From owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Feb 9 19:00:33 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-doc@hub.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D993E16A4CF for ; Wed, 9 Feb 2005 19:00:33 +0000 (GMT) Received: from freefall.freebsd.org (freefall.freebsd.org [216.136.204.21]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AB28B43D1D for ; Wed, 9 Feb 2005 19:00:33 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from gnats@FreeBSD.org) Received: from freefall.freebsd.org (gnats@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id j19J0X6B023559 for ; Wed, 9 Feb 2005 19:00:33 GMT (envelope-from gnats@freefall.freebsd.org) Received: (from gnats@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.13.1/8.13.1/Submit) id j19J0X9J023558; Wed, 9 Feb 2005 19:00:33 GMT (envelope-from gnats) Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2005 19:00:33 GMT Message-Id: <200502091900.j19J0X9J023558@freefall.freebsd.org> To: freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org From: John Baldwin Subject: Re: docs/77304: FreeBSD 5.3 can not be installed on a 16 MB old pentium 75 MHz machine. X-BeenThere: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: John Baldwin List-Id: Documentation project List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 09 Feb 2005 19:00:34 -0000 The following reply was made to PR docs/77304; it has been noted by GNATS. From: John Baldwin To: freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org Cc: Ramiro Aceves , freebsd-gnats-submit@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: docs/77304: FreeBSD 5.3 can not be installed on a 16 MB old pentium 75 MHz machine. Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2005 11:23:30 -0500 On Wednesday 09 February 2005 07:01 am, Ramiro Aceves wrote: > >Number: 77304 > >Category: docs > >Synopsis: FreeBSD 5.3 can not be installed on a 16 MB old pentium 75 > > MHz machine. Confidential: no > >Severity: non-critical > >Priority: low > >Responsible: freebsd-doc > >State: open > >Quarter: > >Keywords: > >Date-Required: > >Class: doc-bug > >Submitter-Id: current-users > >Arrival-Date: Wed Feb 09 12:10:23 GMT 2005 > >Closed-Date: > >Last-Modified: > >Originator: Ramiro Aceves > >Release: 5.3 Release > >Organization: > > none > > >Environment: > > FreeBSD freebsd.remigio 5.3-RELEASE FreeBSD 5.3-RELEASE #1: Wed Jan 19 > 03:22:06 CET 2005 root@freebsd.remigio:/usr/src/sys/i386/compile/MIKERNEL > i386 > > >Description: > > FreeBSD 5.3 can not be installed from floppies in a 16 MB RAM old Pentium > 75 MHz machine. It just reboots after pressing return on the beastie > screen,not showing any kernel messages. > > The docs placed into the "floppies" directory on the CDROM say: > > 1.2 Hardware Requirements > > FreeBSD for the i386 requires a 486 or better processor to install > and run(although FreeBSD can run on 386 processors with a custom > kernel)and at least 8 megs of RAM to install and 7 megs to run. > > >How-To-Repeat: > > Just boot from the floppies. Wait until the beastie logo comes. Press > return or wait for 10 seconds. It reboots. > > >Fix: > > Add more memory. 32 MB RAM work perfectly here. I have not tested 24MB. > I think the docs should be updated. > Thank you very much. Yes, they should. I looked at my 5.3 CD and the kernel and uncompressed mfsroot are: -r-xr-xr-x 1 root wheel 5828080 Nov 4 23:19 kernel/kernel -rw-rw-r-- 1 john wheel 4423680 Feb 9 11:09 /tmp/mfsroot One of the changes in 5.x is to load the kernel at a physical address of 4mb rather than 1mb to work around bugs with PSE and PGE on certain CPUs, so that means you have to have 4mb + kernel + mfsroot. Also, the kernel includes bss, so the real size for the kernel is: text data bss dec hex filename 4416289 510984 327200 5254473 502d49 kernel/kernel Adding it all up comes out to 13872457 bytes, which is just over 13MB (13631488 bytes). However, the kernel requires some amount of memory that it allocates during very early startup for things like page tables and it allocates that stuff at the end of the kernel + modules, so that all has to come from the remaining 2+ MB, which is probably not enough memory. I do think 24MB should be the minimum to install. The minimum to run using a stripped down kernel without an mfsroot is probably still very small, though I'm not sure 7MB would cut it. Probably at least 12MB or so. -- John Baldwin <>< http://www.FreeBSD.org/~jhb/ "Power Users Use the Power to Serve" = http://www.FreeBSD.org