Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2004 14:19:49 -0400 From: Charles Swiger <cswiger@mac.com> To: Derrick MacPherson <dmacpherson@mainframe.ca> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: FreeBSD 4-10 install, RAM parity errors that don't seem to happen inLinux. Message-ID: <6C183DA4-BE2F-11D8-BD27-003065ABFD92@mac.com> In-Reply-To: <loom.20040614T193645-364@post.gmane.org> References: <1086992110.17427.117.camel@Mandarin> <loom.20040614T193645-364@post.gmane.org>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Jun 14, 2004, at 1:38 PM, Derrick MacPherson wrote: > Derrick MacPherson <dmacpherson <at> mainframe.ca> writes: >> I am trying to move as much of our servers as I can to FreeBSD, and >> there's a few boxes that they have here that the RAM is a about 2 mm >> high and requires the case (1U machines) to press on the RAM when >> closed. These machines run RH Linux for months without a problem, yet >> 3 >> out of 4 I just pulled are giving RAM parity problems during FreeBSD >> instalation. >> >> Does FreeBSD not allow/recover from those types of errors the same way >> Linux does? Any solutions? > > I posted this last week and hadn't seen a repsonse to it, is there > someone that > cares to take a poke at this? Well, if you are using ECC, normally they will correct all single-bit errors and notice but not correct larger multibit errors. This is done at a fairly low level in the hardware (which is why the BIOS typically controls the use of ECC), and is not something that is supposed to vary depending on which OS you are using. That being said, Linux and FreeBSD might be using different portions of memory which hit different RAM chips, and so you see the errors for one and not the other, but if you've got failing RAM, your systems are not going to be stable under heavy load regardless of what OS you use. I would expect you to see signs of problems under Linux, too, but consider running memtest86 for a day or so and see what you see: http://www.memtest86.com/ -- -Chuck
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?6C183DA4-BE2F-11D8-BD27-003065ABFD92>