32 bit distro that supports 4GB ram?

thach.trung.ngoc · 10-09-2009, 12:59 AM

Does anyone know if Slackware 13 (32 bit) can support 4GB of ram? I have tried to recompiled kernel with High memory support to 64GB, but it slows down the performance and 4gb ram is not recognized.

My computer spec is : Dual core T2330, 4gb ram.

Daedra · 10-09-2009, 01:07 AM

I'm running high memory support with no problems here. It's a custom 2.6.30.9 kernel though.

thach.trung.ngoc · 10-09-2009, 01:15 AM

I follow the instructions on alien website. I may have missed something. Could you show me your step to customize the kernel? Thanks

plasmonics · 10-09-2009, 06:34 AM

That is the right option.

You also have to check whether your BIOS supports PAE. If it doesn't, you may have to switch to a 64bit distro. Those do not need PAE to see >= 4 GB RAM.

brianL · 10-09-2009, 06:51 AM

Yes, you could run Slackware64 with that processor - the T2330.

GazL · 10-09-2009, 07:23 AM

There's a PAE fix in 2.6.31.2. It doesn't say whether the issue is in earlier kernels, but it might be worth updating to 2.6.31.3 (.2 had errors and was shortlived) if you're serious about PAE.

Quote:

commit 6177445fb4f5d65dde3c883b9987c840178fb86d
Author: Kashyap, Desai
Date: Wed Sep 2 11:44:57 2009 +0530

mptsas : PAE Kernel more than 4 GB kernel panic

commit c55b89fba9872ebcd5ac15cdfdad29ffb89329f0 upstream.

This patch is solving problem for PAE kernel DMA operation.
On PAE system dma_addr and unsigned long will have different
values.
Now dma_addr is not type casted using unsigned long.

Signed-off-by: Kashyap Desai
Signed-off-by: James Bottomley
Cc: Jan Beulich
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman