Re: Kernel cannot fit in memory error

[Yoshinori K. Okuji]

At 02 Jun 2002 22:15:44 -0600,
Dave Smith wrote:
> Every time I try to load my standard RedHat7.2 kernel with GRUB (the
> truly Grand Unified Boot Loader), I get the error 28: "Specified image
> cannot fit in memory." My machine has 512MB RAM, and GRUB /is/ detecting
> that much (490MB anyway) in upper memory. However, lower mem shows up as
> only 512K. Could this be a problem? I have tried multiple work-arounds
> including the 'uppermem=' command in GRUB. Also, I have an integrated
> video card that shares memory with the main board. Could /that/ be a
> problem for GRUB too?

Your guess is correct. Perhaps your video card BIOS reserves a lot of
lower memory, so the EBDA is large.

> I am able to boot from floppy that RedHat Anaconda (the installer)
> generated for me. How can I resolve this (aside from recompiling and
> paring my kernel down to 512K)? 

It has no relation with the kernel size. The latest version of the
Linux/i386 boot protocol has a workaround for larger EBDA systems, but
GRUB still doesn't support that feature.

Wouldn't you like to add that feature into GRUB?

Thanks,
Okuji