Bug#695246: grub-efi-amd64 has no linux16, fails to boot memtest86+ (multiboot also fails)

[Daniel Kahn Gillmor]

Control: reassign 695246 memtest86+

On 12/05/2012 10:23 PM, Daniel Kahn Gillmor wrote:
> I've installed grub-efi-amd64 2.00-7 and memtest86+ 4.20-1.1 on this
> Thinkpad x220.  However, the memtest86+ boot options don't work:
> 
>  * the normal memtest86+ stanza complains that there is no linux16
>    command.
> 
>  * the "experimental multiboot" memtest86+ stanza turns the screen
>    black, and then reboots; no memory is tested.
> 
> any suggestions about how i can run memtest86+ on this platform from
> grub-efi?  Any more information i can provide to help debug?

Hm, this may be an upstream issue with memtest86+.  According to "Doc TB":

>> The issue is not 16 or 32 bits boot protocol, the main issue is the 
>> numerous BIOS calls required to do the memory initialization. EFI is a 
>> nice idea, but the first time I heard "EFI will replace BIOS in the 
>> upcoming months !!!" was in 2002 at an Intel Developer's forum. 10 
>> years after, UEFI replaced EFI but BIOS is still present in 99% of PC 
>> Motherboard. It's an hard task to build an EFI-readyMemtest86+, with 
>> massive code rewrite, and that version will not be compatible with 
>> legacy BIOS. I will not consider supporting two forks at the same time, 
>> so when Memtest86+ will switch to EFI, the BIOS version will be 
>> discontinued. When BIOS will be not be available in standard PC 
>> components, I'll start working on en EFI revision. 


http://forum.canardpc.com/threads/68001-Memtest86-5.00-Beta-available-!-Need-betatesters-!?s=d809d0006a4881f7b3cf0374fcad6fad&p=5467296&viewfull=1#post5467296

So perhaps update-grub needs to recognize that grub-efi will not be able
to use this and avoid injecting memtest86+ stanzas in grub.cfg?

This should probably be done within /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+, which
itself belongs to the memtest86+ package, so i'm reassigning this bug.

	--dkg