From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Oct 15 19:26:29 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 89E5916A4CE for ; Fri, 15 Oct 2004 19:26:29 +0000 (GMT) Received: from smtp2.server.rpi.edu (smtp2.server.rpi.edu [128.113.2.2]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1497943D5A for ; Fri, 15 Oct 2004 19:26:29 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from drosih@rpi.edu) Received: from [128.113.24.47] (gilead.netel.rpi.edu [128.113.24.47]) by smtp2.server.rpi.edu (8.13.0/8.13.0) with ESMTP id i9FJQOrl004971; Fri, 15 Oct 2004 15:26:25 -0400 Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Sender: drosih@mail.rpi.edu Message-Id: In-Reply-To: References: <200410151741.i9FHfMxQ036620@vec.boulderlabs.com> Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2004 15:26:24 -0400 To: Robert Gray , freebsd-current@freebsd.org From: Garance A Drosihn Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" X-CanItPRO-Stream: default X-RPI-SA-Score: undef - spam-scanning disabled X-Scanned-By: CanIt (www . canit . ca) Subject: Re: 5.3-BETA7 install cd: kernel trap 12 with interrupts disabled (fwd) 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 19:26:29 -0000 At 3:17 PM -0400 10/15/04, Garance A Drosihn wrote: >At 11:41 AM -0600 10/15/04, Robert Gray wrote: > >>I'm a firm believer that we should encourage our users to >>buy ECC systems - motherboards that support ECC, and the >>more expensive SIMMs/DIMMs that have redundant bits. >> >>I'd rather spend a few more dollars to *know* when memory is >>the problem during normal operations instead of trying to >>locate the source of the problem after something bad happens. > >While I do agree with that, ... Let me say that a bit more emphatically. I do agree that ECC memory is worth the extra money, and that it would be good to document that somewhere for people who are looking to buy new hardware for FreeBSD. It would make sense to have that in the FreeBSD handbook, perhaps in the section on "supported hardware". Maybe some page on "general advice for buying hardware". I am not sure what the best place would be for it. I'm a systems programmer, not a writer :-) Separate from that, I also think it would be very useful to have some sort of memory tester available from the boot-loader, at least on the installation CD's. -- Garance Alistair Drosehn = gad@gilead.netel.rpi.edu Senior Systems Programmer or gad@freebsd.org Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute or drosih@rpi.edu