LiveUSB DogLinux Debian 12 Bookworm (nvidia-drivers, FurMark, Unigine Heaven, ddrescue, WHDD, DMDE) build for hardware testing, maintenance of PCs, laptops

[Статья на русском языке]

In the tasks of maintaining and repairing computers, there is a need for an OS for functional and stress testing. Both during the diagnostic process and after the repair. But often the PCs, laptops arrives for repair with the boot HDD/SSD removed.

Usually, in this case, boot Windows 10 (To Go) from external HDD/SSD. And it's pretty convenient. Since Windows 7 did not have such an opportunity at all. But there are disadvantages - you need to spend time installing and uninstalling device drivers for different generations of hardware, and first boot on each hardware configuration takes too long (Windows logo with "Getting devices ready" screen).

This Linux LiveUSB is designed as an alternative solution to this task. Allows you to check / demonstrate PCs, laptops hardware working, stress-test CPU and GPU, monitor temperature sensors, check S.M.A.R.T. attributes of HDD and NVMe SSD.

Instead of a relatively expensive HDD/SSD with Windows 10 (To Go), even a 2Gb USB flash drive is enough. And several laptops (with hardware of different generations) can be launched from it in copy2ram mode at the same time in turn. Run on each FurMark or Unigine Heaven, and remove the flash drive.

Download: .torrent / magnet-link / drive.google.com

Includes applications such as GPUTest, Unigine Heaven, CPU-X, GSmartControl, GParted, Partimage, Partclone, TestDisk, ddrescue, WHDD, DMDE.

Installation on a FAT32 flash drive with installdog.sh / cmd syslinux.exe. As an alternative, contain config for grub4dos and ventoy_grub.cfg for use with multiboot flash drives.

Features:

• Both UEFI and Legacy/CSM boot modes supported. Including over the network via PXE with NFS. From USB/SATA/NVMe devices, from FAT32/exFAT/Ext2/3/4/NTFS filesystems. Secure Boot is not supported and must be disabled.
• The size of the distribution is optimized for use in copy2ram mode (allows you to remove the USB drive / network cable after loading). In this case, only squashfs modules in use will be copied into RAM.
• Contains three versions of NVIDIA proprietary GPU drivers - current 525.x, and legacy 390.x and 340.x. At boot time, the linuxrc* script automatically determines which driver squashfs module to load (article description in Russian language). Note: AMD and Intel GPUs work with free drivers (don't require installation process, and are already contained as Linux kernel modules + userspace Mesa libraries).
• The default launch option is 64bit Linux 6.1 kernel. NVIDIA 525.x and 390.x driver modules are pre-built.
• Additionally, a 64bit Linux 5.10 kernel is supplied. It must be selected if a legacy 340.x NVIDIA driver is required (390.x is also pre-built). This kernel uses the Broadcom WL WiFi driver for 802.11n adapters, which do not work with free drivers.
• For compatibility with older hardware, a live32 i686 version with Linux 6.1 kernel without PAE is included.
• When launch GPUTest (FurMark) or Unigine Heaven on laptop configurations with switchable GPUs (Intel+NVIDIA, Intel+AMD and AMD+NVIDIA) it detected automatically and set necessary environment variables to run on a discrete GPU.
• When booting with Linux 6.1 kernels (both x86-64 and i686), the new NTFS3 driver from Paragon is used to mount drives instead of NTFS-3G.
• x86-64 Linux 6.1 kernel built with intel-nvme-remap patch from EndlessOS to make NVMe SSDs available on 8th-10th gen Intel Core i3/i5/i7 platforms with "Intel RST Premium With Optane" option enabled in UEFI Setup.
• You can install any software available in Debian and create modules with the necessary additional software. Additional squashfs modules can be activated in run time, not only at boot time.
• Shell scripts and settings can be copied to a flash drive in the live/rootcopy folder and they will be applied at boot time without need to rebuild modules.
• The ability to install using the installdog script to the HDD/SSD of a pre-sale PC / laptop to demonstrate it is functional. The script creates a 2GB FAT32 partition at the beginning of the disk, which is then safe to delete, and does not make changes to UEFI variables (boot options in UEFI firmware).

Build is based on DogLinux - Puppy sized Debian Linux
Bookworm build script. By fredx181
Debian GNU/Linux https://www.debian.org/

Changes from the previous release:

• Build based on upcoming Debian 12 "Bookworm" release.
• Added MPV player (squashfs modules for both x86-64 and i686).
• Added modules (both x86-64 and i686) with proprietary software for HDD/SSD monitoring Hard Disk Sentinel Linux Edition (FREE). When launch from main menu, it generates a html report that opens in the NetSurf browser. NVMe SSDs are supported.
• Updated Chromium 112, CPU-X 4.5.2, PassMark memtest86 10.4, HDAT2 7.5
• Added memtest86+ 6.10 (with UEFI support), and keep legacy 5.01 version available to run.

Featured software list:

• stress CPU stress testing.
• GPUTest (FurMark) and Unigine Heaven GPU stress testing.
• lm-sensors and nvidia-smi CPU/GPU/NVMe SSD temperature sensors monitoring.
• CPU-X view system information (similar to CPU-Z).
• dmidecode view information about hardware as described in BIOS according to the DMI standard.
• GSmartControl and nvme-cli check S.M.A.R.T. attributes of HDD and SATA/NVMe SSD.
• GNU parted / GParted, gdisk, partimage, partclone for partitioning and cloning.
• WHDD check for HDD sectors linear read latency in MHDD style.
• GNU ddrescue and dd_rescue for rescue data from failed hard drives.
• TestDisk and DMDE find lost/deleted partitions/files and reconstruct damaged file systems.
• wavemon view status, signal quality, WiFi connection statistics and available networks.
• iperf / iperf3 stress testing Ethernet and WiFi connections.

Bare metal and DOS tools available to launch from bootloader:

• UEFI PassMark Memtest86, Memtest86+v6 and UEFI Shell edk2
• Legacy/CSM Memtest86+v5, FreeDOS, MHDD and HDAT2

Technical details:

root password: dog
puppy password: dog

Linux kernel 5.10.178 / 6.1.25
mesa 22.3.6
Xfce 4.18

Porteus Initrd, OverlayFS and SysVinit a used.

Interface language is English. Translations removed in DogLinux to reduce size. Setup Cyrillic fonts in console and En/Ru keyboard layout switching by press Ctrl+Shift in X11 and console are configured.

Login into X11 as root.
There is no DM. startx is run from /etc/profile on tty1.
Mounting is handled by pup-volume-monitor (gvfs and udisks2 not used).
Use ALSA without PulseAudio.
Applied own script to solve the problem with priority of HDMI sound cards.

Modified configs and scripts are in 05-customtools.squashfs

For Legacy/CSM boot using syslinux 4.07
For UEFI: systemd-boot (gummiboot) and syslinux 6.04