Quick-start-guide EN

From SystemRescueCd

Contents 1 About 2 Download and burning 3 Booting from SystemRescueCd 3.1 Main boot images 3.2 Main boot options 3.3 Additional Programs 4 Working in the console mode 5 Working in the graphical environment 6 Setting up your network

[edit] About

This Quick start Guide gives you all the important things you need to know to use SystemRescueCd. This is what you need if it is the first time you use this livecd. If you want more information please read the Online Manual.

[edit] Download and burning

First you have to download the ISO file that is made for your architecture. Most people need the x86 edition that supports both 32bits (IA32) and 64bits (AMD64 / EM64T) processors. The SPARC edition is also available if you have an hardware based on the Sun architecture. Once you have downloaded the ISO image file, you can check it is not corrupt using md5sum. And now you must burn the file. It's important to burn the CDRom using the ISO file as a CD image (click "Burn Image" in Nero, or use cdrecord under Linux) and not to just copy the ISO file on the disc. If necessary you should read the following chapter to have more details about Downloading and burning.

[edit] Booting from SystemRescueCd

Insert the SystemRescueCd and boot your system. If an option to boot from the CD is available, choose it. If the system does not boot from the CD change the the BIOS settings so the CDROM drive has priority over the other boot devices, especially the Hard disk. A successfully boot of SystemRescueCd presents the first screen with SystemRescueCd written in ASCII art.

Press F2/F3/F4/F5/F6 and read advanced boot instructions.

Press Enter to boot with the default options.

There are two parts in the boot command: <boot-image> <boot-options>. For example you may want to boot with rescue64 as boot-image and docache setkmap=uk as boot-options. Use spaces between options. Additional options are at Booting the CD-ROM

[edit] Main boot images

There are four main boot images with SystemRescueCd. The differences are detailed in the kernel page

• rescuecd The default for 32bit systems, with Framebuffer disabled.
• altker32 This is an alternative kernel for 32bit systems. Boot this kernel if you have problems with rescuecd. altker32 was named vmlinuz2

• rescue64 Default 64 bit kernel. Use it if you want to chroot to a 64bit linux system installed on your hard disk, or to run 64 bit programs. This kernel is able to boot SystemRescueCd from the cdrom with 32bit programs, and requires a processor with 64bit instructions (amd64 / em64t).
• altker64 This is an alternative kernel for 64bit systems. Boot with this kernel in case you have problems with rescue64.

[edit] Main boot options

Here are the most important boot options:

• docache: copy all the files it needs to RAM . This permits the sysrescuecd to be ejected and insert another disc in the drive. The system runs faster. Requires at least 256MB of memory.
• setkmap=cc: During the boot process, the system asks for the kind of keyboard. Use this option to avoid that question. Replace 'cc' with the keyboard you have: 'us' for USA, 'uk' for british, 'de' for german, ...
• root=/dev/idxn: the root=<device> option boots an existing linux system. For example, if you have a linux Gentoo installed on /dev/sda6 , type rescuecd root=/dev/sda6 and Gentoo Linux will be started instead of the system on the CD. Use a 64bit kernel if your system has 64bit programs. For instance, you can boot a 64bit linux system installed on /dev/sda6 with rescue64 root=/dev/sda6. From SystemRescueCd-1.0.4, this option works with LVM disks, so you can use something like rescuecd root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00. root=auto will scan the block devices of the computer to find a linux system. The first linux system found on the disks will be started. This allows starting the system from the CD in the event there is a problem with your boot loader or with your installed nkernel . See for more details.
• ide=nodma or all-generic-ide: use these options if there is a problem related to the hard disk, for instance if the kernel boot process hangs on a driver related to the storage.
• doxdetect or forcevesa: use these options if you cannot get the graphical environment to work when you type startx in the shell prompt.
• acpi-off / noapic / irqpool: use these options if you have any problem when the kernel boots: if it hangs on a driver or if it crashes, ...

For more details, you can read the following chapter: Booting the CDROM (kernels and boot options)

[edit] Additional Programs

• Some programs included are normally booted from their own floppy. Press F2 to display the list of the these floppy disk images. For instance memtest runs an extensive memory test. ntpass allows you to change the password of any windows user accounts including the administrator account.

[edit] Working in the console mode

Mount partitions in order to troubleshoot a Linux or a Windows system installed on your disk. You can mount linux filesystems (ext2fs, ext3fs, reiserfs, reiser4, jfs, xfs) and FAT and NTFS partitions used by MS Windows. ntfs-3g (eg: ntfs-3g /dev/sda1 /mnt/windows). You can backup/restore data or operating system files.

Midnight Commander (type mc )is able to copy/move/delete/edit files and directories. The vim and qemacs editors can be used to edit files. Read the list of the main system tools you can use and the documentation related to these programs.

Six virtual consoles are available. Press Alt+F1 for the first virtual console, Alt+F2 for the second one, ...

[edit] Working in the graphical environment

If you need graphical tools (such as GParted) start the graphical environment by typing wizard . There are two graphical environments: Xorg and Xvesa. You should try Xorg first. If Xorg fails to start, run wizard again and choose Xvesa which should always work, the drawback is that it's not optimized for your hardware and it requires a 32bit kernel (rescuecd or altker32), not on 64bit kernels (rescue64 and altker64).

The graphical environment allows you to work with GParted (partition manager), to use graphical editors (Geany or GVim), to browse the web with Firefox and use terminals like xfce-terminal or mrxvt.

[edit] Setting up your network

With SystemRescueCd you can use the network. It's useful to make a backup over the network, download files, work remotely using ssh, telnet or access files that are shared on a Unix server (with NFS) or on a MS Windows system (with Samba).

The most convenient way to configure your network is to type net-setup at shell prompt. You can also use the following command lines to configure a network interface by hand:

If your system has supported hardware, the network interface card (NIC) was auto-detected, and the driver loaded. The interface needs to be assigned an IP address and a default gateway. To use use dynamic configuration, dhcpcd eth0. Use ifconfig -a to display the IP address the DHCP server leased to the interface. To assign a specific static IP address, enter ifconfig eth0 192.168.10.17 . Next the default route is configured. For example, for an interface at address 192.168.10.17 connected to a gateway at 192.168.10.2 enter: route add default gw 192.168.10.2.

More information is at chapter about the network.