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Date: Sat, 05 Jul 2008 13:23:19 +0200
From: Kris Kennaway <kris@FreeBSD.org>
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To: Robert Heron <robert@heron.pl>
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Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: FreeBSD 7.0 and RAM limit
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Robert Heron wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I use:
> 
> FreeBSD 7.0-R on i386 server with motherboard S5000VSA and 6GB RAM 
> onboard. BIOS version - 88 (the latest)
> 
> Kernel includes: options        MAXMEM=(6*1024*1024)
 >
> And FreeBSD reports only:
> 
> real memory  = 2680160256 (2556 MB)
> avail memory = 2617892864 (2496 MB)
> 
> Why? What is wrong that FreeBSD sees only about 2.5GB instead of 6GB?

The i386 architecture cannot address more than 4GB (== 2^32) of RAM 
unless you use PAE (i.e. the PAE kernel).  You don't need to set MAXMEM 
either, since it's autodetected.

Kris