scott@csis.dit.csiro.au (Scott Milton) (04/12/90)
Dear Net.users,
Problem: DECStation 3100 does not recognise extra 16MB of third party memory.
Details: Memory is "Dataram", purchased from a local supplier "Kairinsky".
The DECStation originally had 8MB of memory, and now has 24MB.
Useful diagnostics are:
>>> test -c
MEM 24Mbytes
>>> auto
loading rz(0,0,0)vmunix
Ultrix Workstation V2.1 (Rev. 14) System #4 ...
real mem 8388608
avail mem 5558272
I've tried a few bizarre things, such as reconfiguring the kernel,
using the kernel from a 16MB machine, booting off another disk which
serves a 16MB machine, and the result is the same.
I've also run a thrashing program (random accessing a configurably large
memory array) to test how much memory is being used, and verified that
the machine is actually only using 8MB.
Some of the old Suns needed to have their eeprom values changed when
more memory was added, but this in not in the manuals, and nobody
I've talked to locally thinks this is likely.
Any suggestions, however slight would be appreciated,
Thanks for your time,
--
Scott.Milton@csis.dit.csiro.au Phone +61-6-2750923 Fax +61-6-2571052
CSIRO Division of Information Technology, ANU, Acton Canberra ACT AUSTRALIA.cpm@cpoint.UUCP (Chris Martel) (04/12/90)
In article <1990Apr12.024039.851@csis.dit.csiro.au> scott@csis.dit.csiro.au (Scott Milton) writes: >Dear Net.users, > >Problem: DECStation 3100 does not recognise extra 16MB of third party memory. > >Details: Memory is "Dataram", purchased from a local supplier "Kairinsky". > The DECStation originally had 8MB of memory, and now has 24MB. > Useful diagnostics are: > >>> test -c > MEM 24Mbytes > >>> auto > loading rz(0,0,0)vmunix > Ultrix Workstation V2.1 (Rev. 14) System #4 ... > real mem 8388608 > avail mem 5558272 > I've tried a few bizarre things, such as reconfiguring the kernel, > using the kernel from a 16MB machine, booting off another disk which > serves a 16MB machine, and the result is the same. > > I've also run a thrashing program (random accessing a configurably large > memory array) to test how much memory is being used, and verified that > the machine is actually only using 8MB. > > Some of the old Suns needed to have their eeprom values changed when > more memory was added, but this in not in the manuals, and nobody > I've talked to locally thinks this is likely. > > Any suggestions, however slight would be appreciated, I have a DECstation 3100 that has 3rd party memory with no problems. The peculiar part of your problem is the CPU ROM recognizes all the memory, but ULTRIX does not. >>>test -c and the powerup memory test are not very thorough in testing memory. Their is a better memory test that is not as well known: >>>t m This does a much more thorough memory test by writing different patterns and checking parity. If this test encounters a problem it will tell you whcih SIMM(S) is in error. The CPU might recognize all the memory, but has mapped out bad SIMMS and only tells ULTRIX about good memory. I am not sure of this but it is a possibility. If the memory immediately following your DEC memory is bad it might just mark all memory after that is unusable. Their is also another diagnostic that runs from ROM that will tell you if their are any bad pages on SIMMS. >>>t b This will come back and list all SIMM pairs and indicate if any pages are marked 'bad'. > >Thanks for your time, >-- >Scott.Milton@csis.dit.csiro.au Phone +61-6-2750923 Fax +61-6-2571052 >CSIRO Division of Information Technology, ANU, Acton Canberra ACT AUSTRALIA. Good Luck! Chris Martel Clearpoint Research Corp.
wcwang@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (Bill Wang) (04/12/90)
In order for the kernel to recognize the 24 megs, you would have to
reconfig the kernel for that and tell it in /usr/sys/conf/mips/MACHINENAME.
The whole reconfig kernel process was well documented in DEC's 'Guide to
system configuration file maintenance for RISC processors.'
--
Bill Wang
US Mail = Psychology Department, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405
UUCP = {rutgers, att, ames}!iuvax!wcwang
Internet = wcwang@iuvax.cs.indiana.edumikem+@andrew.cmu.edu (Michael Meyer) (04/13/90)
Excerpts from netnews.comp.sys.dec: 12-Apr-90 Re: Decstation 3100 doesn't.. Bill Wang@iuvax.cs.india (449) > In order for the kernel to recognize the 24 megs, you would have to > reconfig the kernel for that and tell it in /usr/sys/conf/mips/MACHINENAME. > The whole reconfig kernel process was well documented in DEC's 'Guide to > system configuration file maintenance for RISC processors.' > -- > Bill Wang > US Mail = Psychology Department, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405 > UUCP = {rutgers, att, ames}!iuvax!wcwang > Internet = wcwang@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu I don't believe this is true. My config files have the physmem line say 8, but the kernels happily find and use 16M of memory.