Suse 10.1 with 4GB does not work

hannesbolt · 08-10-2006, 04:38 AM

Help

I am an absolute beginner in linux. I tried to install Suse 10.1. with 64 bit. The installation took about 10 (!!) hours. The system is incredible slow. The PC shop where I bought the computer says that the problem is the 4 GB memory. If they reduce to 2 GB memory, the system is working fine. They say a new compiled kernel is necessary. Is this true? Does anybody has experience with 4GB and Suse 10.1? Windows 64 Bit is working fine. Since I am doing scientific work, I need 4GB (and more) and Linux..

This is my hardware:

Mainboard: Asus P5N32-SLI Deluxe
Processor: Pentium 4 3000 MHz D930 Dual Core with EM64T
Memory: 2 x 2 GB
Graphic: Nvidia PCX6200
Drive: 200GB Seagate SATA
Power: PS/2 560 W

kaz2100 · 08-10-2006, 03:22 PM

I use Debian, but situation is not much different.

Unless kernel is compiled to support high memory, you need to compile it. It is under "processor type and features" and look for high memory support. Read help message.

To check if your current kernel support, find config file under /, /boot or somewhere else, and see how CONFIG_NOHIGHMEM, or CONFIG_HIGHMEM4G (64G) look like.

Kernel compiling is usually not complicated work, although not straightforward either.

Happy Penguins!

bigrigdriver · 08-11-2006, 07:59 PM

If SuSE 10.1 has the hwinfo utility, from a console run: hwinfo --cpu, then hwinfo --memory. What returns do you get? Is the cpu recognized as dual core, or single core? How much memory is reported.

With dual core cpus, and multiple cpus, you need the smp kernel, which should regonize up to 64Gig of memory.

Look in /boot. If you see something like vmlinuz-2.6.11.4-20a-smp, you have the smp kernel installed. If you don't see the smp in the name of the vmlinuz image, you can install the smp kernel from installation media via YaST.

hannesbolt · 08-11-2006, 10:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigrigdriver

If SuSE 10.1 has the hwinfo utility, from a console run: hwinfo --cpu, then hwinfo --memory. What returns do you get? Is the cpu recognized as dual core, or single core? How much memory is reported.

With dual core cpus, and multiple cpus, you need the smp kernel, which should regonize up to 64Gig of memory.

Look in /boot. If you see something like vmlinuz-2.6.11.4-20a-smp, you have the smp kernel installed. If you don't see the smp in the name of the vmlinuz image, you can install the smp kernel from installation media via YaST.

It recognizes the 4GB and the dual core, it is only extremly slow (for example 15 minutes only to boot).
With 2 GB it seems to be OK.

hannesbolt · 08-11-2006, 11:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaz2100

I use Debian, but situation is not much different.

Unless kernel is compiled to support high memory, you need to compile it. It is under "processor type and features" and look for high memory support. Read help message.

To check if your current kernel support, find config file under /, /boot or somewhere else, and see how CONFIG_NOHIGHMEM, or CONFIG_HIGHMEM4G (64G) look like.

Kernel compiling is usually not complicated work, although not straightforward either.

Happy Penguins!

We will try to compile the kernel. It will take some time. Thank you. Before we also tried Debian 64Bit. It was so slow, that we could not finish installation. Debian 32 Bit, also Kubuntu 32 Bit, with installed 4GB ram, worked fast, but I could use for calculation only 2.8 GB of ram. Which I think is a known effect for 32 Bit systems.

Do you now have a debian 64 system working with 4GB?

kaz2100 · 08-14-2006, 10:17 AM

I have only 1.5G memory on my penguin.

So, I cannot answer your last question.

WZX · 08-15-2006, 08:30 AM

Slackware AMD64?

broch · 08-15-2006, 09:40 AM

Quote:

Unless kernel is compiled to support high memory, you need to compile it. It is under "processor type and features" and look for high memory support. Read help message.

nope

Quote:

To check if your current kernel support, find config file under /, /boot or somewhere else, and see how CONFIG_NOHIGHMEM, or CONFIG_HIGHMEM4G (64G) look like.

Have you ever used 64-bit kernel?

the aove is not a problem because.. this does not exists in 64-bit kernels (he wants to install Suse 10.1. 64 bit).

No high memory because 64-bit does much larger addressing. Currently no desktop mobo can even accomdate 16 exabytes of RAM.

The problem with HIGHMEM concerns only 32-bit systems with more than 1GB RAM.

I think that you do have some hardware issues.

Before compiling anything check your hardware.

Quote:

It recognizes the 4GB and the dual core, it is only extremly slow (for example 15 minutes only to boot).
With 2 GB it seems to be OK.

you may have bad memory sticks, problems with irq, acpi and so on, check log files first.