1xe

Done: http://ix.io/2x7v Notice how the "cma" parameter appears to be picked up correctly, but has no effect on the total amount of memory.

I'm not sure what you're trying to tell me, but I did a few boots with the "cma" parameter set to different values (from 64M to 144M), and it had no effect on the total amount of memory reported by "free".

On a fresh install of Armbian 20.08.1/Linux 5.8.5-sunxi on an OPi Zero (256MB version), total memory is 238MB according to "free -m": root@orangepizero:~# free -m total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 238 74 78 1 85 154 Swap: 119 0 119 238MB is not 256MB. :-) I assume the discrepancy is due to reserved framebuffer memory, but after a bit of testing I've found that the "sunxi_fb_mem_reserve" parameter (set to "16" in /boot/boot.cmd by default) has no apparent effect. Here's a boot with the Armbian default "sunxi_fb_mem_reserve=16": root@orangepizero:~# dmesg | grep "command line" && free -m [ 0.000000] Kernel command line: root=UUID=442e3394-ebc5-4a14-82f8-235d74d6b2e5 rootwait rootfstype=ext4 console=ttyS0,115200 hdmi.audio=EDID:0 disp.screen0_output_mode=1920x1080p60 consoleblank=0 loglevel=1 ubootpart=7d536c8c-01 ubootsource=mmc usb-storage.quirks=0x2537:0x1066:u,0x2537:0x1068:u sunxi_ve_mem_reserve=0 sunxi_g2d_mem_reserve=0 sunxi_fb_mem_reserve=16 cgroup_enable=memory swapaccount=1 total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 238 73 82 1 81 155 Swap: 119 0 119 A boot with "sunxi_fb_mem_reserve=0": root@orangepizero:~# dmesg | grep "command line" && free -m [ 0.000000] Kernel command line: root=UUID=442e3394-ebc5-4a14-82f8-235d74d6b2e5 rootwait rootfstype=ext4 console=ttyS0,115200 hdmi.audio=EDID:0 disp.screen0_output_mode=1920x1080p60 consoleblank=0 loglevel=1 ubootpart=7d536c8c-01 ubootsource=mmc usb-storage.quirks=0x2537:0x1066:u,0x2537:0x1068:u sunxi_ve_mem_reserve=0 sunxi_g2d_mem_reserve=0 sunxi_fb_mem_reserve=0 cgroup_enable=memory swapaccount=1 total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 238 74 82 1 81 154 Swap: 119 0 119 A boot with "sunxi_fb_mem_reserve=32" (the kernel default according to https://linux-sunxi.org/Kernel_arguments): root@orangepizero:~# dmesg | grep "command line" && free -m [ 0.000000] Kernel command line: root=UUID=442e3394-ebc5-4a14-82f8-235d74d6b2e5 rootwait rootfstype=ext4 console=ttyS0,115200 hdmi.audio=EDID:0 disp.screen0_output_mode=1920x1080p60 consoleblank=0 loglevel=1 ubootpart=7d536c8c-01 ubootsource=mmc usb-storage.quirks=0x2537:0x1066:u,0x2537:0x1068:u sunxi_ve_mem_reserve=0 sunxi_g2d_mem_reserve=0 sunxi_fb_mem_reserve=32 cgroup_enable=memory swapaccount=1 total used free shared buff/cache available Mem: 238 74 82 1 81 154 Swap: 119 0 119 Now, since I'm building a headless server and have no actual use for a framebuffer and "sunxi_fb_mem_reserve=0" doesn't appear to work, is there any other way to recover the framebuffer memory? Or am I completely off track and the memory is taken by something else entirely? ;-)