[ToBeOC]

As a long time reader on the OCN forums, and not much of a poster/contributor, I thought of sharing this with all of you as a tiny 'Thank You'

Well, in brief, a few days ago and after discovering the GSAT tool for checking memory stability, I've been wondering if I should try running it on a lightweight Linux distro. instead of a full fledged one like Mint.

So, after a lot of researching and testing out many small distributions, I settled on 'Core Pure 64bit' flavor from http://tinycorelinux.net, which is 14MB in size!
I've compiled the latest version of GSAT v1.0.9 from it's Github repository: https://github.com/stressapptest/stressapptest
Nothing has been modified or added in the distro but the single compiled file (stressapptest) added under /usr/local/bin.

Working wonderfully as expected, and I've managed to allocate about 99.5% of memory to the test tool, which is the whole point of using a minimal Linux distro.


A TL;DR version:

What is it:
GSAT memory stability testing tool (v1.0.9) added to a tiny Linux Distro. (CorePure64 v9) in a 14MB bootable ISO file.

How to use:
- Download and burn the ISO file into a CD/DVD or a USB stick using a tool like 'Rufus' or similar ones.
- Enable 'Legacy' support in BIOS.
- Boot from the CD/DVD/USB.
- Use the tool as you wish, but commonly you would type: 'stressapptest -W -s 3600'

Download URL:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RXB8rRPIC_QFT5_GWGpz7imp9ehSULSk/view?usp=sharing

Please let me know how it works for you, or if you have any feedback or suggestions.

 

[jfriend00]

Thanks much for this. I've been trying to figure out how to get stressapptest on a small bootable version of Linux myself, but not knowing Linux very well had been making it hard for me.

I sucessfully burned your ISO to a DVD, then booted from the DVD and can run stressapptest perfectly. Works like a charm. I feel a little blind while it's running because I can't monitor the system (temperatures, etc...), but it works.

And, the good news is that it's not finding any problems with my system so far.

Question for you. If you wanted to do a good stress test of your memory overclock, what command line parameters would you use?

 

[AlphaC]

stressapptest -W -s 3600


That uses one hour of GSAT and log errors


The W flag means for it to use more CPU-stressful memory copy

 

[zGunBLADEz]

Sweet, thanks for this ...

 

[Wuest3nFuchs]

As a long time reader on the OCN forums, and not much of a poster/contributor, I thought of sharing this with all of you as a tiny 'Thank You'

Well, in brief, a few days ago and after discovering the GSAT tool for checking memory stability, I've been wondering if I should try running it on a lightweight Linux distro. instead of a full fledged one like Mint.

So, after a lot of researching and testing out many small distributions, I settled on 'Core Pure 64bit' flavor from http://tinycorelinux.net, which is 14MB in size!
I've compiled the latest version of GSAT v1.0.9 from it's Github repository: https://github.com/stressapptest/stressapptest
Nothing has been modified or added in the distro but the single compiled file (stressapptest) added under /usr/local/bin.

Working wonderfully as expected, and I've managed to allocate about 99.5% of memory to the test tool, which is the whole point of using a minimal Linux distro.


A TL;DR version:

What is it:
GSAT memory stability testing tool (v1.0.9) added to a tiny Linux Distro. (CorePure64 v9) in a 14MB bootable ISO file.

How to use:
- Download and burn the ISO file into a CD/DVD or a USB stick using a tool like 'Rufus' or similar ones.
- Enable 'Legacy' support in BIOS.
- Boot from the CD/DVD/USB.
- Use the tool as you wish, but commonly you would type: 'stressapptest -W -s 3600'

Download URL:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RXB8rRPIC_QFT5_GWGpz7imp9ehSULSk/view?usp=sharing

Please let me know how it works for you, or if you have any feedback or suggestions.

Nothing more to add but a BIG THANKS ,MAN !!!

 

[ssateneth]

Is there a way to get it to automatically start stressapptest with no user interaction? I want to auto-run stressapptest -W -s 3600 without needing to type it please. Also have it auto-allocate 99.5% total RAM (or whatever is most appropriate in order to auto-test >90% RAM)

 

[Chucko]

I'm unable to figure out how to write this ISO to a USB stick from a Mac and get the PC to boot from the stick. balenaEtcher reports the ISO is not bootable. Any hints?

 

[ggdfdgd3]

Is there a way to get it to automatically start stressapptest with no user interaction? I want to auto-run stressapptest -W -s 3600 without needing to type it please. Also have it auto-allocate 99.5% total RAM (or whatever is most appropriate in order to auto-test >90% RAM)

GSAT already tests with almost all memory by default. I created a modified version of this that automatically starts the test and made a post over at the /r/Amd subreddit if you're interested: https://reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/egz9oz/gsat_linux_live_cd_how_to_easily_and_safely/

 

[Schrotty45]

Nice Tool but i get sometimes power spike infos. Is this a Ram error?

 

[CVLover]

Is there a way to get it to automatically start stressapptest with no user interaction? I want to auto-run stressapptest -W -s 3600 without needing to type it please. Also have it auto-allocate 99.5% total RAM (or whatever is most appropriate in order to auto-test >90% RAM)

you can write
alias gsat="stressapptest -W -s 3600"
then u can just write gsat and it will start

 

[mathiem]

GSAT already tests with almost all memory by default. I created a modified version of this that automatically starts the test and made a post over at the /r/Amd subreddit if you're interested:

Thank you and OP for this.

I took your ISO and made a small modification to the command line in gsat.sh:

stressapptest -W -s 999999998 --pause_delay 999999999 --max_errors 1

--pause_delay removes the "power spike" pauses and --max_errors 1 makes the test stop when it finds more than one error (it can't be set to lower than 1, unfortunately). I also reduced the test time by 1 sec, just because I've read that it needs to be lower than pause_delay.
So far it's been working fine.

You can download the ISO here: Upload files for free - autoGSAT_maxerr1.iso - ufile.io

 

[Conradical]

--pause_delay 999999999 --max_errors 1[/CODE]
--pause_delay removes the "power spike" pauses

I've been using this the past week, but now I'm wondering- do you think the pause delay makes it better at detecting instability?

 

[mathiem]

I've been using this the past week, but now I'm wondering- do you think the pause delay makes it better at detecting instability?

Late reply, but... I doubt it. I didn't notice that in my own use anyway.
From what I've read the pause is there for testing the effects of sudden power spikes, which is more relevant for multi-CPU servers running at power limits. I don't think it stresses the RAM or memory controller more, but someone can correct me if I'm wrong.