Dell PE 1950 - Only seeing 3.2 gigs of ram

[Jeff MacDonald]

> Jeff MacDonald wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I put a fresh install of 6.1-RELEASE on a dell poweredge 1950 server.
> > It's configured with 4 gigs of ram.
> >
> > However when I boot i get the following right before DMESG
> >
> > 786432k above 4GB ignored
> >
> > Which is strange, but then dmesg shows this
> >
> > real memory  = 3489300480 (3327 MB)
> > avail memory = 3414659072 (3256 MB)
> >
> > Soo I'm at a bit of a loss.
>
> You're using the 32-bit version, right? The design of x86 architecture
> (i.e. it's not FreeBSD's problem) is such that a part of memory
> addresses needs to be set aside for hardware uses, such as the PCI bus,
> AGP memory & others. This manifests as "holes" in memory that are not
> accessible to OS.
>
> There are two possible solutions: you may try compiling a 32-bit kernel
> with PAE (but not all drivers support PAE), or install the 64-bit
> version of FreeBSD.

Well I hate when people say this, but I'm going to say it.. :)

When I did a default install of ubuntu, it saw all 4 gigs without a
hitch. So does that mean it already includes PAE, or something else ?

Aside, I will read up on PAE.  I'll read up about 64 bit as well, I've
been hesitant to make the jump only cause any word of mouth i've heard
said  that it's not ready for production. Maybe that's off base, it's
only what "i've heard"

Thanks !

Jeff.