Intel se7230NH1-E, 6gb memory not working on FreeBSD 6.0

[Bill Moran]

In response to Jeremy Chadwick <freebsd at jdc.parodius.com>:

> On Wed, Sep 27, 2006 at 01:58:59PM -0700, mailinglists at net-virtual.com wrote:
> > I am having a very hard time getting an Intel se7230NH1-E motherboard with
> > 6gb of memory to work.  I keep getting two messages about "Too many holes
> > in the physical address space, giving up".
> > 
> > I'm not sure what the BIOS is (it seems to be OEMed to Intel), but with
> > the menu structure I'd have to throw a dart at AMI BIOS.
> > 
> > I've scanned the newsgroups/message boards for issues surrounding this and
> > most suggest that there is a BIOS setting that can be tweaked to make
> > things come together.  However, I just don't see any of those options -
> > the only thing there with respect to memory involves memory timing.
> > 
> > Other posts have talked about unlocking "hidden menus" in the BIOS (I'll
> > save my tirade on hiding BIOS menu options for another day - but whoever
> > did this should be ashamed of yourself).  Alas, none of these have given
> > me any luck.
> > 
> > So, with that in mind... Anyone have any ideas on how I can get this to
> > recognize the 6gb of memory we have installed on the motherboard?
> 
> Based on what I understand of Intel x86 architecture, to address more
> than 4GB of memory space, you have to use Intel's PAE feature.  I
> don't think the FreeBSD kernels are built with PAE enabled.  This
> might explain why the kernel states there's too many memory holes.
> 
> I'd recommend either 1) disabling PAE (Physical Address Extensions)
> in the BIOS if possible, or 2) removing some RAM from the system,
> getting FreeBSD installed + upgraded to 6.2, building a kernel that
> has PAE enabled and then putting the extra RAM back in.
> 
> Any other administrators have tips/comments?

I have no idea if the problem is related to PAE, but have you tried
booting an amd64 kernel on the system?

-- 
Bill Moran
Collaborative Fusion Inc.