Linux 6.16 cannot see all the ram available

[Jason Self]

On Sun, 2025-08-03 at 16:32 +0200, charles.murdock wrote:
> Hi
> I have GNU/Linux Debian Trixie 32 bit, and the kernel 6.16.0-gnu-1.0 
> does not see all the available ram.
> There are 2Gi on my pc and kernel 6.16 can see only 854Mi.
> No Problem with the previous kernel: 6.12.x and 6.15.x.

Thanks for the report. Just to help us narrow things down - could you
confirm whether your CPU supports PAE (Physical Address Extension)?

On Sun, 2025-08-03 at 17:55 +0000, John Scott wrote:
> Does your machine have only a 32-bit x86 (i386/i686) processor? If
> so, Debian Trixie will not be supporting it. Even if you get the
> Linux-libre kernel from elsewhere, the vast majority of packages will
> not be installable and will not get any updates.
> Please see the draft release notes at
> https://www.debian.org/releases/trixie/release-notes/issues.en.html#i386-reduced-support
>       for
> details.
> 
> This kind of hardware hasn't been manufactured in at least a decade,
> maybe two. If your machine is newer than that, maybe you have a
> 64-bit CPU and aren't aware?
> 

Thanks for sharing your feedback. Age isn't isn't the only
consideration here: It's important to consider what's good for our
software freedom. From a software freedom perspective, some 32-bit x86
machines - especially those supported by GNU Boot - remain among the
most freedom-respecting hardware available.

It doesn't make sense to drop support for some of our most well-
supported hardware (well-supported from a software freedom point of
view) just because it's old. That hardware will continue to function
just fine for many years to come and, if we want people to use those
systems for the sake of their freedom, then they need to be supported.

There's no way to know what's going to work out well for software
freedom in the long term. It doesn't make sense to put all of our eggs
in one basket. Indeed, there can be multiple efforts going on at the
same time and, as one of those efforts, I have no plans to stop making
32-bit x86 kernel builds so as to continue supporting what we already
have.
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