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Re: Kernel reports that I have 64MB of RAM instead of 256MB



Shlomi Fish wrote:
> 
> Hi!
> 
> I have installed Mandrake 7.1 here at work. When I'm using a kernel which I
> compile myself and try to load linux by using loadlin, I encounter the
> following problem: I have 256 MB of RAM, but free reports that I only have
> 64 MB.
> 
> Now, I tried both the 2.2.15 kernel that comes with the distribution (it
> has some patches such as ReiserFS and supermount), as well as the vanilla
> 2.2.16 kernel with the ResierFS patch. (My Linux partition is ReiserFS). I
> tried to compile with both the 1GB memory limit and 2GB memory limit.
> 
> If I load Linux by using the boot-diskette which I prepared during the
> Mandrake installatation, I can see the entire 256 MB of RAM.
> 
> My system specs are:
> Pentium III 667 MHz
> 256 MB of RAM
> Two 15GB Seagate Hard-disks: one of them Win98 second edition and the other
> Mandrake 7.1 linux.
> 
> What am I doing wrong and how can I make sure that my custom kernel loads fine?
> 
> Regards,
> 
>         Shlomi Fish
> 

Sounds like the popular-and-easily-solved problem:
You need to pass the kernel, at boot time, a parameter apecifying how much RAM
you have.
This is easily done with lilo (/etc/lilo.conf on RH systems):

		image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.14-5.0
		        label=linux
		        read-only
		        root=/dev/hda4
relevant line --->      append = "mem=192M"
		        password="yossi"
		        restricted


I cant exactly recall the way you pass that parameter with loadlin, but you
could easily find out with loadlin docs.

Boaz.

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