linux-kernel - Re: Hardware Error Kernel Mini-Summit

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Message-ID: <20100615064419.GA6727@basil.fritz.box>
Date:	Tue, 15 Jun 2010 08:44:19 +0200
From:	Andi Kleen <andi@...stfloor.org>
To:	Tony Luck <tony.luck@...el.com>
Cc:	Andi Kleen <andi@...stfloor.org>,
	"Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederm@...ssion.com>,
	Nils Carlson <nils.carlson@...d.ltu.se>,
	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...e.hu>, Borislav Petkov <bp@...64.org>,
	Hidetoshi Seto <seto.hidetoshi@...fujitsu.com>,
	Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@...hat.com>,
	"Young, Brent" <brent.young@...el.com>,
	Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	"bluesmoke-devel@...ts.sourceforge.net" 
	<bluesmoke-devel@...ts.sourceforge.net>,
	Doug Thompson <dougthompson@...ssion.com>,
	Joe Perches <joe@...ches.com>,
	Thomas Gleixner <tglx@...utronix.de>,
	Linux Edac Mailing List <linux-edac@...r.kernel.org>,
	Ingo Molnar <mingo@...hat.com>,
	Matt Domsch <Matt_Domsch@...l.com>
Subject: Re: Hardware Error Kernel Mini-Summit

> There was a case mentioned at the collaboration summit
> meeting where a BIOS bug mis-reported whether ECC was
> enabled - claiming it was on, when in fact it was off.

Yes I heard about that, but since it's not a single bit setting
there are lots of different ways it could be broken in theory.

To check it you really need to have a tool that knows about
all the registers and checks them all.

It's a bit like checking if someone speaks a foreign language
by asking them a single question with a one letter answer.

> of the chipset specific code against each other. An EDAC
> driver that tells you that ECC is enabled might be lying too,
> if it is looking at the wrong bit or the wrong register.

Yep.

It's asking a question with a one word answer where you don't
know the correct answer.

-Andi

-- 
ak@...ux.intel.com -- Speaking for myself only.
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