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I was looking for distro with not GUI that I could use in a live USB. The idea is that when I turn the computer on and choose to boot from the USB I could get only a terminal from which I could execute some programs and maybe access the hard drive for repairing. Thank you,
iCom
Posted 2014-10-01T18:30:07.133
Reputation: 61
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Yes. You can try Arch Linux for example. You can download it from here - archlinux.org/download/.
ioku
Posted 2014-10-01T18:30:07.133
Reputation: 21
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there are so many to choose from: https://grml.org/ http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html https://www.slax.org/ ... you can also put multiple ones onto one usb-stick via http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/
akira
Posted 2014-10-01T18:30:07.133
Reputation: 52 754
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While Ubuntu if not know for being a comand line only distro, they do offer information on how to change boot defaults( like startx) you can get instructions here
sgp667
Posted 2014-10-01T18:30:07.133
Reputation: 563
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On the one hand, nearly any Live ISO can be made to run in console only mode, with variations on the process from distro to distro. Slackware's installation CD boots to a command line by default, as does a lot of alternate install media for other distros.
On the other hand, it sounds like what you really want is a bootable USB stick with a collection of utilities, specifically for hard drive diagnostics and repair. In which case, there are a LOT of options. One of the easiest options to check out a wide assortment is to take a look over at UltimateBootCD.com.
0xDAFACADE
Posted 2014-10-01T18:30:07.133
Reputation: 706
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There are a zillion distros that come without a window manager or desktop environment. A completely bare bones example would be Arch, like ioku said. The downside is that it is, like I said, bare bones. It doesn't have a lot of pre-installed programs that you might want, such as ssh.
If you want something that is terminal based, but is more fully featured, something like Ubuntu server would be a good choice since it's a bit more of a user-friendly introduction, and it is very likely to work right out of the box, so to speak, where Arch will probably require more fiddling around.
Those are just two examples though, there are tons of Linux distributions, and so do some research and try to find one that suits your needs.
Adam
Posted 2014-10-01T18:30:07.133
Reputation: 1 510
This question may be worth rephrasing as right now it appears to be asking for a product recommendation, which is Off Topic for superuser.com. – 0xDAFACADE – 2014-10-01T18:45:11.237