# nvidia-drivers & >=4GB RAM on 64bit

## MalleRIM

I upgraded my RAM to 4 GB today and my Xserver won't start properly unless I take one of the DIMMs out (no matter which one, no matter which bank so it's not the RAM). When gdm is started, there is no mouse, just the background colour and a white rectangle where I usually type my user name and password appear. startx on the framebuffer console results in a black background with the GNOME Splash and still there is no mouse. The Ubuntu LiveCD works just fine. I suspect this problem to be a kernel issue so I posted it in this forum.

kernel .config: http://pastebin.com/m1b85cf99

xorg.conf: http://pastebin.com/m3cf6cb3c

emerge --info: http://pastebin.com/m3e21cd55

I already tried re-emerging xorg-server, libX11 and nvidia-drivers

thanks in advance

Malle

Title changed, now that the problem is knownLast edited by MalleRIM on Thu Jul 31, 2008 6:03 pm; edited 3 times in total

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## fangorn

I am not used to look at .config files directly, but I see some strange memory settings. 

What you need to achieve with 4 GB of memory is to map the part blocked by the PCI bus to ranges above 4 GB. 

Then in the kernel config activate Memory bigger than 4 GB (is standard now IIRC).

Even if the memory has holes, I think it is addressed as flat memory. 

Good luck.

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## MalleRIM

 *fangorn wrote:*   

> What you need to achieve with 4 GB of memory is to map the part blocked by the PCI bus to ranges above 4 GB. 
> 
> Then in the kernel config activate Memory bigger than 4 GB (is standard now IIRC).

 

which Options are that? I can't find anything similar to what you mentioned.

btw. top shows 4 GB of memory in total. Just X is not working properly. I also tried with 3 GB (1GB+2GB). That worked, but wothout dual channel. Does it have something to do with dual channel?

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## gerard27

With a 64 bit kernel there is no way to indicate the amount of ram.

With 32 bit system yes because it cannot address the whole lot at one time.

Gerard.

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## MalleRIM

I have a 64bit system

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## MalleRIM

After a whole lot of searching and trying I could finally discover the problem. There's somehow a problem with the nvidia driver and 4 GB of RAM. I've installed the free nv driver and everything is working fine. Now I just have to find a real solution to my problem - I wan't OpenGL back.

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## DaggyStyle

try this https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-691405-highlight-4gb.html

what version of drivers did you tried?

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## MalleRIM

The topic you linked describes a different Problem. It's not that my system does not detect 4GB of RAM, I'm running 64bit anyway. The problem is, that the Xserver crashes on startup with 4GB of RAM and the nvidia-drivers. ATM I'm using the xf86-video-nv AND 4GB of RAM without any problems. I tried with the latest stable (173.14.09) but I will try the hardmasked beta driver too as soon as my download and my emerges are finished  :Wink: 

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## MalleRIM

I can use the kernel parameter mem to change the amount of ram being used. Unfortunately, the maximum I can set (below my actual amount of RAM) is 3.2GB, even when I specify mem=4095M. I hope nvidia will fix this soon.

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## paulbiz

I used 4gig for a year and now have 8gig of RAM and have never had any problems with nvidia-drivers. I'm using gentoo-sources 2.6.26 with nvidia-drivers 173.14.12 and xorg-x11 7.3.

uname -a

```
Linux e6600 2.6.26-gentoo #3 SMP PREEMPT Wed Jul 30 19:26:21 CDT 2008 x86_64 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6600 @ 2.40GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux
```

cat /proc/meminfo

```
MemTotal:      8200648 kB

MemFree:        137640 kB

Buffers:        323712 kB

Cached:        4877040 kB

SwapCached:        100 kB

Active:        3773784 kB

Inactive:      3533948 kB

SwapTotal:     2096440 kB

SwapFree:      2096340 kB

Dirty:            1880 kB

Writeback:           0 kB

AnonPages:     2106852 kB

Mapped:         152384 kB

Slab:           666748 kB

SReclaimable:   642204 kB

SUnreclaim:      24544 kB

PageTables:      20908 kB

NFS_Unstable:        0 kB

Bounce:              0 kB

WritebackTmp:        0 kB

CommitLimit:   6196764 kB

Committed_AS:  3109760 kB

VmallocTotal: 34359738367 kB

VmallocUsed:     64812 kB

VmallocChunk: 34359665147 kB
```

here is my kernel .config: http://pastebin.com/f212c57a1

If there's any other info I can provide, please ask. Thanks  :Smile: 

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## fangorn

Sometimes this behaviour is depending on the BIOS settings regarding "Memory hole".  On some older AMD boards I had to deactivate the memory hole to get NVIDIA drivers working. So on these machines I can only use 3.5 GB RAM. 

Sorry I did not mention this before, but it is years that I setup these machines.   :Rolling Eyes: 

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## baeksu

Can you give the error messages (marked with 'EE' and 'WW') from your xorg log, when you try to run X with the proprietory driver?

Also, quick googling shows that some people have been able to resolve the issues with either a BIOS update, or by enabling 'memory remapping' in the BIOS.

Maybe you could google for posts from people with the same mobo as yours?

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## MalleRIM

Xorg.0.log.old: 

```
   (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.

(EE) NVIDIA(0): Error recovery failed.

(EE) NVIDIA(0):  *** Aborting ***

(EE) NVIDIA(0): Error recovery failed.

(EE) NVIDIA(0):  *** Aborting ***

(EE) NVIDIA(0): Error recovery failed.

(EE) NVIDIA(0):  *** Aborting ***

(EE) NVIDIA(0): Error recovery failed.

(EE) NVIDIA(0):  *** Aborting ***

(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/indic/" does not exist.

(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/unfonts/" does not exist.

(WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/sharefonts" does not exist.

(WW) Open ACPI failed (/var/run/acpid.socket) (No such file or directory)

(WW) NVIDIA(0): The NVIDIA X driver has encountered too many errors.  Falling

(WW) NVIDIA(0):     back to write-back cached memory.
```

the two lines (Error recovery failed, Aborting) are repeated several times

Unfortunately it will be hard to find anyone but me running an Elitegroup AMD690GM-M2 and 4GB RAM and nVidia graphics and Linux. It was hard enough to find someone who was using it with linux when I bought it and wanted to know wether it is compatible. But I'll try anyway and also look for a BIOS update.

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## MalleRIM

I disabled the option "Memory Hole Remapping" in my BIOS and on startup my machine turned out to just give me 3,2GB of RAM, which is basically the same as using the mem kernel parameter. I haven't yet flashed my BIOS but I will do soif there's no other solution.

I'll compare my kernel .config to yours, thanks paulbiz.

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## paulbiz

according to Elitegroup's website that mobo should support up to 16gb (but it says only up to 4gb was tested at the time). The newest BIOS is from December 2007.

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## MalleRIM

It does support the 4 GB it's just that the nvidia driver doesn't with my configuration. I haven't flashed my BIOS yet, I had a problem with my floppy but I'll try tomorrow.

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## J0sep

sorry but did u checked  here? http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/nvidia-guide.xml

there is a 4gb issue part

 :Wink: 

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