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Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 13:43:03 -0800
From: Eric Hedstrom <erich@compecon.com>
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To: ringlord@bbs.dcoisp.net
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Subject: Re: Memory and kernel question.
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Hi Jeremy,

Check LINT rather than GENERIC for the MAXMEM explanation and example.

Eric Hedstrom
Erich@compecon.com

ringlord@bbs.dcoisp.net wrote:
> 
> Hello to all.
> I am running freebsd 2.2.5.  I have recently upgraded my freebsd box
> from 32 megs of ram to 128 megs of ram.  The first time the 2.2.5
> GENERIC kernel saw the new memory, the memory was reported correctly.  I
> thought I was on easy street then.
> After halting the system and rebooting the machine, the kernel only
> reported about 100 megs of ram and only had about 94 megs availible.  I
> am not sure what happened between the initial detection and the halting
> rebooting to cause the kernel to see less ram.
> I next went to the freebsd mailing list archives and did some searching
> to see if I could find anything related.  There was a message from June
> of this year that talked about building a kernel with option MEMSIZE
> equal to the amount of ram he had in his machine.
> Oh great.  Time to build a new kernel? :)
> After reading the handbook and looking at /usr/src/sys/i386/conf/GENERIC,
> I realized that option MEMSIZE is not there! :)
> So.  My assumption is that it is no longer needed and freebsd determines
> this on its' own.
> So.  What would cause ram to be reported correctly on one attempt, and
> be miss reported the next time?
> I have tried rebooting several times, with the same effect now, still
> only 94 megs avail.
> Any assistance or pointers would be greatly appreciated.
> BTW.  I will send log files if needbe, just didn't want to clutter up
> the list if something was simply fixed.
> Thanks.
> Jeremy