[SLL] 32 bit distro that supports 4GB ram with stock kernel

[Paul A. Franz, P.E.]

On Tue, April 1, 2008 8:16 pm, Eric Kahklen wrote:
> Does anyone know if Hardy Heron supports 4GB of ram with the stock
> kernel?  I am getting ready to do a clean install on my Thinkpad and
> want to capture my full 4GB of ram.  If not, do any of the other distros
> support 4GB of ram with their stock kernel?
>
> Thanks,
> Eric
>
> --
> Eric Kahklen
> Lynnwood, WA
> 206-595-2934
>

Depending on your CPU, most newer machines have 64 bit processors such as an Intel
Core 2 Duo, you just select the 64 bit version which doesn't have the addressing
problems associated with memory over 4 GB. I just installed Fedora 8 on a fairly
recent HP laptop. I did a bit of puzzling over necessity of using some 32 bit drivers.
I was really pleased at how easy it was to make a WiFi connection. I had to really
monkey around a lot with Fedora 7 to get that to work as well as my Verizon Wireless
Access. Haven't completed that part yet on the newer HP laptop.

I downloaded Ubuntu Live disk which I found using Google. It's download format used
http: on the OSU mirror. I could not find an iso in the ftp tree there and once I
burned a disk and booted from it, I was not able to figure out how to install anything
not included with the Live iso. It was real easy with Fedora 8 live disk. Familiarity
I guess. I certainly decided against using Ubuntu. Tools such as configuring WiFi
weren't as nice. Couldn't see investing the time to learn a non-rpm based distro when
I already am so familiar with SuSe, RHEL and Fedora.

I have a boot CD that is called Ping 2.01 that does an incredible job making a disk
image of whatever you have and it is a Debian based deal. Boot the computer, and with
minimal input, make a compressed disk image and write it to about any medium I can
think of including multiple CD's. I used a USB 250 GB drive to back up a brand new
install of XP that had been slip streamed with Service Pack 2 and the install was done
with zero crapware. Windows saw the space required as 14 GB and Ping wrote a set of CD
ROM sized files totaling less than 6 GB on the USB drive. Clever job done with a
Debian boot disk.

This job was done to remove Vista and install XP. Starting with an old pre service
pack 1 XP license disk. Big job to get a minimal set of drivers going with no errors
and all updates too. The result was a zero crapware installation of Windows XP and now
dual booting with Fedora 8. As a result of using Ping, after generating and testing a
restore disk for Vista, I used my Ping backup image on a second HP laptop and that was
done in minutes, all windows updates current except IE 7 and Windows Genuine Advantage
which aren't needed yet. IE 7 is pretty terrible, has same problems as Vista.
Unnecessarily large and slow.

-- 
Paul A. Franz, P.E.
PAF Consulting Engineers
Office 425.641.8202
FAX 425.641.1773
Cell 425.241.1618