Ask HN: Good, general-purpose Linux LiveCD?
Knoppix sadly appears to be a moribund project. Does anyone have a recommendation for a generally useful Linux LiveCD? I could simply download the live versions of Ubuntu or Debian, but I really liked the live-first, all-purpose nature of Knoppix.
26 comments
All of the below are specifically designed to be run without a traditional installation process, each with their own elaborate persistence schemes (which go far beyond your regular distro's live cd + persistence)
(listed in my personal order of preference)
1. Fatdog64
Puppy linux inspired, but really it's own distro. Built from the ground up (LFS & BLFS), with careful attention applied to minimizing dependencies. Resulting in a very lean setup.
They use Slackware's basic pkging tools, but again - they build everything from scratch. So you can think of it as an "alternative minimalistic Slackware", done by someone other than Patrick V.
The layered filesystem is done a bit better than puppy linux (IMHO), and unlike puppy, it can be configured as a proper multiuser system.
The more you delve into Fatdog's innards, the thoughtfulness behind its basic design shows through. Included are a range of scripts to quickly run fatdog within fatdog (to compile and test new pkgs, or just to sandbox an app, or whatever).
Also, the entire set of build "recipes" used to create the set of slackware'd tarballs which make up Fatdog are themselves provided.
For what it's worth, I moved some of my boxes onto Fatdog many years ago, after 10+ years of being purely on gentoo.
2. puppy linux
VoidPup is my favorite here.
3. pure Slackware?
Porteus.
I used this quite heavily a decade ago. It has been refreshed to Slackware15. Portuex ( a derived fork, see it in the portues forum) tracks slackware current, so it should be very up-to-date.
4. Debian-based?
AntiX (very lean, with runit and nicely pre-configured window managers) or MX (more mainstream debian).
You can think of them as 2 flavors maintained by essentially the same group of developers.
Consider AntiX, with repo's switched to sid.
(listed in my personal order of preference)
1. Fatdog64
Puppy linux inspired, but really it's own distro. Built from the ground up (LFS & BLFS), with careful attention applied to minimizing dependencies. Resulting in a very lean setup.
They use Slackware's basic pkging tools, but again - they build everything from scratch. So you can think of it as an "alternative minimalistic Slackware", done by someone other than Patrick V.
The layered filesystem is done a bit better than puppy linux (IMHO), and unlike puppy, it can be configured as a proper multiuser system.
The more you delve into Fatdog's innards, the thoughtfulness behind its basic design shows through. Included are a range of scripts to quickly run fatdog within fatdog (to compile and test new pkgs, or just to sandbox an app, or whatever).
Also, the entire set of build "recipes" used to create the set of slackware'd tarballs which make up Fatdog are themselves provided.
For what it's worth, I moved some of my boxes onto Fatdog many years ago, after 10+ years of being purely on gentoo.
2. puppy linux
VoidPup is my favorite here.
3. pure Slackware?
Porteus.
I used this quite heavily a decade ago. It has been refreshed to Slackware15. Portuex ( a derived fork, see it in the portues forum) tracks slackware current, so it should be very up-to-date.
4. Debian-based?
AntiX (very lean, with runit and nicely pre-configured window managers) or MX (more mainstream debian).
You can think of them as 2 flavors maintained by essentially the same group of developers.
Consider AntiX, with repo's switched to sid.
MX Linux became my go to for both installations and liveCDs several years back and has been more stable than any Ubuntu or mint release I ever had.
I'll add that MX Linux is specially well suited to be a Linux Live system, with several quality of life details, I really encourage you to try it!
My memory has faded, but you'd be surprised at how easy it can be to 'roll your own' ISO.
It may be worthwhile to look at the big distributions (Fedora, Debian, SUSE, Arch, etc) and see if you can find anything that fits your taste.
It can be as simple as 'inserting a coin and pulling the lever'; I recall listing some extra packages and running a command to download the assets/press the ISO.
Nix(OS?) tries to be something like this IIRC, but it's less "provide something extra" and more... start by defining the nucleus.
It may be worthwhile to look at the big distributions (Fedora, Debian, SUSE, Arch, etc) and see if you can find anything that fits your taste.
It can be as simple as 'inserting a coin and pulling the lever'; I recall listing some extra packages and running a command to download the assets/press the ISO.
Nix(OS?) tries to be something like this IIRC, but it's less "provide something extra" and more... start by defining the nucleus.
I run LinuxMint MATE on my desktop and have done so for years. If I need a LiveCD/LiveUSB, I just use my LinuxMint USB install stick.
I also have a complete system installed on a 64gig or greater USB stick, as a portable backup system. But I have rarely used it. I say 'stick', but it's a tiny little flat tab thing about 2cm by 1cm by 1mm. (looks a bit like two micro-SD cards stuck end to end.) It lives on the key-ring holding my bank-fobs.
I also have a complete system installed on a 64gig or greater USB stick, as a portable backup system. But I have rarely used it. I say 'stick', but it's a tiny little flat tab thing about 2cm by 1cm by 1mm. (looks a bit like two micro-SD cards stuck end to end.) It lives on the key-ring holding my bank-fobs.
I suspect that's the best solution: install Linux onto a USB drive. I liked that Knoppix was a curated setup, and that it was on read-only media.
I liked that Knoppix .... was on read-only media.
That's the bit that used to annoy me a lot. Invariably I wanted to add something to the LiveCD, or to transfer a largish amount of data. The read-only aspect of things got in the way.
With a complete 'system on a stick', you can install extra packages if you want, you can even do development at a pinch, mainly bash scripts.
That's the bit that used to annoy me a lot. Invariably I wanted to add something to the LiveCD, or to transfer a largish amount of data. The read-only aspect of things got in the way.
With a complete 'system on a stick', you can install extra packages if you want, you can even do development at a pinch, mainly bash scripts.
You could use a live usb stick instead of a cd using Ventoy. It is a boot manager to boot isos or even vmdk files just by putting it onto your usb stick...
I use this together with some iso suggestions of my article: https://pilabor.com/blog/2022/01/the-ultimate-boot-stick/
I use this together with some iso suggestions of my article: https://pilabor.com/blog/2022/01/the-ultimate-boot-stick/
Puppy Linux would be my first choice today, but it’s just a personal preference.
I tried a couple of puppies on my ThinkPad Z13 (Ryzen 6000 series) and couldn't get it to start X no matter what I tried. Eventually even one of the puppy devs (for QuickPup) gave up on my issue.
No other distro has this issue on my laptop, but then again, they all use/support Wayland.
Is there a Puppy out there that uses Wayland?
No other distro has this issue on my laptop, but then again, they all use/support Wayland.
Is there a Puppy out there that uses Wayland?
Vanilla Dpup (https://vanilla-dpup.github.io/) has an Xwayland version.
It is based on Debian 12 and uses its default kernel version 6.1.x,
so it should support newer hardware.
Unofficial Puppy Linux derivatives are not very easy to discover. I found Vanilla Dpup by sheer luck on GitHub yesterday. (I had contributed to a previous distro by the same developer and was going through my PR and issue history.) After about an hour of testing, it seems to be the most practically usable current Puppy variant. (I am comparing it to https://debiandog.github.io/doglinux/ and the official FossaPup64. I haven't tried the official Slackware 15 version.) It's a shame I didn't know about it when I needed a live USB a month earlier.
I like how it has a 2000s-retro GUI theme that looks inspired by Puppy Linux 4, my favorite version in terms of visual design. Compare https://github.com/vanilla-dpup/vanilla-dpup.github.io/blob/... and https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Puppy_Li....
Unofficial Puppy Linux derivatives are not very easy to discover. I found Vanilla Dpup by sheer luck on GitHub yesterday. (I had contributed to a previous distro by the same developer and was going through my PR and issue history.) After about an hour of testing, it seems to be the most practically usable current Puppy variant. (I am comparing it to https://debiandog.github.io/doglinux/ and the official FossaPup64. I haven't tried the official Slackware 15 version.) It's a shame I didn't know about it when I needed a live USB a month earlier.
I like how it has a 2000s-retro GUI theme that looks inspired by Puppy Linux 4, my favorite version in terms of visual design. Compare https://github.com/vanilla-dpup/vanilla-dpup.github.io/blob/... and https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/40/Puppy_Li....
Agree on Puppy. I had that running off USB for some old laptops and it did quite well. I used to love Crunchbang for this sort of purpose.
https://crunchbang.org/
Puppy is great though.
https://crunchbang.org/
Puppy is great though.
Is Puppy still maintained? Barry Kauler moved onto EasyOS.
Yes, very much so. With multiple "flavours" based on debian, ubuntu, slackware or void.
Most distros have a live mode for the purpose of setting up the OS and to try the OS before using it. I personally like TailsOS which is geared towards anonymous browsing, but you can use it without even using Tor. You can do all the things you expect from any OS. File handling, viewing of media, etc
I'll check out Tails, thanks.
I literally just copied my desktop's Debian install onto a flash drive & ran systemd-boot installer from chroot (after mount --bind'ing some drives in) and, boom, had a great OS that I knew worked for me!
(Some other thanks also required i guess. Regen your machine-id. I use the auto-mounting partition types but if you don't (most people don't), update your fstab and kernel cmdline.)
(Some other thanks also required i guess. Regen your machine-id. I use the auto-mounting partition types but if you don't (most people don't), update your fstab and kernel cmdline.)
GRML is my livecd weapon of choice. Especially for rebuilding or inspecting systems.
Yep, mine too! I'm looking for a liveCD for my normie cousin, so running a TUI to configure networking won't work. That's why I like Knoppix, as it's closer to what Windows and macOS users experience.
I hope the GRML people are working on a new release, as it's been a year since the last one.
I hope the GRML people are working on a new release, as it's been a year since the last one.
Ventoi + https://minios.dev/ru/#more
Kali Linux is a nice swiss army knife distro.
https://www.kali.org/
https://www.kali.org/
I am surprised nobody suggested Slax yet.
https://www.slax.org/
https://www.slax.org/
SystemRescueCD isn’t too bad.
Kali
hardkorebob(1)