[lug] decoding ram locations from kernel oops

D. Stimits stimits at comcast.net
Fri Dec 2 17:52:34 MST 2005


I'm curious about something. I have a rare OOPS since adding ram. 
memtest86 has run for days without any error, I can compile kernels over 
and over with make -j8, no problem. All the errors occur under X, so I'm 
thinking perhaps the problem which on the surface appears to be ram 
might actually be the video card ram, and not the system ram (I have a 
hard time reproducing this error). Is there any way to verify the actual 
physical ram location based on an OOPS message? Especially, when AGP and 
hardware accel is involved, is there any way to know if the address 
involved lives inside of the video card? Here's the line that appears 
over and over whenever one of these rare OOPS occur, which causes me to 
believe memory is involved:
kernel: EIP is at rw_verify_area+0x5a/0xa0

I actually have all my kernels compiled with extra debug info, other 
values from a series of OOPS messages are available which I've saved 
over a long time period. Can anyone help enlighten me on decoding which 
physical ram is involved in the given OOPS messages?

D. Stimits, stimits AT comcast DOT net



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