Linux Live Environment

To boot to the USB thumbdrive from the boot option menu, you can refer to the below legend depending on your motherboard manufacturer. Repeatedly tap the key corresponding to your motherboard below to access the menu. Select the inserted Puget Tools thumbdrive from the populated list (Kingston), let the system boot from the USB.

Boot Option Menu Keys

The many tools

In some situations we aren’t able to get into our Windows operating system. Fear not, all Puget computers deliver with a 'Tools USB drive' with a number of valuable functions. The tools drive gives you the option to use another desktop environment with helpful tools for diagnosing your system outside of the Windows environment. This article will guide you through each of the tools uses.

ClamTk

ClamTk is a lightweight graphical option for antivirus scanning for Linux. This program allows you to scan anything from a single file to an entire directory. Once the scan is complete you have the option to review, remove, and white-list if necessary.

Phoronix Test Suite

The Phoronix Test Suite is a comprehensive testing and benchmarking platform which allows you to run tests to verify the integrity of your hardware.

Psensor

Psensor is a graphical hardware and temperature monitor for Linux.

It monitors

• Nvidia GPU’s and AMD GPU’s
• Hard Drives
• Fan speeds and GPU Usage

This application can help diagnose hardware issues or allow you to monitor temperatures when diagnosing software issues. PSensor's preferences pane also offers control over the color, alarms, monitor durations, and sensor adjustments.

GSmartControl

GSmartControl allows you to inspect the SMART data from a drive to assess the health of a drive. The application allows you to add devices not automatically recognized as well as output as a virtual device which grants data access in a rudimentary form.

System Profiler and Benchmark

System Profiler and Benchmark gives you all the basic information about your system. Any information you might need is displayed by System Profiler.

It comes with an easy-to-use GUI that creates reports about your system, including:

• Operating System
• Filesystems
• Display type
• Users
• Processor
• Memory
• PCI Devices
• USB Devices

Disk Usage Analyzer

Disk Usage Analyzer is graphical disk usage analyzer.

The software gives the user a graphical representation of a disk drive's contents. It provides a visual breakdown of how the hard disk space is being used on your system. The interface allows for selection of specific parts of file-system to a single folder, the entire file-system, and even remote folders and file systems can be scanned and listed at folder level.

This is helpful in determining which directories on your system are taking up the most space. It's not uncommon for people to have a bloated directory or two that take up massive amounts of space, so what you find may surprise you.

GParted

GParted is a free partition editor for graphically managing your disk partitions.

With GParted you can:

• Grow or shrink your C: drive
• Create space for new operating systems
• Attempt data rescue from lost partitions

Additionally, you have incredible control of partitions

• create or delete
• resize or move
• check
• label
• set new UUID
• copy and paste

GpuTest

GpuTest is a cross-platform (Windows, Linux and Max OS X) GPU stress test and OpenGL benchmark. GpuTest comes with several GPU tests including some popular ones from Windows'world (FurMark or TessMark).

Current benchmarks supported:

• FurMark based stress test (OpenGL 2.1 or 3.2).
• TessMark based tessellation test (OpenGL 4.0).
• GiMark: geometry instancing test (OpenGL 3.3).
• PixMark Piano pixel shader test (OpenGL 2.1 or 3.2).
• PixMark Volplosion pixel shader test (OpenGL 2.1 or 3.2).
• Plot3D vertex shader test (OpenGL 2.1 or 3.2).
• Triangle one of the most simple 3D scene ever made… (OpenGL 2.1 or 3.2).

Prime95

Prime95 is a benchmarking/burn-in software designed to heavily stress a system. This can help identify issues with RAM, CPUs and power delivery and other components. In a stable system, running Prime95 would not result in crashes or incorrect results. Your Support Technician may advise a different selection, but we generally recommend using the 'blend' test if you are experiencing system instability as it will stress numerous components in an effort to identify a culprit.

Conclusion

These tools are extremely useful so having easy access to them will help you diagnose any issues quickly and efficiently. Generally, our Puget Support Technicians will provide all the information needed in order to fully utilize each of these tools so this article is designed as an educational piece. If you end up needing any additional support, please don't hesitate to reach out.