I'm not sure I understand how the kernel calculates the amount of physical RAM it can map during the boot process.
I've quoted two blocks of kernel messages below, one for a kernel with NOHIGHMEM and another for a kernel with HIGHMEM4G. If I do the math on the BIOS provided physical RAM map, there is less than 5MiB of the address space reserved. Since I only have 1GiB of physical RAM in the board, I figured that it would still be possible to physically map 1019MiB, even with the 3GiB/1GiB split between user space and kernel space that occurs with NOHIGHMEM. However, What actually happens is that I'm 127MiB short of a full GiB. What am I missing here? Why does that last 127MiB have to go in HIGHMEM? Message log for a NOHIGHMEM kernel: Sep 3 16:56:50 Tachyon kernel: Linux version 2.6.22-gentoo-r5 ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) (gcc version 4.1.2 (Gentoo 4.1.2 p1.0.1)) #2 PREEMPT Mon Sep 3 16:01:08 EDT 2007 Sep 3 16:56:50 Tachyon kernel: BIOS-provided physical RAM map: Sep 3 16:56:50 Tachyon kernel: BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable) Sep 3 16:56:50 Tachyon kernel: BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved) Sep 3 16:56:50 Tachyon kernel: BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000003ffd3000 (usable) Sep 3 16:56:50 Tachyon kernel: BIOS-e820: 000000003ffd3000 - 0000000040000000 (reserved) Sep 3 16:56:50 Tachyon kernel: BIOS-e820: 00000000feda0000 - 00000000fee00000 (reserved) Sep 3 16:56:50 Tachyon kernel: BIOS-e820: 00000000ffb80000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved) Sep 3 16:56:50 Tachyon kernel: Warning only 896MB will be used. Sep 3 16:56:50 Tachyon kernel: Use a HIGHMEM enabled kernel. Sep 3 16:56:50 Tachyon kernel: 896MB LOWMEM available. Sep 3 16:56:50 Tachyon kernel: Zone PFN ranges: Sep 3 16:56:50 Tachyon kernel: DMA 0 -> 4096 Sep 3 16:56:50 Tachyon kernel: Normal 4096 -> 229376 Sep 3 16:56:50 Tachyon kernel: early_node_map[1] active PFN ranges Sep 3 16:56:50 Tachyon kernel: 0: 0 -> 229376 Sep 3 16:56:50 Tachyon kernel: DMI 2.3 present. Message log for a HIGHMEM4G kernel: Sep 3 17:40:53 Tachyon kernel: BIOS-provided physical RAM map: Sep 3 17:40:53 Tachyon kernel: BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable) Sep 3 17:40:53 Tachyon kernel: BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved) Sep 3 17:40:53 Tachyon kernel: BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000003ffd3000 (usable) Sep 3 17:40:53 Tachyon kernel: BIOS-e820: 000000003ffd3000 - 0000000040000000 (reserved) Sep 3 17:40:53 Tachyon kernel: BIOS-e820: 00000000feda0000 - 00000000fee00000 (reserved) Sep 3 17:40:53 Tachyon kernel: BIOS-e820: 00000000ffb80000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved) Sep 3 17:40:53 Tachyon kernel: 127MB HIGHMEM available. Sep 3 17:40:53 Tachyon kernel: 896MB LOWMEM available. Sep 3 17:40:53 Tachyon kernel: Zone PFN ranges: Sep 3 17:40:53 Tachyon kernel: DMA 0 -> 4096 Sep 3 17:40:53 Tachyon kernel: Normal 4096 -> 229376 Sep 3 17:40:53 Tachyon kernel: HighMem 229376 -> 262099 Sep 3 17:40:53 Tachyon kernel: early_node_map[1] active PFN ranges Sep 3 17:40:53 Tachyon kernel: 0: 0 -> 262099 Sep 3 17:40:53 Tachyon kernel: DMI 2.3 present. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
