Thread Info
  • State Not Answered
  • +1 person also asked this people also asked this
  • Locked Locked
  • Replies 8 replies
  • Subscribers 42 subscribers
  • Views 2070 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Suggested
This discussion has been locked.
You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion

Disable RAM check in XG v18 installation

Sebastian Nielsen

I have a mobo with *EXACTLY* 4GB installed. Since the BIOS is using like 64mb for its internal affairs, it causes the system to go slightly below 4GB, thus failing the pre-installation check.

Since I don't think the system are going to croak because like 64mb is missing from the 4GB lower limit, is it possible to in some way force installation? Ergo "I really really really want to continue even if it may not function propely"?

Maybe the installation should be set to require 3.5 GB ram instead? That will in most cases mean you need 4 GB, but its OK if the BIOS uses a small chunk of it for its internal affairs.

The machine in question is an ASG 425 rev 3.0. Maybe its possible to upgrade it to 8 gb (license allows 6 gb). But I don't know if the mobo supports it, and if it support ECC reg or not.

There are 4gb DDR 2 sticks available, and looking up the core2duo processor on ARK INTEL says the processor supports up to 8gb ECC, but maybe the BIOS or mobo doesn't?



This thread was automatically locked due to age.
  • 0

    You could try to install the V17.5 Installation and upgrade this to V18 via SIG. 

    __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

  • 0

    Have you had any luck? I'm in the same boat also. I have a mitx motherboard with 2 onboard gb nics which is well suited for XG. Thanks.

  • 0

    I made the mistake of forcing the upgrade on a software test version (Home) despite the warnings that 4GB RAM is required.  I have 4GB installed on an old Intel PC, but less than 4GB is available after system requirements.  (I can't repeat the explanation of what conditions cause this to happen, but I have read it elsewhere.)  This caused the XG to halt on startup with the error code indicating insufficient RAM.  The GUI was then unavailable. 

  • 0 in reply to J Callen

    Yeah, its just a check. Technically the system doesn't exactly REQUIRE 4gb RAM, it could be completely sufficient with 3.936 GB of RAM. Those 64 MB (that is used by the internal VGA card) isn't gonna cause the system to go slow or crash.

    So why doesn't Sophos remove the RAM check alltogether? Just have a warning message at install/upgrade that says the system is insufficent RAM, but allow the user to proceed regardless. There should be no halt at boot, once user have acknowledged the lack of sufficent RAM, it could save this flag to config, so it NEVER asks about RAM again. (unless RAM requirements change in a future version)

  • 0 in reply to Sebastian Nielsen

    While I understand that you just want it to continue despite not having 4 GB and just see what happens and if/when it crashes somewhere under load.

    In a home situation this would indeed be no big deal, but in a business situation this is completely different; when the firewall goes down unexpectedly, it will cost the company money. And because the underlying software is the same for home or business, I understand Sophos' choice very well.

    Managing several Sophos firewalls both at work and at some home locations, dedicated to continuously improve IT-security and feeling well helping others with their IT-security challenges.

  • 0 in reply to apijnappels

    Of course its a big difference if you were trying to run this on a 2 GB machine. Then it just will not be sufficent to run all software and the OS.
    But when a little nibble of 64 MB is missing at the end of 4GB so it becomes 3.936 GB of RAM, its NOT gonna make the firewall go down or crash. If the system would require EXACTLY 4GB, it wouldn't be able to run, because as soon as you start a service or whatever, it wouldn't be able to allocate more.

    make it a code then you have to enter. That is hidden somwhere in documentation, with clear instructions that bypassing the RAM check may make the firewall go down or crash.
    And that code can be entered to bypass the RAM check and "go on your own".

    Or instructions on how to patch away the RAM check. I do clearly understand what im doing, and Im 100% sure that missing 64 MB of RAM isn't going to cause any harm.

    Or make it officially 4 GB, but in the actual check, allow like 3.5 GB to account for when the VGA card steals a little bit of the RAM. Nobody isn't going to put 3 GB of sticks and then a 512MB stick so 3.5 GB will *effectively* be 4GB but with accounting for internal graphics.

  • 0 in reply to Sebastian Nielsen

    Same issue here.  I totally agree with all of the above, but if the minimum hardware requirements state 4GB then it should account for the minimal amount of RAM used by BIOS.  It is industry standard if the requirements state N number of gigabytes of RAM that if you have hardware with that TOTAL amount of  RAM, then it suffices.

    Sophos should address this issue with either a fix or an amendment to their hardware requirements that states "Minimum Available RAM is 4GB" with a clear description of that hard coded requirement.

  • 0 in reply to Jameson Sweat

    It totally also depends on how the BIOS report the RAM. Sometimes, the BIOS report it as 4gb - 64mb is physically installed.

    Best way here is to just make the check 3.5 GB (and have 4 GB written in the system requirements). If you absolutely want to make it totally impossible to run it without 4 GB physically installed (like if Sophos is afraid of getting sued by people running it on insufficent hw), you can make the check 3.8 GB.

    problem solved. Passing a 3.8 GB check with less than 4 GB physically installed ram is impossible, as it would require the following sticks:

    2GB + 1GB + 512MB + 256MB + 128MB - which wouldn't be possible as you only have 4 slots.

    (but it would still account for up to 128MB in usage of RAM by the BIOS)

Unfiltered HTML