Can i install fedora 15 withOUT the PAE kernel?

[Benzin]

hello! im new to fedora (coming from ubuntu).
There are some reasons by wich i do not want to use the PAE kernel.
Rather than installing the non-PAE kernel and removing the PAE one (and related stuff like kmods) after fedora is allready installed, i rather do a fresh fedora 15 installation without the PAE kernel. so...
¿is there a way to force the fedora installed to install the non PAE kernel instead of the PAE one?
like passing some switch at boot when i boot the installation dvd? or maybe some setting i missed once the installer is running?

---------- Post added at 07:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:37 PM ----------

thank you for you rquick reply
So theres no way to do a non-PAE install. right? so what i have to do is...
after the installer finishes, i yum install the normal kernel (like you told me), but im not clear about the grub stuff, and how to force fedora NOT to install PAE kernels in the future (when it updates).

From another post here, i assume i have to do this (im borrowing info from that post)

"So far I read that I have to change the :

/etc/sysconfig/kernel
---------
# UPDATEDEFAULT specifies if new-kernel-pkg should make
# new kernels the default
UPDATEDEFAULT=yes

# DEFAULTKERNEL specifies the default kernel package type
DEFAULTKERNEL=kernel-PAE
--------

to DEFAULTKERNEL=kernel
"
then i asume that to tell grub to boot the nonPAE kernel i can go (in gnome) to Applications->other->boot manager application, and select the nonPAE kernel as the default.
Is this correct? will this acomplish the "make default kernel" step you mentioned?

thanks in advance

---------- Post added at 07:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:39 PM ----------

mhh, it seems i did something wrong and deleted the reply post from the other user????? (note to self:learn how to use this forum) my apologies

---------- Post added at 10:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:39 PM ----------

Heres what i did...
1.- i reinstalled fedora (clean install from DVD)
2.- i installed the normal kernel
3.- i edited /etc/sysconfig/kernel, and changed
# DEFAULTKERNEL specifies the default kernel package type
DEFAULTKERNEL=kernel-PAE

to

# DEFAULTKERNEL specifies the default kernel package type
DEFAULTKERNEL=kernel

4.- rebooted and a uname -r confirmed i was now using the nonPAE kernel

BUT: after i ran software upgrade to install all upgrades, fedora returned to use the PAE kernel!

How do i specify fedora that from now on i will ALLWAYS use the non PAE kernel, so that when the kernel upgrades are downloaded, it will download the normal one instead of the PAE one?
thanks

[Palooka]

Originally Posted by Benzin

There are some reasons by wich i do not want to use the PAE kernel.

What are they?
Palooka

[stoat]

Originally Posted by Benzin

Heres what i did...
1.- i reinstalled fedora (clean install from DVD)
2.- i installed the normal kernel
3.- i edited /etc/sysconfig/kernel, and changed
# DEFAULTKERNEL specifies the default kernel package type
DEFAULTKERNEL=kernel-PAE

to

# DEFAULTKERNEL specifies the default kernel package type
DEFAULTKERNEL=kernel

4.- rebooted and a uname -r confirmed i was now using the nonPAE kernel

BUT: after i ran software upgrade to install all upgrades, fedora returned to use the PAE kernel!

How do i specify fedora that from now on i will ALLWAYS use the non PAE kernel, so that when the kernel upgrades are downloaded, it will download the normal one instead of the PAE one?
thanks

Of course do whatever you want. But you could simply yum install the i686 kernel and then reboot into it 1) to confirm that it works okay and 2) to yum remove the PAE kernel (all of them if more than one). That would remove all traces of the unwanted kernels, edit grub.conf for you (and that config file you mentioned), and leave you with just the i686 kernel. And that is what future updates would update. It's as simple as that. You don't need to edit any config files for what you want to accomplish.

P.S.: Use yum remove to get rid of any kernel-PAE-devel packages also. Replace them with kernel-devel. The same goes for any PAE kmods that you are are currently using. Things like that left installed would likely bring back the PAE kernel they need in the next update. Something like that could be why your first attempt failed.

[Benzin]

Originally Posted by Palooka

What are they?
Palooka

Well, theres 3 reasons...

1.- ibe been using and experimenting with fedora 15 for a few days now on my Dell Mini10v netbook, and i experimented with both kernels (PAE and nonPAE), and my netbook runs A LOT faster with the nonPAE one. Why? i have no idea, my best guess (from reading about PAE) is its because the netbook only has 1GB of ram and the PAE is designed for larger ammounts of memory.
The main reason i bailed on ubuntu (besides it being too buggy for me) is because it made my netbook very slow with its new "Unity" atrocity and with the nonPAE kernel, fedora runs much faster that ubuntu (on my netbook at least), with the PAE one, it ran almost as slow as unity.

2.- with the PAE gnome shell crashed a couple of times, never happened when i experimented with the nonPAE one.

3.- i had a difficulty installing the akmod-wl drivers for my broadcom wireless with the PAE, i followed the akmod-wl proceedure (so it will autoupdate when kernel gets updated, as opposed to kmod-wl), and it did not work.
Followed the EXACT same steps for the non PAE kernel, and had it working in about 5 minutes. (i search but couldnt find an akmod-wl-PAE package).
And reading some more, i found i would possibly run into future problems if i need more akmod stuff with a PAE kernel)

Originally Posted by stoat

Of course do whatever you want. But you could simply yum install the i686 kernel and then reboot into it 1) to confirm that it works okay and 2) to yum remove the PAE kernel (all of them if more than one). That would remove all traces of the unwanted kernels, edit grub.conf for you (and that config file you mentioned), and leave you with just the i686 kernel. And that is what future updates would update. It's as simple as that. You don't need to edit any config files for what you want to accomplish.

P.S.: Use yum remove to get rid of any kernel-PAE-devel packages also. Replace them with kernel-devel. The same goes for any PAE kmods that you are are currently using. Things like that left installed would likely bring back the PAE kernel they need in the next update. Something like that could be why your first attempt failed.

Thanks! apart from the steps i did before, i removed the PAE kernel, and checked that the grub.conf file loads the proper (nonPAE) kernel.
Hopefully, when a new kernel version comes out, the update manager will be smart enough to install the nonPAE one.

Is there any particular reason, why i should use the PAE one instead?

Thanks guys!

[marko]

Originally Posted by Benzin

Is there any particular reason, why i should use the PAE one instead?

Thanks guys!

The only reason to use PAE is when a 32bit machine has more memory than 4GB.
For a machine with less than 4GB there's no reason to want it because like you saw, the PAE kernel has extra overhead. PAE allows each single application to have its own 4GB segment of memory but a single process can't see more than 4GB. But since you can have many processes on a given machine it makes sense if you have the memory.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension

PAE will quickly become less used because you almost never buy 32bit processors any more.