# Memory question (PAE)



## bastianvs (Jun 14, 2011)

I have installed 12 GB to my FreeBSD 6.2 machine with i386  and I reinstall my kernel with PAE, but still I can see my memory is 4 GB. How can I fix this? Many people told me that I can fix this by upgrading FreeBSD to latest version, 8.2. Is there any other method? Also I would like to know freebsd-update method, how safe I can upgrade it. Does it crash? Is there any chance of losing files and configurations?


```
# sysctl -a |grep mem
memdesc     1     4K       -        1  4096
vm.kmem_size: 335544320
vm.kmem_size_max: 335544320
vm.kmem_size_scale: 3
vfs.ufs.dirhash_maxmem: 2097152
vfs.ufs.dirhash_mem: 2000488
debug.fwmem_debug: 0
hw.physmem: 4284469248
hw.usermem: 4003291136
hw.realmem: 1073741824
hw.firewire.fwmem.eui64_hi: 0
hw.firewire.fwmem.eui64_lo: 0
hw.firewire.fwmem.speed: 2
hw.cbb.start_memory: 2281701376
hw.pci.host_mem_start: 2147483648
p1003_1b.memlock: 0
p1003_1b.memlock_range: 0
p1003_1b.memory_protection: 0
p1003_1b.shared_memory_objects: 1
```


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## bastianvs (Jun 14, 2011)

I need to upgrade the OS. Which method is good, freebsd-update or a fresh FreeBSD 8.2 amd64?

My hardware is 


```
# sysctl -a  |grep hw.model
hw.model: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU           X5450  @ 3.00GH
```

On Intel's site it says it supports a 64 bit OS: http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=34446

Motherboard	- SuperMicro X7DBR-E Intel Xeon QuadCore DualProc SATA [2Proc]


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## aragon (Jun 14, 2011)

If a fresh install is possible, do it.  Rather go AMD64 than i386 with PAE.


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## davidgurvich (Jun 15, 2011)

PAE isn't well tested on recent kernels.  Works fine on older kernels and machines.  If this is a production machine you can build a new kernel with PAE support and see if that works for you.


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## SirDice (Jun 15, 2011)

bastianvs said:
			
		

> Also I would like to know freebsd-update method, how safe I can upgrade it.


You can't use freebsd-update. Your version isn't supported, it only works on 6.3 and higher. So you'll have to source update to 6.3 first before you can use freebsd-update. Might as well do the source update all the way. Also note that freebsd-update only works for GENERIC kernels. 

But if you want to go from i386 to amd64 I seriously recommend just backing up your data and install fresh.


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## bastianvs (Jun 16, 2011)

Hi all,

Thanks for great help.


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