Bug#613321: linux-image-amd64: Please enable 'memtest' option for all linux kernels

[Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>]

Uwe Kleine-König wrote:

> With the latter you have a test case to determine if your
> RAM is bad (or not). With the memtest kernel option memory is tested
> before it's given out to kmalloc. So it is able in some cases to just
> not give out bad parts of RAM allowing to use RAM that is a bit broken.

That would be fun.  Alas, the code just seems to run a memory test at
boot time (not at kmalloc-time) and reserve areas that do not pass so
they don't get used during the corresponding run of the kernel.

> Having said that I don't know if it's sensible to add to Debian as I
> didn't test runtime and binary size overhead.

No opinion on that from me.  It does seem a shame that many kinds of
faults would be likely to be missed:

  http://www.memtest86.com/tech.html#philo

That seems like the bigger potential cost.  When someone runs into
corruption that the memtest option did not catch, what can we say to
such a person?  (It would be easier if there were a manpage for kernel
parameters and a culture such that everyone read it before enabling
them.)

I should have just been quiet. :)