Date: Mon, 02 Nov 1998 09:16:57 -0600 From: David Kelly <dkelly@hiwaay.net> To: wolverine@futuretek.net Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: memory question Message-ID: <199811021516.JAA29801@nospam.hiwaay.net> In-Reply-To: Message from wolverine@futuretek.net of "Sun, 01 Nov 1998 18:41:34 EST." <363CF1AE.CB0851ED@futuretek.net>
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wolverine@futuretek.net writes: > I did not know who to post or ask this question of. > I am running 2.2.2 Release and I have 2 questions. First one, I have a > compaq computer I am running this on. It has 40mb memory, 540 HD, and a > network card (10/100) to the internet. My problem is when it boots up it > only shows 16mb of memory not the 40mb that's installed. Can you tell me > how to solve this problem. I am not the best at Unix, I am teaching > myself how to use it. Oh btw, the unit is running DNS, Apache web > server, and a couple of cgi and pl programs. Telling you more than I remember, there is/was an issue of a memory hole at 16MB or thereabouts on some systems used for caching BIOS on ISA cards and other purposes. This hole confused some FreeBSD kernels. Look for mention of it in /usr/src/sys/conf/i386/LINT. Then make a copy of GENERIC or whatever your kernel config file is, make the changed hinted at in LINT, and build a new kernel. Looking at the 2.2.7 LINT suggests another possible solution: your BIOS is only reporting 16MB to the kernel and the kernel accepts that at face value: # MAXMEM specifies the amount of RAM on the machine; if this is not # specified, FreeBSD will first read the amount of memory from the CMOS # RAM, so the amount of memory will initially be limited to 64MB or 16MB # depending on the BIOS. If the BIOS reports 64MB, a memory probe will # then attempt to detect the installed amount of RAM. If this probe # fails to detect >64MB RAM you will have to use the MAXMEM option. # The amount is in kilobytes, so for a machine with 128MB of RAM, it would # be 131072 (128 * 1024). options "MAXMEM=(128*1024)" If the above is the case then adding: options "MAXMEM=(64*1024)" could force your system to look beyond the 16 MB reported by BIOS, but would limit the search to 64MB. > Second question, can I upgrade to the latest version of FreeBSD without > losing any of my current data and settings. If I can then how do I do > that. With only 540MB of HD its hard to do the easy thing by using cvsup or CTM to create a -current or -stable up-to-date source directory followed by a "make world". Generally the /etc directory isn't touched. Nor is /usr/local, where your apache and other optional packages are installed. If this system is at all critical, you should be making periodic backups. So one solution to upgrade would be to to a complete backup, verify you really *have* a good backup (read it), then install FreeBSD on top of your existing system. And see what happens. You might chose to wipe your HD, repartition, and install clean. Then go back to your backups and pluck out the important config information. When undergoing such major tasks I make a complete backup first. Sometimes several. If I have another system with enough disk space I shoot the backup over there because its faster to get to later. And another copy on tape. Then I make extra copies of /etc, /var, and /usr/local/etc. And yet another separate backup of user directories. Once the clean system is up, start folding in the changes to /etc. Put the user account info back in /etc/master.passwd. Host info in /etc/hosts, printers in printcap, bind order in hosts.conf, resolv.conf, sendmail.cf, aliases, fstab, exports, rc.conf, ... As for packages I look to the old /var/db/pkg/ directory for a list of what I had installed before. Then start installing new versions rather than restore the old binaries. Usually don't reinstall half of what was there before. Do the same for /usr/local/etc as for /etc after installing your new packages. Once you restore the user's home directories and data the system should be ready for production. Its a lot of work. Its not trivial. Lots of opportunity to screw up. But its good experience in disaster recovery. And best to learn at your own schedule rather when disaster strikes and you are under the gun. I've been thinking about when I'm going to knuckle down and put 3.0 on this machine. Still postponing it. Still debating a wipe and repartition, or "make world". :-) -- David Kelly N4HHE, dkelly@nospam.hiwaay.net ===================================================================== The human mind ordinarily operates at only ten percent of its capacity -- the rest is overhead for the operating system. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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