memtest kernel option
Hello,
I have a laptop computer with half of the RAM soldered on the motherboard.
This soldered RAM has a huge amount of bad RAM (too many errors to be able
to use the badram option).
Fortunatly, there is a Linux kernel option (available in the mainstream
kernel, no need to patch anything) which can run tests like memtest86 when
Linux is booting so that it will automatically exclude these parts of the
memory from being used.
This option, when enabled in the kernel, can be enabled and disabled with
a kernel boot argument (option memtest in grub).
Is it possible to include this option in the default kernel, even if
disabled by default, but having the option enabled in the installation CD
(at least to be able to install the system without trouble)?
I managed to install Debian Squeeze, but it was really a pain with this
bad RAM.
Performance benchmarks show also no impact at all from the memtest option.
This option is not only useful for laptop computer like mine, but also
for the new "plug" servers based on ARM processors. Often they have only
soldered RAM chip. As reliability is even more important for a server than
for a laptop computer, I think that the activation of this option whould
help a lot to prevent to trash these little computers when/if they have
bad RAM modules.
- Origin of the module, before it was included in the mainstream branch of
the kernel : http://rick.vanrein.org/linux/badram/
- Benchmark of the memtest module :
http://rick.vanrein.org/linux/badram/results.html
- Example of use and explanation of the usefulness of the option when
running a server :
http://onlyjob.blogspot.com/2011/01/memtest-explained-linux-kernel.html
Thank you in advance
Best regards
Thierry GRAUSS
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