How to check for errors in RAM via Ubuntu?

Question

I have Ubuntu 11 running off a 3.6GB USB flash/stick drive. System has 4GB RAM and blank hard disk (wiped using DBAN tool).

How do I check if there are no errors in my RAM? Is there a guaranteed way to check that via some Linux command? If not, it would be great to know why.

Answer 1

By installing the memtester package, you can check your system for errors while it's still running. No need for a restart, just run that application.

To install it, open a terminal and type:

sudo apt install memtester

You can then use it like so:

sudo memtester 1024 5

This should allocate 1024MB of memory, and repeat the test 5 times.

Update

• If you have more RAM like 4GB or 8GB, it is up to you how much memory you want to allocate for testing.
• As your operating system, current running process might take some amount of RAM, Please check available free RAM and assign that too memtester.
• If you are using a 32 Bit System, you can't test more than 4 GB even though you have more RAM (32 bit systems doesn't support more than 3.5 GB RAM).
• If your system is very busy and you still assigned higher than available amount of RAM, then the test might get your system into a deadlock, and leads to system to halt, be aware of this.
• Run the memtester as root user, so that memtester process can malloc the memory, once its gets hold on that memory it will try to apply lock. if specified memory is not available, it will try to reduce required RAM automatically and try to lock it with mlock.
• If you run it as a regular user, it can't auto reduce the required amount of RAM, so it can't lock it, it tries to get hold on that specified memory and starts exhausting all system resources.

Answer 2

The Ubuntu Live CD includes a tool called Memtest86+ that will do just that—test your computer’s RAM. Boot up from the Ubuntu LiveCD, press and hold the Shift key, which will bring up the GRUB menu. Select Memory Test

Answer 3

No need for Memtest86+ (since v2.6.27, 2008-10-09):

1. Reboot your computer: reboot.

2. At the GRUB boot screen (with UEFI, press Esc).

3. For 4 passes add temporarily the memtest=4 kernel parameter.

   memtest=        [KNL,X86,ARM,PPC,RISCV] Enable memtest
                   Format: <integer>
                   default : 0 <disable>
                   Specifies the number of memtest passes to be
                   performed. Each pass selects another test
                   pattern from a given set of patterns. Memtest
                   fills the memory with this pattern, validates
                   memory contents and reserves bad memory
                   regions that are detected.
   

   

Answer 4

For Ubuntu 22.10 and later: memtest86+ is a thorough low-level RAM test that is started from the GRUB menu after a system restart.

From version 6 on, it works on EFI systems (i.e. is a RAM tester with BIOS setting UEFI), and is FOSS.

This version is currently available for certain Ubuntu versions.

Installation:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install memtest86+

For Ubuntu 22.04 LTS: pcmemtest-86 is a fork of Memtest86+, itself a fork of Memtest86. It is no longer maintained.

Similar to those, it is a thorough low-level RAM test that is started from the GRUB menu after a system restart.

It works on EFI systems (i.e. is a RAM tester with BIOS setting UEFI), and is FOSS.

pcmemtest-86 is available from Ubuntu 22.04 LTS onward.

Installation:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install pcmemtest

In both cases, restart your system to see its entry in the GRUB menu. (If the GRUB menu does not show up when your computer starts up, press and hold shift during startup.)

Answer 5

I have found mprime to be a good tool to test memory. It can also be used to stress test your CPU.

Alternatively, use the package stress-ng to run all kind of stress tests (including memory test) on your machine.

Answer 6

Reboot your computer, and at the GRUB boot screen, select memtest.