BG-Rescue Linux

BG-Rescue Linux is a free, very small and open source operating system based on the award winning Debian GNU/Linux distribution and designed from the ground up to be used for system rescue operations.

Distributed as a dual-arch Live CD of only 3.3MB in size

The distribution can be downloaded via Softoware or directly from its official website as a single, dual-arch Live CD ISO image that recognizes both 32-bit or 64-bit architectures. Having only 3.3MB in size, this is definitely the smallest system rescue CD based on Debian.

Boot options

At the text-mode boot prompt, the user can just hit the Enter key to boot the live environment, which will start pretty fast, or choose one of the predefined screen resolutions. During the boot process, you can choose to enable LVM support, as well as to active your network device.

The smallest Debian-based system rescue CD

BG-Rescue Linux is engineered in such a way that it can run entirely in RAM, supports a wide range of hardware components and filesystems, and it can serve as a full backup and restore system for Microsoft Windows OSes that use the FAT12, FAT16 or FAT32 filesystems.

Includes open source CLI utilities for system rescue and data recovery tasks

Among the pre-installed command-line utilities for system rescue/administration or data recovery tasks, we can mention dosfstools, bzip2, cmdftp, cabextract, cramfs, e2fsprogs, lilo, gpart, loadlin, mdadm, lphdisk, ms-sys, pcmcia-cardmgr, ntfsprogs, progsreiserfs, smbclient, reiserfsck, syslinux, umsdos-utils and zip.

Bottom line

Overall, BG-Rescue Linux is one of the smallest system rescue CD operating systems that will help system administrators to repair broken OSes, as well as to recover data from damaged hard disk drives.

For a complete list of included packages, supported hardware, installation instructions, as well as other useful documentation, do not hesitate to check out the project's home page.

What is new in this release:

• Added CIFS-support to the kernel and with that finally added support to mount samba/cifs shares from Windows systems. This was a major goal.
• Updated busybox, dd_rescue, dosfstools, e2fsprogs, lrzip and ntfs-3g_ntfsprogs to the latest available releases.
• Removed the dvdrw-kernel-patch and some kernel-options: serial, reiserfs.
• Updated busybox to 1.21.0 (including patches: mdev, platform, xz)
• Updated dd_rescue to 1.31
• Updated dosfstools to 3.0.14
• Updated e2fsprogs to 1.42.7
• Updated lrzip to 0.614
• Updated ntfs-3g_ntfsprogs to 2013.1.13

What is new in version 1.1.1:

• Updated the linux kernel 2.4, busybox and some of the integrated programs to the latest versions.
• Upgraded lrzip to the latest version 0.551 which compiles again without patching thanks to Con Kolivas.
• Changed the autorun file to prevent the readme file to open on windows systems. Let's hope the nice icon will still work.
• And by the way ... HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!
• Updated busybox to 1.18.1 (with losetup-2.4, bzip2, cpio, hush patches)
• Updated dosfstools to 3.0.11
• Updated e2fsprogs to 1.41.14
• Updated linux kernel to 2.4.37.11
• Updated lrzip to 0.551

What is new in version 1.1.0:

• Updated linux kernel to 2.4.37.10, added HIGHMEM support and changed the architecture to strictly monolithic kernel without modules.
• Updated uClibc to 0.9.31 and gcc to 4.2.1. Updated the linux kernel, busybox, dosfstools, lrzip and ntfs-3g to the most recent releases.
• Dropped PCMCIA and umsdos support.
• Updated busybox to 1.18.0 (with losetup-2.4 patch)
• Updated dosfstools to 3.0.10
• Updated linux kernel to 2.4.37.10
• Updated lrzip to 0.543
• Updated ntfs-3g to 2010.10.2
• Updated uClibc to 0.9.31
• Readded cabextract 0.6
• Readded cloop to 2.6.31.1.1
• Readded cmdftp to 0.9.7
• Readded cramfs 1.1
• Readded dd_rescue 1.14
• Readded device-mapper 1.01.05
• Readded e2fsprogs to 1.41.12
• Readded gpart 0.1h (wich Debian patches)
• Readded lilo 22.8
• Readded LVM2-lite 2.01.00
• Readded mdadm to 2.6.7.2
• Readded ms-sys to 2.2.0
• Readded ntfsprogs 2.0.0
• Readded regutils 0.10
• Readded samba 1.9.18p8
• Readded syslinux 3.60
• Readded tphdisk
• Readded zip 2.32
• Removed pcmcia-cs 3.2.8

What is new in version 1.0.0:

• The whole system was recompiled usind uClibc 0.9.30.1 with the provided root system. The kernel was upgraded to the recent 2.4.37.9. Most of the included programs could be upgraded to recent versions.
• Changed kernel configuration options are:
• * Added ACPI support instead of APM
• * Added "Device Manager" and with it LVM2 support instead of LVM1
• * Removed "matgh emulation"
• * Removed ntfs (use ntfs-3g instead)
• Integrated kernel patches are: cloop-2.01, dvdrw, fuse-2.5.3, lzma+inittar, pocketboy, rescue, sc92031.
• Added support for the both Macintosh filesystems HFS and HFS+.
• Integrated the needed userspace tools for LVM2. Due to space reasons I integrated only a somewhat stripped down version of LVM2, which is only able to start and stop LVM2 devices but not to maipulate them. At least it is possible to mount LVM2 devices now.
• Removed support for umsdos and for the ntfs kernel driver (use ntfs-3g instead).
• Added swiss keyboard layouts.
• Added device-mapper 1.01.05
• Added lrzip 0.46
• Added LVM2-lite 2.01.00
• Updated busybox to 1.17.1 (with losetup-2.4 patch)
• Updated cloop to 2.6.31.1.1
• Updated cmdftp to 0.9.7
• Updated dosfstools to 3.0.9
• Updated e2fsprogs to 1.41.12
• Updated linux kernel to 2.4.37.9
• Updated mdadm to 2.6.7.2
• Updated ms-sys to 2.2.0
• Updated ntfs-3g to 2010.5.22
• Updated uClibc to 0.9.30.1
• Readded cabextract 0.6
• Readded cramfs 1.1
• Readded dd_rescue 1.14
• Readded gpart 0.1h (wich Debian patches)
• Readded lilo 22.8 Readded ntfsprogs 2.0.0
• Readded pcmcia-cs 3.2.8
• Readded regutils 0.10
• Readded samba 1.9.18p8
• Readded syslinux 3.60
• Readded tphdisk
• Readded umsdos_progs 1.32
• Readded zip 2.32
• Removed progsreiserfs 0.3.0.5
• Removed reiserfsprogs 3.6.20
• Removed rzip 2.1