linux-kernel - Re: [Question] How to test (DRAM) memory location.

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Date:	Mon, 30 Aug 2010 20:57:49 -0400
From:	Calvin Walton <calvin.walton@...il.com>
To:	santosh <santosh.iitg@...il.com>
Cc:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [Question] How to test (DRAM) memory location.

On Sat, 2010-08-28 at 16:57 +0530, santosh wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I need to write a memory diagnosis  program which will test each and
> every location of SDRAM
> to know whether its working properly or a bad location
> 
> What would be the best approach ??

If you can, it's best to just use code other people have already
written :)

If you can reboot the computer to test the memory, Memtest86+ is a
well-known and very reliable tool which does just what you ask. You can
obtain it from http://www.memtest.org/

There's some work done on an in-kernel memory tester, but testing memory
while Linux is running is somewhat limited as there are sections of
memory that you can't overwrite during testing. Take a look at
CONFIG_MEMTEST and arch/x86/mm/memtest.c (which is currently only
capable of testing memory in early boot).

-- 
Calvin Walton <calvin.walton@...il.com>

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