PAE (was: Debian Gnome Or XFCE ?)

[Mirko Parthey <mirko.parthey@web.de>]

On Mon, Aug 24, 2015 at 06:45:10AM -0400, Stephen Powell wrote:
> Furtherfore, a non-PAE kernel is
> useful even on PAE-capable hardware.  The main purpose of PAE is to
> address memory above 4G.  But if the machine has less than 4G of
> memory, what does a PAE-capable kernel buy you?  PAE-capable kernels
> tend to be a bit bigger, all other things being equal, than non-PAE
> kernels, which chews up more precious memory with no obvious benefit.

One such benefit is that the NX bit (non-executable memory pages)
is only available with 64 bit page table entries, which in turn depend on
PAE mode. This could be an argument for preferring a PAE kernel on
PAE-capable hardware.

Regards,
Mirko