From owner-freebsd-amd64@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Feb 15 12:14:50 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-amd64@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-amd64@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CB1CB16A420 for ; Wed, 15 Feb 2006 12:14:50 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from freebsd@rtl.fmailbox.com) Received: from out4.smtp.messagingengine.com (out4.smtp.messagingengine.com [66.111.4.28]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3BE9A43D4C for ; Wed, 15 Feb 2006 12:14:50 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from freebsd@rtl.fmailbox.com) Received: from frontend1.internal (mysql-sessions.internal [10.202.2.149]) by frontend1.messagingengine.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 232D8D34433; Wed, 15 Feb 2006 07:14:49 -0500 (EST) Received: from frontend2.messagingengine.com ([10.202.2.151]) by frontend1.internal (MEProxy); Wed, 15 Feb 2006 07:14:49 -0500 X-Sasl-enc: LoltXYh/iXU9cN1lXZHWWDaktcplSG3JBRDOCcJELl9S 1140005687 Received: from [192.168.1.51] (CWPP-p-144-134-229-141.prem.tmns.net.au [144.134.229.141]) by frontend2.messagingengine.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id C3CBA5714A2; Wed, 15 Feb 2006 07:14:46 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <43F31B35.6080308@rtl.fmailbox.com> Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2006 23:14:45 +1100 From: Robert Leftwich User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.7 (X11/20051013) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Steve Kargl References: <1139828635.13761.254227794@webmail.messagingengine.com> <20060213190831.GA1510@troutmask.apl.washington.edu> In-Reply-To: <20060213190831.GA1510@troutmask.apl.washington.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-amd64@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD 6.0, amd64, A8N-SLI and 4gb ram X-BeenThere: freebsd-amd64@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting FreeBSD to the AMD64 platform List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2006 12:14:51 -0000 Steve Kargl wrote: > > You don't need "option PAE" on FreeBSD-amd64. If you have 4+GB, > then FreeBSD-amd64 should have access to the memory. > > We need to see the top portion of your dmesg concerning the 3 GB > versus 4 GB question. This is a FAQ in that a small amount of > memory is reserved for the hardware/kernel. > Here is the output of dmesg when both the s/w and h/w PAE options are disabled in the bios (the bios is only reporting 3gb available): FreeBSD 6.0-RELEASE #0: Mon Jan 30 17:49:29 EST 2006 root@black-betty:/usr/src/sys/amd64/compile/BLACKBETTY Timecounter "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz quality 0 CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4800+ (2472.16-MHz K8-class CPU) Origin = "AuthenticAMD" Id = 0x20f32 Stepping = 2 Features=0x178bfbff Features2=0x1 AMD Features=0xe2500800,LM,3DNow+,3DNow> Hyperthreading: 2 logical CPUs real memory = 3221159936 (3071 MB) avail memory = 3106529280 (2962 MB) ACPI APIC Table: FreeBSD/SMP: Multiprocessor System Detected: 2 CPUs cpu0 (BSP): APIC ID: 0 cpu1 (AP): APIC ID: 1 Is this enough of the dmesg output? Now if I enable the h/w PAE option in the bios, it reports 4gb available and dmesg is: FreeBSD 6.0-RELEASE #0: Mon Jan 30 17:49:29 EST 2006 root@black-betty:/usr/src/sys/amd64/compile/BLACKBETTY Timecounter "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz quality 0 CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4800+ (2472.16-MHz K8-class CPU) Origin = "AuthenticAMD" Id = 0x20f32 Stepping = 2 Features=0x178bfbff Features2=0x1 AMD Features=0xe2500800,LM,3DNow+,3DNow> Hyperthreading: 2 logical CPUs real memory = 5100273664 (4864 MB) avail memory = 4125216768 (3934 MB) ACPI APIC Table: FreeBSD/SMP: Multiprocessor System Detected: 2 CPUs cpu0 (BSP): APIC ID: 0 cpu1 (AP): APIC ID: 1 However during bootup it runs visibly slower, the DHCP lookup never completes and it is generally very flaky. I compared the 2 full dmesg outputs and they are identical apart from the real/avail memory sizes. If I disable the h/w PAE and enable the s/w PAE, the bios again reports 4gb available but FreeBSD fails during startup, printing continually, 'entry of nVidia Mediashield metadata is NOT supported'. Robert