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Idea #2828: bigmem kernel

bug This idea is a duplicate of Idea #1553: Large memory support in x86 kernel.
Written by ToniVR the 3 Mar 08 at 19:51. Category: Hardware support. Related project: Nothing/Others. Status: New
Rationale
In Debian, you have to option to install a -bigmem kernel, which supports more than 3.2GB RAM which does the default kernel.
32-bit users with 4GB Ram are now skipped, and these users can then profit from all their valuable RAM chips.

If Ubuntu would provide such a kernel, they would cover the upcoming big memory workstations and laptops.
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Solution #1: Auto-generated solution of idea #2828
Written by ToniVR the 3 Mar 08 at 19:51.
Ubuntu Brainstorm was updated in January 2009. Since the idea #2828 was submitted before this update, its rationale and solution are not separated. Please vote accordingly, and if you have the necessary rights, please separate the rationale from the solution. Thanks!

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exactopposite wrote on the 3 Mar 08 at 21:07
what's wrong with using 64bit?

kernelOfTruth wrote on the 3 Mar 08 at 22:40
semi-working flash-support and several other stuff which doesn't work 100% ;)

btw, fedora is also offering PAE-kenrels :)

sparc128 wrote on the 3 Mar 08 at 23:23
What do you mean by semi-working flash? I am getting good experience with flash under Firefox 3 under 8.04 but I have not done a lot of testing.

carlinuxlearner wrote on the 3 Mar 08 at 23:46
Flash works flawless here. Ubuntu 7.10 64bit.

thecheatah wrote on the 4 Mar 08 at 00:18
I just recently built a 4gb computer and installed ubuntu. You just have to install the "server" kernel.

zooounds wrote on the 4 Mar 08 at 10:03
With server kernel you lose restricted modules

exactopposite wrote on the 5 Mar 08 at 05:40
Flash is working just fine in 64 bit gutsy. It's in the repos, and it installs in synaptic jsut like it does in 32 bit gutsy. I'm not sure why people are under the impression the 64 bit has such problems.

zooounds wrote on the 13 Mar 08 at 13:41
Does it work running 32 bit window apps in wine on 64 bit ubuntu?

andydread wrote on the 19 May 08 at 19:04
There are many reasons why we still need 32bit.
Flaky flash.
Skype
32bit windows apps in wine anyone?
i'm sure there is more. others can add to this list.

I mean come on. Why are they refusing to provide something that was there in the past? I breezy I could
apt-get install linux-image-bigmem. I can still do that in the latest Debian. So somewhere along the line some brilliant person made the decision to remove it.

To force people to got to 64bit just to get their computer to recognize +3GB of ram is ridiculous. What about people running 32bit already and upbraded their ram? do they have to reload the whole OS? or can one just apt-get intall linux-image-x64 ? then have all their ram recongnized?
I think the assumption that people should reload their PCs to 64 bit then wrestle with all the ills that may come along with that is shortsighted.

syberghost wrote on the 19 Aug 08 at 20:43
This is a frequent question on the forums, in Answers, on IRC, etc.

hoc wrote on the 23 Aug 08 at 18:10
4GB or more is not uncommon in desktop and laptops these days. As a matter of fact, the reason i hear the most for people not buying 4GB is that the OS doesn't support it! It's not that people don't want to have 4GB+ RAM!

Why not supply a separate package for the 32bit version with the options supporting 64GB Highmem enabled? I ask this question seriously, which good reasons exist for not enabling this while it is perfectely possible? Other linux-distro's can do it, heck, even debian does. (And before you say i am free to choose another distro, i like Ubuntu and would like to stick to it. ;) )

And as an added benefit, supporting more than 4GB would provide 1 more argument to upgrade from another OS to Ubuntu.

cdenley wrote on the 9 Oct 08 at 20:43
"With server kernel you lose restricted modules"

No, you just lose the dependency on it. The server kernel can use restricted modules.

dpkg-query -W linux-restricted*server


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