Bug 18508

Hmm..

I just found this in 20_memtest86+ script in Fedora's package:

if [ -d /sys/firmware/efi ]; then
    echo "ERROR: memtest86+ does not support EFI platforms."
    exit 254
fi

(In reply to Barry Jackson from comment #1)
> Hmm..
> 
> I just found this in 20_memtest86+ script in Fedora's package:
> 
> if [ -d /sys/firmware/efi ]; then
>     echo "ERROR: memtest86+ does not support EFI platforms."
>     exit 254
> fi

Assigning to all packagers collectively, since there is no maintainer for this package.

CC: (none) => marja11
Assignee: bugsquad => pkg-bugs

OK I think I have a solution for this issue.

1. If we remove the "Recommends: memtest86+" from the grub2-efi sub-package in grub2 spec and move it to the main grub2 package (PC-BIOS only).

2. Add the scriptlet in #2 above to %pre in memtest86+ package then all should be well.

3. Add a note in memtest86+ description to say that it is incompatible with UEFI.

Grub2-efi will no longer request memtest86+ so it will not try to install it.
If an attempt is made to install memtest86+ on a UEFI system manually then it will fail.

e.g.
Preparing...                     ########################################################################################################
ERROR: memtest86+ does not support EFI platforms.
error: %prein(memtest86+-5.01-10.1.mga6.x86_64) scriptlet failed, exit status 1
ERROR: 'script' failed for memtest86+-5.01-10.1.mga6.x86_64
error: memtest86+-5.01-10.1.mga6.x86_64: install failed

Unfortunately due to https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1670#c10 this second part may not be acceptable?

Barry

Although this should not cause a transaction to fail as memtest+ would no longer be recommended in a situation where it would fail, so I think that a silent fail for an attempted manual install should be OK

Hmm.. another issue:

drakx-installer-images BuildRequires: memtest86+ on all x86_64
--------snip--------
%ifarch %ix86 x86_64
BuildRequires: memtest86+
BuildRequires: grub
BuildRequires: syslinux >= 6.03-5
%endif
---------snip------

I'm out of ideas as I don't know where/when this is used.

(In reply to Barry Jackson from comment #5)
> Hmm.. another issue:
> 
> drakx-installer-images BuildRequires: memtest86+ on all x86_64
> --------snip--------
> %ifarch %ix86 x86_64
> BuildRequires: memtest86+
> BuildRequires: grub
> BuildRequires: syslinux >= 6.03-5
> %endif
> ---------snip------
> 
> I'm out of ideas as I don't know where/when this is used.

CC'ing tv and tmb, they'll know :-D

(In reply to Barry Jackson from comment #4)
> Although this should not cause a transaction to fail as memtest+ would no
> longer be recommended in a situation where it would fail, so I think that a
> silent fail for an attempted manual install should be OK

Yeah, I had to re-read bug 1670, but going by the information there, silently failing is the best option (at the moment!... I do hope it won't stay like this for ever, though ;-) )

CC: (none) => thierry.vignaud, tmb

(In reply to Marja van Waes from comment #6)
> (In reply to Barry Jackson from comment #5)
> > Hmm.. another issue:
> > 
> > drakx-installer-images BuildRequires: memtest86+ on all x86_64
> > --------snip--------
> > %ifarch %ix86 x86_64
> > BuildRequires: memtest86+
> > BuildRequires: grub
> > BuildRequires: syslinux >= 6.03-5
> > %endif
> > ---------snip------
> > 
> > I'm out of ideas as I don't know where/when this is used.
> 
> CC'ing tv and tmb, they'll know :-D
> 


It's done to provide possibility to run memtest direcly from iso when people have trouble installing and faulty memory is suspected.

Note that memtest96+ "works on uefi hw" as long as you boot with csm enabled so it can boot in legacy mode.

I'm thinking of packaging the nonfree memtest (http://www.memtest86.com/) as that one provides uefi support (the free edition has no licensing restrictions what so ever)

From a quick test, it no longer works on legacy HW too...
Maybe a gcc5 issue...

(In reply to Thierry Vignaud from comment #8)
> From a quick test, it no longer works on legacy HW too...
> Maybe a gcc5 issue...

It's still working here on an old pIII i586 (fully updated Cauldron) with grub2.

I tested with grub legacy, both the regular build and the ELF one, both ends in reboot.

I have 2 PC, one with uefi and grub2
the other with legacy grub

memtest86+  (installed with urpmi) works fine with grub2 and just reboot with grub.

I have also tried the last Mageia-6-sta2-x86_64-DVD on another PC (Grub, no UEFI) it can only reboot the PC.

CC: (none) => jarillon

(In reply to Thierry Vignaud from comment #10)
> I tested with grub legacy, both the regular build and the ELF one, both ends
> in reboot.

Yes, Memtest86+ 5 just reboots with most systems I have tried. The old 4 version still works, you can try it from the MGA3 medias. Anyway, I have found that we have much better now : simply boot the normal system adding "memtest" as kernel parameter : it disables automaticaly bad ram, allowing to boot directly. This is at the expense of boot time, something like 2 minutes for a slow system with a lot of RAM.

Maybe we could put a boot line using it instead of memtest86+?

CC: (none) => lists.jjorge

memtest86+ can't definitely run in UEFI mode on x86_64.

As a result we are setting this bug to RESOLVED:INVALID

Status: NEW => RESOLVED
Resolution: (none) => INVALID