SystemRescue 10.01

A classic helper that has been around since 2003 is SystemRescue (formerly known as SystemRescueCD) [6]. The latest version 10.01 was released in May 2023. You can write the 737MB SystemRescue ISO image to a USB stick or DVD; it does not fit on a CD. You will find an ISO image for SystemRescue on Side B of this month's DVD (systemrescue-10.01-amd64.iso), and Side B also boots directly into the system.

SystemRescue drops you at a root prompt, as many tasks that the system can help you with do not require a graphical interface. But the GUI is only one command away; type startx to start the Xfce desktop.

Some of the features you can use right at the shell prompt are:

• Create, resize, mount, check, and repair Linux and Windows partitions (including NTFS). You'll also find support for LVM volumes.
• Backup and restore hard disk partitions with fsarchiver.
• Copy as much of a defective hard disk as possible with ddrescue and dd_rescue (two similar but not identical tools).
• Recover deleted files; repair boot sectors and super blocks with TestDisk and PhotoRec.
• Copy files across the network with rsync.
• Manage your files and folders with Midnight Commander, a classic two-column, text-mode file manager that works like the ancient Norton Commander.

You can type manual in the shell to read the HTML SystemRescue documentation in the ELinks browser.

When you start X, you can also use the following graphical tools:

• GParted, a comfortable front end for filesystem creation, resizing, and moving (Figure 4); many distributions use it in the installer.

Figure 4: Many distributions use GParted in the installer.

• Xfburn, a tool for creating ISO images and writing them to a CD, DVD, or Blu-ray disc.
• GSmartControl, a tool that reads SMART data from your hard drive and lets you perform self-tests (Figure 5).

Figure 5: SystemRescue includes GSmartControl, which lets you check the health status of your hard disk.

For some reason, SystemRescue also includes the Geany IDE, though no compilers or other development tools are installed.

Because SystemRescue is based on Arch Linux, you can use the pacman command to install missing software; for this article, I added the scrot screenshot tool with:

pacman -Sy scrot

When booting, use the copytoram option (by selecting the second entry in the menu). The boot process will take a bit longer because the whole system is read into a RAM disk, but afterwards, you can remove the boot medium. If you start SystemRescue from a USB stick, you won't notice much of a difference, but if you're running the system from a DVD, you'll hear the disc spinning every time you start a program or run a command in the terminal, and it will take some time to read the data. With copytoram mode, this slowdown will not happen.

On the project website, you find lots of documentation, including a book titled "System Rescue – A Step by Step Guide to Getting Started." The book is from 2022 and slightly out of sync with the latest changes to the distribution, but it is still a good read for getting started. You can download PDF, EPUB, and Mobi versions of this guide [7].

Kali Linux

The final specialty distro on the list is Kali Linux [8]. The Kali Live DVD cannot be called lightweight (with a 3.9GB ISO image size and the Gnome 44 desktop). But like other specialty distributions, Kali has a special focus, and it does not waste space with unnecessary stuff: There's no LibreOffice on the DVD.

If you're training to become a security expert, you're probably already using Kali Linux. The Debian-based distribution aims to be helpful in the fields of pentesting, forensics, and reverse engineering.

In the start menu, all the regular things have been exiled into a Usual Applications folder (this is where you find Office, Graphics, System, and some other menus, most of which are almost empty). The security-related programs have been sorted into 13 numbered categories: 01 – Information Gathering, 02 – Vulnerability Analysis, 03 – Web Application Analysis, 04 – Database Assessment, 05 – Password Attacks, 06 – Wireless Attacks, 07 – Reverse Engineering, 08 – Exploitation Tools, 09 – Sniffing & Spoofing, 10 – Post Exploitation, 11 – Forensics, 12 – Reporting Tools, and 13 – Social Engineering Tools. Also included is the classic network sniffer Wireshark, formerly known as Ethereal (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Kali Linux sorts security tools into 13 categories. In the top right corner, Wireshark analyzes network traffic.

On the Kali website, you will find installer ISO images, virtual machine images, versions that run in the cloud or as local Docker containers, and much more. For example, the developers also offer ARM images for the Raspberry Pi. Before picking and downloading the right version, you might also want to take a look at the Documentation pages. There are two sub-categories, Kali Linux Documentation and Kali Tools Documentation, and if you prefer information on paper, you will find several introductory and reference books on Kali.

Wrapping Up

Daphile, Linux From Scratch, Recalbox, SystemRescue, and Kali Linux are by no means related or comparable, but together they give a glimpse into the diverse world of specialized Linux distros. If you want to see some further examples, visit the DistroWatch site [9] and look at their collection or click the Random Distribution button – there is so much more.