GParted 1.2.0 Live CD & USB Image: Nimble and Effective

Continuing the theme of Debian based rescue distributions, simply because most of them are built on Debian, I am looking at GParted this week as last one in this short series. GParted is of course known as a tool to work with and edit partitions that is included with most distributions where it could be considered a de facto standard. But it also lends its name to a rescue CD image where it is at the centre of the collection of tools.

Rescatux 0.73: Rescuing GNU/Linux and Microsoft Systems with Rescapp

According to the Distrowatch summary "Rescatux is a Debian-based GNU/Linux live distribution that includes a graphical wizard for rescuing broken GNU/Linux installations." It features a graphical interface where one can choose a task to perform, including the option to restore the GRUB bootloader, Linux and Windows password resets, and Linux file system checks. Being based on Debian (Stable) it is using the Linux kernel 4.19.0-8 and systemd in the background. Right off the bat this could be a problem for machines needing a newer kernel but it was ok for my hardware, the newest machine now being around 20 months old.

Rescuezilla 2.1: Caped Tux to the Rescue?

Rescuezilla, not to be confused with Rescatux which is based on Debian, "is a specialist Ubuntu-based distribution designed for system rescue tasks, including backups and system restoration."(1) It is a fork of Redo Backup and Recovery after that was abandoned and like its predecessor allows a bare-metal restore after any hardware failure directly from the live image. It works as a live CD/USB image and can be used to work with Linux, OS X and Windows, automatically searches a local area network for drives to backup to or restore from and can recover lost or deleted data files. Rescuezilla uses a basic LXDE as graphical desktop. So far the advertisement.

7 Alternatives to Kubuntu

Kubuntu is of course a valid distribution in its own right and the case for it has been stronger again ever since Linux Mint cancelled their own KDE edition in 2018. On top of that Kubuntu serves as a base for KDE Neon. Nevertheless, one or the other user might want to look at other alternatives and options to run a pre-configured and set up Plasma Desktop. A ready-made one because the desktop environment can be installed on top of any distribution base.

Kanotix 'Silverfire' - Underappreciated but still going strong

Kanotix is one of those Linux distributions I keep coming back to. I last reviewed it in 2011 when Kanotix 'Hellfire' based on Debian 6 was new. Since then it's been rather quiet but the project is still going strong but it might have slipped under the radar of many Linuxers over the years. Kanotix is always based on the latest Debian stable but development builds are also available and it still has some tricks under its sleeve.

The LiveSlak Project: Running Slackware-Current Live Images With or Without Persistence and Installing Them

Eric Hameleers has unofficially contributed to Slackware for what feels like forever. He not only runs his blog Alien Pastures dedicated to Slackware and offers a huge selection of packages pre-compiled on his vanilla systems, readily available for our perusal. He also offers the Ktown repository with updated packages of KDE4 and the next generation Plasma desktop for both the stable and testing branches of Slackware. He also started the Slackware Live project based on his own LiveSlak scripts to give people an opportunity to run Slackware current without committing to an install and to get an idea what the next version will be like.

LXpup – More Than Just Puppy Linux With LXDE

In case it wasn’t evident from the name, LXpup is a custom distribution spin made from Puppy Linux with the LXDE user interface. I should say by default, because the developer also distributes modules of several other popular desktop environments, but more about that later. Just remember that the user can substantially change the look and functionality of the desktop, so even if LXDE is not your thing this spin might still be for you. Read the full story over at Muktware.com.

Jibbed - NetBSD Based Live CD (Updated 19/01/13)

There aren't exactly many live CD's based on one of the BSD's around, and unfortunately over the years several more have gone the way of the Dodo. One such project was TrueBSD which is now described as dormant, not having seen a release in 4 1/2 years, and no final for even longer. It seemed promising but C'est la vie. The developers and a few hardcore users still keep an IRC channel active and refuse to admit that it's dead, but don't hold your breath.

Slax 7.0 Getting Closer

Since the announcement that he has secured some major corporate sponsors for taking up the development of Slax again Tomas M has been hard at work. You can read about the ongoing updates on his blog if you want to follow how the next Slax is taking shape.

Three Spins You May Not Have Heard Of

Always on the lookout for something interesting I found three more esoteric spins of major distributions and set out to give them a quick test run.
This was helped by a streak of bad luck recently which resulted in me suddenly having two partitions available.

Linux light - SliTaz GNU/Linux and SliTaz-Aircrack-ng

Once upon a time there was DSL (Damn Small Linux) which provided a full workable system in a 50 MB image. I used to have it on a small partition for repair and rescue tasks on my desktops. It was never or at least very rarely needed as I recall, but I liked the pre-set radio stations in XMMS and the backgrounds and conky config in DSL, so I ended up running it more and more over Zenwalk 2.6, which at the time was using a very half-baked early XFCE 4.4, if only to listen to internet radio on a geeky minimalistic looking box.

ArchBang 2011.10 Released

Hooray, yet another ArchBang release barely a month after the last. I think Will likes to give us options as he keeps changing things around.
Chromium is out again and Firefox Nightly is now the browser of choice. The Openbox Applications menu now has icons. Not sure if that might slow loading time down a bit. You can now edit keyboard layout configuration while installing ArchBang, and the Getting Started help has been updated. Read the release announcement here.

Zenwalk 7.0 Live - Teaching tool and installable live system

This is a repost of the article on OStatic, slightly updated. The original article has since been deleted.

On 8th May the Zenwalk project released its Live CD of Zenwalk Linux 7.0. Currently Zenwalk offers the main Xfce edition, a Core edition which foregoes the X windowing system and is intended to be a starting point to building a custom desktop or server system, an edition with Openbox as window manager, an older Gnome version that is still at version 6.4, and the Live CD version of the edition based on the Xfce desktop environment.