Re: data corruption with current (maybe sis chipset related?)

Hi Terry,

> walt wrote:
> > Terry Lambert wrote:
> > <...>
> > > The problem appears on any processor that supports 4M pages;
> > > that includes both Intel and AMD processors.  Whether or not
> > > you personally see it is based on the memory usage patterns
> > > that are required to trigger it...
> >
> > Do I recall from some months ago that this bug would not
> > affect machines with less than a gig of RAM?
>
> The amount of memory at which you see it depends on the processor
> features.  Now that autotuning is in, there's a stair-step for
> how much the system uses for each resource pool, based on how
> much RAM is in the system.  It's quite unpredictable where it will
> show up in -current, because of this (and the new memory allocator).
>
> Basically, the problem will show wherever the memory size vs.
> memory utilization tickles it (that's why upping maxfiles was
> enough to scare it off, before the tuning/allocator changes
> went in).

you seem to have a pretty good idea of how and when this bug shows itself
- i still have an issue with the system because of which i started this
thread:

originally, i bought a 512mb ddr ram for it (not the cheapest kind, but
also nothing fancy - the chips say infineon). with that ram i still
experience data corruption.

while i reported that the problem disappeared, i was running of a sdr pc
133 ram which is only 256mb.

what i wonder now: is the physical 512mb ram possibly damaged (or not
interacting well with the board or bios), or could that yet again be a
general (software-solvable) issue (which i would likely experience
whenever i have 512mb of ram in that machine. regardless of make) ?

if the problem is likely to go away with another 512mb ram, i will go to
get the ram changed on monday - otherwise, i'd like to spare myself and
the vendor the trouble :) ... especially myself *g*

just to reiterate: the cpu in question is and amd xp 1800+, the board is a
cheap sis-based elitegroup board (which is why i already initially
suspected damaged hardware that i need to get exchanged - i typically have
more faith in freebsd doing the right thing than cheap pc hardware).

does it make sense for me to try bosko's patch ? can i hope for any better
results (i don't really care about performance, only data integrity) with
it than with those two kernel options ?!

thank you for any insight you can provide, regards,

Heiko

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