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Some notes on Live Linux distros
written December 10, 2021 by TimeTraveler
Category: SupportNote Tags: Debian; Fedora; Ubuntu; Most Popular; USB Collections #40
When you boot into a Live Linux distro, you are loading a complete, fully functional operating system on your system without affecting the existing installed operating system on the hard drive. This flexibility is truly awesome for certain purposes, such as inspecting a system without having to use the installed OS, grabbing a file without the need for logging into a system (which is why the physical control of the system is an important security issue, and partially why UEFI came to be), and the ability to check out a Linux distro without going through a whole install process. To someone who just uses their computer for work and doesn't have any technical know how or need, this particular capability isn't all that important, but for those technically inclined, it adds an important resource to your toolset, and also is just plain cool.
The LinuxCollections.com USB collections provide all sorts of options - all the Fedora flavors, all the Ubuntu flavors, all the Debian flavors, and the most popular collection. Not only can you explore the different desktops, you can see dedicated versions like Ubuntu Studio (for musicians/graphic artists/etc.), or Fedora Python Classroom, Fedora Robotics, and many others.
When you get booted into the OS, we sometimes get questions about where the ISO files are, or what is the root user (superuser) password. To address these specific items, we list the details below.
Where to find the ISO files, mounted location of the booted USB partition on these distro families:
- Debian = /run/live/findiso
- Fedora = /run/initramfs/isoscan
- Linux-Lite = /isodevice
- Linuxmint = /isodevice
- Manjaro = /run/miso/img-dev
- MX Linux = /live/iso-dev
- openSuSE = /run/initramfs/isoscan
- Ubuntu = /isodevice
On most live distros, it is suggested you use sudo to run a superuser/administrator command, e.g. sudo /sbin/fdisk /dev/sda
If you quickly want to get to the root prompt, on just about all live distros you can use sudo su, which is the su command (SuperUser) - normally you would be asked for the root password, but just about all treat it as an authorized command for the current user because of the sudo configuration. So by typing sudo su you get dropped into the root prompt as the root user. At this point, you can use passwd if you want to establish your own (known) password.
Note that some distros do require a root password or a sudo password - on MX Linux, the demo user's password is "demo", and the root user's password is "root". Some other root passwords are blank (empty/none), i.e. just hit return, or "live". On Debian the live user name is user with password "live"
Debian Buster (10) sources.list example
written March 2, 2021 by Time Traveler
Category: SupportNote Tags: Debian; Buster; sources.list; apt; apt-get #33
So let's say your at the point that you've installed Debian onto a hard drive, and you want to get updates from the internet. Depending on the exact sequence at install, your /etc/apt/sources.list will reference the installation media. Below are some basic examples for modifying your sources.list with notes on why & what. For more details on what goes in sources.list, you can use man sources.list.
The sequence of updating sources.list is to comment out existing entries (unless you also want to use these), and then add the appropriate "new" sources. Once the files sources.list is updated and saved, you run apt-get update to query the sources and get package information. (Watch for any errors or issues during this process). Once you have performed this step, you can then check for upgrade information: apt-get upgrade. These all need to be performed as superuser (login as root or use sudo).
From then on, to check for updates you just need to run:
apt-get update[Enter]
apt-get upgrade[Enter]
The following entries for sources.list use ONLY the Debian sources (main)
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security/ buster/updates main
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian-security/ buster/updates main
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-updates main
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-updates main
The following entries for sources.list use Debian sources PLUS contributions and non-free options (main, contrib, non-free) This configuration may be required for certain packages and to access proprietary add-ons.
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib non-free
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib non-free
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security/ buster/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian-security/ buster/updates main contrib non-free
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-updates main contrib non-free
This is an alternate way if you wish to specify server location (example is country code us for United States, list of available servers at debian.org)
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ buster main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ buster main contrib non-free
This is an alternate entry for security (e.g. security updates only)
deb http://security.debian.org/ buster/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ buster/updates main contrib non-free
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