Rescatux 0.71-beta7 – Not a review

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Introduction

This last week I have been unable to sleep. Why? My friend adrian15 told me about him releasing another beta version of Rescatux. The last Rescatux beta was released on December 2017. That’s more than a year ago.

He has been hyping me about all those new features that this iso is going to have for the past two months. And he has also bothered me with all the problems he had been finding along the way. He is very persistent because he has finally managed to work around most of them.

So, the first thing I want to point out is that Rescatux, as you might know is usually based on Debian stable. Well, Rescatux 0.51b3 was based on Debian Jessie 8 and Rescatux 0.71 beta is based on Debian Buster 10 which happens not to be a Debian stable because it has not been released yet.

But Debian Buster is frozen and it will be released as Debian stable in less than a year.

Using Debian Buster 10 instead of Debian Jessie 8 as a base means that more recent hardware will be supported out of the box. And that’s great because I recently bought a HP250 G6 2SX60EA laptop and I want to test Rescatux on it. So that I can give adrian15 more work Ha Ha Ha !

The other nice about this iso is the many ways it can be booted. Super Grub2 Disk which has an hybrid boot that supports i386-pc, ia32-efi and amd64-efi boots is from the same author. So you should not an expect an amd64 only disk and an i386 only disk but an hybrid one.

And that’s what you get. Here there is a boot options summary table:

Have you noticed it? Yeah, that’s it. Now Rescatux 0.71 beta 7 gets Secure Boot support from Debian Buster. And it’s Secure Boot which works with Microsoft Secure Boot enabled machines. So we are not going to need to tweak our UEFI firmware to be able to boot Rescatux. Yay!

What more about boot? Yes, there is this liveid thing that adrian15 made up so that some hp laptops that come with live-build installations do not confuse Rescatux boot. That’s supposed to be a new standard for live cds but according to what he has told me not many distros are willing to adopt it.

It’s UUID for live cds he has told me. It should be make easier the work of Yumi, Rufus, Easy2Boot and similar tools if combined with loopback.cfg according to him. Go figure.

Hands on – Boot

Enough talking. Let’s boot the iso and see what we get at.

I’m getting an isolinux menu with a countdown when booted in BIOS mode. Look at that! The poor tux penguin has beta 7 all of over his face! XD XD XD . This needs to be fixed in the next stable release. #FreeTuxFromBeta7

However when I boot in UEFI mode I am not getting a countdown and the default boot entry cannot be seen because it’s white and the background is also white. I remember seeing this same problem in Rescatux 0.51b3. This has not been definitively been fixed.

Rescatux Desktop

What about having a laptop with a semi broken screen? I had to install open-vm-tools-desktop package on my virtualbox instance but I finally managed to make it work with two screens. That way I can show it to you without using a blurry mobile phone photo 😉 . Guess what? Rescatux gets you covered because you can start the monitor settings when monitors are horizontally stretched. The dialogs concerning monitor settings are centered among the two monitors.

So that means that I can finally recover my old broken screen laptop. I just disable my laptop screen and leave enabled the external screen. And there’s no need for me to learn hotkeys and commands to run those screen setup screens manually.

By the way this monitor settings dialog is a part of the new Rescatux startup wizard.

Rescapp was already a wizard for your rescue tasks but adrian15 managed to add this new wizard for the live cd itself. These new Rescatux startup wizard feature are quite neat so that you can customize your Rescatux session.

• Change monitor settings
• Change language/locale
• Change keyboard layout
• Turn off VNC Server or change its password

VNC Server. That is an interesting feature for youtubers and maybe cloud users.

Now Rescatux starts up a VNC server at startup so that you can access it from the network. I have asked adrian15 on how to setup an static ip from boot parametres as I had seen in the past in GRML but he has told me it is not implemented yet. ‘You have to rely on dhcp or setup the static ip manually.’ he has told me. Look at this, we are ready to run Rescapp. Finally! This was getting bored because Rescapp is what matters in this distro.

Is this Rescapp?

What do we have here? This is Rescapp. But this is not the Rescapp that I know of with all those options. Let’s read the windows title:

Rescapp Self-Test

I first thought this screen was meant for people to know if they had boot in Secure Boot or in UEFI mode. That’s useful because when playing with UEFI and BIOS boot I have learnt that every OS in the computer needs to be either boot in UEFI mode or in BIOS mode. Not the two of them mixed.

Later on, while discussing with adrian15 about this option he has told me about him converting rescapp and chntpw (what makes possible to reset Microsoft Windows passwords) into proper Debian packages. As Rescapp is available as an upstream package or as a Debian package it might appear in other distros without being able to show its full potential.

So now when a distro lacks SELinux support you know. If the distro has not packaged the forked version of chntpw that Rescapp uses then you also know. But you are not forbidden of using Rescapp. Maybe SeLinux support (needed by RHEL, Fedora, Centos,…) is not used by your usual distro so it does not affect you.

So Self-test not only helps you to diagnose if you have boot in the proper mode (UEFI or BIOS) but also if your live cd is lacking some of the Rescapp requirements.

After you click on the Start Rescapp !!! button you finally get out beloved Rescapp.

Rescapp not so updated and angry call

I took a depth look into Rescapp for about long thirty minutes but I didn’t see anything relevant. This was confusing. I was expecting some Secure Boot options now that Rescatux could boot from Secure Boot machines. I was expecting him to fullfill all of the options embeded html documentation that I had complained to him when he released 0.51b3 version and I had to dig inside his rescapp scripts to understand them.

I had to phone adrian15.

He laughed at me. He was expecting my call. Too much work on putting up Rescatux up to date and adding all of those fancy wizards was his explanation. When I was going to complain to him about the awful design of the beta7 text in front of the now sad penguin he told me: Pull requests are welcome and he hung up the phone on me!

Rescatux 0.51 beta 3 has been released.

Downloads:

• • Rescatux 0.51 beta 3 Cdrom or USB ISO for x86 or amd64 (Sourceforge)
  • (MD5)

Rescatux 0.51b3 size is about 640 Megabytes.

Some thoughts:

• Boot Repair functionality has been removed from Rescatux. Many people, somehow, were using Boot Repair (by default) inside Rescatux while we don’t support it.
  If you feel Rescapp does not cover all the Boot Repair functionality you can fill a bug for a RFE (Request for Enhacement).
• Rescapp and chntpw are now installed from a Repo. It should be virtually identical to 0.41b1 release. If something doesn’t work as well as before please report a bug so that we can fix it.
• This is the last build based on Debian 8 (Jessie).

Important notice:

• If you want to use the UEFI options make sure you use DD or another equivalent tool (Rufus in ‘Direct image’ mode, usb imagewriter, etc.) to put Rescatux in your USB
• If you want to use UEFI options make sure you boot your Rescatux device in UEFI mode
• If you want to use Rescatux make sure you temporarly disable Secure Boot. Rescatux does not support booting in Secure Boot mode but it should be able to fix most of the UEFI Secure Boot problems if booted in Non Secure Boot mode.

More things I want to do before the stable release are:

• Making all the source code available but as I have mentioned on the Debian Live mailing list it is not easy.
• Make clear that ‘Extra tools’ are not supported renaming them to ‘Extra tools (Non supported)’
• Internal documentation updated
• A new Rescatux website (Optional)
• A new Rescatux tutorial video or videos (Optional)

Let’s hope it happens sooner than later.

Roadmap for Rescatux 0.40 stable release:

You can check the complete changelog with link to each one of the issues at: Rescatux 0.32-freeze roadmap which I’ll be reusing for Rescatux 0.40 stable release.

• (Fixed in 0.40b5) [#2192] UEFI boot support
• (Fixed in 0.40b2) [#1323] GPT support
• (Fixed in 0.40b11) [#1364] Review Copyright notice
• (Fixed in: 0.32b2) [#2188] install-mbr : Windows 7 seems not to be fixed with it
• (Fixed in: 0.32b2) [#2190] debian-live. Include cpu detection and loopback cfg patches
• (Fixed in: 0.40b8) [#2191] Change Keyboard layout
• (Fixed in: 0.32b2) [#2193] bootinfoscript: Use it as a package
• (Fixed in: 0.32b2) [#2199] Btrfs support
• (Closed in 0.40b1) [#2205] Handle different default sh script
• (Fixed in 0.40b2) [#2216] Verify separated /usr support
• (Fixed in: 0.32b2) [#2217] chown root root on sudoers
• [#2220] Make sure all the source code is available
• (Fixed in: 0.32b2) [#2221] Detect SAM file algorithm fails with directories which have spaces on them
• (Fixed in: 0.32b2) [#2227] Use chntpw 1.0-1 from Jessie
• (Fixed in 0.40b1) [#2231] SElinux support on chroot options
• (Checked in 0.40b11) [#2233] Disable USB automount
• (Fixed in 0.40b9) [#2236] chntpw based options need to be rewritten for reusing code
• [#2239]https://www.supergrubdisk.org/wizard-step-put-rescatux-into-a-media/ suppose that the image is based on Super Grub2 Disk version and not Isolinux.The step about extracting iso inside an iso would not be longer needed. Update doc: Put Rescatux into a media for Isolinux based cd
• (Fixed in: 0.32b2) [#2259] Update bootinfoscript to the latest GIT version
• (Fixed in: 0.40b9) [#2264] chntpw – Save prior registry files
• (Fixed in: 0.40b9) [#2234] New option: Easy Grub fix
• (Fixed in: 0.40b9) [#2235] New option: Easy Windows Admin

Changes (0.51b3):

• boot-repair was removed
• rescapp and chntpw fetched from Rescatux repo

New options (0.41b1):

• (Added in 0.41b1) Update UEFI order
• (Added in 0.41b1) Create a new UEFI Boot entry
• (Added in 0.41b1) UEFI Partition Status
• (Added in 0.41b1) Fake Microsoft Windows UEFI
• (Added in 0.41b1) Hide Microsoft Windows UEFI
• (Added in 0.41b1) Reinstall Microsoft Windows EFI
• (Added in 0.41b1) Check UEFI Boot

Improved bugs (0.41b1):

• (Improved in 0.41b1) Now EFI System partitions are shown properly in the Rescapp menues
• (Improved in 0.41b1) Now partition types are shown in partition dialogs in the Rescapp menues
• (Improved in 0.41b1) Now partition flags are shown in partition dialogs in the Rescapp menues
• (Improved in 0.41b1) Now partition os-prober long names are shown in partition dialogs in the Rescapp menues
• (Improved in 0.41b1) Show ‘Unknown GNU/Linux distro’ if we ever fail to parse an /etc/issue file.
• (Improved in 0.41b1) Usability improvement. When moving entries the last entry moved keeps selected.

Improved bugs (0.40b11):

• (Improved in 0.40b11) Many source code build improvements
• (Improved in 0.40b11) Now most options show their progress while running
• (Improved in 0.40b11) Added a reference to the source code’s README file in the ‘About Rescapp’ option
• (Improved in 0.40b11) Not detected’ string was renamed to ‘Windows / Data / Other’ because that’s what it usually happens with Windows OSes

Fixed bugs (0.40b11):

• (Fixed in 0.40b11) [#1364] Review Copyright notice
• (Checked in 0.40b11) [#2233] Disable USB automount
• (Fixed in 0.40b11) Wineasy had its messages fixed (Promote and Unlock were swapped)
• (Fixed in 0.40b11) Share log function now drops usage of cat to avoid utf8 / ascii problems.
• (Fixed in 0.40b11) Sanitize ‘Not detected’ and ‘Cannot mount’ messages

Fixed bugs (0.40b9):

• (Fixed in 0.40b9) [#2236] chntpw based options need to be rewritten for reusing code
• (Fixed in: 0.40b9) [#2264] chntpw – Save prior registry files
• (Fixed in: 0.40b9) [#2234] New option: Easy Grub fix
• (Fixed in: 0.40b9) [#2235] New option: Easy Windows Admin

Fixed bugs (0.40b8):

• (Fixed in 0.40b8) [#2191] Change Keyboard layout

Improved bugs (0.40b7):

• (Improved in 0.40b7) [#2192] UEFI boot support (Yes, again)
  

Improved bugs (0.40b6):

• (Improved in 0.40b6) [#2192] UEFI boot support

Fixed bugs (0.40b5):

• (Fixed in 0.40b5) [#2192] UEFI boot support

Fixed bugs (0.40b2):

• (Fixed in 0.40b2) [#1323] GPT support
• (Fixed in 0.40b2) [#2216] Verify separated /usr support

Fixed bugs (0.40b1):

• (Fixed in 0.40b1) [#2231] SElinux support on chroot options

Reopened bugs (0.40b1):

• (Reopened in 0.40b1) [#2191] Change Keyboard layout

Fixed bugs (0.32b3):

• (Fixed in 0.32b3) [#2191] Change Keyboard layout

Other fixed bugs (0.32b2):

• Rescatux logo is not shown at boot
• Boot entries are named “Live xxxx” instead of “Rescatux xxxx”

Fixed bugs (0.32b1):

• Networking detection improved (fallback to network-manager-gnome)
• Bottom bar does not have a shorcut to a file manager as it’s a common practice in modern desktops. Fixed when falling back to LXDE.
• Double-clicking on directories on desktop opens Iceweasel (Firefox fork) instead of a file manager. Fixed when falling back to LXDE.

Improvements (0.32b1):

• Super Grub2 Disk is no longer included. That makes easier to put the ISO to USB devices thanks to standard multiboot tools which support Debian Live cds.
• Rescapp UI has been redesigned
  • Every option is at hand at the first screen.
  • Rescapp options can be scrolled. That makes it easier to add new options without bothering on final design.
  • Run option screen buttons have been rearranged to make it easier to read.
• RazorQT has been replaced by LXDE which seems more mature. LXQT will have to wait.
• WICD has been replaced by network-manager-gnome. That makes easier to connect to wired and wireless networks.
• It is no longer based on Debian Unstable (sid) branch.

Distro facts:

• Packages versions for this release can be found at Rescatux 0.40b11 packages.
• It’s based mainly on Debian Jessie (Stable). Some packages are from Debian Unstable (sid). Some packages are from Debian stretch.

Don’t forget that you can use:

• Super Grub(2) Mailing list
• Rescatux Forum
• Chat

Help Rescatux project:

I think we can expect four months maximum till the new stable Rescatux is ready. Helping on these tasks is appreciated:

• Making a youtube video for the new options.
• Make sure documentation for the new options is right.
• Make snapshots for new options documentation so that they don’t lack images.

If you want to help please contact us here:

• Super Grub(2) Mailing list
• Rescatux Forum
• Chat

Thank you and happy download!