Enabling PAE to Support Morethan 3GB of RAM

Enabling PAE to Support More-than 3GB of RAM

I was wondering why ubuntu 32bit was having access to only 3gb of RAM even if we have more than that. Did a bit of googling on this and found the following..

Can ubuntu 32bit support morethan 3gb ram?
Yes. It Can with a special kernel like

linux-server-kernel
or
linux-kernel-pae

How to install this kernel?

just type the following to install it

sudo apt-get install linux-kernel-pae

What is the RISK?
Little Performance degradation
Issues with proprietary software drivers. (Like nVidia..etc)
Processor and H/W must support PAE.

Solution
I Don't know


For those without any proprietary drivers can make this happen easily with the above commands to install the new kernel.

I need help form you guys to install even if someone has a proprietary driver such as nVidia. I probably think one should reinstall the nvidia driver. I need help on this part of the issue.

Originally Posted by anoopch [SIZE="4"] I need help form you guys to install even if someone has a proprietary driver such as nVidia. I probably think one should reinstall the nvidia driver. I need help on this part of the issue.

Didn't you already get the answer to this question in your other thread on this issue?
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...naries-849682/
For what it's worth, I voted "The installer should auto-detect and choose the best option" in your poll.

Originally Posted by tommcd Didn't you already get the answer to this question in your other thread on this issue? http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...naries-849682/ For what it's worth, I voted "The installer should auto-detect and choose the best option" in your poll.

Yup I got the answer only for undoing what has gone wrong..



Once you install the PAE kernel you need to restart.
When you restart you are provided with a shell. With no xWindows.
I don't know how to activate or install Nvidia Drivers from here.

Anybody done that could help..

Option 5 install 64bit linux that works properly....

Originally Posted by cyent Option 5 install 64bit linux that works properly....

May be but its not yet mature for DESKTOPS... Not all softwares are ported to 64bit yet...

I would go for a 64-bit install. I've been on Kubuntu 64-bit for a few years now and had minimal problems with 32-bit apps. (Mainly skype and flash player - but since 10.04 they have worked perfectly for me out of the box)

Originally Posted by anoopch May be but its not yet mature for DESKTOPS... Not all softwares are ported to 64bit yet...

How do you come to that conclusion? I have absolutely no problems running 64 bit Debian, all my apps are there in 32 and 64 bit. And if you really have an application that is 32 bit only it should work to install the appropriate 32 bit libraries.

Originally Posted by TobiSGD How do you come to that conclusion? I have absolutely no problems running 64 bit Debian, all my apps are there in 32 and 64 bit. And if you really have an application that is 32 bit only it should work to install the appropriate 32 bit libraries.

May be that i'm not the mature one.. may be that i don't really use 64bit well.

Answer these questions then..
Can i play all video formats in 64bit?
Can i have flash for 64 bit browsers?
In my case i have a 32bit custom built app. that i should install..
Can i install a 32bit app in 64bit?

If all the answers to the above is no.. I'm really sorry that i'm not mature to use linux..

Anyway there is a smooth way to use more than 3gb of Ram in 32bit. Y should we need 64bit then? Probably 64bit uses more ram than the 32bits do.. nVidia and other graphic drivers are ok for normal desktop usage in 64bit but when playing games there are serious issues.. bugs.. crashes... 64bit is not yet mature.. atleast for me.

Originally Posted by anoopch Answer these questions then..

I will try that.

Can i play all video formats in 64bit?

Until now, I had no problem in watching a video, maybe there is an old unsupported format, but I have not seen one.

Can i have flash for 64 bit browsers?

Yes.

In my case i have a 32bit custom built app. that i should install.. Can i install a 32bit app in 64bit?

Yes, if you run a multilib environment. According to your icon you are using Ubuntu, so that would be no problem. By the way, if it is your custom built app, why not compile that to a 64 bit target?

nVidia and other graphic drivers are ok for normal desktop usage in 64bit but when playing games there are serious issues.. bugs.. crashes...

Sorry to hear that, but I run the proprietary graphics drivers for nVidia and AMD, and I have absolutely no problems, even with windows apps running in wine. Are you sure that your issues are driver related?

Y should we need 64bit then? Probably 64bit uses more ram than the 32bits do..

Yes, it uses more RAM, but with modern computers RAM sizes that shouldn't be an issue. I have tested that, in my configuration a 64 bit system uses 190MB direct after boot, a 32 bit system with the same software uses 160MB, so who cares?
And if you do media encoding, or other "number crunching", you will get noticeable performance gain from using 64 bit, because the packages for 64 bit are compiled to use SSE2 and things. Simply because every x86 CPU with 64 bit extensions is capable to use that.
So running 64 bit is not only a RAM thing, but also a performance thing.

But to answer your initial question, I have tried pure Debian with PAE-kernel on my laptop with the AMD-drivers and had no problem, also I tried Linux Mint Debian Edition with PAE-kernel on my workstation and also had no problems with the nVidia-drivers.

One last question:

64bit is not yet mature.. atleast for me.

Did you even try it?

Originally Posted by cyent Option 5 install 64bit linux that works properly....

Or better yet 64-bit with 32-bit multilib support.

Originally Posted by H_TeXMeX_H Or better yet 64-bit with 32-bit multilib support.

Thanks for that info...

I haven't known yet that i can run 32bit apps in 64bit until i read this post..
I am a DUMB...

But to answer your initial question, I have tried pure Debian with PAE-kernel on my laptop with the AMD-drivers and had no problem, also I tried Linux Mint Debian Edition with PAE-kernel on my workstation and also had no problems with the nVidia-drivers.

Can you explain me how you installed nvidia drivers in shell or terminal..
I am asking this because after installing the PAE kernel i am getting a mere shell at start up if i select the PAE kernel to boot into.

By the way I'm not going to use a 64bit version due to the following
1. I have to format the system
2. I don't use any rendering or processor consuming tasks
3. I don't have enough bandwidth until 2011 to download a 64bit Distro
4. I am a DUMB..
5. I don't have the source code for the project that we are using now. Its just a deb package. I am not sure if i can extract or compile from that for 64bit..


@TobiSGD

Your post was informative..
Thanks dude..

I have tried 64bit but not to a greater extent.... By the way I'm just starting up in Linux.. I just erased 120 Wind*s installations and installed Ubuntu Linux in our Organisation. since then the results were awesome...

** No VIRUS or any CRAP
** Full through put of work from employees
** Maximum power-savings (10-25% since the OS change) + which added an hour of life on UPS backup timings..
isn't this awesome?

Since then i'm spreading the word about linux...

Originally Posted by anoopch Can you explain me how you installed nvidia drivers in shell or terminal.. I am asking this because after installing the PAE kernel i am getting a mere shell at start up if i select the PAE kernel to boot into.

I don't know much about Slackware, but I assume that it is the same as with Debian. If you change your kernel you have to reinstall the driver, because you need a new kernel module for it. On Debian I use the smxi script for that, but this isn't available for Slackware.

Maybe any Slacker here can help?