Linux saves the day ... again

David M Williams
Monday, 24 August 2009 12:53

Opinion and Analysis

What do you do when Windows will not boot and cannot repair itself from the installation CD? You fire up a Linux Live CD!

I've spoken in the past about how even the most ardent Windows technician really needs to have a Linux Live CD in their toolkit. The reasons don't stop coming.

Just today a user reported laptop problems. They booted normally, got to the login screen, entered their credentials, and then a blue screen crash.

Attempts to reboot all met with a message that the computer could not boot. Windows kindly offered to attempt a repair but after chugging away for a while reported it could not resolve the issue. Neither safe mode nor “last known good” startup options got any further.

Booting from a Windows installation DVD - whether Windows Vista or Windows 7 did not help. Both offered the same repair option, with similar lack of result, and neither would perform an upgrade installation unless invoked from within Windows itself.

At this point, others might succumb to re-imaging the hard drive and cutting their losses.

In this case, I had a bootable Ubuntu 8.04 CD with me. This distribution is over 12 months old; I do have other distributions and later Ubuntu releases but mostly on USB sticks or discs elsewhere. However, that was no big deal. The laptop – a Fujitsu S6420 – booted from it happily.

Often detractors of Linux allege it has a lack of driver support. If you found this to be the case – possibly several years ago – you may be pleasantly surprised by trying out a current Linux release.

In my case, I was fully operational on the Fujitsu laptop without any effort, just from the image and drivers on the CD itself. This included the keyboard, screen, touchpad, internal hard drive and the Ethernet network adapter. Now, true, I didn’t try playing a movie but for the purpose of fixing a computer I had everything I needed.