memtest86+ seems to do nothing.

[home user]

Good morning,

When booting up, I select the grub menu entry
"Fedora Memtest memtest86+-5.31".
The screen blanks, the cursor goes to the upper left corner of the display, and blinks.
That's it.
I waited about 10 minutes.  Cursor still blinking in the same place.  Nothing else ever showed up.
I rebooted.

How do I get memtest86+ working properly?

Bill.

[Richard Shaw]

On Wed, Mar 15, 2023 at 10:58 AM home user  wrote:
> Good morning,
>
> When booting up, I select the grub menu entry
> "Fedora Memtest memtest86+-5.31".
> The screen blanks, the cursor goes to the upper left corner of the
> display, and blinks.
> That's it.
> I waited about 10 minutes.  Cursor still blinking in the same place.
> Nothing else ever showed up.
> I rebooted.
>
> How do I get memtest86+ working properly?

Does your computer use UEFI to boot? If so, is the image you're using for
memtest86+ correct?

Thanks,
Richard

[home user]

On 3/15/23 11:21 AM, Richard Shaw wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 15, 2023 at 10:58 AM home user <[e-mail] > wrote:
> Good morning,
>
> When booting up, I select the grub menu entry
> "Fedora Memtest memtest86+-5.31".
> The screen blanks, the cursor goes to the upper left corner of the display, and blinks.
> That's it.
> I waited about 10 minutes.  Cursor still blinking in the same place.  Nothing else ever showed up.
> I rebooted.
>
> How do I get memtest86+ working properly?
>
>
> Does your computer use UEFI to boot? If so, is the image you're using for memtest86+ correct?

I don't know.
This workstation was installed 10 years ago.  I've done nothing to change that aspect of it.  What was the main thing back then?  I know it's not "brtfs".  I don't think it's "UEFI".  If it helps, it's dual boot, with the other OS being windows-7.
> Thanks,
> Richard

thanks,
Bill.

[home user]

On 3/15/23 11:21 AM, Richard Shaw wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 15, 2023 at 10:58 AM home user <[e-mail] > wrote:
> Good morning,
>
> When booting up, I select the grub menu entry
> "Fedora Memtest memtest86+-5.31".
> The screen blanks, the cursor goes to the upper left corner of the display, and blinks.
> That's it.
> I waited about 10 minutes.  Cursor still blinking in the same place.  Nothing else ever showed up.
> I rebooted.
>
> How do I get memtest86+ working properly?
>
>
> Does your computer use UEFI to boot? If so, is the image you're using for memtest86+ correct?

How do I determine the answer to Richard's first question?  I can't do what Todd suggested without knowing the correct answer.

thanks,
Bill.

[Michael D. Setzer II]

On 16 Mar 2023 at 9:17, home user wrote:

Date sent:      	Thu, 16 Mar 2023 09:17:17 -0600
Subject:        	Re: memtest86+ seems to do nothing.
To:             	[e-mail]
From:           	home user 
Send reply to:  	Community support for Fedora 
users
> On 3/15/23 11:21 AM, Richard Shaw wrote:
> > On Wed, Mar 15, 2023 at 10:58 AM home user <[e-mail] > wrote:
> > Good morning,
> >
> > When booting up, I select the grub menu entry
> > "Fedora Memtest memtest86+-5.31".
> > The screen blanks, the cursor goes to the upper left corner of the display, and blinks.
> > That's it.
> > I waited about 10 minutes.  Cursor still blinking in the same place.  Nothing else ever showed up.
> > I rebooted.
> >
> > How do I get memtest86+ working properly?
> >
> >
> > Does your computer use UEFI to boot? If so, is the image you're using for memtest86+ correct?
>
> How do I determine the answer to Richard's first question?  I can't do what Todd suggested without knowing the correct answer.

If you are going to create a CD or USB, don't know if it 
really matters. I believe the ISO files of the 6.10 version 
on https://memtest.org/ have both the legacy and uefi 
boot (Note: Isn't signed UEFI, so if secure boot is set on 
machine, it would need to be turned off to run)
ISO files are usually designed to be burned to CDs, but 
there are hybrid options that allow it to be copied using 
dd to a usb flash, but will wipe out anything on usb, so 
needs a clean one.
When booting on a machine setup for legacy boot, it will 
use legacy setup, if booted on a uefi system, it will use 
the efi boot directories..

I create a image file for my g4l project that uses 
grub4dos and grub4dos-uefi on image, so it can work on 
either setup.

Once you create CD or USB, will have to have machine 
boot to device. System may allow F12 key to select, but 
might require going into setup...

What version of Linux is on machine. Think you said 
machine was setup 10 years ago, but didn't say if it had 
been updated over the years to newer versions.
> thanks,
> Bill.
> _______________________________________________
> users mailing list -- [e-mail]
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+------------------------------------------------------------+
 Michael D. Setzer II - Computer Science Instructor 
(Retired)     
 mailto:[e-mail]                            
 mailto:[e-mail]
 Guam - Where America's Day Begins                        
 G4L Disk Imaging Project maintainer 
 http://sourceforge.net/projects/g4l/
+------------------------------------------------------------+

[home user]

On 3/16/23 9:43 AM, Michael D. Setzer II wrote:
> On 16 Mar 2023 at 9:17, home user wrote:
> > > Does your computer use UEFI to boot? If so, is the image you're using for memtest86+ correct?
> >
> > How do I determine the answer to Richard's first question?  I can't do what Todd suggested without knowing the correct answer.
>
> If you are going to create a CD or USB, don't know if it
> really matters. I believe the ISO files of the 6.10 version
> on https://memtest.org/ have both the legacy and uefi
> boot (Note: Isn't signed UEFI, so if secure boot is set on
> machine, it would need to be turned off to run)
> ISO files are usually designed to be burned to CDs, but
> there are hybrid options that allow it to be copied using
> dd to a usb flash, but will wipe out anything on usb, so
> needs a clean one.
> When booting on a machine setup for legacy boot, it will
> use legacy setup, if booted on a uefi system, it will use
> the efi boot directories..

The one that I downloaded was "Linux ISO (64 bits).
It landed in my "Downloads" directory as "mt86plus_6.10_64.iso.zip"
In "Files", I double-clicked the zip file, it launched a window titled "Extract".
Further selects and clicks results in a file "mt86plus_6.10_64.iso".

I inserted a USB-2 stick into a USB-2 slot.  It appeared to be empty.
I dragged the iso file from Downloads in the Files window to the stick in another Files window.

When rebooting, I did the set-up thing.
The system seems to not see the stick with the iso file.

Did I get the correct file from the memtest web site?
How do I determine whether the stick is "bootable"?
If the stick is not bootable, how do I make a bootable stick with the iso file on it?
> [...snip...]

I'll come back to that part after the stick is properly set up.
> What version of Linux is on machine. Think you said
> machine was setup 10 years ago, but didn't say if it had
> been updated over the years to newer versions.

It's a stand-alone home workstation.
I upgrade every 6 months; I'm now at f36; next upgrade in mid April.
I patch (dnf upgrade) every week; next patch later today.
If it matters, I mainly use gnome.
As far as I know, I don't use "secure boot", but I'm not certain.

thanks,
Bill.

[Tim]

On Thu, 2023-03-16 at 09:17 -0600, home user wrote:
> How do I determine the answer to Richard's first question?

https://www.google.com/search?q=did+my+linux+pc+boot+uefi+or+bios

"The easiest way to find out if you are running UEFI or BIOS is to look
for a folder /sys/firmware/efi. The folder will be missing if your
system is using BIOS."

That's on a running system, by the way.

[home user]

On 3/16/23 9:48 AM, Tim via users wrote:
> On Thu, 2023-03-16 at 09:17 -0600, home user wrote:
> > How do I determine the answer to Richard's first question?
>
> https://www.google.com/search?q=did+my+linux+pc+boot+uefi+or+bios
>
> "The easiest way to find out if you are running UEFI or BIOS is to look
> for a folder /sys/firmware/efi. The folder will be missing if your
> system is using BIOS."
>
> That's on a running system, by the way.

bash.1[~]: cd /sys/firmware
bash.2[firmware]: ls -a
.  ..  acpi  dmi  memmap
bash.3[firmware]:

So I'm using "BIOS".

thanks,
Bill.

[Jeffrey Walton]

On Thu, Mar 16, 2023 at 11:48 AM Tim via users
 wrote:
> On Thu, 2023-03-16 at 09:17 -0600, home user wrote:
> > How do I determine the answer to Richard's first question?
>
> [...]
> "The easiest way to find out if you are running UEFI or BIOS is to look
> for a folder /sys/firmware/efi. The folder will be missing if your
> system is using BIOS."
>
> That's on a running system, by the way.

That's interesting. Is the presence (or absence) of /sys/firmware/uefi
related to 'UEFI is supported' from dmidecode?

$ sudo dmidecode | grep -i -E 'uefi|bios'
    Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
    SMBIOS 3.1.0 present.
    BIOS Information
                BIOS is upgradeable
                BIOS shadowing is allowed
                BIOS boot specification is supported
                UEFI is supported
        BIOS Revision: 1.1

That is, is it possible UEFI is supported, but UEFI is not used? Is
that even possible?

Jeff

[Samuel Sieb]

On 3/16/23 09:22, Jeffrey Walton wrote:
> That's interesting. Is the presence (or absence) of /sys/firmware/uefi
> related to 'UEFI is supported' from dmidecode?
>  $ sudo dmidecode | grep -i -E 'uefi|bios'
>  Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
>  SMBIOS 3.1.0 present.
>  BIOS Information
>              BIOS is upgradeable
>              BIOS shadowing is allowed
>              BIOS boot specification is supported
>              UEFI is supported
>      BIOS Revision: 1.1
>
> That is, is it possible UEFI is supported, but UEFI is not used? Is
> that even possible?

That is possible.  Most UEFI capable systems will let you boot in 
"legacy" mode.

[Michael D. Setzer II]

On 15 Mar 2023 at 9:56, home user wrote:

Date sent:      	Wed, 15 Mar 2023 09:56:58 -0600
To:             	[e-mail]
From:           	home user 
Subject:        	memtest86+ seems to do nothing.
Send reply to:  	Community support for Fedora 
users
> Good morning,
>
> When booting up, I select the grub menu entry
> "Fedora Memtest memtest86+-5.31".
> The screen blanks, the cursor goes to the upper left corner of the display, and blinks.
> That's it.
> I waited about 10 minutes.  Cursor still blinking in the same place.  Nothing else ever showed up.
> I rebooted.
>
> How do I get memtest86+ working properly?

The Fedora memtest86+-5.31 is broken and they have 
been informed of how to get the newer 6.10 version to 
work, but have done nothing.

A solution that I've done that has it working with both 
legacy boot and UEFI boot systems.. 
Note: You will have to do at own risks...

Download 
https://memtest.org/download/v6.10/mt86plus_6.10_64.g
rub.iso.zip

unzip the file, and then open the iso with isomaster.
I then go thru the iso and there are two versions of 
memtest. One in the legacy directory and one in efi 
directory. I save them with different names.
145408 Feb  4 08:19 memtest.uefi
144312 Feb  4 08:22 memtest.leg

I set this on my G4L project that uses grub4dos. Found 
that it required memtest.leg for legacy boot, and 
memtest.uefi for UEFI. Picking wrong one, would give 
error. Did find using grub2 on Fedora 36 or 37 did seem 
to work using either one. Don't know why??

Copy both files to /boot directory.

Rename the existing 20_memtest86+ file to another 
name, and remove execution flag. Then create a new 
one with execution flag.

cat /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+

# !/bin/sh
exec tail -n +3 $0
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries.  Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment.  Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
menuentry 'Memtest Legacy' {
    echo 'Loading memtest 6.01 for BIOS BOOT SYSTEM'
    linux /memtest.leg
}
menuentry 'Memtest UEFI' {
    echo 'Loading memtest 6.01 for UEFI BOOT SYSTEM'
    linux /memtest.uefi
}

Will then have to recreate the grub.cfg file using

grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

This should make a grub.cfg file that list the two options 
for running memtest.

Again. Use at own risk.
> Bill.
> _______________________________________________
> users mailing list -- [e-mail]
> To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]
> Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/
> List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
> List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[e-mail]
> Do not reply to spam, report it: https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure/new_issue

+------------------------------------------------------------+
 Michael D. Setzer II - Computer Science Instructor 
(Retired)     
 mailto:[e-mail]                            
 mailto:[e-mail]
 Guam - Where America's Day Begins                        
 G4L Disk Imaging Project maintainer 
 http://sourceforge.net/projects/g4l/
+------------------------------------------------------------+

[Tom Horsley]

On Thu, 16 Mar 2023 03:40:35 +1000
Michael D. Setzer II via users wrote:
> The Fedora memtest86+-5.31 is broken and they have 
> been informed of how to get the newer 6.10 version to 
> work, but have done nothing.

I don't even try to use the fedora one, I just go to the web site
and download the image I can install on a bootable USB stick.

[Gordon Messmer]

On 2023-03-15 10:40, Michael D. Setzer II via users wrote:
> The Fedora memtest86+-5.31 is broken and they have
> been informed of how to get the newer 6.10 version to
> work, but have done nothing.

I don't think that's fair to the maintainers.  There hasn't been a 
memory test application (neither memtest86+ nor pcmemtest) that 
supported Secure Boot signing until memtest86+ 6.10, which was released 
on Feb 3.  Getting support into the Fedora boot media is going to be 
more work than merely rebuilding a new version.

[home user]

On 3/15/23 9:56 AM, home user wrote:
> Good morning,
>
> When booting up, I select the grub menu entry
> "Fedora Memtest memtest86+-5.31".
> The screen blanks, the cursor goes to the upper left corner of the display, and blinks.
> That's it.
> I waited about 10 minutes.  Cursor still blinking in the same place.  Nothing else ever showed up.
> I rebooted.
>
> How do I get memtest86+ working properly?
>
> Bill.

(responding to Todd and Michael)

I am not a sys.admin..  Todd's bootable stick suggestion looks simpler.  I will try that first.  If that doesn't work, I'll try Michael's.

thanks,
Bill.

[Andre Robatino]

I use an old F30 version that's the newest one that works on all my BIOS machines, namely memtest86+-5.01-25.fc30.x86_64.rpm. It's in the archive at https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/archive/fedora/linux/releases/30/Everything... . Adjust the path if you need a different arch. I only run it once every couple months. I install the RPM via command line, run memtest-setup, grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg (the command that memtest-setup tells you to run), reboot and run memtest+, then remove the package when done (otherwise dnf will want to update to a newer, nonworking version). Just keeping that RPM around and installing/running/uninstalling every few months is easy enough for me.

If you want to verify the RPM, then import the F30 key which should be available on your machine at /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora-30-primary.

memtest86+ seems to do nothing. [SOLVED]

[home user]

On 3/15/23 9:56 AM, home user wrote:
> Good morning,
>
> When booting up, I select the grub menu entry
> "Fedora Memtest memtest86+-5.31".
> The screen blanks, the cursor goes to the upper left corner of the display, and blinks.
> That's it.
> I waited about 10 minutes.  Cursor still blinking in the same place.  Nothing else ever showed up.
> I rebooted.
>
> How do I get memtest86+ working properly?
>
> Bill.

I discovered (or re-discovered?) Fedora Media Writer, and used that to make a bootable stick with memtest on it.
Rebooted using that stick.
Worked fine (and gave the system fans a great workout!).

I thank everyone who tried to help.
Bill.