Hi

I'm using slackware 10 at my office, recently I notice that the O/S can not detect 3GB memory. it only detect 1GB only.

May I know wat happen there?

server can detect 3GB memory, O/S should do the same thing also.

am i right?

You need to recompile the kernel to enable High Memory Support. In the 2.6 kernel series it is under the Processor type and features section; I am not sure where it is on the 2,4 series kernel.

I'm newbie. May I know how do i do that ?

Slackware 12.1 I know can detect up to 4 gb of memory
Here is a guide to compiling a kernel http://www.digitalhermit.com/linux/K...ild-HOWTO.html

Thanks AceofSpades19,

But my company server is using slackware 10, I need to find out a way to make the O/S detect the 3GB memory.
The guide can be used for Slackware 10 ?

It doesn'y really matter which version of slackware you are using - the option is in the kermel, not the os. You need to recompile kernel with support for high memory. Read the compile kernel guide above.

It will look like this in the .config for the kernel in /usr/src/linux:

If you needed more, 2.4.x can support up to 64GB of memory, it would look like this:

For the short and quick steps to recompile the kernel, do the following:

1. Next open up '/usr/src/linux/Makefile'
Uncomment the line...
#export INSTALL_PATH=/boot
To read:
export INSTALL_PATH=/boot

2. Also edit your existing /etc/lilo.conf and rename your current default kernel vmlinuz to something like vmlinuz.old and rename the Label to Linux-Old. You do this so if the new kernel breaks, you can reboot into the old kernel to go fix, etc.

3. make menuconfig # skip this if you just use the existing .config in /usr/src/linux and uncomment the lines outlined above or create such lines.
4. make dep
5. make clean
6. make bzImage
7. make install
8. make modules
9. make modules_install
10. Verify and reboot.


Slackware utilized the make install and this will copy over the vmlinuz and update lilo.conf with the new kernel, etc. Good to double check before rebooting.

trickykid,

is it possible that after i rebuild the kernel, my machine wont boot ?
because this is my office mail server, if it does not work then I in trouble.

The kernel may not boot, but if you don't delete your old kernel, all will be well

It a bit risky. Thanks for the advise.

You can always run into this issue when building a new kernel. That's why the steps involved keep the old kernel around, so you can reboot and rebuild, reconfigure, troubleshoot what went wrong.

The only time I've never had a kernel fail on me in Slackware is cause I was stupid and didn't include the right modules for my NIC, so it worked, I just lacked network connectivity. A quick reboot, change config to include my NIC and it was as easy as make modules and make modules_install and I was up and running after a reboot again.