Hi,

I've just installed Slackware 9.1 on my 3.0ghz Pc with 2 GB of Ram. It is running perfectly, and absolutely flies! However only 1 GB of my RAM is being seen and the hyperthreading isn't working.

I was wondering if the easiest way of enabling high memory and SMP in the kernel would be to edit the config file,changing the valuesfor Highmem and SMP there, then doing a make oldconfig or is there an easier way?

If edit ing the config file would work, do I still follow the same procedure i.e

Make oldconfig
make dep
make bzImage
make modules

Or would it not work at all. If anyone could tell me if this would work or if there is a easier way I would be most grateful,as although I have tried doing a kernel config with make menuconfig etc, I have never been successful.

Richard G.

When you recompiled the kernel did you turn on high memory?

Ah I don't think I've made myself very clear, I haven't actually tried it yet I was hoping to get some clarification first. I've had a look at the config file and have seen that highmem is turned off and so is SMP. I was realy wondering if by copying the config file into the /usr/src/linux folder and doing make oldconfig, it would configure the new kernel with all the existing settings but changing the Highmem and SMP to being enabled. So I would avoid having to go through all those options withmake menuconfig etc. as I've had no success doing it that way before on another installation.

Richard G.

I probly will but kernel 2.6.3 autodetects all my hardware.. only gets 1 thing wrong my nic card.. other then that 100% reliable for me.

Why don't you just make oldconfig without changing the config file and then change the two options in the menu? I suppose your way would work as well, but since you still would have to go through the menu and check to make sure the options were changed anyway, and still would have to recompile and install the recompiled kernel, I'd take the safer road and do the fix manually, and save the new config the normal way (since that is sure to work). Maybe it's me, though-- I tend to be quite cautious and I myself wouldn't want to just treat changing a "N" to a "Y" in the config as a "magic bullet", as I like to read the help screens about every option I'm changing or considering changing.

Why has this been unsuccessful for you in the past (and why, if changing the options didn't work for you manually, would you think that changing the same options in the config file would then work, since you would likely miss the same needed additional options that you presumably missed on your previous attempt)?

I don't think you should have any problem with changing the RAM setting to 4GB, but I'm wondering if SMP has anything to do with hyperthreading... I'm a single-processor Athlon user, so I have no knowledge of these issues. I thought that SMP meant dual (or more) processors, but that hyperthreading was a function of the current Pentium 4 series unrelated to whether or not multiple processors were present.

Am I mistaken? Does Linux even support hyperthreading? If so, what kernel settings enable it? (I could change my mobo and processor someday .)

Yeah well I might give menuconfig another go, the last time I tried it was with Suse , which I was really just messing about with, it's on;y since installing Slackware that I've really had aproblem to solve.
When Suse installed it , it automatically detected the hyperthreading aan installed an SMP kernel on installation and recognised the 2gb RAM. Xo I assume an SMP kernel is required for hyperthreading but I could be wrong.

However even on the settings i have now I am appreciating the greater speed of Slackware over Suse. So I don't really won't to go back, and even though the system is flying, there's this nagging in the back of my head about the memory and SMP being not enabled, it's like an itch I can't scratch. However, one question. If I got through the kernel configuration eith make menu config do I have to do it all in one sitting or can I save it and start again where I left off?

Richard G.