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From: j@uriah.heep.sax.de (J Wunsch)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Adding memory to FreeBSD: where did it go?
Date: 3 Jan 1997 22:41:51 GMT
Organization: Private BSD site, Dresden
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Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:33585
Hal Lynch <hal@sticky.usu.edu> wrote:
> I added 32M to my freeBSD system and it dosen't show up when I
> boot the system. How do I get FreeBSD to recognize the additional
> memory?????
By suing Compaq?
They have a very own idea of where to hide the additional memory, at
least, it doesn't show up in the appropriate CMOS cells where this is
normally recorded on other machines.
Hence RTFAQ:
7.6. I have 128 MB of RAM but the system only uses 64 MB.
Due to the manner in which FreeBSD gets the memory size from the BIOS,
it can only detect 16 bits worth of Kbytes in size (65535 Kbytes =
64MB). If you have more than 64MB, FreeBSD will only see the first
64MB. To work around this problem, you need to use the kernel option
specified below. There is a way to get complete memory information
from the BIOS, but we don't have room in the bootblocks to do
it. Someday when lack of room in the bootblocks is fixed, we'll use
the extended BIOS functions to get the full memory information...but
for now we're stuck with the kernel option.
options "MAXMEM=<n>"
Where n is your memory in Kilobytes. For a 128 MB machine, you'd want
to use 131072
-----
Replace ``64MB'' above with ``16MB'' for your Compaq... Since this
option forcibly overrides the value obtained from the CMOS, it should
work for you, too. Caution: this kernel will then _only_ work with
that amount of RAM (or more, but not less). So better keep the old
/kernel.GENERIC around, just in case you gotta boot some day with less
memory.
--
cheers, J"org
joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de -- http://www.sax.de/~joerg/ -- NIC: JW11-RIPE
Never trust an operating system you don't have sources for. ;-)