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PostPosted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 4:33 pm 
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Joined: Wed Dec 10, 2003 8:31 pm
Posts: 1996
Location: /dev/null
What's covered: This howto details the steps to install memtest86+ on your R6 box. Usually memtest86+ is burnt to a CD or a USB stick and booted from there, this can be a pain particularly if you box doesn't have an optical drive :) Installing memtest on your hdd and making an entry for it to boot in your grub screen is convenient.

Memtest86+ is one of the standard memory testers. It has become the de facto standard for memory testing in my opinion. It's released under the terms of the Gnu Public License (GPL). No restrictions for use, private or commercial exist other than the ones mentioned in the Gnu Public License (GPL).

Part 1 - Installation
Installation is trivial and the bin file you'll need is tiny: just 157 k. At the time of writing this howto, version 4.00 of memtest86+ is current and the link below will point to it.

Note: I show the commands below being executed as root (hence the # prompt), you can alternately do them as the mythtv user prefixing each command with sudo if you wish.

Code:
# cd /boot
# wget http://www.memtest.org/download/4.00/memtest86+-4.00.bin.gz
# gunzip memtest86+-4.00.bin.gz
# mv memtest86+-4.00.bin memtest86.bin


Part 2 - Make an entry to boot into Memtest

Code:
# nano /boot/grub/lst


Go the bottom of the config file and paste in the following:
Code:
title   Memtest86+ v4.00
root            (hd0,0)
kernel          /boot/memtest86.bin


Note: if you installed R6 via the live CD, the default is for your root filesystem to be hd0,0 but if you customized your install, you'll need to change this line to reflect the actual root filesystem. Also, the kernel line will work if you installed via the live CD. Again, if you customized your /boot by placing it on a separate partition, omit the "/boot" from the kernel line. I'm guess if you're savvy enough to make these sorts of changes, you are already aware of this fact.

That's it. When you reboot your machine now, you should see an option entitled, "Memtest86+ v4.00" and when selected, should boot right into memtest86+.

Enjoy.

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Retired KM user (R4 - R6.04); friend to LH users.


Last edited by graysky on Sat Mar 06, 2010 10:18 am, edited 1 time in total.


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PostPosted: Sat Mar 06, 2010 10:00 am 
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Joined: Thu Feb 24, 2005 2:50 am
Posts: 60
I have no /etc/boot directory on my system running R6, but I managed to locate the grub config file at /boot/grub/menu.1st, hence:
Code:
nano /boot/grub/menu.1st

Worked great otherwise, and I will add that it's a great idea to run memtest once in awhile particularly if you've seen any system crashes for no apparent reason. Unless you're using a server-class motherboard with ECC protection, memory corruption may go unnoticed and cause file-corruption. Considering that "minimal" memory testing is performed nowadays in most system BIOS during POST (due to the huge memory sizes), and the timing-critical nature of DDR2/DDR3 memory "training" performed by the BIOS, at a minimum you should make sure that you run memtest after any memory configuration change.


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PostPosted: Sat Mar 06, 2010 10:18 am 
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Joined: Wed Dec 10, 2003 8:31 pm
Posts: 1996
Location: /dev/null
@no2u - nor should you, that was a typeo on my part (corrected now, thanks)

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