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I recently got a problem involving /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libarmmem-${PLATFORM}.so: VLC was crashing when calling this library (which overrides memory related functions from libc6), and removing the reference to this library from /etc/ld.so.preload fixed the problem.

I thought I might have the wrong version of the library, or perhaps a damaged file, so I tried to reinstall it. To my surprise, apt-file search libarmmem returned nothing. I didn't find this library in http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian/pool/main/liba/ or http://archive.raspbian.org/raspbian/pool/main/liba/ either.

Does anybody know where this library come from, what functionality does it bring to the table, and how to reinstall it if need be?

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    I think it's something to do with snapd - based purely on searching for libarmmem-${PLATFORM}.so on the interwebs
    – Bravo
    Commented Dec 26, 2021 at 1:04
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    Not sure WHY it is there, but the library is unchanged since original Buster release.
    – Milliways
    Commented Dec 26, 2021 at 1:26
  • @Bravo Now that you say this, I do remember installing snap a while ago. I removed it since though.
    – Dmitry Grigoryev
    Commented Dec 26, 2021 at 11:50

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I thought I might have the wrong version of the library, or perhaps a damaged file, so I tried to reinstall it. To my surprise, apt-file search libarmmem returned nothing.

Please try the following on a machine with it installed:

openhd@openhd-airpi:~$ dpkg -S libarmmem
raspi-copies-and-fills: /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libarmmem-v6l.so
raspi-copies-and-fills: /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libarmmem-aarch64.so
raspi-copies-and-fills: /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libarmmem-v7l.so
raspi-copies-and-fills: /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libarmmem-v8l.so
openhd@openhd-airpi:~$

what functionality does it bring to the table

It provides things like memcpy and memset tuned for the Arm cores used in Raspberry Pis. Personally, I feel like this was more important with older Pis and maybe a little less so today. From the 2012 version: "Speeds of up to 1390 MB/s have been achieved. This is ~7x faster than the libc version."

Does anybody know where this library come from,

It used to be on github, but I cannot find it anymore.

how to reinstall it if need be?

You can remove or install this package: https://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/pool/main/r/raspi-copies-and-fills/

I recently got a problem involving /usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/libarmmem-${PLATFORM}.so: VLC was crashing when calling this library (which overrides memory related functions from libc6), and removing the reference to this library from /etc/ld.so.preload fixed the problem.

There was a bug a couple years ago, it was fixed. Do you still have the crash on newer versions?

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    Thanks. I must say I can't possibly understand the motivation to name that package raspi-copies-and-fills instead of libarmmem. They might as well have named it find-me-i-dare-you or something similar.
    – Dmitry Grigoryev
    Commented Jul 18, 2023 at 12:42
  • Based on apt show raspi-copies-and-fills, its upstream source is at github.com/bavison/arm-mem.
    – Ari
    Commented Apr 21 at 18:59

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