From owner-freebsd-questions  Sat Feb 10 17:48: 4 2001
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Date: Sun, 11 Feb 2001 02:47:44 +0100
From: Bernd Luevelsmeyer <bdluevel@heitec.net>
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To: Rob <rob@robhulme.com>
Cc: FreeBSD Questions <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject: Re: Putting my box through its paces... make world?!?
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Rob wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I've just replaced the memory on a co located server that I have because it
> kept crashing with page faults and stuff... It was suggested before that it
> might have been crashing because the memory was bad, and whenever there was
> a lot of activity on the box it would crash...
> 
> Now I've replaced the memory I'd like to really put it through its paces to
> see if it crashes or not.

To test the RAM I recommend "memtest86", at
http://reality.sgi.com/cbrady_denver/memtest86/


> I'm quite new to FreeBSD - but can I just:
> 
> cd /usr/src
> buildworld

You mean "make buildworld", I assume.

You could do that. It will stress the machine, but it's not designed to
be a memory test. You may well miss defects in unused parts of the RAM,
or it may not stress the RAM enough to exhibit all defects.


> If I do this - it won't actually change any of the configuration of my
> system will it? It won't replace any files (the kernel, etc...) - all it
> will do is rebuild the source (but not install it) - right?

The machine's configuration will not change. All generated files will be
in /usr/obj and they are not used unless you install them with "make
installworld".


> Is this the right thing to do?

"make buildworld" is a test, but I recommend memtest86 anyway; or a
hardware RAM tester, but they are expensive.


Greetings,
	Bernd


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