CentOS - Oct 2008 - Slightly OT: Dell Poweredge 2850 with 4GB RAM

Hi all,

I got the previously mentioned Dell Poweredge 2850 with 4GB RAM and Perc4e
raid controller. Installation went well and the raid is pretty fast even with
level 5.

However I have another problem now... CentOS 5.2 only sees 256MB RAM. Googling
a bit, got me to install kernel-PAE, this went well, but CentOS still sees
only 256MB.

Googling some more, I found a bios update was suggested and might do the
trick. Checking what bios version the server had, revealed it was A02. Upon
checking the Dell support site I saw they had a version A07, which I
downloaded.

The file was in bin format and executable via the CLI. Installation of the
A07-version went well too with no errors, and it told me to reboot the machine
to activate/start the update.

Upon reboot, at post, it said the update failed. Now what?? I'm at a loss
here. This is my first Dell Poweredge-server and I lack knowledge in the
tricks-department with this one.

What do I do now? Knowing the Dell-support, I turn to this list in hope of
some useful hints in this matter.

Thx for any insights.

-- 
Best Wishes
                  Sorin
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On Fri, Oct 03, 2008 at 10:23:46AM +0200, Sorin at Gmail
wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I got the previously mentioned Dell Poweredge 2850 with 4GB RAM and Perc4e
> raid controller. Installation went well and the raid is pretty fast even
with
> level 5.
>
> However I have another problem now... CentOS 5.2 only sees 256MB RAM.
Googling
> a bit, got me to install kernel-PAE, this went well, but CentOS still sees
> only 256MB.
does your bios see 4GB? try also memtest to make sure the 4GB are there.
cat /proc/meminfo and the boot lines of /var/log/messages

what does the rescue mode says? cd1 of 5.2 i386/x86_64 ?
> 
<snip bios update>
> Upon reboot, at post, it said the update failed. Now what?? I'm at a
loss
> here. This is my first Dell Poweredge-server and I lack knowledge in the
> tricks-department with this one.
ask the dell poweredge mailing list, this is pretty off topic here.

Tru
-- 
Tru Huynh (mirrors, CentOS-3 i386/x86_64 Package Maintenance)
http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0xBEFA581B
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Sorin at Gmail wrote:
> However I have another problem now... CentOS 5.2 only sees 256MB RAM. 
Is "OS install mode" set to "On" in the BIOS? I seem to
remember this
sets the memory limit to 256Mb

Dan