Re: [Suggestion] Memory check
Rogier Wolff (R.E.Wolff@BitWizard.nl)
Mon, 17 Aug 1998 23:33:47 +0200 (MEST)
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.
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