Bug 11661 - memtest86+ crashes on launch
Summary: memtest86+ crashes on launch
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: Mageia
Classification: Unclassified
Component: RPM Packages (show other bugs)
Version: Cauldron
Hardware: x86_64 Linux
Priority: release_blocker critical
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Damien Lallement
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks: 11704 11889
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2013-11-12 21:56 CET by Barry Jackson
Modified: 2020-02-10 10:28 CET (History)
8 users (show)

See Also:
Source RPM: memtest86+-5.01-2.mga4.src.rpm
CVE:
Status comment:


Attachments
Initial screen on booting into memtest (540.17 KB, image/png)
2013-12-14 18:39 CET, Barry Jackson
Details
Screen just before it re-boots (642.52 KB, image/png)
2013-12-14 18:40 CET, Barry Jackson
Details
cpu info (5.43 KB, text/plain)
2013-12-14 21:28 CET, Barry Jackson
Details

Description Barry Jackson 2013-11-12 21:56:23 CET
Description of problem:
During routine testing of grub2 menus I discovered that memtest86+ no longer works.
I then tested from a grub legacy prompt with:

> root (hd0,5)
> kernel /boot/memtest.bin
> boot

and memtest86+-4.2 works fine, but 5.01 on (hd0,6) just reboots.

Same in VM with grub2 although the memtest screen appears briefly before the reboot.

5.01 is the latest version, so at this stage (beta1) I think we should maybe revert to 4.2 until 5.01 can be fixed.



Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):


How reproducible:


Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.


Reproducible: 

Steps to Reproduce:
Barry Jackson 2013-11-12 21:56:53 CET

Priority: Normal => High

Damien Lallement 2013-11-13 05:12:23 CET

Status: NEW => ASSIGNED

Manuel Hiebel 2013-12-01 17:31:15 CET

Blocks: (none) => 11704
Priority: High => release_blocker

Manuel Hiebel 2013-12-05 21:37:20 CET

Blocks: (none) => 11889

Comment 1 Barry Jackson 2013-12-12 23:23:49 CET
Still happens with memtest86+-5.01-3.mga4 :(

CC: (none) => pterjan

Comment 2 Pierre Jarillon 2013-12-14 09:14:37 CET
Just a question: Does this happens with a UEFI boot?
Because memtest is bootable, it must be allowed to boot...

CC: (none) => jarillon

Comment 3 Barry Jackson 2013-12-14 18:37:43 CET
(In reply to Pierre Jarillon from comment #2)
> Just a question: Does this happens with a UEFI boot?
> Because memtest is bootable, it must be allowed to boot...

I don't have a UEFI system to test, however memtest boots OK, the regular memtest screen appears with a couple of function key options displayed:

F1 (Select failsafe mode) causes instant re-boot.

F2 (force multi-threading) changes to the same screen as when no key is pressed, prior to re-boot.

The initial screen is displayed for maybe 3 seconds before the re-boot if no key is pressed.

I have managed to get images of both screens by extracting frames from a video - these are attached below.
Comment 4 Barry Jackson 2013-12-14 18:39:14 CET
Created attachment 4611 [details]
Initial screen on booting into memtest
Comment 5 Barry Jackson 2013-12-14 18:40:25 CET
Created attachment 4612 [details]
Screen just before it re-boots
Comment 6 Pascal Terjan 2013-12-14 18:58:26 CET
This sounds like something machine specific, like an instruction not implemented on your cpu, or some call the BIOS doesn't like, etc
What is your processor?
Comment 7 Barry Jackson 2013-12-14 21:28:13 CET
Created attachment 4614 [details]
cpu info
Comment 8 Damien Lallement 2013-12-17 02:19:20 CET
Does you bug already reported on: http://forum.canardpc.com/forums/73-Memtest86-Official-forum (http://forum.canardpc.com/threads/83126-5.01-freezes for example)?

Reverting to 4.2 is not a good idea for me as 4.2 does not support all new Intel and AMD CPUs as Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge, Haswell, Kabini, Bulldozer, Trinity, Bobcat, Pineview, Cedar Trail.

So better not having memtest86+ rather than having 4.2 in 2013/2014 I think.

WIP.
Comment 9 Barry Jackson 2013-12-17 19:38:25 CET
So are you implying that 5.01 works for you?
There seem to be many reports of issues with it and the general advice I see seems to be to use stable 4.2 when it fails.
I don't see any Mageia bug reports related to 4.2, so if it ain't broke...
Comment 10 Dick Gevers 2013-12-18 07:37:46 CET
It is not machine specific. During M4B2 prerelease testing several users saw it.
Comment 11 Pascal Terjan 2014-01-08 01:01:06 CET
Easy to reproduce: qemu-kvm -kernel memtest.bin -no-reboot -no-shutdown

(also fails without kvm but takes more time to boot)

Binary built by upstream works fine.
Comment 12 Pascal Terjan 2014-01-08 01:03:55 CET
Building with an old gcc also works fine.
Comment 13 Pascal Terjan 2014-01-08 01:52:11 CET
Crash seems to be:
                ticks = (ch + ch/act_cpus + c*ch);

act_cpus is an extern from smp.c

I tried changing smp.c so that it can not be 0 and it no longer crashes but sees 0 active cores.
Comment 14 Pascal Terjan 2014-01-08 02:34:40 CET
Fixed in memtest86+-5.01-5.mga4
Comment 15 Pascal Terjan 2014-01-08 02:34:58 CET
Closing.

Resolution: (none) => FIXED
Status: ASSIGNED => RESOLVED

Comment 16 Anne Nicolas 2014-01-08 09:51:05 CET
Thanks a lot for working on it

CC: (none) => ennael1

Matt brown 2019-11-04 09:56:26 CET

CC: (none) => srivastavpratik93

Barry Jackson 2019-11-05 13:36:50 CET

CC: srivastavpratik93 => (none)

Randy Mitchel 2020-02-05 07:45:47 CET

CC: (none) => randymitchel795

peter thomas 2020-02-06 13:48:59 CET

CC: (none) => peterthomas1522

Comment 22 peter thomas 2020-02-06 13:49:18 CET Comment hidden (spam)
Dave Hodgins 2020-02-06 13:57:12 CET

CC: (none) => davidwhodgins

charli bilson 2020-02-07 09:01:26 CET

CC: (none) => charlibilson

jitu sah 2020-02-08 08:28:10 CET

CC: (none) => sahujitendra0200


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