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Date:      Fri, 15 Oct 2004 20:48:56 +1000
From:      Peter Jeremy <PeterJeremy@optushome.com.au>
To:        Guido van Rooij <guido@gvr.org>
Cc:        freebsd-current@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: 5.3-BETA7 install cd: kernel trap 12 with interrupts disabled
Message-ID:  <20041015104856.GB45863@cirb503493.alcatel.com.au>
In-Reply-To: <20041015073118.GA19660@gvr.gvr.org>
References:  <20041013214911.GD986@green.homeunix.org> <Pine.NEB.3.96L.1041014045808.84384U-100000@fledge.watson.org> <20041015073118.GA19660@gvr.gvr.org>

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On Fri, 2004-Oct-15 09:31:18 +0200, Guido van Rooij wrote:
>I am beginning to wonder if we should have a boot option that enables
>a thorough memtest from within the kernel...(e.g. boot -m).

What do you define as "thorough"?  A thorough memory test requires
intimate knowledge of the physical memory cell layout (to ensure
that pattern tests make sense) as well as the ability to control
temperature, the supply voltage, thresholds and timings (to detect
marginal conditions).

"make buildworld" is probably the best memory test we're likely to
find.  The speed is on a par with Memtest86 as well.  Add/vary
'-k' for additional coverage.

If you really want a memory test that can run at boot-time, the best
approach would seem to be to build a version of sysutils/memtest or
sysutils/memtest86 that can be loaded by the bootloader.

FWIW, I've have an Alpha/AXP CPU that (apparently) had a pattern-
sensitive bug in its cache.  It passed all SRM memory tests but
consistently died during rc processing.

-- 
Peter Jeremy



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