Simmons-Systems-Rescue

Turnkey USB-based hardware burn-in kit. Plug it in, power on, walk away — get a results file the next time you check.

Built originally for refurbishing Intel NUCs, but works on any x86_64 box that boots from USB.

What's in the box

The kit ships three USB images:

USB	Purpose	Boots under stock Secure Boot?	Walk-away?
rescue.img	SystemRescue + autorun: 2-hour stress test, memtester (~95% of RAM), smartctl per drive, full hardware inventory, auto-poweroff	Yes (signed shim)	Yes
memtest.img	Memtest86+ (open source) for true bare-metal RAM testing	No — disable Secure Boot once in BIOS	Not yet — runs continuously, requires monitor (Phase 2 ships a fork with auto-halt)
wipe.img	NIST 800-88 disk sanitization — two boot paths: Wizard (interactive per-drive) and eWaste (auto-wipe all after 5-min countdown). JSON audit log.	Yes (signed shim)	Yes (eWaste mode)

Quick start

# Build the three USB images locally
./bin/build-rescue-usb.sh /dev/sdX     # interactive confirmation; refuses /dev/sda
./bin/build-memtest-usb.sh /dev/sdY
./bin/build-wipe-usb.sh /dev/sdZ       # NIST 800-88 disk wipe (label with red tape)

# Or grab the latest release
gh release download --repo Simmons-Systems/Simmons-Systems-Rescue --pattern '*.img.xz'
xz -d rescue.img.xz && sudo dd if=rescue.img of=/dev/sdX bs=4M status=progress

Workflow per box:

1. Plug rescue.img USB into the box.
2. Power on. Walk away. ~2 hours later it powers itself off.
3. Pull the USB; on your dev box run ./bin/collect-results.sh /dev/sdX to read the results file.
4. (Optional, if you want full RAM testing) Plug memtest.img USB, power on with monitor attached, run overnight.
5. (For decommissioning) Plug wipe.img USB, pick Wizard (selective) or eWaste (wipe all), collect audit log from USB.

Documentation

• docs/usage.md — full walkthrough including BIOS prep
• docs/secure-boot.md — how to disable Secure Boot for the Memtest USB
• docs/results-format.md — what's in results-*.txt and how to interpret it
• docs/building-from-source.md — how bin/build-*.sh work
• docs/adr/ — architecture decision records (two-USB rationale, Memtest fork roadmap, etc.)

Roadmap

• Phase 1 (here): SystemRescue+autorun walk-away USB, Memtest86+ stock USB, GitHub Actions release pipeline.
• Phase 2: Fork Memtest86+ to add mt86p.cfg config-file support, NUMPASS halt, and ACPI auto-poweroff so the Memtest USB is also walk-away.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

Bundled SystemRescue ISO is GPLv3 (redistributed; source at https://gitlab.com/systemrescue). Bundled Memtest86+ binary is GPLv2 (source at https://github.com/memtest86plus/memtest86plus).