dmesg
Linux version 2.6.3-4mdk (nplanel@n3.mandrakesoft.com) (gcc version 3.3.2 (Mandrake Linux 10.0 3.3.2-6mdk)) #1 Tue Mar 2 07:26:13 CET 2004
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000003ffe2800 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000003ffe2800 - 0000000040000000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000feda0000 - 00000000fee00000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000ffb80000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
Warning only 896MB will be used.
Use a HIGHMEM enabled kernel.
896MB LOWMEM available.
On node 0 totalpages: 229376
DMA zone: 4096 pages, LIFO batch:1
Normal zone: 225280 pages, LIFO batch:16
HighMem zone: 0 pages, LIFO batch:1


Anyone know how I can enable the usage of all 1024MB of my RAM?

You need to run a himem kernel. If one isn't available from your distro, yo can roll your own kernel with himem support.

The quick answer for a Mandrake distro is to use the enterprise version of the kernel. That has HIMEM support.

I had the same problem a bit ago, check the back messages for more details.

if I use enterprise the module for ndiswrapper won't load...and that's what I need for this particular machine which is a dell inspiron 8200...have to use ndiswrapper for my stupid broadcom internal wireless. Unless you know of some reason why ndiswrapper won't load in mandrake's enterprise?