April 2007 - Grml - lists.mur.at

Wish lists for enhancing the grml configuration system
by Tong Sun 28 Apr '07

28 Apr '07

Package: restore-config Severity: wishlist Hi, Mika: First of all, thanks for your hard works that releases grml 0.9-7, and grml-small 0.3-2 recently. I hope the following minor enhancements to the grml configuration system can make into the 1.0 release. - support reading configuration files from NTFS partitions. Don't know if it already possible, just list it here first. - myconfig=scan. I know by default the booting process tries to mount a device labeled GRMLCFG, and do configuration from there. The problem is that, in nowadays window$ world, the cooperate policy will most often prevent me from change my own disk label. You won't believe it, nowadays window$ world is so dummy-proof that in many places I can't even change my window$ desktop settings. So I need another automatic way to specify the grml configuration device. - Boot-Options config.d, i.e., please define a grml configuration directory. On booting all the .tbz files from within the defined directory or from the config.d option, will be restored, in the order by their names. The save-config generated configuration, the plain bzip2 compressed tar archives is a good thing. But I don't like the fact that all related or unrelated files are all stuffed into this same file. I hope that I can group related files into different .tbz files. It is much more easy to manage than a single file. - Boot-Options scripts.d, same concept as config.d, for scripts. - persistentroot. I don't know how comfortable you are about the union fs now, but I still think that a partition or a loopback device as a persistent root, i.e., not only persistent home, is a good idea. To tell the truth, ever since installing grml 0.7 onto my HD, I didn't use/test the new grml iso files any more. Because I've put so much time & effort configuring the installed grml, that I don't want to waste my time again for a new iso versions. With persistentroot, the journey migrating to newer versions of grml can be a bit smoother. Moreover, having a persistentroot can put the automatic installation of debian packages (from directory named debs) into real use, because I think the amount of debian packages that can be automatic installed is limited by ram space. These are all small changes that will have big impacts. Much more flexibilities can be achieved by doing so. Thanks Tong -- System Information: Debian Release: 4.0 APT prefers unstable APT policy: (50, 'unstable'), (30, 'stable') Architecture: i386 (i686) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash Kernel: Linux 2.6.17-grml Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)

3 8

Boot grml-small 0.3 from usb-stick
by Tong Sun 27 Apr '07

27 Apr '07

Hi, Is there anything special to boot grml-small 0.3 from usb-stick, other than what is said in the wiki. I followed the wiki, http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb ie, * Get the grml iso (and verifed the md5sum) * Mount the iso loopback (e.g. mount -o loop grml_0.4.iso /mnt/grml-iso) * Make FAT16 filesystem on the usbstick (e.g. mkfs.vfat -F 16 -v /dev/sda1) * Mount the usbstick (e.g. mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/external1) * Copy everything to the usbstick (e.g. cp -a /mnt/grml-iso/* /mnt/external1) * Move all files from /mnt/external1/boot/isolinux/ to root of usb-stick (mv /mnt/external1/boot/isolinux/* /mnt/external1) * Umount the usbstick and the grml-iso * Run syslinux on the usbstick (e.g. syslinux /dev/sda1) * Check if the usbstick has an valid mbr, else dd if=mbr.bin of=/dev/sda bs=304 count=1 (mbr.bin is in the syslinux package) However, when I boot my usb, I got: Many lines saying: Unknown keyword in syslinux.cfg. And the last line is: Missing parameter in syslinux.cfg. after hitting enter after boot: I got: Could not find kernel image: grml Please help. thanks __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

2 1

JFYI: apt-get upgrade: grml-scripts <-> xserver-xorg-core
by Michael Prokop 24 Apr '07

24 Apr '07

Hi, Preface ======= I noticed that several users are still using the old, deprecated grml-repository (http://grml.org/repos/) instead of the new one (http://deb.grml.org/). Please check whether you are using http://deb.grml.org/ already - if not adjust your sources.list according to the documentation on http://deb.grml.org/ Problem ======= If you stumble upon the following problem: ,---- [ upgrade-log ] | Preparing to replace xserver-xorg-core 2:1.1.1-21 (using .../xserver-xorg-core_2%3a1.3.0.0.dfsg-2_i386.deb) ... | Unpacking replacement xserver-xorg-core ... | dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/xserver-xorg-core_2%3a1.3.0.0.dfsg-2_i386.deb (--unpack): | trying to overwrite `/usr/share/man/man1/gtf.1.gz', which is also in package grml-scripts | dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe) | Errors were encountered while processing: | /var/cache/apt/archives/xserver-xorg-core_2%3a1.3.0.0.dfsg-2_i386.deb | E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) `---- then please read on for details: Reason ====== Starting with version 2:1.2.99.905-2 the xserver-xorg-core package ships an utility named gtf which was part of grml-scripts already. The grml-scripts package does not ship the binary any longer of course, but installation of new xserver-xorg-core package fails if the grml-scripts package is not yet up2date. Solution ======== Just upgrade the grml-scripts package before upgrading the xserver-xorg-core package. Just execute: # apt-get update # apt-get install grml-scripts # apt-get upgrade [...] or the faster version using the zsh aliases of grml ;) -> # au ; agi grml-scripts ; ag JFYI && regards, -mika- -- http://grml.org/ # Linux for texttool-users and sysadmins http://wiki.grml.org/ # share your knowledge http://grml.supersized.org/ # the grml development weblog #grml @ irc.freenode.org # meet us on irc

1 0

Wish grml scripts honor/use debconf method
by Tong Sun 22 Apr '07

22 Apr '07

Package: mkpersistenthome Severity: wishlist Hi, Mika: Is it possible for grml scripts to use the debconf's method to interact with the user? I mean, debconf allows us to define the frontend that we feel most comfortable to use, be it readline, dialog or xdialog, etc. Seems currently all grml scripts uses dialog. It looks nice, but I have to say I really hate dialog. I prefer readline, nice and simple. And most importantly, it leave a clear trace of what questions were asked and what choice/answers I've made. Just hoping that all grml scripts can interact with the user using their most preferred way. Thanks Tong -- System Information: Debian Release: 4.0 APT prefers unstable APT policy: (50, 'unstable'), (30, 'stable') Architecture: i386 (i686) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash Kernel: Linux 2.6.17-grml Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)

3 2

Chat o.ä von einem Rechner zum anderen im LAN
by Andreas Kalex 13 Apr '07

13 Apr '07

Hallo, wie kann ich in einem einfachen Netz (192.168.0.x) am einfachsten von einem Rechner zu einem anderen chatten bzw. Nachrichten senden/empfangen. Z.B wenn man jmd. anweisen möchte welche Tasten, Menus etc er aufrufen soll. Benötige ich einen chat-server oder irc-server? -- Gruss Andreas

3 3

JFYI: Debian Etch released - consequences for grml hd-installation
by Michael Prokop 08 Apr '07

08 Apr '07

Hi, as you might have noticed Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 (AKA Etch) has been released (http://www.us.debian.org/News/2007/20070408) today. What does this mean for grml? As grml is based on Debian/unstable and stuff has been delayed (either uploaded to experimental or not uploaded at all yet) the unstable pool *might* become less stable than it was within the last months/years. So if you are one of the "I update my box(es) once every few month" users it's probably a good idea to do this right now (or within the next few days). If you do not want or can't upgrade in those days please make sure you at least use stuff like apt-listchanges + apt-listbugs on your system (shipped and enabled by default on grml) when upgrading your system. (Of course using apt-listchanges + apt-listbugs can/should be used all the time, but when upgrading in the next few weeks you should be aware of possible implications more than usual. ;-)) BTW: grml-debootstrap supported Etch as target since I wrote it ;) and of course will continue to do so. Reminder: the grml-user survey is running until 15th of april. If you did not take part in it yet please contribute and help improving grml! => http://grml.org/user-survey/grml.txt JFYI && regards, -mika- -- http://grml.org/ # Linux for texttool-users and sysadmins http://wiki.grml.org/ # share your knowledge http://grml.supersized.org/ # the grml development weblog #grml @ irc.freenode.org # meet us on irc

1 0

version-.h and characters
by martin yazdzik 06 Apr '07

06 Apr '07

cat: /lib/modules/2.6.18-grml/build/include/linux/version-*.h: No such file or directory make.sh: line 525: [: =: unary operator expected cleaning... patching 'highmem.h'... assuming new VMA API since we do have kernel 2.6.x... Assuming default VMAP API Assuming default munmap API doing Makefile based build for kernel 2.6.x and higher Makefile:51: *** mixed implicit and normal rules. Stop. build failed with return value 2 Dear Friends, I know the "mixed..." means there is either a space or missing something, such as & or $ but how can I fix this.... why is there no version.h - I also forgot how to fix this, and used to know... old age is not fun. best to all, m

2 4

booting from external disk
by August C. Quint 04 Apr '07

04 Apr '07

Hi, sorry for the delay but I had some work to do. I've played a bit around and made the following observations: - booting from external hard-disk does not work as described before - boot Windows XP I can boot Windows XP (included with the notebook) from the internal disk, connect the external disk with grml on it via USB and then tell Windows to reboot: voila, it works, after some time I can login. - boot grml from CD I can boot grml from the CD, connect the external disk via USB, login to grml and enter reboot. After removing the CD the system reboots from the external disk - boot Knoppix from CD I can boot Knoppix from the CD, connect the external disk via USB, and tell Knoppix to reboot. After removing the CD the system now boots grml from the external hard-disk. OK, for me this looks like a problem with the notebook. I will contact Medion but I guess they will not be able to answer my questions. Or is there any way to 'work around' this problem? Thanks AugustQ

1 0