From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S261366AbTDQNb7 (ORCPT ); Thu, 17 Apr 2003 09:31:59 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S261367AbTDQNb7 (ORCPT ); Thu, 17 Apr 2003 09:31:59 -0400 Received: from pc2-cwma1-4-cust86.swan.cable.ntl.com ([213.105.254.86]:13766 "EHLO lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S261366AbTDQNb7 (ORCPT ); Thu, 17 Apr 2003 09:31:59 -0400 Subject: Re: my dual channel DDR 400 RAM won't work on any linux distro From: Alan Cox To: mbs Cc: Chris Friesen , Brien , John Bradford , Linux Kernel Mailing List In-Reply-To: <200304171241.IAA08069@mc.com> References: <200304161511.h3GFBoe7000614@81-2-122-30.bradfords.org.uk> <003801c3042e$a6bcbea0$6901a8c0@athialsinp4oc1> <3E9D8062.1060202@nortelnetworks.com> <200304171241.IAA08069@mc.com> Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Organization: Message-Id: <1050583534.31390.5.camel@dhcp22.swansea.linux.org.uk> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Ximian Evolution 1.2.2 (1.2.2-5) Date: 17 Apr 2003 13:45:35 +0100 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Iau, 2003-04-17 at 13:46, mbs wrote: > > you hear this all the time, but do we really have any empirical evidence > proving this, or is it just what we say to make ourselves feel good when > Linux won't run on hardware that works fine under other os's? > Yes, both evidence and in some cases explanation. As to the reasons quoted in the original message those are probably less true now. Linux has extremely optimised memory copiers - our AMD memory copiers broke older VIA chipsets, it took several months until photoshop and other specialist apps hit the same bug with their mmx/3dnow hand tuned effects tools on windows and VIA actually fixed it. Linux also allocates memory in very different patterns to Windows. So a box that shows the odd crash in windows due to a memory error may show repeated crashes in Linux an vice versa