[nycbug-talk] memory and cpu question on a new setip

[alex at pilosoft.com]

On Thu, 29 Mar 2007, Jonathan Vanasco wrote:

> ( sorry for being clueless this week.  new server arrived. )
> 
> 1) Memory
> 	I just tossed in 2gb of ram into a server , for a total of 4
> 
> 	Bios sees it all
> 	The kernel gives me this message on boot (does not go in /var/log/ 
> messages):
> 		720896K of memory above 4GB ignored
> 	and this message on boot (does go into /var/log/messages )
> 		Mar 29 16:19:36 crookedrain kernel: real memory  = 3479298048 (3318  
> MB)
> 		Mar 29 16:19:36 crookedrain kernel: avail memory = 3404574720 (3246  
> MB)
> 
> 	top shows around 3200 on the system as well.
> 
> 	Where could my memory have gone?
> 	All the research i've done says that I should be find for memory  
> under 4gb, and that I'd only need to use pae if i'm using 4+gb
There are things like "PCI bounce areas", or areas used for AGP buffers. 
You can generally get to 3.5G by changing video memory/AGP aperture. 
Occasionally, if you are lucky, you can get 3.7G. 

However, to get full 4G, I would suggest x64 kernel. I'm not sure if PAE 
will fix the "PCI reserved areas" issue.

> 
> 2) CPU
> 	i'm running a xeon 3040 'dual core'
> 	i'm just using the standard kernel.
> 	i get this in dmesg
> 		FreeBSD/SMP: Multiprocessor System Detected: 2 CPUs
> 		cpu0 (BSP): APIC ID:  0
> 		cpu1 (AP): APIC ID:  1
> 
> 	i tried using the SMP kernel on a whim, but it wouldn't boot.  can  
> someone confirm that should be the case?
Uh, that message says SMP *did* work. It detected two CPUs.

> 	it makes sense to me that the SMP shouldn't work- i treated this as  
> a single cpu from the outset ,  considering 2 cores to still be a  
> single cpu.
No, two cores for all purposes means two CPUs.

Why do you say "wouldn't boot"? What was the error?
> 	but the dmesg makes me second guess that.