Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S261233AbUJWQoC (ORCPT ); Sat, 23 Oct 2004 12:44:02 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S261236AbUJWQoC (ORCPT ); Sat, 23 Oct 2004 12:44:02 -0400 Received: from colin2.muc.de ([193.149.48.15]:50948 "HELO colin2.muc.de") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id S261233AbUJWQnx (ORCPT ); Sat, 23 Oct 2004 12:43:53 -0400 Date: 23 Oct 2004 18:43:52 +0200 Date: Sat, 23 Oct 2004 18:43:52 +0200 From: Andi Kleen To: Andreas Klein Cc: Andrew Walrond , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Sergei Haller , "Rafael J. Wysocki" , discuss@x86-64.org Subject: Re: lost memory on a 4GB amd64 Message-ID: <20041023164352.GA52982@muc.de> References: <200409241315.42740.andrew@walrond.org> <200410221026.22531.andrew@walrond.org> <20041022182446.GA77384@muc.de> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1957 Lines: 39 [cc'ed to discuss@x86-64.org for future reference. If you find this message in google and you have the same problem, talk to your BIOS vendor, not to your Linux vendor] On Sat, Oct 23, 2004 at 12:02:10PM +0200, Andreas Klein wrote: > - Tyan S2885 pre-production model with a 1.01 pre-release bios > 6 mb ram (4x512mb, 4x1gb) > The machine is running SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 (32bit). > We use this machine as our primary mail-server without problems for over a > year. > > - Now we ordered 45 Tyan S2885 and 4 S2875S board. > Both board do not run stable with more than 2GB ram usable. > 4GB will only be recognized if the MTRR setting is set to Continuous and > the Adjust Memory setting is set to Auto. > If the bios is configured this way and two 1gb ram modules are installed > for each CPU on the 2885, the machine will not even load and unpack a > SLES 9 kernel. Memtest sees 0-2GB mem usable and 4-6GB unusable (complains > about each memory address). > If all four modules are installed for CPU0, then memtest seems to work > without problems (0-2GB, 4-6GB), but SLES9 will crash during boot-up. > If all four modules are installed for CPU1, then memtest seems to work > without problems too. SLES 9 will run a few minutes before a crash. > I will try to install SLES 8 (32bit) on the new boxes to see if it runs > stable. If yes, there is something broken in the 2.6 kernels for amd64, if > not, the pre-production bios is better that the final ones. It all sounds very much like a BIOS problem. I doubt 2.4 will run stable on this setup - if memtest86 doesn't like the memory, Linux won't like it neither. All I can recommend is to talk to Tyan or live with the lost memory. -Andi - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/