[pxc] Kernel parameter "mem=xxM" problems...

[Marius van Wyk]

Someone reported to me that the kernel parameter they added does not
seem to work.

The machine has 256Meg of RAM, and we added a "mem=240M" line.

The machine failed to boot! (I'm using RedHat8 standard with grub
bootloader)

This problem seems only to occur on his hardware, and I have not been
able to reproduce it.

The error with wich it fails to boot is similar to the error when you
add a mem= line that is more than the actual memory...

We eventually for it to run specifying "mem=60M"... as if the OS/boot
loader thinks that the machine only has 64M of physical memory.

Also another point is that I have noticed that on RedHat8 my usual 4
megs less (specifying mem=60M for a 64Meg system) is too little, and I
have to specify 5-10 megs for me to use the pxc.o to actually be able to
do an "mmap"

PS: Is there no better way to configure the mem=kernel thing? I want to
create a bootable installation CD that will automate an install, and
currently people have to type "install mem=60M" on the installation
bootup screen and I then later in the installation look at
/mnt/sysimage/proc/cmdline to get the parameters and then to write them
to the /etc/lilo.conf or /etc/grub.conf

Anyone else have similar experience or thoughts?

Regards,
Marius.



-- 
Marius van Wyk <marius@ractech.co.za>
RACTech