My original question was :
>In the upgrading of memory, does the kernel have to be reconfigured to
>adapt to the memory increase, or does it automatically adapt to the new
>size (increase or decrease in memory size)?
All of the answers received pointed out to the fact that the kernel will
determine the memory size at boot time, will adjust accordingly and use
whatever memory size it has available (whether it increases or decreases).
Hence, there are no kernel reconfigurations are to be made to adapt to
such kind of setup.
However, changing the memory size drastically (e.g. going up or down an
order of magnitude), one might want to change some tuning parameters for
better performance (such as changing allocation of certain memory
resources, like the UBC; there is a default setting that uses X percent
of available memory for the UBC, no matter how much memory you have, but
if you don't need that much with the new config, you can tune it down).
More memory implies a larger core dump when the inevitable system crashes
occurs, perhaps creating a larger primary swap file, and will probably
entail the creation of a larger /var partition if one still uses the
default dump destination.
Thanks to the following people who shared their views with regards to
the question above namely:
Dave Cherkus <cherkus_at_UniMaster.COM>
Kent Arnott <karnott_at_falcon.tamucc.edu>
Eugene Chu <chu_at_musp0.Jpl.Nasa.Gov>
Len Senetza <len_at_helix.net>
Ross Alexander <rwa_at_cs.athabascau.ca>
Selden E Ball Jr <SEB_at_LNS62.LNS.CORNELL.EDU>
Martin Moore <martin_at_jerry.alf.dec.com>
Bonn
:)
Received on Sun Dec 24 1995 - 15:53:16 NZDT