From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Mon Aug 31 15:14:54 2015 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 12D539C6D44 for ; Mon, 31 Aug 2015 15:14:54 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wam@hiwaay.net) Received: from fly.hiwaay.net (fly.hiwaay.net [216.180.54.1]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id D7FBF1332 for ; Mon, 31 Aug 2015 15:14:53 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wam@hiwaay.net) Received: from kabini1.local (dynamic-216-186-222-143.knology.net [216.186.222.143] (may be forged)) (authenticated bits=0) by fly.hiwaay.net (8.13.8/8.13.8/fly) with ESMTP id t7VFEobR018690 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA bits=128 verify=NO) for ; Mon, 31 Aug 2015 10:14:52 -0500 Subject: Re: [(borderline) OT]: memtest question References: <55E3AFB4.9050607@hiwaay.net> <55E46C51.2090109@sneakertech.com> Cc: FreeBSD Questions !!!! From: "William A. Mahaffey III" Message-ID: <55E46F6A.2040009@hiwaay.net> Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2015 10:20:20 -0453.75 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; FreeBSD amd64; rv:38.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/38.2.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <55E46C51.2090109@sneakertech.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2015 15:14:54 -0000 On 08/31/15 10:07, Quartz wrote: >> I downloaded Passmark memtest.......... > > You asked this question at the right time, I just had to deal with all > of this only last week. > > > Here's the situation: > The memory testing landscape is currently a big ol' pile of shit. > > memtest86+ has had only three updates in the past five years, with the > most recent (5.01) being in '13. It does not support UEFI booting > (crashes and random errors), native 64 bit (it uses a PAE hack), can't > really handle ddr4, and has never supported ECC ram or other options. > As far as anyone can tell the developer(s) dropped off the face of the > earth. Although a bootable ISO is available for download from the > website, it's NOT a hybrid ISO meaning it has to be burned to a > physical CD. All of the other files on the site are *just* the memtest > application binaries. If you want to put these on a bootable usb > stick, you'll have to, manually, format a stick yourself from the > ground up with your own bootloader and everything and then install the > memtest binary into that. The website offers a program to do this for > you but as you discovered it's a Windows EXE. Linux and Unix users are > expected to figure it out themselves. My best advice (if just burning > a CD isn't an option) is to find some Linux distro or utility live-cd > that offers a hybrid ISO or direct USB image that also comes with > memtest86+. I *think* the latest Ubuntu's come with 5.01. Gparted-Live > only has 4.x for some reason. > > > PassMark is their own can of shit. Starting with version 5.x, they > completely dropped support for BIOS booting and went UEFI only, > ostensibly to provide a 'better experience' but really so that they > could sell a new thing that was closed source. Unfortunately, UEFI is > still half broken on a lot of hardware and their new program loads all > sorts of extra shit that requires extra hardware support accordingly, > so it fails/hangs/crashes about as often as not. Their USB image still > lets you boot into the old 4.x BIOS version, but as with memtest86+, > there's no support for new chipsets/64bit/ddr4/ecc/etc. > > > Basically, you want to test a server that's a couple years old that > doesn't have UEFI? eat a dick. You want to test a new machine with the > latest chipset but it has a buggy UEFI? eat a dick. You want to do > pretty much anything other than testing a commodity desktop from five > years ago? eat a dick. Can you tell I'm bitter about all this? Oh man, I haven't laughed this hard in months, maybe years. I agree w/ your assessment, I was hoping someone might have a magic bullet to save the day, but I guess not. Is the memtest86+ source available ? If so, maybe someone else (*not* you or me) will pick it up. It was/is a nice facility when it works. As it happens, my ongoing Passmark memtest v6.0.0 got unstuck & has proceeded into the 2nd pass, so I may be OK there .... -- William A. Mahaffey III ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "The M1 Garand is without doubt the finest implement of war ever devised by man." -- Gen. George S. Patton Jr.