Intel Macbook 64-bit: Upgraded to 4GB, 3GB shows up; Video very laggy

[frikker]

Hey everyone,
I have a Macbook 2,1 Core 2 Duo running 64-bit Ubuntu. I just bought 4GB PC5300 (2x2GB) and popped it in (I had 2GB prior). These are my symptoms:

I am dual booting OS X 10.5. OS X shows 4GB of ram
MemFree86 (I assume is 32-bit) shows 3GB of ram
Ubuntu only shows 3GB of ram
My video is very poor now. Compiz is laggy, dragging windows is not good. Before it was very snappy and quite impressive
Not sure if this is connected or not, but my backlight appeared to be flickering in OS X. Not the case on bootup or in Ubuntu.


So... I am running a 64-bit kernel and seeing 32-bit memory limitations. And why the video problems? I have not changed any drivers or anything else, other than swap hardware and boot up. I imagine if I swap back to 2GB, my performance will come back. Is this related intel's PAE, which I thought was only for 32-bit hardware?

Thanks!
Blaine


10$ uname -a
Linux macbook 2.6.28-15-generic #49-Ubuntu SMP Tue Aug 18 19:25:34 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ free -m
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 2953 1031 1921 0 114 427
-/+ buffers/cache: 489 2463
Swap: 7812 0 7812

9$ lsmod
Module Size Used by
i915 77960 2
drm 123232 3 i915
binfmt_misc 18572 1
ppdev 16904 0
btusb 21784 2
bridge 63776 0
stp 11140 1 bridge
bnep 22912 2
vboxnetadp 109356 0
vboxnetflt 116972 0
vboxdrv 1721612 1 vboxnetflt
uvcvideo 69640 0
compat_ioctl32 18304 1 uvcvideo
videodev 45184 2 uvcvideo,compat_ioctl32
v4l1_compat 23940 2 uvcvideo,videodev
lp 19588 0
parport 49584 2 ppdev,lp
snd_hda_intel 557492 3
snd_pcm_oss 52352 0
snd_mixer_oss 24960 1 snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm 99464 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss
arc4 10240 2
snd_seq_dummy 11524 0
ecb 11392 2
snd_seq_oss 41984 0
snd_seq_midi 15744 0
snd_rawmidi 33920 1 snd_seq_midi
snd_seq_midi_event 16512 2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
snd_seq 66272 6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_mid i_event
ath9k 310584 0
snd_timer 34064 2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device 16276 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi ,snd_seq
mac80211 251528 1 ath9k
iTCO_wdt 21712 0
iTCO_vendor_support 12420 1 iTCO_wdt
joydev 20992 0
video 29204 0
snd 78920 15 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,sn d_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_de vice
applesmc 37700 0
output 11648 1 video
soundcore 16800 1 snd
pcspkr 11136 0
cfg80211 43680 1 mac80211
appletouch 19972 0
isight_firmware 11520 0
input_polldev 12688 1 applesmc
intel_agp 39408 1
snd_page_alloc 18704 2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
led_class 13064 2 ath9k,applesmc
hid_apple 15872 0
usbhid 47040 0
ohci1394 42164 0
ieee1394 108288 1 ohci1394
sky2 63364 0
fbcon 49792 0
tileblit 11264 1 fbcon
font 17024 1 fbcon
bitblit 14464 1 fbcon
softcursor 10368 1 bitblit

[frikker]

Update... my compiz benchmark test went from FULL (80fps or so) before the upgrade, to 22fps (1/4 full) now.

edit:
Also, I'm seeing this now in my dmesg:
[ 18.890528] [drm:i915_setparam] *ERROR* unknown parameter 4
[ 18.890550] [drm:i915_getparam] *ERROR* Unknown parameter 6
[ 795.820163] ACPI: EC: GPE storm detected, transactions will use polling mode
[ 2362.760889] [drm:i915_getparam] *ERROR* Unknown parameter 6
[ 2416.352084] ACPI: EC: missing confirmations, switch off interrupt mode.
[ 4318.773266] [drm:i915_getparam] *ERROR* Unknown parameter 6
[ 9513.813066] CE: hpet increasing min_delta_ns to 15000 nsec
[ 9693.815684] npviewer.bin[6736]: segfault at ff99cd48 ip 00000000ff99cd48 sp 00000000ff80339c error 14

Man. My kernel seems to be choking on something.

[frikker]

I figured out whats up. Basically, my macbook has the Intel 945 chipset (lucky me...). The CPU is 64-bit, the OS is 64-bit, but the northbridge can only allocate 32-bit :(. OS X ignores the extra amount. But here's the kicker: When you have more than 3GB, I guess there is some hardware memory allocation overlap, and that extra 1GB starts screwing with hardware interfacing. This is why my video is laggy, and probably why the screen flickers in OS X. In fact, every time I reboot something different is messed up, sometimes wireless wont work, sometimes trackpad wont work, etc.

Solution: Go to 3GB of ram, not 4GB of ram. Thats it. :(

Either way, the performance of my video card when its not crippled is pretty phenomenal for being integrated, so I should be happy. I'm just a little bit disappointed in Intel (and Apple) for letting this slip by...

Sources:
http://superuser.com/questions/47327/64-bit-linux-kernel-only-seeing-3-of-4gb-after-upgrade/47563#47563
http://www.ifrankie.com/?p=70
http://forum.tabletpcreview.com/showthread.php?t=6809

[Cochise]

Great information, just deciding weather to visit 64-bit again, I have decided I shall since I only have 2GB RAM.

[Ravernomina]

Try Running Apple Hardware diagnostics. On Boot up of the computer hold the D key down for about 10 seconds and it should boot up. Run the extended testing it will test the Memory VERY throughly and also will go through the Logic board. If nothing went wrong. Try reinstalling 64bit with a new ubuntu CD. Also check to see if your EFI is 64bit as well as this can cause problems with the Kernel.... And if all else fails one of your RAM DIMMS might of had a short. Also try swapping them (move on stick into the other slot and vise versa)


Run this Command in Terminal in Mac OSX

ioreg -l -p IODeviceTree | grep firmware-abi

Good Luck, Ravernomina