[Discuss] Server won't boot kernel. initramfs problem?

[bogstad at pobox.com (Bill Bogstad)]

On Sun, Feb 24, 2013 at 3:39 PM, John Abreau <abreauj at gmail.com> wrote:
> I recall hearing something a few years ago about memtest functionality being added to the Linux kernel. Seems to me that making this functionality visible to something like nagios would be an obvious goal.

I decided to look into this a little.   Turns out that its been
available for x86 (only) since 2.6.26 (see
http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_2_6_26).  Source can be found in:

.../arch/x86/mm/memtest.c

It appears to  be a fairly primitive memory tester that can be
configured to run during the boot sequence.   All it does is write to
"all" of memory and then check it (with an option to use multiple bit
patterns).   No testing takes place after the system boots.

Bill Bogstad