[PlanetCCRMA] 4GBs of ram with 32-bit ccrma

[Fernando Lopez-Lezcano]

On Fri, 2008-08-29 at 17:49 -0700, sevol wrote:
> Jim Robinson wrote:
> > Hey Sevol,
> > 
> > That is weird. Maybe the stock CCRMA kernel does have a lower limit - I 
> > have never checked.
> > I would suggest installing a PAE kernel and see if it reports more 
> > memory.  That will at least tell you if it's software or hardware related.
> > 
> > As root on your system run:
> > yum install kernel-PAE
> > 
> > This will install the stock Fedora PAE kernel.  Then reboot and when you 
> > get the splash screen hit the down arrow to get in then select the PAE 
> > kernel and hit enter.  This should boot up and let you know if it's 
> > something in the Kernel you were using.  This is not a CCRMA kernel so I 
> > don't think you'll get the preemptive stuff so this is only for 
> > testing.  If it makes the PAE default you can change that in /etc/grub.conf
> > 
> > If the PAE gives you all the memory then we need to check if the CCRMA 
> > repo will give you a PAE version. If anyone is watching this thread and 
> > knows if there is a patched CCRMA PAE kernel let us know....
> > 
> > Once you get that in - paste the results of these two commands back and 
> > that should give us what we need.
> > uname -r
> > free
> > 
> Hi Jim,
> 
> This is the output of the commands using the Fedora PAE kernel, followed 
> by output of same commands under the ccrmart kernel:
> 
> [sevol at localhost ~]$ uname -r
> 2.6.25.14-69.fc8PAE
> [sevol at localhost ~]$ free
>               total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
> Mem:       3886480     489716    3396764          0      18728     322828
> -/+ buffers/cache:     148160    3738320
> Swap:      4096532          0    4096532
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> [sevol at localhost ~]$ uname -r
> 2.6.24.7-1.rt3.2.fc8.ccrmart
> [sevol at localhost ~]$ free
>               total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
> Mem:       3081676     498236    2583440          0      18352     322212
> -/+ buffers/cache:     157672    2924004
> Swap:      4096532          0    4096532
> 
> With your help - for one, the "free" command is new to me - I'm getting 
> somewhere, if only in the area of trying to understand this :) On my 
> system at least, the 4GB limit doesn't seem to apply to the ccrmart 
> kernel. I wonder why?
> 
> If I'm getting this, I guess the question is - like you said - is there 
> a patched PAE-enabled CCRMA kernel out there?

No, at least not yet. I'll be back to ccrma next week, once I settle
down I'll look into this (and 1000 more things that are probably waiting
for me :-)

-- Fernando


> Thanks again,
> 		-sevol
> > 
> > Jim
> > 
> > sevol wrote:
> >> Jim Robinson wrote:
> >>  
> >>> As far as I am aware a regular Kernel can address up to 4Gb of ram 
> >>> but if you go over the 4Gb you would need the PAE kernel.
> >>> Out of interest does the BIOS report 4Gb at post time?  Do you have a 
> >>> built-on-the-motherboard video card that is assigned memory from the 
> >>> system RAM pool perhaps?
> >>>
> >>> Jim
> >>>
> >>>     
> >> Thanks for the reply. I couldn't find a memory size listing in the 
> >> BIOS, but Memtest shows 3839M. BTW, it's a GIGABYTE GA-MA78G-DS3H 
> >> motherboard with on-board video. & in fact, in the BIOS I did allocate 
> >> 256MB of ram to video. If there was that amount of memory missing, I 
> >> guess I'd have thought, OK, that's where the missing ram is being 
> >> used. But I can't figure out the discrepancy. The ram is OCZ Reaper 
> >> HPC Edition, Model OCZ2RPR800C44GK:
> >>
> >> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227267
> >>
> >> (hmm... before getting this ram I thought I read in the customer 
> >> reviews where a few Linux people were using it. I don't see anything 
> >> now, but that may or may not matter.)
> >>
> >> Anything else I can try?
> >>
> >>         -sevol
> >>  
> >>> sevol wrote:
> >>>    
> >>>> Hi People,
> >>>>
> >>>> Recently I put together a new box with 4 gigs (2x2GB sticks) of ram. 
> >>>> Under the 2.6.24.7-1.rt3.2.fc8.ccrmart kernel only 2.94GBs is 
> >>>> showing up. Is it possible to gain the full 4GBs of ram with this 
> >>>> kernel? My cpu is 64-bit, & initially, I tried a fc9 64-bit install. 
> >>>> When the install disc failed to recognize my hard drive, I backed 
> >>>> off to a 32-bit OS on fc8. (Anyway, not sure my heart was ready for 
> >>>> the move to 64-bit.)
> >>>>
> >>>> My searching indicates that a pae-enabled kernel is required for 
> >>>> accessing all the system ram via a 32-bit OS. & the ccrmart kernel 
> >>>> isn't pae-enabled, is it? Am I wrong on this, or missing some info 
> >>>> to get things working? Are people able to utilize 4GBs of physical 
> >>>> ram with a 32-bit ccrma kernel? Or will I need to switch to a 64-bit 
> >>>> OS?
> >>>>
> >>>> Any insight would be much welcome.
> >>>>
> >>>> I have to say, I'm completely incompetent with audio work in general 
> >>>> & certainly with Linux audio, but also, I'd like to say now, many 
> >>>> thanks to Fernando Lopez-Lezcano for releasing Planet CCRMA's great 
> >>>> software package collection.
> >>>>
> >>>> best,
> >>>>         -sevol