Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Re: [Suggestion] Memory check | Date | Mon, 17 Aug 1998 23:33:47 +0200 (MEST) | From | (Rogier Wolff) |
| |
Keith Owens wrote: > On Mon, 17 Aug 1998 09:23:58 +0200 (MEST), > wolff@dutepp0.et.tudelft.nl (R.E.Wolff@BitWizard.nl, Rogier Wolff) wrote: > >Carsten Pluntke wrote: > >> > >> Due to a really nasty surprise with a faulty block of memory which caused > >> some programs (especially X) to malfunction or to crash, would it be an > >> idea to implement a memory check routine early in the > >> booting/configuration sequence, maybe settable using a kernel option? > > > >Once "init" is started, you can do it in "userspace". No need to put > >it in the kernel. > > Frank Gockel (gockel@sent13.uni-duisburg.de) mailed a memtest patch to > linux-kernel in July 1998 to test memory at boot up. One big advantage > of doing the test in kernel is that he marks faulty pages as reserved > to stop the kernel using them. Waiting until init is running can be > too late, the page might already be in use.
The thing is that in 90% of the cases it IS NOT a single bad cell. That would've been found by the BIOS test.
What being the sig11 maintainer tells me is that 90% of the cases you CANNOT find the problem with a memory tester. But those 10% of the cases that the memory test DOES find something, many have to run the memtest for hours to get the first error. Compiling the kernel catches a sig11 in minutes (or pretty rarely also hours... :-).
Roger.
-- | The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can | R.E.Wolff@BitWizard.nl | fake that, you've got it made. -- Jean Giraudoux | T: +31-15-2137555 - Custom Linux device drivers for sale! Call for a quote. - F: +31-15-2138217
- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu Please read the FAQ at http://www.altern.org/andrebalsa/doc/lkml-faq.html
| |