Memtest86+

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memtest86+ is [[Article description::memory test software based on the (commercially available) memtest86 program.]]

Memtest86+ does not support UEFI nor DDR4[1]. Switch to Memtest86 V5 (see #See also) or newer for UEFI supported testing.

Installation

USE flags

USE flags for sys-apps/memtest86+ Memory tester based on memtest86

boot Also install to /boot instead of just /usr/share/memtest86+/
floppy Install a script to create floppy disks containing memtest86+ binaries.
iso Compile an ISO image
serial Compile with serial console support
Data provided by the Gentoo Package Database · Last update: 2020-06-05 16:37 More information about USE flags

Prerequisites

Be sure /boot (where the GRUB files are typically installed) is available before installing memtest86+! If /boot is on a separate partition (which it WILL BE if the partitioning scheme in the Gentoo handbook was used for this Gentoo install), then be sure the mount command is run before the emerge section below:

root #mount /boot

If no errors are return then boot should be successfully mounted. Check by running the mount command without any arguments and parsing the output with grep:

user $mount | grep boot
boot

Emerge

Ask Portage to install it:

root #emerge --ask sys-apps/memtest86+

Configuration

GRUB legacy

Replace the ? (question marks) in the file below with correct numbers for the system's boot partition:

FILE /boot/grub/grub.conf
title=memtest86+
root (hd?,?)
kernel /boot/memtest86plus/memtest

GRUB2

For GRUB2 just run grub-mkconfig. As long as the package has been emerged, a configuration file has already been installed to /etc/grub.d/39_memtest86+:

root #grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
Note
If GRUB2 was installed with the multislot USE flag, use the command grub2-mkconfig instead.

LILO

For LILO, add this to the lilo.conf configuration file:

FILE /etc/lilo.conf
image  = /boot/memtest86plus/memtest
label  = memtest86+

Then rebuild LILO's MBR entry:

root #lilo

Syslinux

Add this to the configuration file:

FILE /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf
LABEL memtest86+
	MENU LABEL memtest86+
	LINUX /boot/memtest86plus/memtest

Usage

To use memtest86+ the system needs to be rebooted using the newly added boot item

Removal

Unmerge

root #emerge --ask --depclean --verbose sys-apps/memtest86+

See also

  • bug #660504 - memtest86 version bump request. There an up-to-date ebuild of by Ben Kohler, a Gentoo developer, is found. (As of Oct 2019, it packages 8.2.)
  • Badblocks — a small program for stress testing block devices.
  • stress
  • stress-ng

External resources

References

  1. ↑ See the page "History" in memtest86.com, in particular the section "MemTest86 and MemTest86+" and the following paragraph.
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