FS#40143 - [linux] compile kernel with memtest support
Attached to Project:
Arch Linux
Opened by Radek Podgorny (rpodgorny) - Tuesday, 29 April 2014, 19:04 GMT
Last edited by Jan de Groot (JGC) - Thursday, 01 May 2014, 12:02 GMT
Opened by Radek Podgorny (rpodgorny) - Tuesday, 29 April 2014, 19:04 GMT
Last edited by Jan de Groot (JGC) - Thursday, 01 May 2014, 12:02 GMT
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Details
i think it would be nice to have kernel memtest compiled in
by default. it is a really handy (and low overhead?)
solution to reduce possible memory corruption errors.
anyway, you have to explicitly enable it on boot so nothing
would change for most users.
currently: > zcat /proc/config.gz|grep MEMTEST # CONFIG_MEMTEST is not set ...see http://raid6.com.au/~onlyjob/posts/MEMTEST_explained/ for more info if interested. |
This task depends upon
Closed by Jan de Groot (JGC)
Thursday, 01 May 2014, 12:02 GMT
Reason for closing: Duplicate
Additional comments about closing: FS#11328
Thursday, 01 May 2014, 12:02 GMT
Reason for closing: Duplicate
Additional comments about closing:
First point: important servers run ECC memory
Second point: servers come with EDAC, which reports memory errors whenever they occur.
Imho this is just kernel bloat that we shouldn't enable.
1) according to the article, it tests all memory that is to be allocated, so not only at boot time. (the truth being i can't find it in the source - but that may be my incompetence)
2) a bad memory check at bootup is a good thing, anyway. see for example this: https://lists.debian.org/debian-kernel/2011/12/msg00121.html
3) not all "servers" are real servers. increasing reliability of commodity junk is a really nice feature.
4) ...not to mention it can be useful on desktop as well. data corruption can be a huge problem anywhere.
5) according to various benchmarks, there should be practically no overhead.
6) the default value for memtest (when compiled in) is 0 which means "disabled" so this should not change anything unless forcefully specified on kernel command line.
99) it's fair to mention, thou, that current vanilla has CONFIG_MEMTEST disabled by default (which is actually funny because it used to be enabled by default when it was first introduced to linux).
7) according to the article, debian has this enabled by default so i'd say it's tested well in the wild and there should be nothing to worry about.
no reason given, really :-(
I've been running some crap hardware with a batch of broken memory modules and a mainboard that silently uses ECC which can't be turned off. Testing the memory won't make such boxes more reliable, memtest86 won't even find the defects after running it for 3 days in a row.