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List:       fedora-devel-list
Subject:    Re: New memory tester application potentially to replace memtest86+: PCMemTest
From:       Nikolay Nikolov <nickysn () gmail ! com>
Date:       2021-02-09 10:08:00
Message-ID: 0d0853d2-c645-3ee1-d335-00166fb1e356 () gmail ! com
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On 2/9/21 10:53 AM, Vít Ondruch wrote:
>
> Dne 08. 02. 21 v 21:44 Chris Murphy napsal(a):
>> On Mon, Feb 8, 2021 at 2:46 AM Vít Ondruch <vondruch@redhat.com> wrote:
>>> Being devils advocate, but should we have the memtest86 or similar by
>>> default? I have certainly not used this feature in my 10+ yeas with 
>>> Fedora.
>>>
>> You mean get rid of it (from media and installations)?
>
>
> Yes, that is my proposal.
>
>
>>    Because we
>> install it unconditionally already, even though it's a BIOS only
>> utility and there isn't a boot entry for it in the bootloader.
>>
>> It's a bit obscure how to use it, given there's no menu entry for it.
>>
>>
>
> Ah, good to know that I have it on my system. I'm going to remove it 
> right now.
Enjoy the 357 KB space savings. :)
>
> I don't think this is utility, which is targets typical Fedora user. 
> Here is PR proposing the removal:
>
>
> https://pagure.io/fedora-kickstarts/pull-request/754

A memory testing utility is certainly something useful in ruling out 
hardware reasons for system crashes. Even Microsoft has included one in 
recent versions of Windows. Being BIOS only is a problem, yes, but that 
makes it even more useful to have on the installation media, because I 
can enable the legacy BIOS CSM and boot the installation DVD on my UEFI 
systems, while I can't really install it on my hard drive and enable it 
in the GRUB menu if I have an UEFI install. Now, I would need to use a 
different installation media to run this tool for the sake of reducing 
the >2GB installation image by several kilobytes. Doesn't sound like a 
great idea to me.

I agree it should not be installed by default on UEFI systems and I 
think it should probably have been enabled by default in the GRUB menu 
on BIOS systems. I also agree an alternative like PCMemTest is needed 
for UEFI systems, because not all systems have legacy BIOS CSMs.

Nikolay
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