Rescatux & SG2D

Rescatux

Includes Super Grub2 Disk
Fixes GRUB / GRUB2
Check and fix filesystems
Blank Windows password
Change Gnu/Linux password
Regenerate sudoers file
And much more features…
~ 367 MB Size

Super Grub2 Disk

Boots into many systems and GRUB2 ones!
Loads Grub legacy confs (menu.lst)
Optional LVM / RAID support
~ 7.00 MB Size

Rescatux 0.30.2 released

Rescatux 0.30.2 has been released.
A major bug concerning the Kernel selection on boot (64bit or 32bit) has been fixed in this release. If you have Rescatux 0.30 or Rescatux 0.30rc1 please check Rescatux 0.30 64bit kernel not being select ok Bug for a way of workarounding the bug without having to download again the iso.

Downloads:

Go there...
http://www.supergrubdisk.org/

Super Grub2 Disk

The primary purpose of Super GRUB2 Disk is to help you boot into an OS whose bootloader is broken. Second, and almost as important, is to be a tool to learn more about GRUB2 and the booting process.

Difference between Super GRUB Disk and Super GRUB2 Disk

GRUB2 is a complete rewrite of GRUB, and Super GRUB2 Disk is a complete rewrite as well. As Super GRUB2 Disk uses GRUB2, the differences between GRUB Legacy and GRUB2 also apply to the different versions of Super GRUB Disk.

Perhaps the most notable difference between Super GRUB Disk based on grub legacy and Super GRUB2 Disk is that Super GRUB2 Disk does not write to the disk at all, and so cannot rewrite the MBR. Super GRUB2 Disk can only be used to boot a broken system, it cannot fix it directly. Though once a system is booted, re-installing grub is usually just a matter of running “grub-install /dev/sda”.

While there are some features of Super GRUB Disk based on GRUB legacy that will never be included in Super GRUB2 Disk, the opposite is also true. For instance, Super GRUB2 Disk supports booting OSX, loop booting from iso files, booting an OS from USB without USB support in the BIOS, and other features that are not possible with GRUB legacy.

Go there...
http://www.supergrubdisk.org/super-grub2-disk/

Rescatux

Rescatux is a GNU/Linux rescue cd (and eventually also Windows) but it is not like other rescue disks. Rescatux comes with Rescapp. Rescapp is a nice wizard that will guide you through your rescue tasks.

VIDEOS – Boot Info Script, Change Gnu/Linux password, Filesystem check (Fix forced), Generate sudoers, Reset Windows password, Restore grub, Restore Windows MBR, Share Log, Update Grub, Share log on forum videos – VIDEOS

Rescatux features:

Fixes GRUB and GRUB2
Regenerates Debian/Ubuntu grub menues
Check and fix filesystems
Fixes Windows MBR
Blank Windows passwords
Boot Info Script
Change Gnu/Linux password
Regenerate sudoers file

Extra tools:

Synaptic
Gparted 0.7

Resources:

About Rescatux and Super Grub(2) Disk

Super Grub Disk was a tool for fixing GRUB1 (version 0.9X) or booting into your system and it’s deprecated. You can still find its downloads although they are a bit hidden in Super Grub Disk page.

Super Grub2 Disk, contrary to Super Grub Disk, is not able to fix neither GRUB1 (version 0.9X) or GRUB2 (version 1.XX or 2.XX). However you can use it to boot into many systems including Windows, GRUB1 and GRUB2 based ones.

Rescatux is a Debian based live cd that lets you fix your GRUB1 and GRUB2 installations (as per Super Grub2 Disk lacks) but does much more. Here the are some of its features that will be explained in detail in the rest of the article:

Finally there’s the Super Grub Disk’s Halloween edition which it was not a Super Grub Disk formally but a Super Grub2 Disk with some scary messages about your computer being erased. What it’s funny is that as today a major Spanish downloads site offers the 0.9800 version for download. If you think it more carefully you will see that it’s kind of a benevolent trojan so that Super Grub Disk newcomers find that Super Grub2 Disk is the right choice (even if they are scared a bit;)).

A new stable release

More than a year since the latest Rescatux stable release (Rescatux 0.29 at 11 Jul 2011 according to Freecode (former freshmeat).

Rescatux 0.30 has been released as many beta versions that fixed minor problems, updated documentation to the current options and also tried to workaround some usability issues.

Helping newbies

The different approach of Rescatux is found in its main program: Rescapp. Rescapp is a nice wizard that will guide you through your rescue tasks.

At the first glance Rescapp seems to be just a launcher for Rescue tools:

. However it has some Support features that make it unique:

Chat: Open the chat for asking help directly in Rescatux channel.
Share log: After running an option you can share its log (the action registry that it has done) so that in the chat they can help you better. O better, even, you can help debug and fix Rescatux bugs on the fly.
Share log on forum: Prepares a forum post alike text so that you can just copy and paste it in your favourite forum. Logs are nicely inserted into it with [CODE] symbols.
Boot Info Script: Run Boot Info Script option to share your computer configuration (specially boot one).

More than this the non-support features such as:

are being driven with nice wizards :

Features explained

Check and fix filesystems

When a filesystem has some errors in it some bad things might happen. Maybe GRUB1 or GRUB2 cannot find its own files (Grub errors) or the kernels (cannot find file error). Maybe the kernel can be loaded but its initrd stage isn’t able to find the final device root filesystem (Kernel panic – not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs. (initramfs))

This option tries to fix this filesystem errors even if the filesystem seems to be clean and ok.

Blank Windows passwords

The old chntpasswd program has been hacked so that you can use it from a GUI. You can just select your Windows drive and the user you want its password to be reset.

Change Gnu/Linux password

Have you ever forgotten your Gnu/Linux password? Now you can change it from this nice wizard. As always you’re prompted to choose your Gnu/Linux installation and then the user which you want to change its password.

Regenerate sudoers file

Have you ever tried to run an special program as a normal user… but by doing it you have somehow borked your /etc/sudoers file? Don’t panic! Now after baking up your previous sudoers file a new one is generated on the fly. You just have to select which it’s your user.

Restore Grub

Not sure what’s the current situation with Windows 8 and Windows 7 but in previous versions once you reinstalled Windows (because of a virus or whatever reason) you lost your Grub menu. That meant that you couldn’t boot anymore into your Gnu/Linux system. The truth is that you can download the light-weight Super Grub2 Disk and boot into your system in a temporal way.

But how to fix it permanently? If you’re not good at the Gnu/Linux command line you can just use Rescatux’s Restore Grub option.

Update Grub Configuration

Sometimes the Grub configuration is no longer valid. Either your hard disks order at boot have changed (It should only affect to GRUB1) or you have added a new Windows installation and it’s not detected.

Update Grub option let’s you rebuild your Grub configuration files. This option will only work in Debian based distros like Ubuntu.

Restore Windows MBR (BETA)

This option tries to restore Windows MBR but it’s kind of buggy because some users report that it’s not working for them. It probably works with no problem on Windows XP (without dynamic disks) and previous Windows versions. This is the reason why it’s a BETA option.

Super Grub2 Disk

You shouldn’t forget that Super Grub2 Disk is also included in Rescatux.

Architecture detection

Either you have an old 32bit system or a new 64bit system Grub2 integrated into Rescatux will detect it and load the corresponding kernel.

About Rescatux future

There’s so many things to be enhaced in Rescatux that it’s hard to categorize them.

I18N for options (Documentation is already translated)
Document Resclib API
Open development of new options to new developers
Drop zenity menues and focus on pyqt ones
Add extra tools like Parted Magic or System Rescue cd programs even if they don’t have a nice wizard option in Rescapp.
Make Rescapp a Debian Package
Add loopback.cfg file to Rescatux (and any Debian live cd)
Improve option: Restore Grub: Being able to restore non-distribution based GRUB1 installations.
Improve option: Update Grub: Being able to use it in non-Debian based systems. Probably using grub-mkconfig from the live cd.
Fix known bug: Filesystem Check does not prompt Failure when it fails.
Add more translations
Partition assistant for new Gnu/Linux installations where you have to shrink Windows partition
Try to force the installation of packages when an apt-get upgrade or similar has failed
Wipe a filesystem, partition or disk
Recover lost files
Save your non accesible files from Windows even if you cannot boot into it driven by Rescapp wizard.

Where to Download

Just check the Rescatux Download stable section.

How to burn it into a cdrom or put it in a USB

Please check the Rescatux wiki for USB instructions. For the cdrom you can just burn it like any other live cd. Imgburn for Windows and Brasero for Gnu/Linux should help you. Make sure you burn it as an image not as a file.

Go there...
http://www.supergrubdisk.org/rescatux/