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Date:      Tue, 30 Jan 2018 17:04:37 +0000
From:      Brooks Davis <brooks@freebsd.org>
To:        Alan Somers <asomers@freebsd.org>
Cc:        Andre Albsmeier <Andre.Albsmeier@siemens.com>, Dimitry Andric <dim@freebsd.org>, FreeBSD <freebsd-stable@freebsd.org>, Mike Karels <mike@karels.net>
Subject:   Re: i386 with 4GB RAM: less than 2GB available on A2SAV (Intel Atom E3940)
Message-ID:  <20180130170437.GA26561@spindle.one-eyed-alien.net>
In-Reply-To: <CAOtMX2jHSD0tSus0gjeHR5UERzgkK1%2BxYNd=Haz-EKVsZGZ8Fw@mail.gmail.com>
References:  <FF56490E-BD56-4BF1-B1D7-866ACEB32DC4@FreeBSD.org> <201801281632.w0SGWiui055204@mail.karels.net> <20180130071123.GB43715@bali> <CAOtMX2jHSD0tSus0gjeHR5UERzgkK1%2BxYNd=Haz-EKVsZGZ8Fw@mail.gmail.com>

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On Tue, Jan 30, 2018 at 07:09:44AM -0700, Alan Somers wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 30, 2018 at 12:11 AM, Andre Albsmeier <
> Andre.Albsmeier@siemens.com> wrote:
>=20
> > On Sun, 28-Jan-2018 at 10:32:44 -0600, Mike Karels wrote:
> > > > On 28 Jan 2018, at 15:57, Andre Albsmeier <Andre.Albsmeier@siemens.=
com>
> > =3D
> > > > wrote:
> > > > > I have a lot of machines running with 4 GB physical RAM and, for
> > > > > some reasons, I still have to use a 32 bits OS.
> > > > >=3D20
> > > > > All of them show something between 3 and 3.5 GB of RAM available
> > > > > in dmesg but the brand new Supermicro A2SAV really shocked me:
> > > > >=3D20
> > > > > FreeBSD 11.1-STABLE #0: Mon Jan 15 06:57:10 CET 2018
> > > > > ...
> > > > > real memory  =3D3D 4294967296 (4096 MB)
> > > > > avail memory =3D3D 1939558400 (1849 MB)
> > > > > ...
> > > > >=3D20
> > > > > So do people have any ideas how I might get a bit closer to at le=
ast
> > > > > 3 GB? I assume there are no FreeBSD knobs which might help but ho=
pe
> > > > > dies last...
> > >
> > > > This is a common problem on i386.  Most likely some ranges are rese=
rved
> > > > for I/O mappings, such as video cards.  If you boot with -v, I think
> > the
> > > > kernel prints an overview of the physical ram chunks available?  I
> > don't
> > > > know of any other way to get such an overview.
> > >
> > > > Another option is to try PAE, but I have no idea how stable that is=
=2E..
> > >
> > > > -Dimitry
> > >
> > > I suspect that the unavailable RAM has been mapped above 4 GB by the
> > BIOS.
> > >
> > > About PAE: at $JOB, we have a FreeBSD 8.2 system that has been running
> > > PAE reliably since 8.2 was new.  Also, we ship amd64 systems that run
> > > mostly 32-bit binaries, which works well.
> >
> > But can the entire userland be 32 bit only?
>=20
> Sure.  I do this with jails.  It's no problem to have a 32-bit jail on a
> 64-bit kernel.  Kernel modules would be an issue, though.  If you need an=
y,
> you'll have to find a way for the 64-bit machines to find 64-bit kernel
> modules.

There are some deficiencies in the management space[0], but it should
generally work.  Where it doesn't it's a bug and usually not too hard to
fix.

-- Brooks

[0] e.g. https://reviews.freebsd.org/D13459

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