
8 ws04 ~ # cat /proc/meminfo
9 MemTotal: 3107408 kB
10 MemFree: 1731660 kB
11 Buffers: 219720 kB
12 Cached: 937980 kB
13 SwapCached: 0 kB
14 Active: 455100 kB
15 Inactive: 717924 kB
16 HighTotal: 2227968 kB
17 HighFree: 1271588 kB
18
19 When I recompile on the same hardware with support for 64GB RAM I see
20 the full 4GB in the usual 1GB/3GB split.
21
22 nms02 ~ # cat /proc/meminfo
23 MemTotal: 4147776 kB
24 MemFree: 3762712 kB
25 Buffers: 151404 kB
26 Cached: 45116 kB
27 SwapCached: 0 kB
28 Active: 56724 kB
29 Inactive: 145000 kB
30 HighTotal: 3276544 kB
31 HighFree: 3222936 kB
32
33 However on my HP DL360 with 4 x 1GB RAM I see the 4GB, though it's a bit
34 smaller, with 4GB enabled in the kernel. Same kernel version as the Dell's.
35
36 ramin@azul ~ $ cat /proc/meminfo
37 MemTotal: 3977744 kB
38 MemFree: 116792 kB
39 Buffers: 296108 kB
40 Cached: 3157952 kB
41 SwapCached: 0 kB
42 Active: 2725152 kB
43 Inactive: 782956 kB
44 HighTotal: 3096552 kB
45 HighFree: 8680 kB
46
47 I've been Googling around for an explantion, but am not really sure what
48 I'm looking for. I'd assume that I might lose a few hundred MB if the 2
49 x 2GB chips are slightly bigger than the 4GB limit rather than the full
50 1GB that seems to disappear. I'm guessing some wacky motherboard
51 interleaving thing where highmem ends up being one chip and the lowmem
52 the 896MB on the other chip.
53
54 Anyone have a decent theory on this with a nice link?
55
56 kashani
57 --
58 gentoo-user@g.o mailing list

Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-user] weird 4GB RAM and kernel issue Andrew Frink <andrew.frink@×××××.com>
Re: [gentoo-user] weird 4GB RAM and kernel issue Rick van Hattem <Rick.van.Hattem@××××.nl>