Re: tlug: memory size strangeness(?)

[David J Iannucci <dji@example.com>]

> On Sat, 17 Jan 1998, David J Iannucci wrote:
> 
> > When I do the "free" command on either one, it tells me that the total
> > memory in the system is 8508K.  Why do I seem to be missing 1.5 MB here?
> 
> That's about right, actually.  You lose 384Kb right off the bat in most
> cases (unless your BIOS will allow you to move the shadow RAM from the
> A000-FFFF memory region to a place where it can be used), and the kernel
> itself will eat up around a megabyte.
> 
> - --    Chris (wileyc@example.com)

Chris,
   Thanks for the answer.  I know that I'm supposed to disable shadow
RAM for Linux, but the BIOS setup menus on neither of these machines
seems to offer this option.  But....... I find it hard to believe that
the free command subtracts memory used by the kernel from the number
which is supposed to indicate (I thought) the _total_ amount of RAM
recognized by Linux (i.e. not simply the amount of memory free for
use at this time).  Is this really the case?

Dave

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