Urgent: Multiple X's crash computer with 1gb ram

[darkshadow]

I just upgraded my computer to 1gb of memory but the multiple X's feature of the latest driver and any output that uses the tv just hard freezes the computer I need to know a way to fix this since I live to watch video files on my tv. I know for a fact that it is the memory because if I remove the second stick the computer runs like a dream. with tv output. *using a monitor alone works no matter how much memory

I don't want to limit myself to 512mb since I do my own video capture and the 1gb of memory extremely helps


Here are my system stats that would matter for this

AMD Athlon XP 2600+
ASUS A7N8X Deluxe mobo
2x512mb PC2700 ddr ram (same make)
Geforce2MX 440

I have also included my XF86Config

This is urgent since it is causing problems not being able to check how my videos look like on a tv

[bwkaz]

Does it work with the sticks switched?

Are you always taking the last (or first) stick out? If so, try removing the other stick and see if it still works. If not, you got bad memory; run memtest86 on it at least overnight, and if that fails too, look at getting a replacement.

Actually, you probably want to run memtest86 overnight anyway.

You could also enable HIGHMEM-4GB in the Linux kernel configuration. Some distros have a specific kernel that has 4GB or 64GB support enabled, so look at that too if you don't want to compile your own kernel.

The problem with 1GB of memory is that some image of it gets mapped into the 3GB to 4GB address space of Intel processors in 32-bit mode. This is the kernel's space, so if you fill it up with some image of normal memory (the AGP aperture is also put here, so take that into account too), you cause issues. Which is why it's recommended that any system that has 1GB or more of memory runs a highmem-enabled kernel (so it can map this memory somewhere else).

[darkshadow]

Ok I am utterly surprised after I took out the extra stick because I required tv output. I put it back in and forgot to disable tv output but it worked this time.

I am stumped because I know it was in before because it got used.

and will enabling highmem help my system since I have no problem recompiling the kernel since I am using a "Linux From Scratch System"

I grep'd my .config for HIGHMEM and got the following response

CONFIG_NOHIGHMEM=y
# CONFIG_HIGHMEM4G is not set
# CONFIG_HIGHMEM64G is not set

I am guessing I should change the first line to
CONFIG_NOHIGHMEM=n
and the second to
CONFIG_HIGHMEM4G=y
but do I need to change the third

[bwkaz]

I wouldn't change .config at all; I'd run through menuconfig myself. Under "Processor type and features", go down to "High Memory Support", hit enter, and choose 4GB. You probably also want to read the help associated with High Memory Support.

Save and exit, and rebuild the kernel. Then boot to the new one.

Enabling highmem won't hurt (as long as you use the 4GB setting), let's put it that way. There's a performance penalty with 64GB, but I don't think that applies to 4GB.

[darkshadow]

Thanks for the info on highmem I am recompiling right now