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<p>Thanks for the suggestions, all. I tried to use the recommended SystemRescueCD, but the download was s-l-o-w... (for all I know, was my fault, but I didn't have 2+ hours to wait for it). Found this while googling for similar things: <a href="https://en.altlinux.org/Rescue">https://en.altlinux.org/Rescue</a> . Half the size, and downloaded in substantially less time (like, 15 minutes). Boots straight to console, but also has other options (e.g., memtest, rEFInd), and the console's a Debian variant, so I can apt-get to my heart's content.</p>
<p>-Ken</p>
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<p>On 2016-02-17 14:45, Shawn O'Shea wrote:</p>
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<p dir="ltr">+1 for system rescue cd.</p>
<p dir="ltr">As far as other handy utility distros. If I'm just resizing a partition, I'll do gparted live (Gui but goes straight to gparted partition editor) and if imaging (backup/restore) then Clonezilla Live.</p>
<p dir="ltr"><a href="http://gparted.org/livecd.php">http://gparted.org/livecd.php</a><br /> <a href="http://clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live.php">http://clonezilla.org/clonezilla-live.php</a></p>
<p dir="ltr">-Shawn</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Feb 17, 2016 2:15 PM, "Kyle Smith" <<a href="mailto:askreet@gmail.com">askreet@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br />
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<div>Check out SystemRescueCD[1], which I'm sure can be burned to a USB drive. Boots to a shell and comes with a ton of recovery tools and scripts to assist in getting a broken system operable.</div>
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<div>- Kyle</div>
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[1]: <a href="https://www.system-rescue-cd.org/SystemRescueCd_Homepage">https://www.system-rescue-cd.org/SystemRescueCd_Homepage</a>
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<div dir="ltr">On Wed, Feb 17, 2016 at 2:04 PM Ken D'Ambrosio <<a href="mailto:ken@jots.org">ken@jots.org</a>> wrote:</div>
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<p>On 2016-02-17 13:49, Brian Chabot wrote:</p>
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<div dir="ltr">In GRUB, boot to init 1, single user mode.'</div>
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<div dir="ltr">Which is great. If you catch it. And if it doesn't override you (as some live install disks I've seen, do). Hell -- I'd be happy with the "rw init=/bin/bash" bit for all I need, but even that, for example, isn't cutting the mustard on one server I've got. I guess I could spin my own, but I figured someone out there probably had a stick-it-in-and-boot-to-CLI-no-interaction-needed option in their back pocket.</div>
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<div dir="ltr">-Ken</div>
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<div>Brian Chabot</div>
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<div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Feb 17, 2016 at 1:46 PM, Ken D'Ambrosio <span><<a href="mailto:ken@jots.org">ken@jots.org</a>></span> wrote:<br />
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0 0 0 .8ex; border-left: 1px #ccc solid; padding-left: 1ex;">Hey, all. Many's the time I just want to go and fix something stupid --<br /> maybe wipe a disk, or edit a file -- and all I want is to be able to<br /> stick in a USB stick and wind up at said CLI. But most distros these<br /> days are GUI-based. And Ubuntu Server (say) boots to install, period,<br /> which is an<br /> extremely-stripped-down-to-the-point-of-useless-for-anything-other-than-install<br /> CLI.<br /><br /> Any middle ground someone could recommend?<br /><br /> Thanks!<br /><br /> -Ken<br /> _______________________________________________<br /> gnhlug-discuss mailing list<br /><a href="mailto:gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org">gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org</a><br /><a href="http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/">http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss/</a></blockquote>
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