In Documentation/Configure.help, it says the following:
: Limit memory to low 16MB
: CONFIG_MAX_16M
: This is for some buggy motherboards which cannot properly deal with
: the memory above 16MB. If you have more than 16MB of RAM and
: experience weird problems, you might want to try Y, everyone else
: says N. Note for machines with more that 64MB of RAM: in order for
: the kernel to be able to use the memory above 64MB, pass the command
: line option "mem=XXXM" (where XXX is the memory size in megabytes)
: to your kernel during boot time. See the documentation of your boot
: loader (lilo or loadlin) about how to pass options to the
: kernel. The lilo procedure is also explained in the SCSI-HOWTO,
: available via ftp (user: anonymous) in
: sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO. You also need at least 512kB
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
: of RAM cache if you have more than 64MB of RAM. Some other things
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
: to try when experiencing seemingly random, "weird" problems: 1)
: passing the "no-hlt" option to the kernel 2) passing the "no-387"
: option to the kernel 3) passing the "mem=4M" option to the kernel
: (thereby disabling all but the first 4M of RAM) 4) disabling the
: cache from your BIOS settings 5) exchanging RAM chips 6) exchanging
: the motherboard 7) committing suicide.
Is the line about needing a 512kB cache true?
In theory, my motherboard can hold up to 128MB of memory, yet I am
fairly certain that I am limited to a 256kB cache. (I have a Plato
motherboard.)
Kevin