Hi, everyone. I'm still new here, so hopefully this is the right place to ask this question.

I recently purchased KillDisk and I knew, that most of the utility ran from Linux, though you could also run it in DOS or Windows.

In the past I had a different utility (data recovery) that also booted into a Linux desktop.

...and since then I have tried dozens of open source utilities and distros.

My question is a little weird. The commercial utilities are the same technology as the open source utilities, except everything they do up to bootup are completely error free. The configurations are robust and you get what I mean I think. This is not confusing, as it's common sense, that products we pay for have to be very good and properly functioning.

...except my question is about nothing more than a simple bootup process. I have found almost no Linux utility that I run on my own hardware that did not either stall, crash or end up with errors a mile long before it booted to a console.

Linux and it's kernel are complex and I understand you have to put a serious effort into it. Rather than asking for someone to fix errors for me, I would like to ask you guys for direction on how I can get the right distro and or packages to create my own bootdisk which I can manually make sure properly adapts to my hardware. I mean where and what should I download to get started in putting something together. I also want to be able to create this so I can make a bootable live disk, very much a stable system. I'll try to work out the clinks and etc.

What do you recommend in ways of software as well as tutorials or howtos and where can I download everything.

If you are someone who says, "maybe you are doing something wrong, it works perfectly for me", than I reply with, you might be right. All I ask is that you understand that what is simple to some, might be really complex for others. I have tried many things for a while and I think I'm ready to put an effort into it. This is why I did not want to post this in the Linux Newbie section. I have a basic understanding of installing distros in virtualbox and I am happy with the console, but I need to start working with my actual hardware now.

Any help is appreciated and Linux is awesome!

Unless you have really exotic hardware, what you describe could not be further from the truth from what I've witnessed over the last 15 years... I have almost never had a Linux utility disk or distro have any trouble booting on a piece of hardware, save those that have either; A) serious hardware defects [dying], or b) really exotic hardware [handhelds with touch screens and GPS units, back 7-10 years ago].

If you are having a problem with a particular utility ISO or a particular piece of hardware, please post that... "Generic" "Please Help Me!" posts are difficult to answer...

Some specifics are needed here as to what errors are being seen on startup. Like JaseP I just don't see errors on startup.
There are lots of messages, especially if like me you turn the "quiet" option off for booting but they are just that, messages, and not errors.
To expand though one warning I have seen is regarding "possible missing firmware" and the "fix" is to install that firmware -- the catch being, of course, that the firmware isn't needed on my system at all it's just an advisory. So, if I were shipping a machine with Debian installed and I wanted to make it look good I could just ensure that the firmware in question wasted a few MB of disk space so that the warning didn't appear. Or, I could turn on "quiet" and other boot options during boot so that no warnings appeared anyhow. That wouldn't mean that the product I was shipping was better just that I decided to waste disk space and to hide warnings.

Re 273's response

It is likely that when you set up your linux system, you did so with defining the boot process to be verbose or you have setup your system to be in text mode.

While the system boots, there are tests for the existance of some applications or hardware availability. If one or the other is not available, you will eventually have an error response, and the system continues. There are progress messages.
When your system is one with multiple disks / partitions, here again you may get one test that the partition is healthy. That test is always done, as your last system shutdown may have been an immediate poweroff, meaning that the file system is in some state needing correction.

Here is one example. It is possible that you have set up linux to include bluetooth, but you have no bluetooth adapter. An warning error message (really and advisory) that no bluetooth object was detected.

One more comment. If there is a fatal error with Linux, it will stop and let you know. It is not going to continue and give you an unpleasant surprise at the end of its startup execution.

If you are interfacing the system in text mode, you will see all messages. If you have installed a GUI interface, that interface will have hidden those progress messages for you.

My suggestions.

Try installing AntiX MX - http://antix.mepis.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

(This has its own manual all about the distro.)

Check out the videos by runwiththedolphin on youtube - https://www.youtube.com/user/runwiththedolphin