did you try to find data in memory after a reset ? I
think you can't if the chipset clears memory itself.
Several years ago, I developped a bios which didn't
need memory to run. It was used to test hardware with
an LCD panel and a 4-keys keyboard. I remember that on
most 486's, all memory was initialized to 0x00 before
my bios code was executed.
>
> So another possibility is to have a "clean/dirty"
> flag at the top of RAM,
> similar to what is used for mounted filesystems. If
> the OS cleanly shuts
> down, this flag is set "clean", it indicates it was
> a clean shutdown and
> no crashdump is needed. If it is left "dirty", then
> lilo can do a memory
> dump to the swap partition, which is then picked up
> by 'swapon' and
> written to the filesystem.
I find this scenario very interesting (in the case
memory isn't touched at boot time, of course). But
it's important that the option be left to the user at
boot time. We shouldn't forget that people who need
a memory dump are mainly developpers. Newer users who
don't even understand the benefits of a core dump
won't accept to spend 2 minutes waiting for their 128M
to dump on the swap.
Last note: machines on which disks are limited by
bios to 1024 cylinders often have only the
root partition accessible from the bios (504M), and
other parts (swap included) are left after the 1024th cylinder. In that
case, dump will not be possible.
>
> -Dan
>
>
Willy
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