Re: POWER6 not seeing memory above 2Gb

[Adam Stouffer]

On Thu, Mar 23, 2017 at 3:29 PM, Lennart Sorensen
 wrote:
> What was on this machine before?  Is it possible that you are in fact
> running inside an existing LPAR config, which might have limited memory
> assigned?
>
> --
> Len Sorensen

Len, you were right about it being an LPAR. Previously I was running
PowerVM but removed the drive. I had no idea it configured the
hardware itself. Good thing you can run the special HMC Linux distro
within VMWare :) Here is the screenshot and cause of my woes
http://i.imgur.com/4Jlc1zq.png

Thanks again for your patience.

Adam

Re: POWER6 not seeing memory above 2Gb

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Thu, Mar 23, 2017 at 03:22:46PM -0400, Adam Stouffer wrote:
> So I have grub2 booting the same kernel but again the same result.
> Only 2Gb available.

What was on this machine before?  Is it possible that you are in fact
running inside an existing LPAR config, which might have limited memory
assigned?

-- 
Len Sorensen

Re: POWER6 not seeing memory above 2Gb

[Adam Stouffer]

> Good question.  I installed the machine with grub2 originally years ago,
> so I didn't have to try (I wanted MD raid1 which yaboot couldn't handle
> at that time, so I wanted grub2 to work, no matter what it took).  Took
> some work at the time, debugging disk issues and other issues in grub2,
> but eventually grub2 got to the point of working on the p520 properly.
> These days it ought to just work.
>
> I remember needing a Prep boot partition, which grub-install was then
> pointed at.  I can't remember if yaboot does it the same way.
>
> It might be as simple as installing the grub-ieee1275 package and running
> grub-install /dev/sda1 (assuming sda1 is the PReP boot partition).
>
> --
> Len Sorensen

So I have grub2 booting the same kernel but again the same result.
Only 2Gb available.

Re: POWER6 not seeing memory above 2Gb

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Thu, Mar 23, 2017 at 11:45:10AM -0400, Adam Stouffer wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 23, 2017 at 10:21 AM, Lennart Sorensen
>  wrote
> >
> >
> >
> > That ought to be working.  I know the p520 I worked with before it
> > worked fine.
> >
> > Which bootloader are you using?  I use grub2, just in case the bootloader
> > has anything to do with memory detection in linux.
> >
> > --
> > Len Sorensen
> 
> 
> Ah, that might be the case. Yaboot seemed to have some install issues
> anyhow. What would be the best way to switch from yaboot to grub2?

Good question.  I installed the machine with grub2 originally years ago,
so I didn't have to try (I wanted MD raid1 which yaboot couldn't handle
at that time, so I wanted grub2 to work, no matter what it took).  Took
some work at the time, debugging disk issues and other issues in grub2,
but eventually grub2 got to the point of working on the p520 properly.
These days it ought to just work.

I remember needing a Prep boot partition, which grub-install was then
pointed at.  I can't remember if yaboot does it the same way.

It might be as simple as installing the grub-ieee1275 package and running
grub-install /dev/sda1 (assuming sda1 is the PReP boot partition).

-- 
Len Sorensen

Re: POWER6 not seeing memory above 2Gb

[Adam Stouffer]

On Thu, Mar 23, 2017 at 10:21 AM, Lennart Sorensen
 wrote
>
>
>
> That ought to be working.  I know the p520 I worked with before it
> worked fine.
>
> Which bootloader are you using?  I use grub2, just in case the bootloader
> has anything to do with memory detection in linux.
>
> --
> Len Sorensen


Ah, that might be the case. Yaboot seemed to have some install issues
anyhow. What would be the best way to switch from yaboot to grub2?

Re: POWER6 not seeing memory above 2Gb

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Thu, Mar 23, 2017 at 10:14:27AM -0400, Adam Stouffer wrote:
> No LPAR or VM, running just "bare metal". I had AIX installed previously
> and it recognized 16Gb.
> 
> uname -a
> Linux new-host-4 3.16.0-4-powerpc64 #1 SMP Debian 3.16.39-1+deb8u2
> (2017-03-07) ppc64 GNU/Linux
> 
> lscpu
> Architecture:  ppc64
> CPU op-mode(s):32-bit, 64-bit
> Byte Order:Big Endian
> CPU(s):4
> On-line CPU(s) list:   0-3
> Thread(s) per core:2
> Core(s) per socket:1
> Socket(s): 2
> NUMA node(s):  1
> Model: IBM,8203-E4A
> Hypervisor vendor: pHyp
> Virtualization type:   para
> L1d cache: 64K
> L1i cache: 64K
> NUMA node0 CPU(s): 0-3
> 
> Seems like a config issue? Wouldn't a 32 bit kernel see the 32 bit limit,
> under 4Gb?

That ought to be working.  I know the p520 I worked with before it
worked fine.

Which bootloader are you using?  I use grub2, just in case the bootloader
has anything to do with memory detection in linux.

-- 
Len Sorensen

Re: POWER6 not seeing memory above 2Gb

[Adam Stouffer]

On Thu, Mar 23, 2017 at 9:32 AM, Lennart Sorensen <
lsore...@csclub.uwaterloo.ca> wrote:

>
> Well I know running a 64 bit kernel on that model, does see 16GB ram.
> But I was doing that with no LPAR or anything else, just Debian installed
> straight onto the machine (IBM support people have a hard time
> understanding that people might do that).
>
> So either you somehow installed a 32 bit kernel, or you have an LPAR or
> something else restricting your memory size.
>
> --
> Len Sorensen
>

No LPAR or VM, running just "bare metal". I had AIX installed previously
and it recognized 16Gb.

uname -a
Linux new-host-4 3.16.0-4-powerpc64 #1 SMP Debian 3.16.39-1+deb8u2
(2017-03-07) ppc64 GNU/Linux

lscpu
Architecture:  ppc64
CPU op-mode(s):32-bit, 64-bit
Byte Order:Big Endian
CPU(s):4
On-line CPU(s) list:   0-3
Thread(s) per core:2
Core(s) per socket:1
Socket(s): 2
NUMA node(s):  1
Model: IBM,8203-E4A
Hypervisor vendor: pHyp
Virtualization type:   para
L1d cache: 64K
L1i cache: 64K
NUMA node0 CPU(s): 0-3

Seems like a config issue? Wouldn't a 32 bit kernel see the 32 bit limit,
under 4Gb?

Re: POWER6 not seeing memory above 2Gb

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Wed, Mar 22, 2017 at 09:07:49PM -0400, Adam Stouffer wrote:
> Hello all, I'm new to the list and just installed jessie on my IBM
> 8203-E4A box. It's a dual core 4.2Ghz with 16Gb of memory.
> 
> But anyhow like the subject says the kernel is only reporting 2Gb of
> available memory. I tried appending "mem=16G" as a boot argument but
> no change.
> 
> Here is the output from dmesg with kernel 3.16.0

Well I know running a 64 bit kernel on that model, does see 16GB ram.
But I was doing that with no LPAR or anything else, just Debian installed
straight onto the machine (IBM support people have a hard time
understanding that people might do that).

So either you somehow installed a 32 bit kernel, or you have an LPAR or
something else restricting your memory size.

-- 
Len Sorensen

Re: POWER6 not seeing memory above 2Gb

[Gasha]

With 3 Gb assigned to LPAR (p7) it looks correct:

gasha@power:~$ dmesg | grep Memory [ 0.00] physicalMemorySize = 
0xc000 [ 0.00] Node 0 Memory: 0x0-0xc000 [ 0.00] Memory: 
2811776K/3145728K available (7360K kernel code, 1792K rwdata, 1840K 
rodata, 960K init, 2071K bss, 333952K reserved)


jessie 3.16.7 powerpc64

G

On 03/23/2017 03:07 AM, Adam Stouffer wrote:

Hello all, I'm new to the list and just installed jessie on my IBM
8203-E4A box. It's a dual core 4.2Ghz with 16Gb of memory.

But anyhow like the subject says the kernel is only reporting 2Gb of
available memory. I tried appending "mem=16G" as a boot argument but
no change.

Here is the output from dmesg with kernel 3.16.0

[0.00] physicalMemorySize= 0x8000
[0.00] Node 0 Memory: 0x0-0x8000
[0.00] Early memory node ranges
[0.00] Memory: 1899264K/2097152K available (7360K kernel code,
1792K rwdata, 1840K rodata, 960K init, 2071K bss, 197888K reserved)
[0.023173] Initializing cgroup subsys memory
[1.036652] Freeing initrd memory: 16384K (c348 -
c448)
[1.242857] Freeing unused kernel memory: 960K (c091 -
c0a0)

Any ideas? Thanks.

Re: POWER6 not seeing memory above 2Gb

[Gasha]

It is 64-bit kernel?

$ uname -a
$ lscpu

I think that i never tried more than 1 Gb RAM for test linux, because 
development AIX needs more RAM...

Should try that on P7 or P8.

Gasha

On 03/23/2017 03:07 AM, Adam Stouffer wrote:

Hello all, I'm new to the list and just installed jessie on my IBM
8203-E4A box. It's a dual core 4.2Ghz with 16Gb of memory.

But anyhow like the subject says the kernel is only reporting 2Gb of
available memory. I tried appending "mem=16G" as a boot argument but
no change.

Here is the output from dmesg with kernel 3.16.0

[0.00] physicalMemorySize= 0x8000
[0.00] Node 0 Memory: 0x0-0x8000
[0.00] Early memory node ranges
[0.00] Memory: 1899264K/2097152K available (7360K kernel code,
1792K rwdata, 1840K rodata, 960K init, 2071K bss, 197888K reserved)
[0.023173] Initializing cgroup subsys memory
[1.036652] Freeing initrd memory: 16384K (c348 -
c448)
[1.242857] Freeing unused kernel memory: 960K (c091 -
c0a0)

Any ideas? Thanks.

Re: POWER6 not seeing memory above 2Gb

[Thadeu Lima de Souza Cascardo]

On Wed, Mar 22, 2017 at 09:07:49PM -0400, Adam Stouffer wrote:
> Hello all, I'm new to the list and just installed jessie on my IBM
> 8203-E4A box. It's a dual core 4.2Ghz with 16Gb of memory.
> 
> But anyhow like the subject says the kernel is only reporting 2Gb of
> available memory. I tried appending "mem=16G" as a boot argument but
> no change.

I assume this is an LPAR. How is it configured? Do you have an HMC or
IVM connected to it?

Cascardo.

> 
> Here is the output from dmesg with kernel 3.16.0
> 
> [0.00] physicalMemorySize= 0x8000
> [0.00] Node 0 Memory: 0x0-0x8000
> [0.00] Early memory node ranges
> [0.00] Memory: 1899264K/2097152K available (7360K kernel code,
> 1792K rwdata, 1840K rodata, 960K init, 2071K bss, 197888K reserved)
> [0.023173] Initializing cgroup subsys memory
> [1.036652] Freeing initrd memory: 16384K (c348 -
> c448)
> [1.242857] Freeing unused kernel memory: 960K (c091 -
> c0a0)
> 
> Any ideas? Thanks.
>