this post was submitted on 21 May 2024
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Within the GNU/Linux ecosystem there are all kinds of tools to diagnose the system, or rather, to check the state of the hardware, but there are few distributions specifically designed to perform this task, or at least that I know of, because the only distribution I know that is intended to diagnose the computer, (Or ​​at least one of the components), is memtest86+, so I would like to know what other distributions exist in addition to the one mentioned above

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[–] ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org 12 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Systemrescue is a pretty fine live system for such tasks. It's mostly centered around data recovery, and recovering a fucked up distro by having firefox, keepass and such. It starts in a text terminal, but it only takes a startx to start a graphical environment.

[–] ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I can't tell you what I would do for a remindme bot now to know to check back later

[–] AnEilifintChorcra@sopuli.xyz 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org 1 points 7 months ago
[–] manito_manopla@lemmy.ml 3 points 7 months ago

It looks pretty good. I remember another distribution called kaspersky rescue disk, but it was mostly focused on malware analysis and removal, but it seems that it was discontinued

[–] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

SystemRescue and GParted live are the ones I always keep around on a Ventoy drive.

Also a live ISO for the distribution you're currently using would be a good idea, if they make one. It can help a lot to attempt a rescue with something that knows where everything is on that particular distro. It makes it a lot easier to regenerate a Grub menu or recover a borked package manager or other distro-specific stuff like that.

[–] ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yeah you're right, I even needed to use my distro's live system (which is also the installer) a few times to reinstall grub after something overrode it, so that too.

What's your use case for the gparted system, though? Systemrescue also contains gparted, and it also has a better quality environment (easier to switch keyboard layout, I think correct display resolution from the start, fewer questions on startup)

[–] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 1 points 7 months ago

Belt and suspenders mostly, sometimes one ISO will boot on one PC where another won't.

[–] Kory@lemmy.ml 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Back in the day we used Knoppix, I know it still exists, but no clue if it's still viable?

[–] manito_manopla@lemmy.ml 2 points 7 months ago

Knoppix still exists, but it is not as used as before

[–] d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Medicat USB has a few hardware diagnostics tools on it. It's based on Ventoy, so it's more like a collection of ISOs as opposed to a single distro.

[–] manito_manopla@lemmy.ml 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Something like that I was looking for, not exactly a collection of ISOs, but a live iso that had several tools to make a diagnosis, rescue files, and do a malware analysis. Because there is malware that can hide at system startup. Already a conventional antivirus can make it very difficult to detect it.

[–] d3Xt3r@lemmy.nz 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

You can sill use Medicare to create the USB and then add your favorite antimalware rescue CD to it, like the Kaspersky/Avira ones, but if it's an unknown malware you'd have to use other analysis tools like Sysinternals RootkirRevealer, Autoruns etc. If you want to fix Windows stuff then it's best to get a WinPE-based live CD with these tools, like Sergei Strelec, Gandalf etc.

[–] kylian0087@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 7 months ago

Something like gparted ? It is specifically designed to manage disks and partitions from a live OS.

[–] Steamymoomilk@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Parted magic

Gparted Live

Rescuetux

RefiFind < this one saves me alot when i brick my bootloader :)

[–] Cyber@feddit.uk 1 points 7 months ago

Yeah +1 for Parted Magic - I've been using it for years, professionally.

Has hardware stress testing, SMART checking, etc.

It costs actual money, but that's the fee for creating the whole thing, which I'm fine with... I could make something similar with a Live USB distro (I use Arch btw), but Parted Magic can run entirely in RAM, so after booting you can remove the boot stick - useful for machines with only 1 USB port - and I've not worked out how to do that with my own DIY live distro

[–] Pacmanlives@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago