4GB RAM with an intel core 2 processor

[Sean C. Farley]

On Thu, 24 Jan 2008, Baldur Gislason wrote:

> I recently tried to upgrade my Dell workstation from 2GB to 4GB RAM.
> It's an Optiplex 755 with an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor. I'm
> running 7.0-RC1 When I install the 2 extra memory modules, the kernel
> tells me on startup that it's ignoring 640MB memory above 4GB, leaving
> me with a total of 3.375GB of accessible memory. However when X starts
> (using a PCI-e Geforce with nvidia driver) the system reboots.
> Now, I took a quick look at PAE and discovered that the PAE kernel is
> not meant for anything but headless systems, most of the drivers
> (including USB!) are out and no module support either.
>
> Do I have any options for using my 4GB of RAM and still retain USB and
> the nvidia driver?

The nvidia driver supposedly does not support PAE, and I know it does
not support memory remapping (at least with FreeBSD).  If you disable
memory remapping in the BIOS, then the reboots should stop.  I do not
know if the Optiplex 755 has that option or not.

Sean
-- 
scf at FreeBSD.org