How to check for errors in RAM via Ubuntu?

Question

I have Ubuntu 11 running off a 3.6GB USB flash/stick drive. System has 4GB RAM and blank hard disk (wiped using DBAN tool).

How do I check if there are no errors in my RAM? Is there a guaranteed way to check that via some Linux command? If not, it would be great to know why.

Before booting up Ubuntu access the GRUB screen and select memtest. — Uri Herrera, Sep 08 '13 at 23:16
You can use memtester once booted into linux.. e.g. sudo memtester 1024 5 This should allocate 1024MB of memory, and repeat the test 5 times. — Ricky Hewitt, Feb 06 '16 at 22:05

score 98 · Answer 1 · edited Feb 13 '22 at 13:43

98

By installing the memtester package, you can check your system for errors while it's still running. No need for a restart, just run that application.

To install it, open a terminal and type:

sudo apt install memtester

You can then use it like so:

sudo memtester 1024 5

This should allocate 1024MB of memory, and repeat the test 5 times.

Update

If you have more RAM like 4GB or 8GB, it is up to you how much memory you want to allocate for testing.
As your operating system, current running process might take some amount of RAM, Please check available free RAM and assign that too memtester.
If you are using a 32 Bit System, you can't test more than 4 GB even though you have more RAM (32 bit systems doesn't support more than 3.5 GB RAM).
If your system is very busy and you still assigned higher than available amount of RAM, then the test might get your system into a deadlock, and leads to system to halt, be aware of this.
Run the memtester as root user, so that memtester process can malloc the memory, once its gets hold on that memory it will try to apply lock. if specified memory is not available, it will try to reduce required RAM automatically and try to lock it with mlock.
If you run it as a regular user, it can't auto reduce the required amount of RAM, so it can't lock it, it tries to get hold on that specified memory and starts exhausting all system resources.

edited Feb 13 '22 at 13:43

phrogg

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answered Sep 08 '13 at 23:54

Raja G

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Does this somehow mean that only a part of the memory is tested, and the rest remains untested? How can I make sure that all of the memory is tested? – donquixote Mar 08 '16 at 06:16
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Only that part of memory is tested! – Dmitry Romanov Oct 04 '16 at 11:35
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Upvoted, but unless I've missed something it is not possible to do a thorough test of the entire memory using memtester as the system becomes totally unresponsive (or even memtester fails to claim the full extent of memory you are asking for). So I guess memtester's use case is when you are trying to test a particular area of memory using some advanced arguments which I haven't explored. Otherwise for a through scan use UNetbootin that runs before loading the operating system and any user programs (so the responsiveness issues becomes moot). – Marcus Junius Brutus Nov 13 '16 at 20:31
So,if we have 4gb/ram we should at least test 3900mb, not only 1024. – Goran_Ilic_Ilke Sep 02 '21 at 12:41
@Goran_Ilic_Ilke, No. Its depends upon how much free RAM you have in your system. Memtester not only for checking RAM health but also for CPU, Over heating CPU related issues. – Raja G Sep 02 '21 at 14:25
Today i set memtester on 3072MB and 1 iteration because i have 4gb/ram on this laptop,i tried but memtester cant go above 3072 in my case. – Goran_Ilic_Ilke Sep 02 '21 at 18:46
@Goran_Ilic_Ilke I would suggest give available free RAM in your system. – Raja G Sep 03 '21 at 04:21
very helpful answer! thank you.. upvoted! – Jasonw Oct 03 '23 at 04:59

score 37 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 03 '15 at 17:57

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The Ubuntu Live CD includes a tool called Memtest86+ that will do just that—test your computer’s RAM. Boot up from the Ubuntu LiveCD, press and hold the Shift key, which will bring up the GRUB menu. Select Memory Test

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edited Apr 03 '15 at 17:57

David Foerster

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answered Sep 09 '13 at 08:22

Mitch

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You don't even have to have the live CD. You can just press Shift repeatedly during startup of linux to get to the exact same menu. – iFreilicht Sep 07 '15 at 09:06
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The Ubuntu Live CD no longer comes with this option. – machineghost Jun 26 '19 at 16:29
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Apparently memtest86+ is not available if your computer is running in UEFI mode ("because it is a 16-bit program"). It will not show up in grub. An alternative is memtest86 (without the "+") version, which is not FOSS but still offers a freeware version. They claim you can get it to work with grub but I could not figure it out... However it is easy to set up on a USB memory stick. See [https://askubuntu.com/questions/917961/can-i-boot-memtest86-if-im-using-uefi] – bct Aug 07 '19 at 07:35
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@bct yours is the most important comment which most people will not notice. Apparently when we are working with memtest86+, we are very anxious and busy. However, we can make a bootable usb to use in UEFI system if you download the iso from https://www.memtest86.com/tech_booting-cd-dvd.html and burn it to usb drive (I used etcher). – Ahmad Ismail Jun 16 '22 at 10:38

Pablo Bianchi · Answer 3 · 2024-02-20T16:49:26.347

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No need for Memtest86+ (since v2.6.27, 2008-10-09):

Reboot your computer: reboot.
At the GRUB boot screen (with UEFI, press Esc).

For 4 passes add temporarily the memtest=4 kernel parameter.

memtest=        [KNL,X86,ARM,PPC,RISCV] Enable memtest
                Format: <integer>
                default : 0 <disable>
                Specifies the number of memtest passes to be
                performed. Each pass selects another test
                pattern from a given set of patterns. Memtest
                fills the memory with this pattern, validates
                memory contents and reserves bad memory
                regions that are detected.

edited Feb 20 '24 at 16:49

answered Jul 17 '21 at 04:32

Pablo Bianchi

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Kernel must be configured with CONFIG_MEMTEST=y – d4rwel Feb 06 '22 at 08:34
@d4rwel CONFIG_MEMTEST compile option is enabled. – Pablo Bianchi Feb 20 '24 at 17:00

score 3 · Answer 4 · edited Jan 22 '24 at 20:08

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I have found mprime to be a good tool to test memory. It can also be used to stress test your CPU.

Alternatively, use the package stress-ng to run all kind of stress tests (including memory test) on your machine.

edited Jan 22 '24 at 20:08

Pablo Bianchi

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answered Jan 04 '19 at 17:27

krish

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How do I test ram with stress-ng – chovy Mar 24 '23 at 06:25

neutrino · Answer 5 · 2024-01-26T15:05:13.997

For Ubuntu 22.10 and later: memtest86+ is a thorough low-level RAM test that is started from the GRUB menu after a system restart.

From version 6 on, it works on EFI systems (i.e. is a RAM tester with BIOS setting UEFI), and is FOSS.

This version is currently available for certain Ubuntu versions.

Installation:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install memtest86+

For Ubuntu 22.04 LTS: pcmemtest-86 is a fork of Memtest86+, itself a fork of Memtest86. It is no longer maintained.

Similar to those, it is a thorough low-level RAM test that is started from the GRUB menu after a system restart.

It works on EFI systems (i.e. is a RAM tester with BIOS setting UEFI), and is FOSS.

pcmemtest-86 is available from Ubuntu 22.04 LTS onward.

Installation:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install pcmemtest

In both cases, restart your system to see its entry in the GRUB menu. (If the GRUB menu does not show up when your computer starts up, press and hold shift during startup.)

The homepage say the project is unmaintained and point to Memtest86+ v6.0 — Pablo Bianchi, Jan 22 '24 at 20:12
Great to hear memtest86+ supports UEFI boots from v6.0 on! For the above mentioned Ubuntu 22.04 and lower, the package currently uses memtest86+ v5.x, and that seems to not yet work on UEFI boots. — neutrino, Jan 26 '24 at 14:58

score 1 · Answer 6 · edited Jul 17 '21 at 04:31

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Reboot your computer, and at the GRUB boot screen, select memtest.

edited Jul 17 '21 at 04:31

Pablo Bianchi

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answered Sep 08 '13 at 23:27

flyingfisch

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This seems to assume that we would be seeing the GRUB boot screen at statup. I, for one, do not. – WhereIsTheManual Jan 05 '17 at 20:06
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@42- Hold SHIFT key while booting a computer. – Denis Kulagin Oct 27 '17 at 05:51
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memtest86+ is not available for EFI systems. It's only for BIOS. You may look for a proprietary alternative for EFI. – Artyom Nov 08 '17 at 19:49
For EFI systems, hold ESC while booting. – IronEagle May 24 '19 at 20:41
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@IronEagle still in UEFI memtest86+ is not supported currently. No chance. – stephanmg May 25 '21 at 13:40
memtest works weird for me,for two hours still was on 0%,or maybe we need one week for whole test. – Goran_Ilic_Ilke Sep 10 '21 at 16:51

How to check for errors in RAM via Ubuntu?

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