RAM detection error: 32-bit int issue?

[Scott Saccone]

Thanks very much, could you tell me what versions of GRUB and linux
you're using? BTW, the BIOS reports 4GB of memory, and Memtest86+ shows
4GB working fine, so it must have something to do with the interaction
between the kernel and BIOS. Doesn't everything depend on the
BIOS-provided physical RAM map that's in the dmesg file, or is it more
than that?

This is quote from a GRUB bug report that was posted after v.95
came out (I'm using v.94, the only version after .95 is GRUB2 which is
in development)
http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?func=detailitem&item_id=9954

'In char_io.c the memcheck function uses "int addr" to store addresses
and does bounds checking on it. On systems with over 2G of ram the "int
addr" will be negative and the bounds checking will fail producing an
"ERR_WONT_FIT".'

On Fri, 2005-01-21 at 11:09, Jason L Tibbitts III wrote:
> >>>>> "SS" == Scott Saccone <ssaccone at link.wustl.edu> writes:
> 
> SS> FC2/x86_64 (2.6.5-1.358smp) ran fine with 2GB RAM, but after
> SS> installing another 2GB it only detects 3GB. GRUB 0.94 also only
> SS> detects 3GB.
> 
> No problems with 8GB on x86_64 here (using two 2 Opterons 250s on a
> Tyan S2882).  Grub can certainly handle that much memory.  (It even
> handles 6GB on 32-bit Xeon system.)
> 
> I'd guess there's an issue with your BIOS, or the Kernel's interaction
> with it.
> 
>  - J<