[ltp] Linux not stable

[unlisted]

On Mon, 2002-10-28 at 17:04, wes schreiner wrote:
> Charles E Taylor IV wrote:
> 
> >On Sun, 27 Oct 2002 07:12:34 -0800 (PST)
> >Toby Riddell <tobyriddell@> wrote:
> >
> >>I had many problems with my 600E until I added the "mem=" directive to
> >>the grub configuration file. I read that Linux does not know that part
> >>of the RAM is reserved for the firmware and this line is needed to
> >>prevent them walking all over each other. The problems manifested
> >>themselves as occasional, random crashes, problems with shutdown, and
> >>creeping filesystem corruption until the system would no longer boot. 

my single symptom was much more obvious: linux would hang while
booting/initializing.  this was on my 770x running debian, 2.2.18, and
grub.  don't remember what version this bios is but when i received this
machine a year ago i upgraded the bios to whatever was available on
ibm's website.

> >The system appears to use the same amount of memory as shown when the
> >machine boots.  Does this problem only hit certain versions of the
> >kernel/grub/lilo? 

recently i upgraded to 2.4.19, and that kernel would not boot with the
"mem=" option.  so, i removed it and everything .

so, from my limited experience with my unique configuration:
- "mem=" option needed with 2.2 kernels
- "mem=" option NOT needed with 2.4 kernels

> No, it's only an issue with older BIOS versions. If you update the BIOS 
> first before initially installing Linux you will never see this problem.

"only"?  "never"?  those are pretty absolute absolutes.  want to change
that after reading my personal experiences. ;-)

anyways...
-- 

PLEASE REQUEST PERMISSION TO REDISTRIBUTE
   AUTHOR'S COMMENTS OR EMAIL ADDRESS.