PocketHandyBox portable Linux distribution (based on Debian and Devuan) with NVIDIA drivers OOTB. Designed for hardware testing, servicing PCs and laptops.
Available versions based on Debian 12 "Bookworm" (Devuan "Daedalus") and Debian 13 "Trixie" (Devuan "Excalibur")
Download .iso images:
github.com/PocketHandyBox/pocket-handybox/releases
Provides the Xfce desktop, and applications such as CPU-X, GSmartControl, GParted, Partimage, Partclone, TestDisk, ddrescue, WHDD.
Linux kernel versions: 6.12 and 5.10 for x86_64, 6.1 for i686. OpenZFS modules is included for x86_64 kernels. Kernel 5.10 is
patched with intel-nvme-remap
(from EndlessOS) to support NVMe SSDs if the "Intel RST Premium With Optane" option is enabled in UEFI setup (relevant for 6th-10th
generation Intel Core). Broadcom WL 802.11n WiFi driver is included, run bcmwload script to enable it.
Versions of NVIDIA proprietary drivers included: 580.x, and legacy 470.x, 390.x, 340.x. GPU detection is implemented in initrd.
Module with supported driver will be loaded automatically. For legacy 340.x driver, select kernel 5.10.
The distribution size is optimized for use in copy2ram mode (make possible to remove the USB drive / network cable after
booting). Only the used .squashfs modules will be copied to RAM, not the entire .iso image.
Initrd is based on the Porteus code adapted for Debian and OverlayFS by the DogLinux project. Use the SysVinit, pup-volume-monitor (instead of gvfs and udisks2) and ALSA for sound output.
The ntfs3 driver is used by default (for 6.12 and 6.1 kernels), ntfs-3g is also included.
Provides the mod-get script for download applications from their websites, and create .squashfs modules with it:
DMDE, Hard Disk Sentinel Linux Edition, R-TT R-Linux, Geeks3D FurMark2 and GpuTest, Unigine Heaven and Valley. Save the additional .squashfs
modules to folders phb/modules and phb/modules32 (for i686 version) on USB drive and it will be automatically loaded during startup.
For laptops with switchable GPUs, the gpu-switch-launcher script helps to run FurMark2, GpuTest, Unigine Heaven and Valley on dGPU. The script supports NVIDIA drivers, and Mesa drivers (for AMD and Intel GPUs). For legacy 390.x и 340.x drivers (because lack of PRIME render offload support) only NVIDIA GPU will be used.
Additional software can be installed from the Debian repositories using apt-get or synaptic. Tools for creating .squashfs
modules apt2squashfs and changes2sfs are included. Additional .squashfs modules can be activated using the loadmodule script or the Activate module custom action of the Thunar file manager.
Shell scripts and config files will be automatically copied from the phb/rootcopy folder during boot.
And they will be applied without the need to rebuild the .iso image and modules.
Both UEFI and Legacy/CSM supported. Boot the .iso image from Ventoy / grub2 / grub4dos.
Supported boot from USB/SATA/NVMe devices, from FAT32/exFAT/Ext2/3/4/NTFS filesystems.
Network PXE boot with NFS is supported.
Secure Boot is not supported and must be disabled. Boot from ZFS is not supported.
PocketHandyBox Wiki:
github.com/PocketHandyBox/pocket-handybox/wiki
