xw8000 + SuSE 9.0 - 3GB memory limitation

[chris montgomery]

5GB RAM installed.
Latest BIOS and kernel (smpG4).

How can I get all 5GB to register with Linux?

Thanks.

[Kodjo Agbenu]

Hello,

Make sure you have k_smp kernel installed (up to 64GB RAM) :

uname -r

In case no, install it from the SuSE CDs, then edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and change the "default" kernel index to point to k_smp.

Good luck.

Kodjo

[Colin Topliss]

Ensure you have the kernel src installed.

cd /usr/src/linux

type

make menuconfig

Select 'Processor Type and Features'
Part way down you'll see an option for 'High Memory Support'

The help text says:

Linux can use up to 64 Gigabytes of physical memory on x86 systems. However, the address space of 32-bit x86 processors is only 4 Gigabytes large. That means that, if you have a large amount of physical memory, not all of it can be "permanently mapped" by the kernel. The physical memory that's not permanently mapped is called "high memory".
If you are compiling a kernel which will never run on a machine with more than 960 megabytes of total physical RAM, answer "off" here (default choice and suitable for most users). This will result in a "3GB/1GB" split: 3GB are mapped so that each process sees a 3GB virtual memory space and the remaining part of the 4GB virtual memory space is used by the kernel to permanently map as much physical memory as possible.

Set this to what you desire. Save and build a new kernel as normal (there are HOW-TOs that thell you how to achieve this if you're not too sure how to).

Col.