16GB of memory, PAE, and custom FreeBSD 8.1 Kernel

B

badaei

Hello, I am running FreeBSD 8.1. I have a machine with 16GB RAM on it. The system says that 16GB are available with the standard Generic Kernel. I looked into the GENERIC configuration file and did not find "option PAE" set, but it recognizes 16GB anyway? I'm making a custom Kernel right now, do I need this option if the GENERIC kernel doesn't have it and it appears that 16GB are available? Is this only for large memory support for older machines? I have the Intel Xeon x3440 chip.

Thank for any guidance I greatly appreciate it.
 
That's a 64-bit chip, so you're probably running amd64? What says [cmd=]uname -a[/cmd]
?
 
DutchDaemon said:
That's a 64-bit chip, so you're probably running amd64? What says [cmd=]uname -a[/cmd]
?
Click to expand...

Code: 
# uname -a

8.1-RELEASE FreeBSD 8.1-RELEASE #0: Mon Jul 19 02:36:49 UTC 2010     [email]root@mason.cse.buffalo.edu[/email]:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  amd64

Now I'm really confused. So I want to compile the kernel at

/usr/src/sys/amd64/conf

not

/usr/src/sys/i386/conf

right?

And does PAE not apply? I realize the confusion I am throwing out there.

Thanks for your input.
 
Exactly. That's why I asked for your uname output. An i386 (32-bit) installation would need PAE to address more than ~4GB of RAM. No such limitation exists on amd64 (64-bit), so you're all set. And yes, your kernel config lives under /usr/src/sys/amd64/conf/. Again: no need to change anything to address your 16GB of RAM.
 
DutchDaemon said:
Exactly. That's why I asked for your uname output. An i386 (32-bit) installation would need PAE to address more than ~4GB of RAM. No such limitation exists on amd64 (64-bit), so you're all set. And yes, your kernel config lives under /usr/src/sys/amd64/conf/. Again: no need to change anything to address your 16GB of RAM.
Click to expand...

Thanks! Not sure how to give thanks so that it appears on my profile. It says I've given zero thanks but I'm really grateful for your help.
 
OK, I figured out how to give thanks through the forum button. I didn't see it there before. Thanks again! :)
 
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