diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/vm/charge_reserved_hugetlb.sh b/tools/testing/selftests/vm/charge_reserved_hugetlb.sh
index efd68093ce3e9..18d33684faade 100755
--- a/tools/testing/selftests/vm/charge_reserved_hugetlb.sh
+++ b/tools/testing/selftests/vm/charge_reserved_hugetlb.sh
@@ -169,19 +169,36 @@ function write_hugetlbfs_and_get_usage() {
   echo reserved_usage="$reserved_before"
   echo expect_failure is "$expect_failure"

+  output=$(mktemp)
   set +e
   if [[ "$method" == "1" ]] || [[ "$method" == 2 ]] ||
     [[ "$private" == "-r" ]] && [[ "$expect_failure" != 1 ]]; then

     bash write_hugetlb_memory.sh "$size" "$populate" "$write" \
-      "$cgroup" "$path" "$method" "$private" "-l" "$reserve" &
+      "$cgroup" "$path" "$method" "$private" "-l" "$reserve" 2>&1 | tee $output &

     local write_result=$?
+    local write_pid=$!

-    if [[ "$reserve" != "-n" ]]; then
-      wait_for_hugetlb_memory_to_get_reserved "$cgroup" "$size"
-    elif [[ "$populate" == "-o" ]] || [[ "$write" == "-w" ]]; then
+    until grep -q -i "DONE" $output; do
+      echo waiting for DONE signal.
+      if ! ps $write_pid > /dev/null
+      then
+        echo "FAIL: The write died"
+        cleanup
+        exit 1
+      fi
+      sleep 0.5
+    done
+
+    echo ================= write_hugetlb_memory.sh output is:
+    cat $output
+    echo ================= end output.
+
+    if [[ "$populate" == "-o" ]] || [[ "$write" == "-w" ]]; then
       wait_for_hugetlb_memory_to_get_written "$cgroup" "$size"
+    elif [[ "$reserve" != "-n" ]]; then
+      wait_for_hugetlb_memory_to_get_reserved "$cgroup" "$size"
     else
       # This case doesn't produce visible effects, but we still have
       # to wait for the async process to start and execute...
@@ -227,7 +244,7 @@ function cleanup_hugetlb_memory() {
   set +e
   local cgroup="$1"
   if [[ "$(pgrep -f write_to_hugetlbfs)" != "" ]]; then
-    echo kiling write_to_hugetlbfs
+    echo killing write_to_hugetlbfs
     killall -2 write_to_hugetlbfs
     wait_for_hugetlb_memory_to_get_depleted $cgroup
   fi
diff --git a/tools/testing/selftests/vm/write_to_hugetlbfs.c b/tools/testing/selftests/vm/write_to_hugetlbfs.c
index 85811c3384a10..7f75ad5f7b580 100644
--- a/tools/testing/selftests/vm/write_to_hugetlbfs.c
+++ b/tools/testing/selftests/vm/write_to_hugetlbfs.c
@@ -207,13 +207,13 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 		}
 		printf("shmid: 0x%x, shmget key:%d\n", shmid, key);

-		shmaddr = shmat(shmid, NULL, 0);
-		if (shmaddr == (char *)-1) {
+		ptr = shmat(shmid, NULL, 0);
+		if (ptr == (int *)-1) {
 			perror("Shared memory attach failure");
 			shmctl(shmid, IPC_RMID, NULL);
 			exit(2);
 		}
-		printf("shmaddr: %p\n", shmaddr);
+		printf("shmaddr: %p\n", ptr);

 		break;
 	default:
@@ -223,25 +223,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)

 	if (write) {
 		printf("Writing to memory.\n");
-		if (method != SHM) {
-			memset(ptr, 1, size);
-		} else {
-			printf("Starting the writes:\n");
-			for (i = 0; i < size; i++) {
-				shmaddr[i] = (char)(i);
-				if (!(i % (1024 * 1024)))
-					printf(".");
-			}
-			printf("\n");
-
-			printf("Starting the Check...");
-			for (i = 0; i < size; i++)
-				if (shmaddr[i] != (char)i) {
-					printf("\nIndex %lu mismatched\n", i);
-					exit(3);
-				}
-			printf("Done.\n");
-		}
+		memset(ptr, 1, size);
 	}

 	if (want_sleep) {
@@ -253,7 +235,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 			sleep(100);
 	}

-	switch (method == HUGETLBFS) {
+	if (method == HUGETLBFS) {
 		close(fd);
 	}