Gentoo will only execute Kernel with 16GB ram installed

g3nlinux · n00b Joined: 16 Oct 2019 Posts: 1

HP DL380G5 server. Install of Gentoo went without any trouble (which was nice thing as I feared raid card would be a hassle, but no trouble) with 16gb of RAM installed.

Figured, had the ram to increase to 64GB so why not.

Ram install went fine, server sees ram, bios sees ram, server boots, grub lands fine, then upon trying to load the Kernel, the system shows a couple lines, then presents a black screen and no further things happen.

Have tested all sticks and slots. The server will only run Gentoo successfully with 16GB installed. (The installed kernel, a live dvd, or live usb bootable all same result)

That 16gb can be: 8x2gb sticks, 4x4gb sticks, or 2x8gb sticks, any other combination of more or less RAM and the kernel boot fails.

dmidecode reports hardware can support 64gb in 8 devices

Not planning to spend a lot of time trying to sort this one out, since the hw is outdated, but anyone have a similar experience and some input?
Thanks.

mike155 · Posted: Thu Oct 17, 2019 12:48 am Post subject:

Hi g3nlinux,

welcome to the Gentoo forums!

Which CPU is installed? How many CPUs are installed?
Please boot from SystemRescueCD (or any other Linux distribution). Do they work with 64 GB installed?
It could be a BIOS setting
Which kernel do you use? Please post your kernel config using wgetpaste
Please post the ouput of

Code:

emerge --info

Mike

TheLexx · Posted: Sat Oct 19, 2019 3:22 pm Post subject:

Definitely do the things that mike155 said. Booting a different Linux distribution will help you figure out if the problem is tied specifically to the configuration of the kernel you are using.

It can be frustrating to get the system up in running when you can't recover the "dmesg". Using your phone/camera to record the screen could provide useful information. It would help just to see how far the kernel progressed prior to crash. Quite a lot gets done early on.

If the kernel had a fundamental issue with the memory, dmesg may not even get 0.1 seconds into the log. If the log gets past the 1-second mark, it could tell us that a sub-system did not like the extra memory. Meaning that a sub-system crashed (due to extra memory) and that crash brought down the rest of the kernel.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sat Oct 19, 2019 6:58 pm Post subject:

g3nlinux,

Is your 64G RAM 8 identical modules?

Some system do not like a mix because they check one RAM stick and make assumptions that are not true.
Sometimes they can be coaxed to work.

What does your 64G RAM comprise?

Put the 64G in and boot into memtest86. Hopefully that runs.
Let it run a few cycles.

Report any errors.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.