Arch Linux

JeremyTheWicked

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2008-05-23

Posts: 193

4GB RAM support?

Hi all.

Just a quick question: the 32 bit versions of Windows only support 3,2GB RAM. Is it the same with Linux? I'd like to buy a new laptop with 4GB RAM but I don't want to have to install Arch64 (I'm a lazy ass and don't like all the fuss with getting 32bit apps to work).

---

arch(3) adj amused because you think you understand something better than other people ;P

Stythys

Member

From: SF Bay Area

Registered: 2008-05-18

Posts: 878

Website

Re: 4GB RAM support?

32-bit is 32-bit. Doesn't matter what OS you install, so yes, it won't support 4GB of RAM.

---

[home page] -- [code / configs]

"Once you go Arch, you must remain there for life or else Allan will track you down and break you."
-- Bregol

kishd

Member

Registered: 2006-06-14

Posts: 401

Re: 4GB RAM support?

If you re-compile the kernel with PAE enabled. It will support 4g ram.

$ cat /proc/meminfo
MemTotal:      4074660 kB
MemFree:        191744 kB
Buffers:        122912 kB
Cached:        3164832 kB
SwapCached:        260 kB
Active:        1528520 kB
Inactive:      2187880 kB
HighTotal:     3210816 kB
HighFree:         6200 kB
LowTotal:       863844 kB
LowFree:        185544 kB
SwapTotal:     3269216 kB
SwapFree:      3268956 kB
Dirty:           42088 kB
Writeback:           0 kB
AnonPages:      415948 kB
Mapped:         656084 kB
Slab:           104616 kB
SReclaimable:    81184 kB
SUnreclaim:      23432 kB
PageTables:       7076 kB
NFS_Unstable:        0 kB
Bounce:            500 kB
CommitLimit:   5306544 kB
Committed_AS:  1451356 kB
VmallocTotal:   116728 kB
VmallocUsed:     48020 kB
VmallocChunk:    59892 kB

32 bit system

Last edited by kishd (2008-06-25 08:34:47)

---

---for there is nothing either good or bad, but only thinking makes it so....
Hamlet, W Shakespeare

Stythys

Member

From: SF Bay Area

Registered: 2008-05-18

Posts: 878

Website

Re: 4GB RAM support?

PAE will decrease the performance of some apps, so unless he actually needs that much RAM, it's not worth it. Either use standard 32-bit, or go with arch64.

---

[home page] -- [code / configs]

"Once you go Arch, you must remain there for life or else Allan will track you down and break you."
-- Bregol

zyghom

Member

From: Poland/currently Africa

Registered: 2006-05-11

Posts: 432

Website

Re: 4GB RAM support?

I had to recompile kernel, otherwise only 3 GB seen
actually I changed only:
CONFIG_HIGHMEM64G=y

---

Zygfryd Homonto

JeremyTheWicked

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2008-05-23

Posts: 193

Re: 4GB RAM support?

I had to recompile kernel, otherwise only 3 GB seen
actually I changed only:
CONFIG_HIGHMEM64G=y

Is PAE something different then?

If I decide to go 64 is it better to choose an AMD processor? Or is CoreDuo better even then?

Also: does VirtualBox work well under 64? Will I be able to install a 32 bit OS under VB?

---

arch(3) adj amused because you think you understand something better than other people ;P

moljac024

Member

From: Serbia

Registered: 2008-01-29

Posts: 2,676

Re: 4GB RAM support?

I had to recompile kernel, otherwise only 3 GB seen
actually I changed only:
CONFIG_HIGHMEM64G=y

Is PAE something different then?

If I decide to go 64 is it better to choose an AMD processor? Or is CoreDuo better even then?

Also: does VirtualBox work well under 64? Will I be able to install a 32 bit OS under VB?

CoreDuo doesn't support 64bit computing, Core2Duo, however, does.
And yes, you should be able to install a 32bit guest OS in Virtualbox.

Last edited by moljac024 (2008-06-25 11:44:58)

---

The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
But if they tell you that I've lost my mind, maybe it's not gone just a little hard to find...

JeremyTheWicked

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2008-05-23

Posts: 193

Re: 4GB RAM support?

Thanks guys. I have a month yet to decide so I'll take it all into consideration.

@zyghom: If I recompile the kernel - is there any way to still get automatic updates? (I guess not, but just making sure)

---

arch(3) adj amused because you think you understand something better than other people ;P

Stythys

Member

From: SF Bay Area

Registered: 2008-05-18

Posts: 878

Website

Re: 4GB RAM support?

how would you get automatic updates for a custom kernel?

---

[home page] -- [code / configs]

"Once you go Arch, you must remain there for life or else Allan will track you down and break you."
-- Bregol

zyghom

Member

From: Poland/currently Africa

Registered: 2006-05-11

Posts: 432

Website

Re: 4GB RAM support?

Thanks guys. I have a month yet to decide so I'll take it all into consideration.

@zyghom: If I recompile the kernel - is there any way to still get automatic updates? (I guess not, but just making sure)

no, and few other things depend on it:
nvidia
truecrypt
virtualbox-modules

that is all from that what I use

---

Zygfryd Homonto

Issh

Member

Registered: 2007-12-02

Posts: 58

Re: 4GB RAM support?

how would you get automatic updates for a custom kernel?

pull from git, or use abs with a custom pkgbuild or so.

JeremyTheWicked

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2008-05-23

Posts: 193

Re: 4GB RAM support?

how would you get automatic updates for a custom kernel?

pull from git, or use abs with a custom pkgbuild or so.

Exactly what I was thinking about... I plan on trying something like that.

---

arch(3) adj amused because you think you understand something better than other people ;P