Open Menu
AllLocalCommunitiesAbout
lotide
AllLocalCommunitiesAbout
Login

Does anyone know a good Linux live image for diagnosing systems?

⁨27⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone⁩ to ⁨selfhosted@lemmy.world⁩

source

Comments

Sort:hotnewtop
  • c0mpost@lemmy.eco.br ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I’m not sure I know what you mean by diagnosing, but it’s usually a good idea to use the same distro you’re having trouble with.

    source
    • princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Diagnosing hardware issues, which doesn’t necessarily need the same distro.

      source
    • anzo@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      True. And use chroot ;) then you can apt update, etc. If the problem is on the distro itself (e.g. not a failing hard drive)

      source
  • chepdamona@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Adding on to other suggestions, if you’re not aware of Ventoy it’s a very handy tool. Using it you can have a USB drive with several live images on it which you can choose at boot time. Great for quick testing, just drop an ISO in a folder!

    source
    • theolodger@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Unfortunately I believe the usb has to be created from Windows…

      source
      • chepdamona@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        What makes you think that? Their website has instructions for installation via a Linux box. https://www.ventoy.net/en/doc_start.html

        source
  • anzo@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Look no more, use this! www.system-rescue.org/System-tools/

    source
    • Alami@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Aaah glad they’re still kicking! This sends me way back…, a time when burning CDs was the thing

      source
    • princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      How did I not see this until now? I used this back in the day too! Thank you :)

      source
  • i_lost_my_bagel@seriously.iamincredibly.gay ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I’d go with a live image of whatever distro you’re most familiar with. I usually go with the arch iso or endeavor os if I need a GUI.

    source
    • kylian0087@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Well arch is one psrticulair i would not keep on a USB. The issue comes when you need to use it after some months. And it is then very outdated

      source
  • pranqster@infosec.pub ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I’ve been using Knoppix for this purpose for like the last 2 decades.

    source
  • deadcatbounce@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    Console ArchLinux every time. Create a USB instance and then load up what you need.

    You don’t need a GUI.

    source
    • princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      You don’t need a GUI.

      Thanks for your opinion, but you don’t get to decide what I need. I wanted a simple distro that I was familiar with, so that I could teach it to someone with basic computer knowledge. Teaching how to use a terminal was outside the scope.

      Image

      source
      • deadcatbounce@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

        I only use ArchLinux for rescue. Fedora is my go-to.

        What you mean is that you can’t cope without a gui. That’s different.

        source
        • -> View More Comments
  • vegetaaaaaaa@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I maintain my own Debian-based live image. It’s quite easy to build your own using different package lists or default configuration, etc.

    source
  • annoyedcamel@reddthat.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    It’s not free but I highly recommend Parted Magic. I’ve been using it since at least 2015.

    source
    • SocialDoki@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Seconded for that. Parted Magic is so nice that when they went paid, I ponied up immediately, which is saying something from my cheap ass.

      source
  • aion@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    depends on what you are looking for. grml and kali are linux distros that focus on diagnosing.

    source
    • Case@unilem.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

      Kali was built out as a penetration testing distro, though it does contain some diagnostic tools.

      Not a bad place to start if you’re used to Debian, but it is a rolling release so it may break unexpectedly, or have new bugs introduced with each update.

      A persistent USB with just Debian could have all the same tools installed but have a longer support scope on releases so you don’t have to update daily (bleeding edge) which is nice to reduce read/writes to the flash drive it’s on.

      That being said, I keep a Kali live image (persistent) but thats becauae its home - my first introduction to Linux was 5 minutes with Red Hat, but aside from a brief intro in highschool, I really started with Linux in Backtrack, offensive security’s predecessor to Kali.

      Yes, I have to learn things the hard way lol.

      source
  • bamboo@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I’ve gotten good mileage out of just an Ubuntu live image. If the network is working you can install packages via apt like normal, but they include a lot of the basics already.

    source
  • nottheengineer@feddit.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    I just use debian for my ventoy. But all you really need is a proper partition manager.

    source
  • Arsecroft@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

    i like finnix a lot

    source