Need an easy to use small distro to surf.

[balloonshark]

I think my ssd died and I need to get online until a new one arrives. I'm a Linux newbie so I need a simple live cd. I tried burning Mint last night but the burn failed and I wasted a dvd. I need something that will fit on a CD in case the burn goes bad again. The distro also needs to be safe to use. Bonus points if it comes with keepass. I'll be using the top machine in my sig.

Thanks

 

[Elixer]

Why don't you burn to a flash thumb drive instead?
As for which one, mint is good for what you have listed, then ubuntu, then one of the others.

 

[balloonshark]

I'm not sure how to install it on a USB stick. I guess it would act like a HDD instead of a live CD correct? If so is the install fairly straight forward?

 

[schmuckley]

Google XBoot
I'd say Lubuntu.

 

[ninaholic37]

I'm not sure how to install it on a USB stick. I guess it would act like a HDD instead of a live CD correct? If so is the install fairly straight forward?

I used UNetbootin. You can pick a distro from it's list or download your own iso. Might need to format the drive first, and change your boot order in BIOS. You can test DOS first quickly to see if it works.

edit: Nevermind, you're using Windows 8.x which probably means UEFI/Secure Boot and a lot more "modern" headaches. /runs away fast

 

[lxskllr]

Pretty much any one that looks interesting to you. I keep Lubuntu in my wallet, but any reasonably "accessible" distro will work, and it's only a matter of iso size. I generally use unetbootin to put on a flash drive, but it can be flaky.

 

[TheELF]

I'm not sure how to install it on a USB stick. I guess it would act like a HDD instead of a live CD correct? If so is the install fairly straight forward?

No it will still run as it would from a cd,unless you do a propper installation to the usb,some tools such as yumi will allow you to create a persistance file,this way the distro will keep running as "live" but any changes you make will be saved inbetween sessions.

 

[balloonshark]

Thanks everyone. I'm not using UEFI on this win 8 computer. So far Lubuntu made with unetbootin seem to work great!

What the deal with the persistance? I selected 1000MB persistance and see a 1.1GB volume but when I click on it it gives and error and says it's already mounted. Are all changes added to this like installing keepass and adding my bookmarks or do I need to do something else?

 

[lxskllr]

You should be good to go. The system will handle things. Just to check, make a small addition, reboot, and see if it's still there.

 

[balloonshark]

Thanks. Some changes are saved and some are not. I only wish I had a faster USB 3.0 stick.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I actually really like the Mint live CD, for general use when on another machine or if I need to rescue files or what not but you get a full GUI and it's pretty fast to boot. You can "burn" the ISO to a USB stick if you want, it actually works. You just use dd. Basically:

dd if=mint.iso of=/dev/sdX where X is the usb stick. Be careful not to specify anything else!

Usually I like to type dmesg -c, then insert the stick, then type dmesg -c again, and you will confirm that the last output is because you inserted the stick. -c just clears it but you don't have to do that.

One thing I have not figured out how to do though is partition the stick. Ex: the ISO only takes a limited space from the stick but it would be nice if the rest was a fat partition for data or something. (fat so it works in windows too)

 

[nyker96]

if you just want a light distro, i'd say Lubuntu is excellent.

if you can tolerate a bit heavier GUI, but get more features, then xubuntu will be good as well. it's only slightly heavier but still excellent as live cd.

some people say mint, i think it's bit on the heavy side. I personally tried xubuntu, lubuntu, mint, manjaro, ubuntu and arch linux. I'd say as live cd, first two is the way to go.