kernel memory checks on boot vs. boot time

[Matthew Jacob]

John Baldwin wrote:
>  
> Do other platforms bother with these sorts of memory tests?  If not I'd vote 
> to just drop it.  I think this mattered more when you didn't have things like 
> SMAP (so you had to guess at where memory ended sometimes).  Also, modern 
> server class x86 machines generally support ECC RAM which will trigger a 
> machine check if there is a problem.  I doubt that the early checks are 
> catching anything even for the non-ECC case.
>
> If nothing else, I would definitely drop this from amd64 (all those systems 
> have SMAP and machine check support, etc.).
>
>   
Memory checks are definitely still useful. Loading the linux mem tester 
has helped find lots of problems, even on so-called modern machines. I'd 
voter for leaving this as an option.