Dual Core Xeon / i386 install w/ more than 4gb of RAM

[Erik Trulsson]

On Tue, Feb 19, 2008 at 05:10:17PM -0500, Kevin K wrote:
> I have a box that we recently installed 16GB of RAM on. The box is i386
> FreeBSD 6.2. It only recognizes 4gb.
> 
>  
> 
> I am currently recompiling the kernel to support options PAE (KERNCONF=PAE)
> in order to see this. I understand this is still considered a Beta
> implementation ,and this is a production box.
> 
>  
> 
> Does anyone have any alternative solutions that would provide a more
> reliable environment other than PAE?

If you want to use all the 16GB RAM on that machine then your only
options is to use the amd64 version of FreeBSD or i386+PAE.
amd64 is likely to work better.
(Yes, the amd64 version of FreeBSD should work on your hardware according
to the quoted dmesg output.)


> 
>  
> 
> Dmesg Output is as follows :
> 
>  
> 
> Copyright (c) 1992-2007 The FreeBSD Project.
> 
> Copyright (c) 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994
> 
>       The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
> 
> FreeBSD is a registered trademark of The FreeBSD Foundation.
> 
> FreeBSD 6.2-RELEASE #0: Fri Jan 12 11:05:30 UTC 2007
> 
>     root at dessler.cse.buffalo.edu:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/SMP
> 
> Timecounter "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz quality 0
> 
> CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 3.00GHz (3000.13-MHz 686-class CPU)
> 
>   Origin = "GenuineIntel"  Id = 0xf64  Stepping = 4
> 
>  
> Features=0xbfebfbff<FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,APIC,SEP,MTRR,PGE,MCA
> ,CMOV,PAT,PSE36,CLFLUSH,DTS,ACPI,MMX,FXSR,SSE,SSE2,SS,HTT,TM,PBE>
> 
>   Features2=0xe4bd<SSE3,RSVD2,MON,DS_CPL,VMX,EST,CNTX-ID,CX16,<b14>,<b15>>
> 
>   AMD Features=0x20100000<NX,LM>
> 
>   AMD Features2=0x1<LAHF>
> 
>   Cores per package: 2
> 
>   Logical CPUs per core: 2
> 
> real memory  = 3489005568 (3327 MB)
> 
> avail memory = 3414196224 (3256 MB)
> 
> ACPI APIC Table: <PTLTD        APIC  >
> 
> FreeBSD/SMP: Multiprocessor System Detected: 4 CPUs
> 

[snip]


-- 
<Insert your favourite quote here.>
Erik Trulsson
ertr1013 at student.uu.se