Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2001 10:39:52 +0200 From: Marek Gorka <marek.gorka@tpi.pl> To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: FreeBSD 4.3 and 6G RAM Message-ID: <3B554B58.973CD80F@tpi.pl>
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(with the following problem i've addressed the comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
group at first, but actually there was no practical solution nor suggestion
given; hope i'll find it here)
-----
hello,
i have an intel 4400 platform equipped with 4 xeon processors and 6G ram.
the mainboard is based on the ServerWorks ServerSet II HE chipset (by
intel), which supports up to 16G RAM (or 32G, i'm not sure at the moment).
i have installed FreeBSD 4.3-STABLE.
unfortunately, the system seems unable to work with this amount of ram.
when the kernel is loaded, it says:
--
2GB of memory above 4GB ignored
--
after which the booting process continues, but a while after hangs with the
following message:
--
panic: swap_pager_swap_init: swap_zone == NULL
--
all i can do is reboot.
the server, however, can be launched when i set the hw.physmem parameter to
either 1G, 2G or 3G at the bootloader prompt.
the swap partition is fully operational (5G).
i think we might exclude hardware problems here, as the SMP works perfectly
fine (what means that the mainboard is supported). i had windows 2000
advanced server installed before on this machine and there were no problems
with ram.
david malone at comp.unix* suggested, that maybe it is a problem with too
big amount of swap partition. i've made several tests and even with the swap
turned off this problem persists.
the kernel i work on has the following option compiled in:
options MAXMEM="(6144*1024)"
basically, it doesn't change the situation.
i have also tweaked the swap_pager.c file according to david's suggestion.
the following line:
n = cnt.v_page_count * 2;
has been changed to:
n = cnt.v_page_count / 2;
this also doesn't change the situation.
recently i made one observation:
when the machine starts, bios tests 6G ram. next the bootloader is called,
where i choose which partition to boot from. then bootloader shows the
following message:
--
BIOS 634kB/3767232kB available memory
--
and yes, when i set the hw.physmem to 3G, everything is okay. at the same
time, the kernel keeps showing the following message:
--
2GB of memory above 4GB ignored
--
if i set the hw.physmem to 4G or more at the bootloader prompt, the system
immediately hangs. the messages shown then says, that the page is out of
range (or similar). like if i was trying to addresss ram that doesn't exist.
i'm a bit confused here. the server, equipped with 6G ram, the operating
system which once sees 6G (the kernel message: 4+2=6), sometimes 3.7G (BIOS
634kB/3767232kB available memory), it's all a bit strange.
frankly speaking, i am not a good fbsd-hacker, and therefore the solution to
this problem seems far beyond my possibilities.
i hope that some of you have experience with this big systems and freebsd
and will be willing to help me, as i am running out of ideas here.
i'd be glad for any suggestions.
--
[......Marek Gorka, tp.internet.......]
[..........[ marekg@tpi.pl ]..........]
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