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16.05.2 MR-2 memory limit enforcement incompatible with some systems

Not seeing a lot of Sophos response on our long running thread so starting a new discussion.

When 16.05.02 MR-2 was released it added a kernel option of mem=6G to the kernel options.

If you read the thread linked above we have shown that many of us were seeing all the memory before the mem=6G limit.

I know the intention of mem=6G was to enforce the 6GB limit of the home license, but at least on some hardware it is not working as intended.

Rolling back to MR-1 has no impact as the mem=6G remains in the kernel boot options. See paste of syslog messages below

Given it's impossible to buy a 6GB dimm, for those with one dimm slot. Maybe the limit should be 8GB? I have two 4G dimms and could maybe swap one for a 2G, but i could end up with the same exact issue seeing much less than 6G.

 

With MR-2 and mem=6G it only shows about 3.8G on a zotac CI323 nano

SFVH_SO01_SFOS 16.05.2 MR-2# free -m
             total         used         free       shared      buffers
Mem:       3954008      3528276       425732            0       162064
-/+ buffers:            3366212       587796
Swap:      1976476        27680      1948796

NOTE: Reposting the syslog.log Memory and kernel boot options here from the original discussion that i think proves it was the mem=6G, as the MR-2 kernel BEFORE the mem=6G saw all 8G.

The memory capacity transition is between the 14:42:55 boot messages and the 14:44:07 ones. All memory has been tested, other linux distros see 8G there is nothing wrong with my hardware other than maybe not being compatible with mem=6G limitation. There is also a rollback to MR-1 in there, but mem=6G line is still present so still only booted with <4GB

 

Mar  8 20:05:28 (none) user.info kernel: [    0.000000] Command line: auto BOOT_IMAGE=16_05_1139 zd=/dev/sda ro ro quiet console=tty0 console=ttyS0,38400n8 ZD=80 SM=0
Mar  8 20:05:28 (none) user.warn kernel: [    0.000000] Memory: 8075208K/8296108K available (5864K kernel code, 812K rwdata, 2152K rodata, 1336K init, 564K bss, 220900K reserved)
Mar  8 20:23:45 (none) user.info kernel: [    0.000000] Command line: auto BOOT_IMAGE=16_05_1139 zd=/dev/sda ro ro quiet console=tty0 console=ttyS0,38400n8 ZD=80 SM=0
Mar  8 20:23:45 (none) user.warn kernel: [    0.000000] Memory: 8075208K/8296108K available (5864K kernel code, 812K rwdata, 2152K rodata, 1336K init, 564K bss, 220900K reserved)
Mar  8 14:29:43 (none) user.info kernel: [    0.000000] Command line: auto BOOT_IMAGE=16_05_1139 zd=/dev/sda ro ro quiet console=tty0 console=ttyS0,38400n8 ZD=80 SM=0
Mar  8 14:29:43 (none) user.warn kernel: [    0.000000] Memory: 8075208K/8296108K available (5864K kernel code, 812K rwdata, 2152K rodata, 1336K init, 564K bss, 220900K reserved)
Mar  8 14:40:16 (none) user.info kernel: [    0.000000] Command line: auto BOOT_IMAGE=16_05_2160 zd=/dev/sda ro ro quiet console=tty0 console=ttyS0,38400n8 ZD=80 SM=0
Mar  8 14:40:16 (none) user.warn kernel: [    0.000000] Memory: 8075208K/8296108K available (5864K kernel code, 812K rwdata, 2152K rodata, 1336K init, 564K bss, 220900K reserved)
Mar  8 14:42:55 (none) user.info kernel: [    0.000000] Command line: auto BOOT_IMAGE=16_05_2160 zd=/dev/sda ro ro quiet console=tty0 console=ttyS0,38400n8 ZD=80 SM=0
Mar  8 14:42:55 (none) user.warn kernel: [    0.000000] Memory: 8075208K/8296108K available (5864K kernel code, 812K rwdata, 2152K rodata, 1336K init, 564K bss, 220900K reserved)
Mar  8 14:44:07 (none) user.info kernel: [    0.000000] Command line: auto BOOT_IMAGE=16_05_2160 console=tty0 console=ttyS0,38400n8 quiet maxcpus=4 mem=6G ZD=80 SM=0
Mar  8 14:44:07 (none) user.warn kernel: [    0.000000] Memory: 3952648K/4101804K available (5864K kernel code, 812K rwdata, 2152K rodata, 1336K init, 564K bss, 149156K reserved)
Mar  8 17:35:56 (none) user.info kernel: [    0.000000] Command line: auto BOOT_IMAGE=16_05_2160 console=tty0 console=ttyS0,38400n8 quiet maxcpus=4 mem=6G ZD=80 SM=0
Mar  8 17:35:56 (none) user.warn kernel: [    0.000000] Memory: 3952648K/4101804K available (5864K kernel code, 812K rwdata, 2152K rodata, 1336K init, 564K bss, 149156K reserved)
Mar  8 17:38:43 (none) user.info kernel: [    0.000000] Command line: auto BOOT_IMAGE=16_05_2160 console=tty0 console=ttyS0,38400n8 quiet maxcpus=4 mem=6G ZD=80 SM=0
Mar  8 17:38:43 (none) user.warn kernel: [    0.000000] Memory: 3952648K/4101804K available (5864K kernel code, 812K rwdata, 2152K rodata, 1336K init, 564K bss, 149156K reserved)
Mar  8 20:02:51 (none) user.info kernel: [    0.000000] Command line: auto BOOT_IMAGE=16_05_2160 console=tty0 console=ttyS0,38400n8 quiet maxcpus=4 mem=6G ZD=80 SM=0
Mar  8 20:02:51 (none) user.warn kernel: [    0.000000] Memory: 3952648K/4101804K available (5864K kernel code, 812K rwdata, 2152K rodata, 1336K init, 564K bss, 149156K reserved)
Mar  8 20:08:18 (none) user.info kernel: [    0.000000] Command line: auto BOOT_IMAGE=16_05_1139 console=tty0 console=ttyS0,38400n8 quiet maxcpus=4 mem=6G ZD=80 SM=0
Mar  8 20:08:18 (none) user.warn kernel: [    0.000000] Memory: 3952648K/4101804K available (5864K kernel code, 812K rwdata, 2152K rodata, 1336K init, 564K bss, 149156K reserved)
Mar  8 20:12:43 (none) user.info kernel: [    0.000000] Command line: auto BOOT_IMAGE=16_05_2160 console=tty0 console=ttyS0,38400n8 quiet maxcpus=4 mem=6G ZD=80 SM=0
Mar  8 20:12:44 (none) user.warn kernel: [    0.000000] Memory: 3952648K/4101804K available (5864K kernel code, 812K rwdata, 2152K rodata, 1336K init, 564K bss, 149156K reserved)

 



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  • After some experimenting with other kernels and this happens on other kernels as well, as new as 4.4.

    The problem is that mem=6G will disallow any memory address past the 6G address mark.

    My motherboard maps ~2G of ram into areas below 4G and the rest of the memory at addresses between 4G and 10G on an 8G of memory system

    So when mem=6G is used i can only use 2G of the 6G sitting at the 4G to 10G memory address ranges.

    There's more details in the other thread. Above is a summary.

  • In case anyone is still reading this thread. It's also not fixed in MR3. Lets hope it's in MR4.

    Installed MR3 and still reduced memory amount that is less than 4G on an 8G system.

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