Date: Sun, 14 Mar 1999 10:31:10 -0600 From: Karl Denninger <karl@Denninger.Net> To: Sheldon Hearn <sheldonh@iafrica.com>, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Proposal: Define MAXMEM in GENERIC Message-ID: <19990314103110.A3526@Denninger.Net> In-Reply-To: <35437.921428498@axl.noc.iafrica.com>; from Sheldon Hearn on Sun, Mar 14, 1999 at 06:21:38PM %2B0200 References: <35437.921428498@axl.noc.iafrica.com>
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On Sun, Mar 14, 1999 at 06:21:38PM +0200, Sheldon Hearn wrote: > > Hi folks, > > The originator of PR i386/9755 (which related to a 3.0-RELEASE install > failure) has made a valid point. > > We know that some people with >64MB RAM are going to have trouble with > the speculative memory probe while installing FreeBSD with the GENERIC > (here read any release) kernel. So why don't we add to GENERIC the > following line? > > options "MAXMEM=(64*1024)" > > The major argument that comes to mind immediately is that people are > going to end up running sub-optimal servers out-of-the-box. However, the > change is supported by the following mindset: > > Gain: > Make things easier for people with broken hardware. > > Cost: > Annoy the people who have large memory configurations and who > don't build custom kernels. > > I'm of the opinion that we're talking about a number of annoyed people > so small that the gain is justified. > > Ciao, > Sheldon. I would agree with that. Anyone using FreeBSD in that kind of a production environment where this is important (ie: big file or web servers) almost certainly has to build a custom kernel for OTHER reasons (like increasing the number of MBUF clusters). Therefore, they won't be running GENERIC, and therefore, this won't bite them after initial installation. However, it will greatly increase the odds that an initial install will work, which is the point if we want better penetration among people who don't "understand these things". -- -- Karl Denninger (karl@denninger.net) http://www.mcs.net/~karl I ain't even *authorized* to speak for anyone other than myself, so give up now on trying to associate my words with any particular organization. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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