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From: Tony Griffiths <tonyg@onthenet.com.au>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: FreeBSD 2.? and Physical Memory > 64 mb
Date: Sat, 15 Jun 1996 16:13:26 +1000
Organization: Network Technologies P/L
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Apologies if this question has been answered before...
I have a P120 running FreeBSD 2.1 with 64 Mb of RAM and ~ 9 Gb disk. It
is both a news server and an W3 caching proxy.
I tried to add another 64 Mb (very) early this morning and the BIOS was
happy, seeing the whole 128 Mb or RAM. To my surprise, when I booted
FreeBSD it reported-
Jun 15 02:32:58 corolla /kernel: real memory = 68091904 (66496K bytes)
Jun 15 02:32:58 corolla /kernel: avail memory = 65163264 (63636K bytes)
which is a "gain" of a whole 1 Mb or so over what I had before!!!
A quick look at the 2.2-SNAP (950501) code shows-
/* Use BIOS values stored in RTC CMOS RAM, since probing
* breaks certain 386 AT relics.
*/
biosbasemem = rtcin(RTC_BASELO)+ (rtcin(RTC_BASEHI)<<8);
biosextmem = rtcin(RTC_EXTLO)+ (rtcin(RTC_EXTHI)<<8);
so 'biosextmem' is limited to a 16-bit (65535) quantity and there is no
way FreeBSD is going to use all available RAM.
Now I know that the Walnut Creek ftp server is running FreeBSD with
512 Mb or RAM. The question is, how do they do it?!
Do they have a "special" hack or is there something obvious I am
missing?
Tony