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Comparing system rescue distros

First Aid Kit

Article from ADMIN 87/2025

By Martin Gerhard Loschwitz

Rescue systems play a particularly important role for desktops because they cannot simply be reinstalled on the fly. We look at venerable but outdated Knoppix and three still in development: Grml, SystemRescue, and Finnix.

The heyday of rescue systems for Linux and other computers is over: Popular solutions such as Rescatux have been orphaned or their development has at least been paused for several years. Knoppix isn't doing too much at the moment either, although version 9.1 from January 2021 is still available [1] and was featured in the June 2021 Linux Magazine [2]. Developer Klaus Knopper is now very busy as a lecturer and Vice President for Digitalization at the Kaiserslautern University of Applied Sciences.

At least three genuine rescue systems still exist and are under active development: Grml, SystemRescue, and Finnix. In this article, I take a closer look at the trio and also at the veteran Knoppix.

Knoppix

Anyone who has spent a few years in IT is guaranteed to have some kind of memories of Knoppix (Figure 1), which was considered for many years the best choice for trying out the free Linux operating system. The system was largely developed and maintained by Klaus Knopper and enjoyed massive fame because of its inventor, especially within the German-speaking Linux community. Knopper has long been a respected keynote speaker at conferences and trade fairs such as LinuxTag. What's more, in the distribution's heyday, numerous administrators used Knoppix to repair systems (e.g., damaged in the course of updates). In this respect, Knoppix has always been regarded as a powerful rescue system.

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