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Having trouble installing a piece of hardware? Want to know if that peripheral is compatible with Linux?

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Old 03-24-2014, 04:58 PM   #1
devinmcelheran
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Reliable Diagnostics Tool


I work in a computer repair shop. We have a DOS based diagnostics tool supplied by our chain. But I'm finding that UEFI computers, basically anything running Windows 8(.1) doesn't boot our tool. I read into it and apparently DOS based OSes are UEFI incompatible. I tried using legacy boot options in the firmware options, but it still doesn't want to work.

I was wondering if anyone knows of a reliable diagnostics tool of any kind whether it be Linux, or DOS, or whatever really, that is UEFI bootable. Thanks.
 
Old 03-24-2014, 05:02 PM   #2
TobiSGD
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It would help if you tell us what you want to diagnose.
 
Old 03-24-2014, 05:04 PM   #3
devinmcelheran
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Oh, sorry. I mean a general hardware diagnostics tool. Something that can do RAM tests, SMART tests, and so on.
 
Old 03-24-2014, 09:02 PM   #4
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For RAM tests you should be able to use Memtest86+ 5.01, it should be able to run on UEFI systems. Of course you will have to start it from an UEFI capable bootloader, like Grub 2.
SMART data retrieving and starting selftests can be done using the smartctl command that comes with almost any Linux distribution. Other diagnostics might be a bit more tricky, for example clever use of Prime95/mprime can reveal problems with CPU, RAM, motherboard and cooling system.
 
Old 03-25-2014, 06:51 AM   #5
devinmcelheran
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How might I go about creating a bootable USB key with these tools? Would using dd with a UEFI bootable ISO work?
 
Old 03-26-2014, 12:22 PM   #6
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I personally have not much experience with UEFI, but AFAIK, you would create a small EFI partition with the bootloader and kernel (or Memtest86+, in your case) and a system partition for the Linux distribution you want to use.
 
  


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