From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Oct 15 12:35:49 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2224916A4CE for ; Fri, 15 Oct 2004 12:35:49 +0000 (GMT) Received: from gvr.gvr.org (gvr-gw.gvr.org [80.126.103.228]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6B3D443D54 for ; Fri, 15 Oct 2004 12:35:48 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from guido@gvr.org) Received: by gvr.gvr.org (Postfix, from userid 657) id B7CD946; Fri, 15 Oct 2004 14:35:47 +0200 (CEST) Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2004 14:35:47 +0200 From: Guido van Rooij To: Peter Jeremy Message-ID: <20041015123547.GA23221@gvr.gvr.org> References: <20041013214911.GD986@green.homeunix.org> <20041015073118.GA19660@gvr.gvr.org> <20041015104856.GB45863@cirb503493.alcatel.com.au> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20041015104856.GB45863@cirb503493.alcatel.com.au> cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: 5.3-BETA7 install cd: kernel trap 12 with interrupts disabled X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2004 12:35:49 -0000 On Fri, Oct 15, 2004 at 08:48:56PM +1000, Peter Jeremy wrote: > 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. > The problem started with my system where FreeBSD would consitently panic at the same point during installation (at an early point). The funny thing is that a W2K install would at least run much longer (I never completed it so I never had it actually write to disk). A make buildworld cannot be used in sich a scenario. A nice memtester that could be called from the bootloader would have been handy. -Guido