Messages in this thread | | | Date | Wed, 5 May 1999 21:57:56 -0400 (EDT) | From | Al Lipscomb <> | Subject | Re: Oops assist... |
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> > On Wed, 5 May 1999, Horst von Brand wrote: > > > What about the swap file? > > > > I don't trust the kernel enough to fiddle around with disks when it has > > just crashed...
Since most systems have some way to dump memory I thing that it should at least be a compile time option. But here are some other thoughts:
Mark an known location in memory after the kernel loads with a special pattern and some kernel environmental information. Set aside some space for problems. In a normal reboot clear this area on the way down. In a panic try and add some information to the reserved area.
In the event of a panic or other problem the area will have the pattern set. When the pattern is found by the boot loader (i.e. LILO) then a small handler could be loaded into a portion of the reserved area created above. This could go poking around based on the information found it has and copy things out to a swap file or maybe a floppy disk.
This would require a small section of physical ram to be set aside but with a 32mb system that should not be too much of a problem. Maybe set aside the top 128KB?
How about fixing RAM disks so they survive reboots (not resets) and dump to them?
Just some thoughts.
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