 |
|
|
Are you ready to try the best modern lightweight Linux distros and rescue tools?
The 2015 Lite-Speed 32 collection introduces our updated 32-bit selections from well designed, feature-rich,
lightweight and fast Linux distros and tools. Linux stars
range from ultra-tiny TinyCore (15MB) to the very popular Xubuntu (1GB). Distros can be run
"live" direct from USB or installed to hard disk.
Although an 8GB barebones USB installation is an option, for a better experience, a 16GB or larger USB flash drive
is required to add USB "live session" persistence plus our added custom tweaking.
Eight USB persistence files, 8.5GB total compressed to 1GB, are provided for the recommended full installation.
(See important persistence files and backup.)
A companion
This multiboot collection was produced using YUMI from
PenDriveLinux.com.
(If your PC has UEFI, change your UEFI firmware boot settings to Legacy.)
The YUMI Windows and Linux utility program has for years enabled USB flash drives to easily boot into multiple Linux
and utility software collections. To simplify the process (and save a lot of time), we only use YUMI to create the basic
YUMI boot/menu structure (syslinux/grub) for multibooting. You will start YUMI, select the correct USB drive letter,
click the FORMAT box, and select a "fake" dummy ISO file (empty.iso) needed to create that basic structure. After that,
you are done with using YUMI.
Next, we unarchive LS32-A.exe and LS32-B.exe adding all "real" content to your newly created USB YUMI Multiboot
flash drive.
You should have arrived at this web document from a selection on the click-START.cmd or
click-START-WinXP menu.
 |
 |
click-START Menu begin: run YUMI, select USB drive letter, click FORMAT box. Next, cursor down to bottom of distro
list to
Next, we often recommend (option) that you change the USB flash drive's MBR type to UltraISO. This may help your
USB flash drive to be bootable on a wider variety of PC's and notebooks.
The (BootICE) usbMBR utility does not affect files on your USB drive.
| Download: | (1)
KAT torrent search
| (2) Google Drive or Softpedia USB MULTIBOOT (Lite-Speed) |
After YUMI "empty.ISO" and usbMBR actions, run LS32-A.exe + LS32-B.exe + save-[files].exe to transfer Linux software to USB.
Xubuntu 15.04 [ XFCE ] I have to say, Xubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet shattered my expectations. Obliterated them. Overall, I was expecting a distro that would be about as good as its parent. Instead, I got this fine piece of digital machinery, which purrs and meows and growls like a turbo-charged tiger, if this silly metaphor makes any sense. Xubuntu fully supports [my] hardware, including the tricky UEFI stuff, it's fast, robust, elegant, rich in software and features, simple and fun to use, and it works well with anything I've thrown at it. By far the best distro of this year. I don't give out 10/10 lightly, but I'm inclined to do that right now, even though the few tiny problems we've had prevent me from doing that. - Dedoimedo (Igor Ljubuncic)
Peppermint Six [ LXDE ] If you don't mind being joined to Google at the hip, there's a great Linux-based cloud desktop operating system called Chrome OS. It's on Chromebooks. If, however you want a Linux-based cloud desktop operating system where you can rely on non-Google cloud apps, you have another excellent choice: Peppermint. Peppermint borrows the best features from other Debian-Ubuntu-based Linux distributions. For instance, it uses Linux Mint's Nemo file manager. What I like about Nemo is that it makes it easy to mount and manage a wide variety of remote network shares such as Windows SMB shares, WebDAV, and SFTP over SSH. All of which, I might add, I use almost every day on my desktops. While Linux Mint will continue to be my favorite desktop of all, and I'm a huge fan of Chrome OS on Chromebooks, I'll be installing Peppermint on older systems from here on out. Its speed on minimally powered PCs and cloud-based applications makes it an ideal Linux for low-powered PCs. - ZDNet (Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols)
Linux Lite 2.4 [ XFCE ] A delightful, tasteful distro that makes Linux feel like a breath of fresh air. Linux Lite is a distro that finds favour wherever it’s installed, but for some odd reason is often left to one side, or forgotten completely when the talk turns to fresh, lightweight and manageable desktops. We’ve no idea why, but suffice to say that the new version of the distro is an exceptionally good example of what can be achieved when the right combinations of desktop, tools, programs and ideas come together. - Linux Format Magazine
ElementaryOS Freya 0.3 [ Pantheon ] I have a love-hate relationship with Elementary Freya. It has a "cool" vibe to it but out-of-the-box Freya was the buggiest "final release" Linux distro seen in a long time. A promised version 0.31 will fix many of the bugs but given the slow track record, who knows when. The praiseworthy eOS distro philosophy is about (1) Mac OS/X inspired aesthetics through consistent design (2) ease of use and (3) a minimalist approach. Aesthetics is Freya's most successful feature leaving a great initial impression. However, ease of use is a very mixed bag. Annoying bugs that sometimes lead to crashes compounded by impractical choices like ultrathin scrollbars tends to detract from an overall impression of a polished, clean and overall pleasant experience.
The eOS flavor of minimalism is more problematic. Elementary includes very few application programs. That is not always a bad thing, of course, when your goal is simplicity. However, Freya's in-house developed "simple" video player, audio player and Midori's web browser are very limited and ... buggy ... and not at all competitive with better software. One might expect Freya's unusual paucity of software to result in a smaller distro size. Not so. Linux Lite, for instance, has a significantly smaller ISO size and yet includes LibreOffice, VLC Media Player and many more quality software programs. Unfortunately, unlike most modern distros, Freya is also missing common media codecs and Elementary developers chose not to include any Office suite, not even space-frugal Abiword.
Despite its shortcomings, we still love the "concept" of ElementaryOS. However, even in USB "live session" mode, eOS needs a bit of "fixing up". So, building our custom eOS USB persistence file also required a bit more work (and diskspace). Here are the USB live session changes made. When installing ElementaryOS Freya to hard disk, you may want to follow our lead to quash a few bugs, prevent a few problems, and add a few more useful software programs. Then, many of you will want to do an update + upgrade before adding additional software (Office Suite, Skype, etc.) - Goo++
DebianDog Jessie [ XFCE ] DebianDog is a small Debian Live CD shaped to look like Puppy and act like Puppy. Debian structure and Debian behaviour are untouched and Debian documentation is 100% valid for DebianDog. You have access to all Debian repositories using apt-get or Synaptic. DebianDog is set to autologin as root. - Puppy Linux Forums ** Unlike most Puppy distros, DebianDog does not appear to use self-contained software "pets" (.sfs and .tgz files).
LxPup Tahr 15.05.1 [ LXDE ] is a very popular Puppy Linux distro. It is based on Slackware. LxPup and LxPup Tahr look identical but the Tahr version adds some Ubuntu 14.04 compatibility. LxPup Tahr also adds the "Quick Pet" program as an option for adding new software. IMO, this gives Tahr a decisive edge over the basic LxPup. At 251MB, speedy LxPup Tahr is ridiculously small compared to how much functionality it brings. Despite the small size, LxPup includes a first rate web browser and not some barebones and crash-prone hobby browser like Midori and dozens of others. LxPup's Pale Moon web browser is the best Firefox-compatible alternative available. LxPup has also installed the official VLC web plugin (beware of other 3rd party VLC plugins) allowing you to listen to and watch non-HTML5 media formats directly in the web browser (flac, mkv, avi, wmv, divx, mpg and more). - Goo++
Simplicity 15.4 Desktop [ LXDE ] is based on Puppy Linux's LxPup, taking the benefits of the small
and speedy Puppy parent and adding a different
Android X86 4.4 r3 [ KitKat ] If you ever wanted to run Android on a desktop computer or laptop, Android-x86 does just that. It allows users to install the Android OS or just use it directly from a USB flash drive (with USB persistence). The Android X86 4.4-r3 release is based on the Android 4.4.4_r2.0.1 (KTU84Q) with upgraded kernel 4.0.8 and with more drivers enabled to support modern hardware. Our Goo++ custom USB persistence file reduced basic setup time so that a user usually just has to go into Settings to add a Google Gmail account and then, if needed, add a wi-fi network name and password. - Goo++
SliTaz 5.0-RC3 Rolling [ OpenBox ] This 45MB distro is amazing for its size but to maintain that tiny footprint, SliTaz omits any default wi-fi drivers (you must add them manually). SliTaz includes the ultra lightweight Midori web browser (an excellent choice for tiny distros but not for larger ones). Unlike other Linux distros, you are not limited to a single (crashable) USB persistence file. Instead, SliTaz provides an optional home=usb startup parameter that creates two small files and a user directory /tux in the main root directory of your USB flash drive. No startup / shutdown persistence file data copying is required - a faster, more flexible approach to USB persistence. We selected this super lightweight distro for viewing our Lite-Speed offline documentation via Midori. - Goo++
TinyCore 6.3 [ CLI ] At a meager 15MB, the "core" version of TinyCore apparently lacks a GUI
interface (or maybe it just did not work for me). Intended for Linux command line gurus, it is great for quick USB or
hard disk file editing, moving, copying and rescue use. I used it a lot developing and tinkering with this multiboot set.
Access is as simple as
Hiren's Boot CD Lite is our custom rescue and utility distro. It contains a compressed micro version of WinXP plus many dozens of utility programs for Windows, DOS and Linux. We also added extra software and many unix commands. Even so, overall size was reduced to one third of the original Hiren's Boot CD by removing outdated and redundant antivirus and partition software and carefully selecting and removing utility programs that were less effective or problem prone.
Partition Wizard MiniTool 9.0 is based on TinyCore Linux. This cross-platform partitioning software includes partition recovery and other tools beyond what you find with the Gparted partitioning program available in many Linux distros.
Rescatux 0.32b3 is a Linux system rescue CD designed to help users fix broken operating systems that won’t boot anymore. System rescue and data recovery graphical tools are included such as Boot-Repair, GParted, OS-Unistaller, PhotoRec, TestDisk and Clean-Ubiquity. There are also several command-line utilities designed for system rescue/recovery tasks, such as the gpart storage device scanner and extundelete data recovery tool for EXT filesystems.
FreeDOS is still a useful operating system for system rescue and running old MS-DOS programs and games. I added FreeDOS Shell plus old but still useful DOS utility programs written long ago by others and myself. Included are two assembly language compilers, an NTFS enabler, and DOSLFN, a utility that enables modern long filename usage with the Dillo-for-DOS web browser. Look around in the dusty DOS directories to find a few hidden gems you can use.
"FreeDOS has been used for everything from running old DOS programs and games to running embedded systems such as cash registers or display units, and being used to install firmware updates on PC hardware. Many people might find it surprising that more than a decade and a half after Microsoft killed MS-DOS, FreeDOS continues to be actively developed." - Computerworld Australia
Super Grub Disk 2 - a program that helps you boot into your Windows or Linux OS if your hard disk MBR (master boot record) or GRUB has been damaged.
AVG Rescue CD [updated virus definitions] AVG Rescue CD is what AVG Anti-Virus – distributed through Linux – calls its toolkit. A network administrator can use it to run a system recovery for Windows XP and newer Windows operating systems, as well as Linux operating systems. The CD also works for Windows 2003 servers through Windows 2008 Server. You can use AVG Rescue CD to repair damaged machines after a viral attack and to allow the system to restart using a USB stick or CD. This CD is intended for computers that most people would consider dead, meaning that the computer won't boot up or function at all. The AVG toolkit includes a two-panel file manager, a registry editor, along with servers, IP and domain tests and a new copy of basic Linux software. - Top 10 Reviews
--- FINAL INSTALLATION NOTES ---link: USB write speeds and boot problems
(1) For alternative Install from Linux without the Windows click-START.cmd script:
• Download Debian or Ubuntu version of YUMI.
• Run YUMI to format and create YUMI USB boot menu structure by installing the included fake "empty.iso"
• Rename LS32-[A,B].exe to LS32-[A,B].7z and save-[files].exe to save-[files].7z. Then extract distros and files to your USB drive.
(2) Add and remove new Linux and utility distros with the YUMI program. DO NOT format your USB flash drive a second time (removes all of your USB Linux setup). Download and use the latest YUMI version to install newer Linux distros and utility software.
(3) Especially when loading and saving "live" session persistence files, a USB 3.0 flash drive in a USB 3.0 PC port will be much faster than USB 2.0 for "live" or demo use. Be aware that USB flash memory has a maximum number of writes so constant "live" use will eventually cause it to fail (remember to do backups). However, this may take a very long time. So far, we have not had this experience.
(4) On older PCs, some USB flash drives will boot from USB better than others. For example, we had good luck with Kingston (Toshiba) USB flash drives but we have had problems with older SanDisk and newer Patriot USB flash drives. Your PC may be the opposite. If one USB flash drive will not boot on an older PC, trying a different type may work. Also see link (above right) for tips about USB boot problems.
(5) Once you have installed your YUMI distros, you can reboot your PC. On most PCs, you can keep pressing the F12 key until you get a boot menu. Select your USB drive and then your custom YUMI menu should start up quickly.
(6) 32-bit Linux runs well on both 32-bit and 64-bit PCs. The main difference is that without cheating, 32-bit Linux will only use the first 4GB of memory. Modern Linux 32-bit distros typically use PAE memory management to bypass (cheat) the 4GB limitation making this a non-factor. In the past, 32-bit Linux was more stable than 64-bit but today this is less common. Linux tends to be both faster and far more memory efficient than Windows.
(7) Why do we use YUMI instead of other Linux-based multiboot software? YUMI is well known and it works fairly predictably. We have briefly tried a few other multiboot systems but they seemed more difficult and less predictable. We also considered that there are many more Windows users than Linux users. To encourage Windows users to try Linux, we especialy tried to make this easier for them.
 |
 |
| YUMI Main Menu | YUMI Menu - Linux Distributions |
|---|---|
 |
 |
| FreeDOS Lite Speed Start Menu | YUMI Menu - Utility Software |
 |
 |
| Android X86 4.4 r3 - new background | Android X86 - default applications |
 |
 |
| DebianDog Jessie Openbox/XFCE - new background | Elementary OS Freya - modified background/dock/more ... |
 |
 |
| Linux Lite 2.4 - new background | Lx Pup Tahr 15.05.1 pae |
 |
 |
| Peppermint Cloud-Apps+ Linux 6.0 | Simplicity 15.4 - modified background + dock + panel |
 |
 |
| SliTaz 5.0 RC3 with extra launcher links | Xubuntu Linux 15.04 |
 |
 |
| Partition Wizard MiniTool 9.0 | Rescatux 0.32b3 Utility Disto |
Hiren's Lite CD 15.2 - mini-XP | |