openSUSE Rescue CD

openSUSE Rescue CD is an open source and freely distributed Linux-based operating system that provides users with an easy way to rescue broken OSes, as well as to recover lost data from defect disk drives.

Distributed as 32-bit/64-bit Live CDs

The flavor is available for download as two Live CD ISO-hybrid images, which can be uses as-is from USB flash drives or from CD discs. They cannot be used to install or upgrade an openSUSE operating system, even though the “openSUSE installer” emblem is highlighted on the boot prompt.

Even if it’s created by the openSUSE Project, the Live CD reviewed here can be used to rescue any other open source Linux-based operating system, as well as some BSD and Solaris ones, and even the commercial Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X OSes.

Boot options

If you want to use a different language (it defaults to English (US)), add a specific boot parameter, or switch to a different video mode, you can do so directly from the boot prompt of the Live CD.

Uses the Xfce desktop environment

This is a specially crafted rescue CD, as it features the lightweight Xfce desktop environment, which is comprised on a single panel from where users can access the main menu and interact with running applications.

Default applications

It uses the Thunar file manager, Midori web browser (with separate Private mode), XChar IRC client, lftp sophisticated file transfer shell, Ristretto image viewer, Grsync rsync GUI, Leafpad text editor, Xarchiver archive manager, Bulk Rename utility, and GParted disk partitioning tool.

In addition, it comes with three terminal emulators (XTerm, Xfce Terminal and Linux 32-bit Terminal), a network connections manager, Xfce application finder, YaST control panel, and the Midnight Commander two-panel file manager.

Bottom line

All in all, we find the openSUSE Rescue CD project a pretty pompous distribution for system rescue and recovery tasks. There are better and smaller alternatives out there.