If I install Slack 12.1 on a four gig laptop will the install
automatically recognize the 4 gigs of memory or do I need to recompile
the kernel?

John Culleton

On 2008-08-29, john@wexfordpress.com <john@wexfordpress.com> wrote:
> If I install Slack 12.1 on a four gig laptop will the install
> automatically recognize the 4 gigs of memory or do I need to recompile
> the kernel?


You'll need a custom kernel with PAE enabled. This will allow
the kernel to address all of the memory, but individual processes
still won't have access to more than what they normally would
have (although this shouldn't be a problem).

-RW

john@wexfordpress.com wrote :

> If I install Slack 12.1 on a four gig laptop will the install
> automatically recognize the 4 gigs of memory

The kernel in Slackware 12.1 supports up to 4GB, so yes.

> or do I need to recompile the kernel?

Not for this reason.
--
Thomas O.

This area is designed to become quite warm during normal operation.

On Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:07:09 -0700, john@wexfordpress.com wrote:

> If I install Slack 12.1 on a four gig laptop will the install
> automatically recognize the 4 gigs of memory or do I need to recompile
> the kernel?
>
> John Culleton
>
Caveat: I don't have any systems with more than 2G RAM.

The installer may be an exception, but I assume you are asking about the
system once installled; correct? My guess is that it will have access up
to 4G when using the standard Slackware kernel:

..../slackware/a/kernel-generic-2.6.24.5-i486-2.tgz

AFAIK, PAE addressing mode is only required for using more than 4G RAM.
There may be other reasons why you'd want to compile your own kernel,
though. For example, the first optimization is to select your CPU family
to match the intended system more closely (than i486, or i686, etc.)

--
Douglas Mayne

"john@wexfordpress.com" <john@wexfordpress.com> wrote:
> If I install Slack 12.1 on a four gig laptop will the install
> automatically recognize the 4 gigs of memory or do I need to recompile
> the kernel?

The standard slackware kernel is able to access up to 4 GB of RAM, but
unfortunately most modern motherboards remaps some RAM to addresses above
4GB. This is because they use addresses which usually are located between
3.5 and 4 GB to access peripherals. Many older motherboards did not have
this limitation so on those you will see almost 4 GB memory with a
standard 32-bit highmem kernel.

With a modern motherboard you will probably need a 64-bit kernel or a
kernel with PAE enabled to be able to access more than about 3.5 GB RAM.

regards Henrik
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