- Grml - lists.mur.at

Documentation on building custom kernels for grml-live CD
by Charles Hewson 03 Mär '08

03 Mär '08

Mika and Team, New stables look good on live CD and I am installing on two platforms today. Thanks. Since early grml-live scripts I have been working with custom kernels. I have been successful at patching the installed hard drives. I have been able to do this either by GNU make or make-dpkg methods. I do not seem to get predictable results if I apply changes to /grml/grml-live/grml_chroot then rerun grml-live to recreate grml_cd and grml_isos. Google doesn't give me documents specific to grml or fai. Can someone point me to it? Charles ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ

2 1

C-M emacs key binding conflicts with fluxbox window manager
by Peter 03 Mär '08

03 Mär '08

Hi I am using emacs 22.1.1 (GTK+ version) in a fluxbox environment. There are conflicts with C-M emacs bindings and the window manager. When I type for example C-M-f in emacs (that is Control key and Alt key pressed simultaneously and then followed by the key "f"), then the firefox webbrowser opens. Obviously the window manager sees the key sequence before emacs and intercepts it. What is the recommended practice to maintain C-M emacs key bindings (remapping them all would be a pain) when working in fluxbox ? Thanks for your help. Peter

2 1

Grml and inetd
by T o n g 01 Mär '08

01 Mär '08

Hi, How does Grml start Internet services? I noticed that my grml does not have either inetd or xinetd installed. So how does my ssh, ftp services get started? thanks -- Tong (remove underscore(s) to reply) http://xpt.sourceforge.net/techdocs/ http://xpt.sourceforge.net/tools/

2 4

grml2hd questions
by didi.segbert＠arcor.de 28 Feb '08

28 Feb '08

Hello, i have some questions for the use of grml2hd. I have stopped my tests to boot grml from usb-stick via linld. The grml 1.1 RC6 iso boots very fine on my normal pc. speakup and brltty are working very good. I want to install this grml version on a) a empty harddisk /dev/hdc6 (4 GB) and start from Dos via loadlin, i don't want to use a boot loader, and b) i want to install grml onto a 4 GB SDHC card, so that i can boot my asus eeepc from this card, because on the inside 4 GB SSD is windows xp installed. Is it correct to use the grml2hd as follows: grml2hd /dev/hdc6 or grml2hd /dev/sdb Can i add options, because the brailledisplay shows only the "ok" or "continue" or "cancel", but not the options in the menues. Regards Dietmar.

2 1

Grml version in /etc/issue?
by T o n g 27 Feb '08

27 Feb '08

Hi, Is it a good idea to put Grml's version in /etc/issue? I have a bunch of Grml test installations in my VMware disks, and I've forgot which is which now. That's why I'm wondering... -- Tong (remove underscore(s) to reply) http://xpt.sourceforge.net/techdocs/ http://xpt.sourceforge.net/tools/

3 2

ftp server
by josh 27 Feb '08

27 Feb '08

Hi, Is it possible to set up a modern ftp server with grml? Josh email: jkenn337(a)gmail.com skype: jkenn337 msn: kenn6498ku(a)hotmail.com

1 0

grml-medium package requests
by Jon 27 Feb '08

27 Feb '08

Hi mika, I tried the -medium release earlier today, as I wanted to backup files off a Windows machine. I should've looked at grml.org/files first, but I found sshfs, ntfs-3g and rdiff-backup were all missing. Since they're fairly small and quite useful for getting things off Windows partitions, I wondered if they could be included in -medium by default? Cheers.

3 5

Advocate GRUB for DOS (Grub4Dos)
by T o n g 26 Feb '08

26 Feb '08

Hi, I saw that there are recent discussion about the linld boot loader. For a versatile and feature-rich boot loader, I recommend Grub4Dos. So far, seems to me that the GRUB for DOS is still a hidden treasure that most people haven't realized its beauty and power. Please don't be confused by its name, GRUB for DOS, Grub4Dos is actually the best GRUB boot loader so far until GRUB2 is able to catch up with Grub4Dos's features and get mature enough. In a nutshell, it is advanced GRUB that - is 100% compatible with gnu grub 0.97 - so it is a given to have multiple levels of submenus. This is ideal to put multiple distros into the same disk, while keeping and maintain each distros' boot menu individually, instead of having a humongous root menu to gulp everything. - actively developed and maintained instead of feature-frozen - can use nice boot up graphics without patching - can be used as the boot loader for both CDROM and HD, which means * no more disjointed modules (Isolinux/Syslinux) any more * no need to endure the limitation of Syslinux from Isolinux any more * no need to develop separate methods to boot from CDROM and HD installation any more - can chainload Isolinux (when used as bootable cd-loader), Syslinux, BCDW, EZBOOT (EasyBoot), etc. - can be put in and boot from both Linux and Windows major partitions * the ideal boot loader for Slax and its derived distros that can reside in both Linux and Windows partitions * no need to develop separate methods to boot from Linux based or Windows based HD installation any more - can be used from within both Linux and Windows environments - its hybrid executable can be launched from both Linux and DOS/Windows - uses two step booting instead of three so that it is easier to install and will not break even if you rearrange your partitions. - is the only boot loader that can boot up CDROM - can boot up not only floppy disk images but also Hard Disk/ZIP Disk/HDD-USB images - can even boot *straight from* some no-emulation-mode CD .iso files - can use file as well as partition as the source of the ramdisk - can use memdisk devices loaded by inited - can even map a specified range of memory as a ramdisk Ref: GRUB for DOS http://linux.softpedia.com/get/System/Boot/GRUB-for-DOS-3507.shtml GRUB for DOS tutorial http://grub4dos.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Grub4dos_tutorial GRUB for DOS more detailed examples http://xpt.sourceforge.net/techdocs/nix/disk/boot/boot07-GrubForDos/ HTH -- Tong (remove underscore(s) to reply) http://xpt.sourceforge.net/techdocs/ http://xpt.sourceforge.net/tools/

1 0

Ralink RT61 support in grml1.1
by Andreas Gruber 26 Feb '08

26 Feb '08

Hi all! AFAIK, the RT2500 (and others of the RT2X-series) -Wlan-driver is supportet since gml0.9 or earlier by a grml-package. Can You tell me, if there's an package for the RT61-driver of Ralink in grml1.1. At the moment, my notebook uses Debian etch with a PCMCIA-Wlan-card with RT61 - it works, but it was a little bit difficult to manage it. I would be great, to install grml on these notebook. ...and not to forget: grml1.1 - great work - congratulations to the team around Mika! Andi -- _________________________________________________________ Meinen GnuPG-Key finden Sie z.B. bei keyserver.net. Meine Key-ID lautet 0x424B2C57. Business-Contacts: https://www.xing.com/hp/Andreas_Gruber17/

2 1

linld boot options
by didi.segbert＠arcor.de 23 Feb '08

23 Feb '08

Hello, i want to boot grml with linld. The grml.squashfs, linux26 and initrd.gz are in /live. The kernel boots up to the prompt "initramfs". But i can not do anything , because swspeak and brltty is not on. With help of a "Gucki" i found out, that the usb-stick ist /dev/sda. Is there a option, that i can say the grml.squashfs is on /dev/sda? I have set the live-media-path=live. Or is there a initrd.gz with brltty, so that i have control over initramfs or the busybox. Regards Dietmar

1 0

JFYI: short downtime of grml-mailinglists
by Michael Prokop 22 Feb '08

22 Feb '08

Hi, the grml mailinglists will experience a short downtime on this weekend, see the mail of our provider mur.at (timezone is CET): ,---- [ quoting NOC of mur.at ] | tomorrow, saturday, feb. 23. 2008, our fibre channel uplink to the ACO | net will be shut down between 9pm and 12pm due to construction work. our | second uplink should keep us online, though with considerably reduced | bandwidth. | | on sunday, feb. 24. 2008, we will perform a slightly delicate procedure | (software upgrades) for which we will have to temporarily shut down | mail- and web-services in the time between 6pm and 12pm. | | sorry for the inconvenience! `---- Thanks to mur.at for downtime announcment and thanks for hosting. JFYI && regards, -mika-

1 0

grml on usb stick: can not get partition to start at cylinder 1
by Peter 22 Feb '08

22 Feb '08

Hi I try to get grml_small on a usb stick. thanks to mikas nice blog /http://michael-prokop.at/blog/2006/03/24/booten-vom-usb-stick-fdisk-vs-cfdisk/ I learned that the first partition has to start on cylinder 1. However, when using fdisk or cfdisk , I always get 63 as the value for Start (as Mika has pointed out, the output of fdisk differs from fdisk -l -u , the former showing the value 1 and the latter the value 63) In his blog Mika says: "As soon as I had adjusted the partition ..." But how did he adjust ? Thanks Peter

2 2

debtorrent
by C.M. Brannon 21 Feb '08

21 Feb '08

I just grabbed the debtorrent package. Is anyone using it? I really like the idea of bittorrent as a distribution method for software packages, since those packages are gpg-signed. -- Chris

1 0

console skype and voice chat
by josh 20 Feb '08

20 Feb '08

Hi, Are there console voice chat programs? like a console version of skype and things? Josh email: jkenn337(a)gmail.com skype: jkenn337 msn: kenn6498ku(a)hotmail.com

2 1

installing grml with software speech
by josh 19 Feb '08

19 Feb '08

Hi, Can one install grml using software speech? or do you need hardware speech to run the grml to hard drive installation? Josh email: jkenn337(a)gmail.com skype: jkenn337 msn: kenn6498ku(a)hotmail.com

1 0

which iso is the best to install grml 2 hd?
by marco.fisch＠n-ergie.de 19 Feb '08

19 Feb '08

Hi grml users, which iso is the best to get grml installed to harddisk? i've tried to install grml from live-cd-iso, but during the upgrade process there are a lot of broken packages or better said unreachable dependencies. thanks for ur help. regards Marco --------------------- Windows ist wie ein Lemming... ... es läuft planlos in der Gegend rum, um dann gezielt abzustürzen.

2 1

/cdrom/scripts not working
by Jon 19 Feb '08

19 Feb '08

Hi mika, Perhaps related to the earlier bootparams issue, I get this after creating scripts/grml.sh on a usb memory stick and booting with the 'scripts' option: * grml script found on CD, executing /cdrom/scripts/*. config_cdrom_scripts:.:4: no such file or directory: /cdrom/scripts/* and the script doesn't execute. Not sure if this is deprecated or not, as you described /cdrom as the 'old directory layout' in issue414. Thanks again.

2 11

bootparams not working
by Jon 18 Feb '08

18 Feb '08

Hi, I've got grml booting off a usb memory stick as per these instructions: http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb I want to change the default boot options, so I added a bootparams/params text file at the root of the memory stick with 'toram ssh=foo nodhcp'. The file seems to be ignored though; it just boots normally with no options added. Could someone tell me what I'm missing?

2 2

grml on laptops
by josh 18 Feb '08

18 Feb '08

Hi, Will grml run on laptops? particularly on the oqo laptop found at www.oqo.com ? Josh email: jkenn337(a)gmail.com skype: jkenn337 msn: kenn6498ku(a)hotmail.com

1 0

direct-x equivalent
by josh 18 Feb '08

18 Feb '08

Hi, Is there any equivalent to direct-x in open-gl? Josh email: jkenn337(a)gmail.com skype: jkenn337 msn: kenn6498ku(a)hotmail.com

1 0

lite-weight version of emacspeak
by josh 18 Feb '08

18 Feb '08

Hi, What is this liteweight version of emacspeak called again? Josh email: jkenn337(a)gmail.com skype: jkenn337 msn: kenn6498ku(a)hotmail.com

2 1

grml and linksys wireless USB adapter
by josh 18 Feb '08

18 Feb '08

Hi, Does the linksys wireless USB adapter work with grml? This USB adapter is for receiving wireless signals put out by a wi--fi router. Also, does Emacspeak and IBM viavoice come with grml? What speech synthesizers come with the standard grml? Josh email: jkenn337(a)gmail.com skype: jkenn337 msn: kenn6498ku(a)hotmail.com

2 1

Re: starting grml_medium with linld
by didi.segbert＠arcor.de 17 Feb '08

17 Feb '08

Hello Mika, thank your for your answer. If have add the live-medium-path= in the parameter-file for linld, but it did not work. I want to run grml_medium on an asus eeepc. The usb-stick boots to novell dos (c:). In the directory grml are the files linld077.com linld.par linux26 initrd.gz and grml.iso (the grml.squashfs file). I changes into the grml-direcotory cd grml and then i start linld as follows: linld097.com image=linux26 initrd=initrd.gz cl=linld.par The linld.par looks as follows: swspeak grml_dir=grml grml_name=grml.iso apm=power-off lang=de vga=normal quiet nomce blind brltty=vo,usb,text-german.tbl keyboard=de toram=grml.iso scandelay=30 live-media-path=grml boot=LIVE The last mesassege is something as waiting for rootfs but no sound and no braillterminal. Is the brltty package on the grml_mdeium? thanks for your help Regards Dietmar

2 1

starting grml_medium with linld?
by didi.segbert＠arcor.de 14 Feb '08

14 Feb '08

Hello, i want to start the grml_medium with linld or loadlin. I have copied the grml.squashfs file the linux26 and the initrd.gz to an usb-stick and on in a direcotory named grml. The usb-stick boots to novel-dos 7.0 and after that i want to start the grml_medium with support for my brailledisplay and softwarespeak (blind brltty=vo,usb,text-german.tbl swspeak). How must i set the options for grml in an parameter-file for loadlin or linld? Thanks for your help. Regards Dietmar

2 1

Re: [Grml] Missing fat32 partition
by Maurice McCarthy 12 Feb '08

12 Feb '08

Many of the things you ask about have been discussed in this mailing list. You can download the whole list archive with wget http://lists.mur.at/pipermail/grml.mbox/grml.mbox Thunderbird or Seamonkey on Windows should be able to import or open this so that you can search it. Good Luck! Moss > Thanks, I'll check all those things out. > At the moment it is even more confusing, as I'm a blind user and I have to > learn, not only linux, but also how to work with speech in linux. > At the moment I haven't goten gnome to run even; the startx command does > nothing, but I guess that is another topic...

1 0

X-server start wothout fluxbox/grml-medium
by Lars Schimmer 11 Feb '08

11 Feb '08

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi! Snapped grml-medium 0.1rc today and installed onto a HD. Fine solution, works fine with all needed stuff and without the unneeded parts. But I want to start the Xserver and just display a picture, I don't want to start fluxbox. If I type "startx" it starts fluxbox, even with a ssh login and /usr/bin/xinit and /usr/bin/X it starts fluxbox. Where do I have to look to disable fluxbox and all parts? And: has anyone a xv replacement for displaying a picture in background on pure X server (with hiding mousepointer)? MfG, Lars Schimmer - -- - ------------------------------------------------------------- TU Graz, Institut für ComputerGraphik & WissensVisualisierung Tel: +43 316 873-5405 E-Mail: l.schimmer(a)cgv.tugraz.at Fax: +43 316 873-5402 PGP-Key-ID: 0x4A9B1723 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFHnf8/mWhuE0qbFyMRAhKoAJ9irQMiycsjA+05n/foOs6XE7mGRQCfdDfz G6cm24UtQGpIwxjSlRA6ByA= =kH4v -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

3 2

Re: [Grml] Missing fat32 partition
by Maurice McCarthy 11 Feb '08

11 Feb '08

Hi Willem, As long as you are managing OK that is fine. I'm an amateur myself and not part of the grml team as such. Just learning as I go along. Mika spends a lot of time answering folk and I like to help when I can - just as Mika and the whole team have helped me. Look for documentation in /usr/share/doc to help you, e.g. with the Midnight Commander mc /usr/share/doc which is considered to be good way for a novice to look around the system. The man pages have lots of good info but are horrendous for a new user. man ntfsprogs # or ... man ntfsclone are quite good however. And please, please have a look at dd, the testdisk program, also /usr/share/doc/ddrescue and its related shell script dd_rhelp (I think) if you are planning to use 2 operating systems. They give you the means to rescue and back-up your system by using the grml installation disk. The X-window program gparted is the equivalent of partition magic in the linux world. (The console program upon which it is based is caleld parted but it will take you longer to learn to use it. gparted also uses the ntfsprogs behind the scenes.) BUT ... the X protocol is clear text and therefore it is discouraged to use X for sysadmin work - it introduces a security vulnerability. I'm at Birmingham Airport Uk just now. On my way to work in the North Sea so I'll not be able to contribute for a couple of weeks. Best Wishes Moss > Hi Maurice > I did not see your messages until I already started creating a new fat32 > disk in windows with partition magic, as you can probably guess, I'm much > more comfortable with windows at the moment. >

1 0

grml-x in rc1
by martin yazdzik 11 Feb '08

11 Feb '08

Dear M and friends, I tried today to play with the rc1 Following issues: 1. in attempting to su to grml to run grml-x, get "cannot find file grml" error 2. if I run grml-x as root, all seems to be well, but then the error "priority is -1 instead of requested -0" then nothing 3. if I change to bash, and run grml-x as grml, all seems to be well, I get the note creating x-authority, then the errno111 no reply from xserver In other words, in grml 0.9, then grml 1.0, x was easy, grml-x -module radeon fluxbox, and x appeared within seconds. In the current release candidate, I am convinced that either I am stupid, or there is a problem with grml-x, or both. Best, Martin

2 7

Missing fat32 partition
by Willem 11 Feb '08

11 Feb '08

I've just installed grml with the help of a friend. I also boot windows on the same pc. I have a fat32 partition that used to show up in my computer in windows before I installed grml. What do I need to do to make the drive show again? Willem.

2 2

grub
by martin yazdzik 10 Feb '08

10 Feb '08

Dear Mika and friends, So, now that I have foobarred and repaired grub a few times, has anyone here experience with upgrading to grub2? (shoots self in foot) Best, M

1 0

z shell question
by martin yazdzik 10 Feb '08

10 Feb '08

/home/yazdzik/.zshrc:[:237: too many arguments /home/yazdzik/.zshrc:[:977: too many arguments yazdzik@grml1 ~ % Dear Mika and friends, Since you are all z shell to the core(okay, really bad pun) why do I argue so much? Also, the latest grub update is disastrous, as it eats the menu.lst for breakfast, leaving an unbootable system, but I suspect you know this. What would be cool is a way to get grub back, as the population of devices by udev in lilo is a process best measured in years. Is there a way to do this with the live cd which respects the uuid? Best to all of you, Martin "If the path be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads." -France

3 10

Error : C preprocessor "lib/cpp" fails sanity check when compiling Bacula 2.2.8 on grml 1.1 rc
by Peter 01 Feb '08

01 Feb '08

Hi Does anybody knows what that means ? I made sure that I have build-essentials, linux-headers , gcc-4.2 , but all this has already been on the dist. I found many, many posts concerning this error on Google, but I just can not figure out what it means in my context Thanks for your help Peter

1 0

add-on to my last post - Error : C preprocessor "lib/cpp" fails sanity check when compiling Bacula 2.2.8 on grml 1.1 rc
by Peter 31 Jan '08

31 Jan '08

Sorry, I forgot to add, that the bacula package I am talking about is the direct download from bacula.org (current release 2.2.8) ---------------------------------------- Hi Does anybody knows what that means ? I made sure that I have build-essentials, linux-headers , gcc-4.2 , but all this has already been on the dist. I found many, many posts concerning this error on Google, but I just can not figure out what it means in my context Thanks for your help Peter

2 1

GRML netboot packages for 0.1 x64
by Laurent CARON 31 Jan '08

31 Jan '08

Hi, Do anyone know if the netboot packages are availables for x64 grml ? I'd like to be able to boot it from the net as I'm currently doing for x32 ones . Thanks Laurent

2 2

Problem installing Gnome and Orca on GRML
by Jerry Matheny 30 Jan '08

30 Jan '08

I've tried apt-get update && apt-get install gnome-orca on the latest grml 1.1, and it comes to packages with bug reports and saying it needs to install those versions, and I try that and it eventually dies. I forget the error, but anyone have any ideas if there's a different way to go about this? Thanks in advance, Jerry

2 1

grml 1.1 does not recognize vmware disks anymore
by Peter 30 Jan '08

30 Jan '08

Hi I was just trying to install the new 1.1 release grml 1.1 rc iso inside VMware workstation 6. I have already done this successfully with grml 1.0. However, when I do : # fisk /dev/sda I get : Error: Unable to open /dev/sda : Unrecognized disk label This did not happen in grml 1.0 where I was able to create a partition with fdisk on /dev/sda Any ideas ? Thanks Peter

3 2

Problem with swspeak in GRML 1.1rc1
by Jerry Matheny 29 Jan '08

29 Jan '08

I did a grml2hd with the new GRML 1.1rc1 version and it doesn't work, and to top it off the sound is all crackily very bad to the point where I can't even understand what the speech is saying. But it's acting like something pertaining to speakup isn't being loaded properly, and something gets messed with sound in the grml2hd script. Not sure what the deal is, any help would be very much appreciated. And the Speakup spelling everything is kinda annoying too. lol, but I understand that's a Kernel issue. Thanks in advance, Jerry

1 0

a couple of questions, please.
by Doug Smith 29 Jan '08

29 Jan '08

Ok, I have a few questions here I want answers for. I have been using the new release candidate for GRML and I really like it. I just have a couple of problems I wish to know if anyone else has had with this version, and I would like to know something about the apt-get install grml process. First of all, has anyone had this problem with the installation of packages? I ask the system to add on some packages, primarily some languages I want to use in programming. This is what happens. The first time, right after you install the system to the hard disc from a cd you get this: wajig installrs bwbasic There is only one package to go and get, and everything works exactly like it should. Fine and well, but not really the problem. Now, when you go to install even more, you get this: wajig installrs gobjc This time, we need lots of c libraries and the search is on. The process of acquiring the deb files is perfect, but, after the programs says that it has fetched so many bytes of archives in so many seconds, and asks if you want to continue, the thing just stops. You tell it you do with the y and there is just a blank line at the bottom of the screen. No matter how many times you hit the return key after entering the y, you are just hung there, blocked forever in a failed function call until you control-c your way out and have to manually call dpkg to install the files you know you have. Now, there is no way that I can see to fix this. I have done everything from reinstalls of dpkg, debconf, apt, wajig and apt itself. This does nothing for the problem. I have even had the system reconfigure everything it has in order to make sure that all the programs know that everything is there. Now, I have another problem. What is wrong with cdtool? Each time I try to play a cd, I get this: cdplay: can't play no disc This is not true, as I have just inserted a professionally produced cd into the drive before doing this. Why will cdplay not play? Why will wajig installrs package-name not actually install the recommended and suggested packages? Now, I need to know about the wajig installrs grml or apt-get install grml, whichever you wish to call it. If you do this, for instance from the 1.0 nstable version, why do you not get the new kernel, the new speakup, the new configuration files and more that the new version has in it? It seems that then entire thing would be upgraded and you would just need to reboot in order to get it all. What actually happens here? I am sorry to just keep writing in with problems. As I stated some time ago, I intend to stay with grml. It is a very good distro, and, thanks for the speech. If anyone could tell me how to fix these problems, and about the upgrade process, I would be glad to learn more. I can also read the upgrading page on the wiki. Thanks. Doug Smith. -- I use grml (http://grml.org/)

3 2

Re: Grml Digest, Vol 33, Issue 7
by Kevin Jones 23 Jan '08

23 Jan '08

Hello, Has anyone experimented with grml in colinux? I would think that would be a great idea like grml2hd but in colinux colinux.org grml-request(a)mur.at wrote: > Send Grml mailing list submissions to > grml(a)mur.at > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://lists.mur.at/mailman/listinfo/grml > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > grml-request(a)mur.at > > You can reach the person managing the list at > grml-owner(a)mur.at > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Grml digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: RC 1.1 troubles (ignore last post) (C.M. Brannon) > 2. Re: RC 1.1 troubles (ignore last post) (Michael Prokop) > 3. Re: Hi again - here's some more stuff for you... :-) (Andy Elvey) > 4. Re: RC 1.1 troubles (ignore last post) (C.M. Brannon) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Mon, 07 Jan 2008 14:27:26 -0600 > From: cmbrannon(a)cox.net (C.M. Brannon) > Subject: Re: [Grml] RC 1.1 troubles (ignore last post) > To: grml(a)mur.at > Message-ID: <87ir25nzyp.fsf(a)cox.net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii > > Michael Prokop <mika(a)grml.org> writes: > >> Are you sure the ISO on your CD is *really* OK? Any chance to test >> it on another system to check whether it basically works at all? > > Well, all of the MD5 digests were verified. I even did > md5sum -c /mnt/cdrom/grml/md5sums > and all files were OK. > I tried it on another machine, and it wouldn't boot. So it seems that > my disk must be defective, even though the contents of the filesystem > are OK according to md5sum. I can think of several culprits. For > one, I use cheap generic CD-R media. I'll try this process again, > with some higher-quality disks. > > Have a great day, > -- Chris > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Mon, 7 Jan 2008 21:47:25 +0100 > From: Michael Prokop <mika(a)grml.org> > Subject: Re: [Grml] RC 1.1 troubles (ignore last post) > To: grml(a)mur.at > Message-ID: <2008-01-07T21-39-48(a)devnull.michael-prokop.at> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > * C.M. Brannon <cmbrannon(a)cox.net> [20080107 21:31]: >> Michael Prokop <mika(a)grml.org> writes: > >>> Are you sure the ISO on your CD is *really* OK? Any chance to test >>> it on another system to check whether it basically works at all? > >> Well, all of the MD5 digests were verified. I even did >> md5sum -c /mnt/cdrom/grml/md5sums >> and all files were OK. >> I tried it on another machine, and it wouldn't boot. So it seems that >> my disk must be defective, even though the contents of the filesystem >> are OK according to md5sum. I can think of several culprits. For >> one, I use cheap generic CD-R media. I'll try this process again, >> with some higher-quality disks. > > Use readcd (something like "readcd -c2scan dev=/dev/cdrom") for > checking the CD. md5sums sadly just aren't enough. :(( > > I strongly recommend the use of USB pens instead of CD-Rs if > possible, otherwise fall back to higher quality CDs which are known > to work fine with your CD burner. That's what we as grml developers > do as well. :) > > regards, > -mika-

1 0

RC 1.1 troubles (ignore last post)
by cmbrannon＠cox.net 08 Jan '08

08 Jan '08

Hi all, Sorry for that last post. I accidentally sent it before it was complete! Anyway, I burned the 1.1 RC1 ISO to a blank medium with cdrecord -data dev=/dev/hdc grml_1.1-rc1.iso The MD5 checksum on the ISO is correct, and the recording process finished successfully. I can mount the CD-ROM, and all the requisite files are present. I booted the system, with the command-line grml swspeak But instead of booting the CD, I was presented with my hard-disk installation of grml. It was as though I did not have a bootable disk in the drive. So I found my grml 1.0 medium, and rebooted. That time, I booted into the live CD, as expected. I tried burning the 1.1 RC1 ISO to a second medium, just in case the first was damaged. That didn't work. It seems unusual that the 1.1 RC1 disk won't boot, while the 1.0 CD will boot. I'm running without a monitor, so the boot sequence isn't visible. I should probably ask someone to connect a monitor and read the boot sequence to me, but that's a big hastle. Am I missing something here? Is anyone else booting the 1.1 RC1 live CD with speech? -- Chris

3 9

Re: Hi again - here's some more stuff for you... :-)
by Andy Elvey 07 Jan '08

07 Jan '08

( snip ) > We don't use the resolutions by default since a long time but leave > the decision to the X server because this usually works better than > the other way around. If someone wants to force usage of a special > resolution just provide it on the grml-x commandline or activate the > (by defaut) deactivated Modelines in xorg.conf. > > Thanks for assisting, Michael. Does anyone of you care to send a > short summary back to the mailinglist so that people have the chance > to find the solution for the problem in the archive? > > regards, > -mika- > Sure! Here you go. This isn't actually very short, but it's thorough.... :-) To recap - My problem was that I was getting a "bouncing window" ( which said "Attention: Input not supported" ) going around the screen when I went into X. I have an AOC LCD monitor (model AOC LM925 ). Here's the URL for the manual ( very kindly given to me by Michael Schierl ) - http://www.aocmonitor-anz.com/support/manuals/LM925usermanual8ms.pdf I use Linux Mint 4 as my default distro. My Linux Mint monitor settings are - 1280x1024 H: 64kHz V: 60Hz Analog input My grml settings were - 1024x768 H: 48kHz V: 60 Hz Analog input The above settings correspond to SXGA for Linux Mint, and XGA for grml. I found that out from the table at the end of the monitor documentation. The first thing that got rid of the window was that I went into Linux Mint and got a copy of my xorg.conf file. I copied that onto a USB key. Went back into grml, made a backup copy of the grml xorg.conf, and then (as su) copied my Linux Mint file into /etc/X11/xorg.conf. ( The bouncy window was still around while I did this ). Went out of X to the command-line. Went back into X and the bouncing window had gone. The second thing that worked was that I went back into grml ( this was a new session - I didn't save my xorg.conf settings ). I ran this suggested command to start X - grml-x -mode 1280x1024 -hsync 64 -vsync 60 fluxbox It worked perfectly - No bouncing window appeared. Bye for now - - Andy

1 0

Re: [Grml] 1.1 rc1 - a small problem with "bouncing window"...
by Michael Schierl 02 Jan '08

02 Jan '08

[adding cc to mailing list again] Andy Elvey wrote: > The window appears just before X starts. You're > correct in that the mouse pointer moves "below" the window. The monitor > is an "AOC LM925" - AOC is the manufacturer. It is a VGA one. Okay. After figuring out that "AOC Monitor Australia/New Zealand" sells different monitors than "AOC Europe", it was easy to get to the manual: http://www.aocmonitor-anz.com/support/manuals/LM925usermanual8ms.pdf Okay. Now boot your Linux that works. Then press the rightmost button on your monitor (MENU) to get into the OSD menu (if this does not work, someone locked the OSD menu. Read page 8 of the manual - OSD Lock function - on how to unlock it). Use Left and Right (the keys left and right from the power button) to move to the "Information" icon (that looks like a "i" in a circle) and press MENU again. It will show screen resolution and horizontal and vertical refresh rate (i.e. three values). Exit from the OSD with the EXIT button (leftmost button). Post them here :) If you want, you can repeat this inside GRML. Page 18 of the manual lists "suggested refresh rates", but it does not list all supported ones. For 1280x1024 it suggests 60Hz or 75Hz. > < rant directed at the bouncy window's designer - not directed at you or > grml... > Drop your rant here: http://www.aocmonitor-anz.com/contact.php :) > Very poorly-thought-out by the bios people or whoever..... </rant> It's not the BIOS. In fact, it is not inside your PC at all. VGA signals are designed for CRT monitors. So, your LCD panel needs a microcontroller chip that converts the signal so that it can be used on the LCD. That microcontroller will display OSD error messages on the screen - they are *not* present in the signal that goes from PC to monitor. Buy a monitor from a different manufacturer next time *g*. (By the way, it sounds a bit silly that the RAMDAC chip on your graphics card converts the image in the frame buffer to analog signals and your LCD panel convert them back to digital. But that is how it works if you use a VGA connector). Michael

1 0

1.1 rc1 - a small problem with "bouncing window"...
by Andy Elvey 01 Jan '08

01 Jan '08

Hi all - I'm a first-timer here - just tried grml for the first time, and very impressed! Well done to the devs! :-) ( A bit of background - I'm an intermediate (pushing "advanced")-level user - my PC's been Linux-only for about 4 years or so now. ) I only have one small problem. When I'm running the live-CD, I get an annoying window with a blue border bouncing around the screen - the message in it says "Attention: Input not supported". I can run apps fine, the display is perfectly normal except for that window. Arrgh.... I should say that I have an "AOC" brand LCD screen and it runs fine (except for that window). Absolutely everything works perfectly except for that one small thing, so has anyone come across that before (and have a way of getting rid of it?). Maybe a boot-option or something..... ? Very many thanks in advance, and again - well done to the devs for a great distro! Bye for now - - Andy

3 6

1.1 RC 1 won't boot, but 1.0 will
by cmbrannon＠cox.net 01 Jan '08

01 Jan '08

Hi all, I just downloaded the ISO of 1.1 RC1. I burned it to a blank medium using cdrecord -data dev=/dev/hdc grml_1.1-rc1.iso

1 0

problem installing packages.
by Doug Smith 31 Dez '07

31 Dez '07

Ok, I have a little problem with installing packages on here. I don't know why packages won't install, but the install process just hangs after the packages are downloaded. I wanted, for example, to install gcj on here, but the packages were downloaded, and the process just hung indefinitely. What's the problem and how can I fix it. I like the new release candidate. I have never had this good service from speakup, but you eliminated almost all that stupid spelling. It does jump into it occasionally, but it is not nearly as much as it has been before. The rest of the diestro looks great. All my command line favs are here and in their latest versions. This is good. I just need to know what to do about that failure to install packages. Thank you. -- I use grml (http://grml.org/)

2 1

grml release candidates: grml 1.1-rc1, grml64 0.2-rc1, grml[64]-medium 0.1-rc1
by Michael Prokop 28 Dez '07

28 Dez '07

Hi! I'm proud to be able to present new grml release candidates. New features? For sure! Including a new grml flavour known as grml-medium. grml 1.1-rc1 - Codename Skunk: http://grml.org/changelogs/README-grml-1.1-rc1/ grml64 0.2-rc1 - Codename Schwammerlklauber: http://grml.org/changelogs/README-grml64-0.2-rc1/ grml-medium 0.1-rc1 and grml64-medium 0.1-rc1 - Codename Pfuh: http://grml.org/changelogs/README-grml-medium-0.1-rc1/ http://grml.org/changelogs/README-grml64-medium-0.1-rc1/ Please consider using bittorrent for downloading the ISOs: http://grml.deb.at/devel/grml_1.1-rc1.iso.torrent http://grml.deb.at/devel/grml64_0.2-rc1.iso.torrent http://grml.deb.at/devel/grml-medium_0.1-rc1.iso.torrent http://grml.deb.at/devel/grml64-medium_0.1-rc1.iso.torrent If you can't use bittorrent then check out the devel/ directory of the HTTP/FTP mirrors listed at: http://grml.org/download/ Known issues can be found at: http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=release_candidate Please report any bug you notice so we can provide stable releases soon! http://grml.org/bugs/ Enjoy grml! 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

Text based bootsplash -- switch to after install?
by John Magolske 20 Dez '07

20 Dez '07

I just installed grml 1.0 to a hard drive, but forgot to invoke the "splash" boot option before running grml2hd. Is there a way to switch to the text based bootsplash after installation? Thanks, John -- John Magolske http://B79.net/contact

2 1

Grml-live-remaster (boot problem - busybox)
by vadim.blajkun＠ubs.com 17 Dez '07

17 Dez '07

Hi All. I am quite new to the remastering the GRML live CD. I am trying to remaster the CD based on the grml-small linux 2.6.20 kernel following the procedure described in the "Remastering GRML" HOWTO http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=remastering. Everything went Ok until I have tried to boot from the resulting ISO - it thrown me to the busybox. I have noticed that executing mksqushfs results in the GRML file which is about 0.5 MB smaller than the original GRML file, even though there were absolutely no changes to the original. If I do not run mksquashfs, bit simply recreate ISO using mkisofs, the resulting ISO image works fine. I looks that the problem is somewhere in mksquashfs. I use mksquashfs distributed with squashfs3.3.tgz via http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=63835 Could anyone help? Thanks. -- Vadim

2 2

Installing GRML with Speech
by Jerry Matheny 07 Dez '07

07 Dez '07

Hello, I am a blind computer user, and am trying to install GRML on my laptop computer. My setup is as follows: I'm using the speakup_synth=ltlk boot parameter to start my external synthesizer, however I wish to also use a 2 gb swap partition that I have created just in case. How can I run grml2hd to do this? Also, how do I go about installing TTSynth to have software speech via Speakup afterwards? I have the deb image needed for TTSynth. I just need the library it needs to install. And also, what steps are needed to get Gnome and Orca running? Sorry to ask so many questions, but this is the best Linux distro that has detected all my hardware, and seems to work the best with the sound card, which is a must when you are a blind laptop Linux user. So any help I could get would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance, Jerry

3 3

Having trouble installing packages with apt-get
by Jerry Matheny 07 Dez '07

07 Dez '07

How can I fix this problem? I try to install packages with apt-get and it wants to remove kernel-headers-grml. But I want to be able to install new packages. What is a good way to fix this? Thanks in advance, Jerry

3 2

system time is too slow on a grml guest inside vmware server on a grml host
by Peter 07 Dez '07

07 Dez '07

Hi I have problems getting the time stable on a grml 1.0 guest running inside a vmware virtual machine on a grml 1.0 host. The host is synchronized via chrony and it works. The guest is getting behind the host system time very rapidly (approx 10 Mins in an hour) I tried various options: 1 with chrony and without vmware tools time sync 2 the inverse 3 some hacks include: kern.hz=100 in lilo.conf nothing works. I also have a grml 1.0 running as guest inside vmware workstation (the commercial product tp vmware server) on a Windows 2000 host (which has no time sync) . Here , the guest has no time sync with the host and uses chrony . Everything works in this case. Any ideas ? Thanks a lot Peter

2 1

grml-live-remaster script (problem with mkisofs)
by Michael Schierl 26 Nov '07

26 Nov '07

Hello, I built a script that should enable you to remaster a grml from the live cd like this: - mount some swap (if you don't have unlimited RAM *g*) - mount a disk where the ISO should end up on - If you use grml-small, install mksquashfs and mkisofs - grml-live-remaster /path/to/remastered-grml.iso * it will build a new aufs based on /remaster/tmp and /remaster/cdrom (which are mounted first) * then it drops you into the chroot so you can "remaster" * then it will open the last two lines of boot.msg in $EDITOR so you can edit the start screen message * then it will create a new squashfs and iso image, and cleans up after itself. * but it will leave the boot.msg and /remaster/tmp intact, so if you do not like the result (for example because it is too large for your CD-R) you can just run it again and continue where you left. - reboot to Windows/whatever and burn the CD - have fun Unfortunately, the build CD does not boot and drops me into busybox. But I guess this is only a bug in the mkisofs line, since the filesystem layout looks fine for me. And it is quite time consuming to test it within grml-small and installing mksquashfs and mkisofs after every reboot. mika: can you look if you find the bug? and if you found it, can you include it into next grml? It is very useful to be able to remaster grml on virtually any PC without having to repartition anything first. mihi #!/bin/sh if [ x"$1" == x ]; then echo "usage: grml-live-remaster destination.iso" echo " destination.iso should point to a path that is on a hard disk," echo " you might want to mount some swap partitions or swap files" echo " first, because grml-live-remaster will need a lot ot RAM." exit -1 fi set -e if [ ! -d /remaster ]; then mkdir -p /remaster/chroot /remaster/tmp /remaster/cdrom mount -t tmpfs tmpfs /remaster/tmp echo "#:# edit the following two lines to change the boot message" \ >/remaster/msg echo "#:#" >>/remaster/msg sed 1,2d /live/image/boot/isolinux/boot.msg >>/remaster/msg fi mount -t squashfs /live/image/live/grml.squashfs /remaster/cdrom -o ro,loop mount -t aufs aufs /remaster/chroot -o br:/remaster/tmp=rw:/remaster/cdrom=rr for i in dev proc root sys tmp; do mount --bind /$i /remaster/chroot/$i done echo "Now edit the contents of the live CD in this chrooted shell:" chroot /remaster/chroot for i in dev proc root sys tmp; do umount /remaster/chroot/$i done $EDITOR /remaster/msg mkdir /remaster/iso for i in /live/image/*; do if [ ! $i == /live/image/live ]; then cp -R $i /remaster/iso fi done rm /remaster/iso/boot/isolinux/boot.msg sed 3,4d /live/image/boot/isolinux/boot.msg \ >/remaster/iso/boot/isolinux/boot.msg sed 1,2d /remaster/msg >>/remaster/iso/boot/isolinux/boot.msg mkdir /remaster/iso/live mksquashfs /remaster/chroot /remaster/iso/live/grml.squashfs umount /remaster/chroot /remaster/cdrom mkisofs -b boot/isolinux/isolinux.bin -no-emul-boot -c boot/isolinux/boot.cat \ -boot-info-table -o "$1" /remaster/iso rm -R /remaster/iso echo "" echo "ISO generation complete:" ls --color -l "$1" echo "If you want to customize your ISO, just call grml-live-remaster again."

3 4

alps touchpad rc1
by martin yazdzik 26 Nov '07

26 Nov '07

Dear Mika and friends, rc1 of 1.1 does everything just about perfectly - install is dead clean, and, as long as one knows what sources to use, one can have a complete desktop environment with all the bells and whistles pretty quickly. My Dell laptop, however, and most dell latitudes, which is a high percentage of business users' machines, uses the alps touchpad. Normally, the synaptics driver is loaded, no problem, but grml-x does not configure it, nor can I, even simply copying my current xorg.conf, get it to work. I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0002 Product=0008 Version=6337 N: Name="AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint" P: Phys=isa0060/serio1/input0 S: Sysfs=/devices/platform/i8042/serio1/input/input2 U: Uniq= H: Handlers=mouse1 event2 ts1 B: EV=f B: KEY=420 0 70000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 B: REL=3 B: ABS=1000003 instead, the pointing stick thing works, but both should. I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0002 Product=0008 Version=0000 N: Name="PS/2 Mouse" P: Phys=isa0060/serio1/input1 S: Sysfs=/devices/virtual/input/input1 U: Uniq= H: Handlers=mouse0 event1 ts0 B: EV=7 B: KEY=70000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 B: REL=3 Both work in sidux, but I hate to have to reinstall it just to get the xorg.conf from it, if indeed, that is even the problem. same hwinfo from my working grml I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0002 Product=0008 Version=0000 N: Name="PS/2 Mouse" P: Phys=isa0060/serio1/input1 S: Sysfs=/class/input/input1 U: Uniq= H: Handlers=mouse0 event1 ts0 B: EV=7 B: KEY=70000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 B: REL=3 I: Bus=0011 Vendor=0002 Product=0008 Version=6337 N: Name="AlpsPS/2 ALPS GlidePoint" P: Phys=isa0060/serio1/input0 S: Sysfs=/class/input/input2 U: Uniq= H: Handlers=mouse1 event2 ts1 B: EV=f B: KEY=420 0 70000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 B: REL=3 B: ABS=1000003 What is up? Is this yet another udev does not like something issue? best, M "You don't subject minority rights to a referendum." Justice Minister Irwin Cotler of Canada

2 1

Re: [Grml] Installing grml on a USB Flash Drive
by Mathew Brown 23 Nov '07

23 Nov '07

Hi Mika, So what you're saying is that it's on the to-do-list or that it's already been done? I've read about the save-config part, but that it's really what I was asking about (although it's very nifty). What I was interested in is booting up grml from my USB flash drive, having it write all changes to ramdisk (including any package installations and temporary files) and then telling grml to submit the changes to the USB drive if I want them to be persistent (such as package updates). Can this be done? Thanks for your help. > > > I know that you can install grml easily on a usb flash drive and was > > > wondering if grml has any special options for flash drives > > > installation, as, from my understanding, flash drives have a limited > > > number of write and erase cycles before failure. Does grml allow you > > > to write all hard disk changes to RAM (in a ramdisk) and then allow > > > you to either commit these changes when closing your session? Does > > > grml have any flash-friendly options? Thanks for your help. > > All write actions are redirected to the ramdisk by default, just > check out what's unionfs/aufs and how it's used if you are > interested in the details. If you search for persistent root > (configuration for example can be stored already using the config > framework: http://grml.org/config/): that's on our todo list. > > regards, > -mika- -- Mathew Brown mathewbrown(a)fastmail.fm -- http://www.fastmail.fm - mmm... Fastmail...

1 0

Installing grml on a USB Flash Drive
by Mathew Brown 22 Nov '07

22 Nov '07

Hi, I know that you can install grml easily on a usb flash drive and was wondering if grml has any special options for flash drives installation, as, from my understanding, flash drives have a limited number of write and erase cycles before failure. Does grml allow you to write all hard disk changes to RAM (in a ramdisk) and then allow you to either commit these changes when closing your session? Does grml have any flash-friendly options? Thanks for your help. -- Mathew Brown mathewbrown(a)fastmail.fm -- http://www.fastmail.fm - Or how I learned to stop worrying and love email again

2 1

brltty
by mattias 18 Nov '07

18 Nov '07

Have the grm small brltty?

3 3

Problem using apt-get in grml small : /usr/sbin/apt-listbug No such file or directory
by Peter 15 Nov '07

15 Nov '07

Hi I try to use apt-get form inside the grml small edition. No matter what I try to download, at the end of the process I get the message : /bin/sh: /usr/sbin/apt-listbugs : no such file or directory E: sub-process /usr/sbin/apt-listbugs apt || exit 10 returned an error code (10) ( apt-get update worked fine ) Thanks for your help. Peter

2 1

grml-live, fai and package retreiving
by T o n g 13 Nov '07

13 Nov '07

Hi, I'm new to grml-live & fai. I don't understand why fai needs its own sources.list file. Since it will be really rarely for people to choose different mirrors from there preferred ones. Can we configure one less file (/etc/grml/fai/apt/sources.list), telling grml-live to use the official /etc/apt/sources.list by default instead? ,----- | To avoid downloading the base system again and again check out FAI's NFSROOT `----- This is another point that I don't understand the fai's philosophy. The "normal" Debian will cache the downloaded packages. Removing and installing a package again and again won't cause the very package to be downloaded again and again. Why fai behaves this way? Are the package downloaded by fai cached at the official place? Thanks, and for the excellent grml-live BTW. -- Tong (remove underscore(s) to reply) http://xpt.sourceforge.net/techdocs/ http://xpt.sourceforge.net/tools/

3 8

grml-live and local configuration
by T o n g 11 Nov '07

11 Nov '07

Hi, I found that there is no way to specify a local configuration for grml-live. I.e., I have to mess with /etc/grml/grml-live.conf file in order to configure anything, or rely on the limited command line. I know the grml-live is still not a finished product yet. So I hope in the final release, there is way for people to have their local configuration files. The benefits: - people don't need to mess with the official /etc/grml/grml-live.conf file - no need to deal with it manually when grml-live package updates. - local configuration file will only hold settings different from the official file - people can have different configuration files - all /usr/share/grml-live/buildd/grml-live_autobuild_xxx.sh files can be combined to one shell script, with difference in the configuration file used only. This is much more maintainable. thanks -- Tong (remove underscore(s) to reply) http://xpt.sourceforge.net/techdocs/ http://xpt.sourceforge.net/tools/

2 1

grml repositories
by T o n g 11 Nov '07

11 Nov '07

Hi, Where's the write up on how to setup grml repositories? Being with grml for so long, I just realized that I can't find any write up on how to setup grml repositories. Here is my existing setting: $ grep grml-stable /etc/apt/sources.list deb http://deb.grml.org/ grml-stable main deb-src http://deb.grml.org/ grml-stable main but I can't find the newest grml-live: $ apt-cache search grml-live plz help. thx -- Tong (remove underscore(s) to reply) http://xpt.sourceforge.net/techdocs/ http://xpt.sourceforge.net/tools/

2 1

grml-medium and X
by T o n g 11 Nov '07

11 Nov '07

Hi mika: On seeing that grml is providing a grml-medium edition, I checked it out immediately. However I found that grml-medium still does not including X. Mika, please please include X in grml-medium, and grml-x & firefox too. Otherwise, there is no much reason for people to prefer grml-medium, because it will be just grml_small plus some extra packages, which I see no obvious reason that I can't install them myself. thanks -- Tong (remove underscore(s) to reply) http://xpt.sourceforge.net/techdocs/ http://xpt.sourceforge.net/tools/

2 3

RE: grml repositories
by T o n g 10 Nov '07

10 Nov '07

> where are grml repositories? Silly me. Found right at: http://grml.org/files/ and http://deb.grml.org/ -- Tong (remove underscore(s) to reply) http://xpt.sourceforge.net/techdocs/ http://xpt.sourceforge.net/tools/

2 1

grml-live, grml_small & REMOVE_DOCS
by T o n g 10 Nov '07

10 Nov '07

Hi, quick question: Is the control file for class REMOVE_DOCS released in grml-live v0.0.8? I found the class in /usr/share/grml-live/buildd/grml-live_autobuild_grml-small_sid.sh thanks -- Tong (remove underscore(s) to reply) http://xpt.sourceforge.net/techdocs/ http://xpt.sourceforge.net/tools/

2 1

Request for Kernel
by Josh Lawrence 09 Nov '07

09 Nov '07

Hello all, Last weekend I talked to some of the grml devs about building my own kernel with Ingo Molnar's rt-preempt patch, CONFIG_HZ=1000, and fully-preemptable kernel turned on. (Additionally I was hoping to use the linux-live scripts (www.linux-live.org), which require aufs + squashfs to be built into the kernel.) So far, I have failed. I would like to request that someone much smarter than me in the grml team do this and make it an available kernel in the grml repos. Or, if you could provide me some additional help (tutoring, perhaps) with building a kernel with these features in "the grml way", I would be happy to do the work and contribute back to the grml community. For context, my primary goal is to have a liveCD competely customized for me to use on gigs with the various groups I play with. For example, this liveCD would be very, very lean, would have all of my patches, synthesizers, etc. already programmed and ready, plus any scripts I might use, etc. Thank you, -- Josh Lawrence http://www.hardbop200.com

2 1

back to file-rc
by martin yazdzik 06 Nov '07

06 Nov '07

Dear M and friends, In order to test out a version of hplip for a new set of peripherals, I had to remove file-rc, which I have back now. How do I make the system boot using runlevel.conf again, so I am back in control? Best, M

2 1

Daily builds of grml available
by Michael Prokop 18 Okt '07

18 Okt '07

Hi! I'm proud to be able to announce the availability of daily snapshots of grml. This service is based on the grml-live framework (see http://grml.org/grml-live/ for details) and besides a new grml flavour we are currently working on (known as grml-medium) we also provide Debian/stable based grml-ISOs for the first time to the public. All the flavours are available in a 32bit version as well as a 64bit version, so you can choose from 12 different ISOs at total on a daily base. More details are available at: http://grml.supersized.org/archives/269-Daily-grml-snapshots.html The daily snapshots can be found at: http://daily.grml.org/ Enjoy grml! 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

[Grml 1.0] cannot boot anymore after upgrade
by Ja Bu 03 Okt '07

03 Okt '07

Hi all, I am quite new to GRML (and Debian/Knoppix based distributions). However, I have some experience with other Linux distris. So recently I got a virtual appliance with Grml installed already. One of the first things was to use apt-get (first attempt) and aptitude (second attempt) to upgrade all upgradable packages. The results was the same: I could not boot anymore. The only thing that appears is 'GRUB' without any further error message. I have spent two days already to figure out what happens. I have seen reports about similar errors when updating ubuntu versions. The reason was a switch from hdX to sdX (and a mismatch of the UUIDs). I checked all that: UUIDs are fine. And even with the device names the symptoms are the same. I then tried to reinstall GRUB. The installation process yielded no errors (the menu.lst and the device map are fine). Nevertheless I get the same error :-( Then I thought: Maybe it's only a GRUB problem and tried LILO. With lilo I get some more information, but also the boot process stops very early. I get error messages about some modules that cannot be loaded. (I currently have no access and, thus, cannot type the exact error message here.) I am wondering whether this has something to do with the linux-kernel-header-grml package which apt-get/aptitude were keen to remove? I am also wondering: I surely am not the only one who ever upgraded a GRML 1.0 system, or? Did noone ever encountered a similar problem? I appreciate every hint which might bring me closer to a solution of this most annoying problem. Thanks in advance, Jan http://toolbar.Care2.com Make your computer carbon-neutral (free). http://www.Care2.com Green Living, Human Rights and more - 7 million members!

2 4

Re: Re: [Grml] [Grml 1.0] cannot boot anymore after upgrade
by Ja Bu 03 Okt '07

03 Okt '07

Hi Mika, > > ---- > > Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold [...] > > ii udev 0.103-1grml2 /dev/ and hotplug management daemon > > You are sure, that this is the output of the affected grml2hd > installation? This would be interesting. :) I did a chroot /mnt/sda1 (where I had previously mounted the affected grml installation) and then entered the dpkg command that you have sent. So I assume that should be the correct output, shouldn it? Is there room for mistakes? > > Here is lilo.conf (which I currently use): [...] > > => the hard disk is really sda (the only existing partition is sda1) > > Ok, so just replace the: > append="grml_from_hd root=UUID=ffb575cc-c8df-4063-e0f8cb6aff03 " > with > append="grml_from_hd root=/dev/sda1" That worked! Thanks a lot!! > You can edit the commandline of grub interactive (just press 'e', > then edit the according line(s) and after pressing 'enter' to > activate the changes, finally boot the entry using 'b') as well. When booting the corrupt system I do not even see a menu. It is not possible to enter anything since as soon as 'GRUB' appears the system hangs. But that doesn't matter now since with LILO everything works fine. Thanks again. Best regards, Jan http://toolbar.Care2.com Make your computer carbon-neutral (free). http://www.Care2.com Green Living, Human Rights and more - 7 million members!

2 1

Re: Re: [Grml] [Grml 1.0] cannot boot anymore after upgrade
by Ja Bu 03 Okt '07

03 Okt '07

Hi Mika, first of all, thank you very much for the fast reply. I guess you know how frustrating it can be to spend many hours on a problem and finally ending up with no idea how to go on. So I was very glad to find your reply in my inbox so soon :-) > The last 1-2 lines of the output would be interesting. Here are the error messages when booting with LILO: ---- [....] No root-on-loop configured, skipping Begin: Loading MD modules ... Failure: failed to load module linear. Failure: failed to load module multipath. Failure: failed to load module raid0. Failure: failed to load module raid1. [....] Success: loaded module raid456. [...] Failure: failed to load module raid10. Done. Warning: missing mdaadm.conf file, trying to create one... Segmentation fault Done. Begin: Waiting for root file system... ... ---- > Can you please provide the output of: > dpkg --list mdadm lvm2 initramfs-tools lilo grub udev > of the system? (Just boot grml live and chroot into your system) ---- Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold | Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/Half-installed |/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad) ||/ Name Version Description +++-===============-==============-============================================ ii grub 0.97-19 GRand Unified Bootloader ii initramfs-tools 0.85c tools for generating an initramfs ii lilo 22.6.1-9 LInux LOader - The Classic OS loader can loa ii lvm2 2.02.06-3 The Linux Logical Volume Manager ii mdadm 2.5.6-6 tool to administer Linux MD arrays (software ii udev 0.103-1grml2 /dev/ and hotplug management daemon ---- Here is lilo.conf (which I currently use): ---- lba32 prompt timeout=50 map=/boot/map vga=normal boot=/dev/sda image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-grml label="2.6.20-grml append="grml_from_hd root=UUID=ffb575cc-c8df-4063-e0f8cb6aff03 " read-only vga=0x0317 initrd=/boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-grml ---- => I left out only the other sections and the bootscreen related lines => I tried also without boot screen => I checked that all the files mentioned above do really exist => the UUID is the correct one (checked with Ubuntu live CD) => the hard disk is really sda (the only existing partition is sda1) Here is the current menu.lst (after removal of comments etc): -> this one is the one with /dev/sdX: ---- default 0 timeout 10 title Debian GNU/LInux, kernel 2.6.20-grml root hd0,0 kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-grml root=/dev/sda1 ro vga=791 initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.20-grml savedefault ---- => as I said: I also found detailed descriptions how to install grub manually which I followed exactly (http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/manual/grub.html#Installing-GRUB-natively) => the result was the same (only 'GRUB' being displayed before the system was hanging) -> this is the only change of the original menu.lst with the UUIDs: ---- [... same lines as above ...] kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.20-grml root=UUID=ffb575cc-c8df-4063--e0f8cb6aff03 ro vga=791 ---- In your third mail you wrote: > Just verified it on my own: root=UUID=... still/again does not work > with initramfs-tools. So just use root=/dev/... on your grub cmdline > in the meanwhile to boot your system, I'm debugging the problem.... I already did that in the case of grub (see modified menu.lst above). The result is the same. Or did I miss a step somewhere? After changing the menu.lst do I have to do any additional steps? (I think I reinstalled grub after that, but I am not sure.) By the way: I got the GRML virtual appliance from: http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/899 (I don't know whether the distributor modified the VMachine in the meantime.) Thanks again for your help. Hope you can guide me how to resolve that problem. Best regards, Jan http://toolbar.Care2.com Make your computer carbon-neutral (free). http://www.Care2.com Green Living, Human Rights and more - 7 million members!

2 1

Error attempting to install grml-live
by Charles Hewson 02 Okt '07

02 Okt '07

Hi All, I am using ; deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib no n-free deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable main contrib no n-free in /etc/apt/sources.list as I am in Seattle. I get the following error when I try to install grml-live; Selecting previously deselected package squashfs-tools. (Reading database ... 126198 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking squashfs-tools (from .../squashfs-tools_1%3a3.2r2-8_i386.deb) ... dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/squashfs-tools_1%3a3.2r2-8_i386.deb (--unpack): trying to overwrite `/usr/share/man/man1/mksquashfs.1.gz', which is also in package squashfs Selecting previously deselected package fai-client. Unpacking fai-client (from .../fai-client_3.2.1_all.deb) ... Selecting previously deselected package fai-server. Unpacking fai-server (from .../fai-server_3.2.1_all.deb) ... Selecting previously deselected package grml-live. Unpacking grml-live (from .../grml-live_0.0.2_all.deb) ... Errors were encountered while processing: /var/cache/apt/archives/squashfs-tools_1%3a3.2r2-8_i386.deb localepurge: Disk space freed in /usr/share/locale: 188K E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) apt-get install grml-live 15.62s user 7.19s system 3% cpu 10:38.00 total Thank, Charles ____________________________________________________________________________________ Looking for a deal? Find great prices on flights and hotels with Yahoo! FareChase. http://farechase.yahoo.com/

2 1

grml-live: build framework based on FAI for generating a Linux Live system
by Michael Prokop 20 Sep '07

20 Sep '07

Hi, I'm pleased to be able to officially announce grml-live. grml-live is a build framework based on FAI¹, which provides the infrastructure to create a grml and Debian based Linux Live-CD. One single command and if everything goes fine you'll have your own live-cd. :) grml-live should work on any Debian based distribution and as it uses /etc/grml/fai as main configuration directory it should not clash with any other FAI packages. The Debian package of grml-live is available via grml's pool: http://deb.grml.org/pool/main/g/grml-live/ grml-users (and everyone else using deb.grml.org inside sources.list) can get it via 'au ; agi grml-live'. :) Current sources are available from the mercurial repository: http://hg.grml.org/grml-live/ The documentation and some more details can be found at the grml-live webpage: http://grml.org/grml-live/ I appreciate any feedback, feature requests, bugreports and of course patches. :) ¹ http://www.informatik.uni-koeln.de/fai/ 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

grml-small - raise ISO-size?
by Michael Prokop 20 Sep '07

20 Sep '07

Hi, I'm busy working on grml-live¹, a framework (based on FAI²) which provides the possbility to build a grml-ISO with 1(!) single command (oh and live-initramfs has been integrated into grml basically as well already). Creating your very own grml version is pretty easy now. http://grml.supersized.org/archives/263-grml-live-create-your-own-grml-ISO.… This framework might be the system behind grml 1.1, grml64 0.2 and grml-small 0.5 already and I think it's time to discuss the ISO-size limit of grml-small now. :) Some history: grml-small 0.1 started with 49MB total ISO-size, grml-small 0.2 had 56MB, grml-small 0.3 had 58MB and grml-small 0.4 has 60MB now. So it's definitely growing (due to the new features of kernel and userland in every single release). The main problem for the grml team so far was, to keep the ISO size of grml-small as small as possible but nevertheless provide all the software people wanted to see included. Another important drawback is the separate kernel version, which had to be maintained *additionally* to the main (non-small) grml-kernel. Using grml-live we are able to build grml-small with one single command now. The resulting ISO for grml-small has a size of 133MB currently - though the ISO still provides some more software than grml-small 0.4 did (like python, aptitude,...) and even a full featured /usr/share/doc (24MB) plus the current grml-kernel (2.6.22-grml). So the 133MB ISO could be stripped down a little bit further (maybe to something like 125MB) without losing toooo much. My suggestion therefore is to raise the ISO-size of grml-small to something like <=128MB (so it still fits on 128MB USB pens). Pros: * some more software could be included (and /usr/share/doc could be shipped as well maybe) * as maintainenance for the grml-team is much easier, we would provide up2date grml-small versions always together with a new release of (full) grml * use of same kernel version as with full grml -> installing additional Debian kernel packages not being available on the ISO yet (due to lack of space) is no problem furthermore Cons: * "grml toram" will last a little bit longer * 64MB USB pens as well as the really small CDs aren't support anymore (though I recommend to use fast >=1GB USB pens for booting anyway nowadays ;-)) As grml-live will be available to the public soon and everyone might build his own grml-version ;-), everyone could build his own grml-small version anyway. So what's *your* opinion about "grml-small grows to ~125MB"? I highly appreciate any feedback. ¹ http://grml.org/grml-live/ ² http://www.informatik.uni-koeln.de/fai/ 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

11 10

Call for Testing: initramfs-tools
by Michael Prokop 05 Sep '07

05 Sep '07

Hi, Problem description =================== Some of you might know the problem with initramfs-tools >0.87b, quoting http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=431291 => ,---- [ #431291 ] | Booting with 'root=UUID=...' fails, it just hangs at "Waiting for | root file system..." and you can't boot your system anymore unless | you fall back to root=/dev/... syntax. `---- initramfs-tools version is 0.90a is available in Debian/unstable and 0.91 will be available soon. I'm asking you for help in testing the current version so we can ship it with grml as well. I can't reproduce the problem from #431291 on my own systems and therefore need your help. If we can't locate any bugs with initramfs-tools booting harddisk installations within the next few days I'll remove the old initramfs-tools version from grml's pool so new versions will reach the systems when upgrading them again. So please help us! How to test =========== Are you using an initrd? (Check the initrd line in /etc/lilo.conf when using lilo or /boot/grub/menu.lst when using grub.) If so please make sure you have a grml CD by hand so you can fix your system if it really does not boot anymore (hopefully that won't happen and falling back to root=/dev/... syntax in the bootloader should be possible anyway). ;) Which version of initramfs-tools are you using? Just for the record please save output before testing: # dpkg --list initramfs-tools # cat /proc/cmdline Make sure you have the old, working version available: # wget http://deb.grml.org/pool/main/i/initramfs-tools/initramfs-tools_0.87b_all.d… Now update initramfs-tools to 0.90a: # apt-get update ; apt-get install initramfs-tools/unstable Now a new /boot/initrd.* should be generated automatically for you. Does your system still boot without problems? What I need =========== Please let me know (no matter whether it works or not or if you tested it at all!): * do you have problems with booting your system? * what's inside your /proc/cmdline? * are you using SW-RAID? * are you using LVM? * which bootloader (lilo vs. grub) are you using? * which versions of initramfs-tools do work for you and which *not* (check via 'dpkg --list initramfs-tools') If you can't help in testing initramfs-tools (no matter why) please provide information of questions above anyway! It will help in any case as soon as you are using an initrd on your system! Problems with Booting? ====================== To get a working system again you just have to get the old version: # wget http://deb.grml.org/pool/main/i/initramfs-tools/initramfs-tools_0.87b_all.d… Install it running: # dpkg -i initramfs-tools_0.87b_all.deb If you manually want to re-generate the initrd/initramfs just invoke: # update-initramfs -c -t -k $(uname -r) Falling back to root=/dev/[sh]d* syntax instead of root=UUID=... should be possible as well. If you *really* can't boot anymore you'll find all available tools on a recent version of grml of course. I'm available for helping you as well, feel free to bug me if you don't know what to do. Debugging ========= See http://wiki.debian.org/InitramfsDebug for more information if you are interesting in debugging the problem on your own. Debian's maintainer of initramfs-tools provided help in debugging problems as well (thanks, maks!), and of course I'm available as well. If you have any questions or need further assistance please don't hesitate to contact me. You can reach me via mail, on IRC (#grml) or via jabber (mika(a)jabber.grml.org). Please help us! Thanks! 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

RE: Emacspeak replacement?
by Jeff 02 Sep '07

02 Sep '07

Since emacspeak was removed in 1.0, is there an alternative that will work with similar functionality? Thank you, Jeff No, emacspeak had to be dropped from grml 1.0 (seehttp://grml.org/files/README-grml-1.0.php) because of it was justtoo big and did not work with current emacs versions, sorry.regards,-mika--- http://grml.org/ _______________________________________________ Join Excite! - http://www.excite.com The most personalized portal on the Web!

2 1

Using QEMU with grml
by - Tong - 01 Sep '07

01 Sep '07

Hi, I was on and off with QEMU in the past because it was slow. I knew there is a kernel accelerated QEMU but never made the attempt to try it, because I was stopped by the idea that I should compile/deal with the kernel modules. I never blame others for my own fault, but this time, mika, I think you are to blame for this. I mean, I didn't know that the accelerated QEMU works out of box in grml ever since grml v0.5 (http://www.grml.org/qemu/) -- you should be blamed for the fact that I don't know it. You made things so easy for us but never let us know. :-) Now I will give QEMU a serious try. mika, I think your wiki can use some more explanation on the following 2 points. - "To see if kqemu is enabled and working correctly, use the QEMU monitor command" -- please elaborate more about it, because 'info kqemu' didn't give me the desired info. Moreover, it'd be better to clearly tell uses in wiki how to do it. - I learned that "To run the emulated system, a good idea is to use overlay images. This way you can create hard disk image once and tell Qemu to store changes in external file. You get rid of all the instability, because it is so easy to revert to previous system state." (http://manual.sidux.com/en/hd-install-opts-en.htm#qemu) could you write something about this overlay image practice as well in your wiki please? That'll sure benefit grml users. Furthermore, in order to make it easier for grml users, I think it is better to start kqemu the standard way, not the hacking way. Please twist the following file and release it in the future of grml: /etc/init.d/kqemu #!/bin/sh case "$1" in start) echo "Starting kqemu: " /sbin/modprobe kqemu major=0 # load the kernel module mknod /dev/kqemu c 250 0 # create the device chmod 666 /dev/kqemu /dev/net/tun # adjust permissions ;; stop) echo "Stopping kqemu: " /sbin/rmmod kqemu ;; restart) /sbin/modprobe kqemu major=0 ;; *) ;; esac thanks -- Tong (remove underscore(s) to reply) http://xpt.sourceforge.net/techdocs/ http://xpt.sourceforge.net/tools/

2 1

RE: Emacspeak
by Jeff 01 Sep '07

01 Sep '07

I have low vision. In past versions of grml, I was able to use text to speech easily. I loaded 1.0 last weekend. I couldn't get the setting set correctly. I looked at the wiki but I was still unable to get it working. Does 1.0 only include and support speakup? Is emacspeak still available. Thank you for your assistance and the great distribution, Jeff _______________________________________________ Join Excite! - http://www.excite.com The most personalized portal on the Web!

2 1

[Grml] I'm back, and which file contains the default sound settings?
by Doug Smith 30 Aug '07

30 Aug '07

Ok, I have a real good one here. Which file contains the default settings which are used to bring up the sound system when the grml system starts? The reason I am asking this, is, that, this machine has an internal microphone in it, and, when you run swspeak, the thing comes on along with the speakers, resulting in an absolutely aweful, ear-splitting shriek. Well, it also causes another funny side effect. When this happens, I am, then, not able to manipulate the settings of the sound system to set it right. It takes me several tries to get into my system, and it absolutely freaks the people on my hall out, including my roommate. Well, if I can find this file, I can set it up such that the mic does not come on when the speakers do. Thanks for the info. -- Doug Smith: C.S.F.C. Computer Scientist For CHRIST

2 1

Wishlist item: yeahconsole
by Marcus Blumhagen 29 Aug '07

29 Aug '07

Hello, first of all I'd like to thank the devs for providing one of the best, if not *the* best, linux live system I have come across to date. I like the very good default configurations for the applicatins I have used so far. Especially I like how you made GNU/screen and zsh shine. I had to adapt those configs for my Debian box, since the usability is greatly improved. Also it was the first time I have ever used zsh and thanks to your work I now have a shell on steroids :). I use it as my default login shell on any system I can get it. I can never live without it anymore. You've got it alright when saying: "zsh rocks." :) But I am missing a tiny application, which for me greatly improves my experience of using the X environment. It is called 'yeahconsole' [1], a drop down terminal emulator which is capable of embedding an xterm or an urxvt. By using it together with GNU/screen I could reduce the number of open urxvt windows to just one. And there is no need to retag the x-terminal window (or make it sticky) just because one wants one GNU/screen session on all workspaces. By default one can toggle its visibility by the shortcut CTRL-MOD-Y and it is reachable from every virtual dektop or workspace. It is of course very customisable through Xresources and has a full screen mode too (MOD-F11 by default), so one is able to get a nice fullscreen high resoultion terminal under X even beyound the limitations of the textmode console. And last but not least its installed size is <100KB. Or maybe there is something similar already in grml? I have checked [2] but there seems to be nothing. I have search that list for kuake, yeahconsole, tilda and yakuake since those are the alternatives I know about on a Debian system. But in the lack of more fantasy what to search apt-cache for, I might have missed one. [1] http://packages.debian.org/unstable/x11/yeahconsole [2] http://grml.org/files/release-1.0/dpkg_list Again, thanks a lot for grml and kind regards -- Marcus Blumhagen "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction." -- Albert Einstein

2 2

virtualize Grml
by henry atting 28 Aug '07

28 Aug '07

Hi all, is it possible to install grml to a virtual machine with VirtualBox? I tried so, that means I created a virtual image, booted the grml iso image under VirtualBox, then typed grml2hd on a console but got the error message: No hard disk found I created some images already in a similiar way (debian, ubuntu) but obviously somethings missing this time ... Regards, henry -- http://www.literaturlatenight.de

1 0

Virtualize Grml
by henry atting 28 Aug '07

28 Aug '07

Hi all, is it possible to install grml to a virtual machine with VirtualBox? I tried so, that means I created a virtual image, booted the grml iso image under VirtualBox, then typed grml2hd on a console but got the error message: No hard disk found I created some images already in a similiar way (debian, ubuntu) but obviously somethings missing this time ... Regards, henry -- http://www.literaturlatenight.de

2 1

VirtualBox and Grml
by - Tong - 27 Aug '07

27 Aug '07

Hi, I remember while browsing planet.grml.org the other day, I saw one grml developer (mika, was it you?) highly praised the VirtualBox, stating that it is even faster than VMware. This get me very excited. Can someone give me some 101 introduction to VirtualBox, because I found most VirtualBox articles are for Ubuntu. Moreover, seems VirtualBox need to be compiled from source [1]. Can we have a VirtualBox package in grml? Also "before installing VirtualBox, your Linux OS has to satisfy some software requirements: in particular, you will need libxalan-c, libxerces-s and version 5 of libstdc++. Unfortunately, these packages are found under different names in the repositories of various Linux distributions so installing them will most likely cause problems" [2]. Can we straight things up in grml as well? thanks [1] http://www.go2linux.org/node/54 [2] http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/linux/VirtualBox-Review-47550.shtml -- Tong (remove underscore(s) to reply) http://xpt.sourceforge.net/techdocs/ http://xpt.sourceforge.net/tools/

3 8

grml2hd - Grml Hd Installation
by - Tong - 27 Aug '07

27 Aug '07

Hi, I used to use grml2hd after booting off grml, but today I tried the grml2hd from the chroot. I think nobody has ever done this before. I'm just trying to see if I can get it working. If so, I could do the Grml HD installation then system customization from within my current system, so that I could have almost zero down time. Here are some issues/questions regarding grml2hd. - I think the document (http://grml.org/grml2hd/grml2hd.html) is not up-to-date with the script. E.g., I didn't find the switch "--noninteractive" documented. - I saw that the script is trying to duplicate the whole /dev directory. Is this still necessary? -- this is not a question but a request for explanation, because I thought udev would take care of populating the /dev directory on the fly. - now to the issue of using grml2hd from the chroot itself. It didn't work for me. It almost failed to copy over anything: cp: cannot stat `backups': No such file or directory cp: cannot stat `boot': No such file or directory cp: cannot stat `cdrom': No such file or directory cp: cannot stat `dev': No such file or directory cp: cannot stat `etc': No such file or directory cp: cannot stat `floppy': No such file or directory cp: cannot stat `home': No such file or directory cp: cannot stat `initrd': No such file or directory cp: cannot stat `lib': No such file or directory cp: cannot stat `media': No such file or directory cp: cannot stat `mnt': No such file or directory cp: cannot stat `none': No such file or directory cp: cannot stat `opt': No such file or directory cp: cannot stat `root': No such file or directory cp: cannot stat `sbin': No such file or directory cp: cannot stat `selinux': No such file or directory cp: cannot stat `swap': No such file or directory cp: cannot stat `usr': No such file or directory cp: cannot stat `var': No such file or directory UTSL reveals that it might cause by the 1st line, "cd /UNIONFS", in the copy_files function. Can we do something about it? I mean do something to make it chroot friendly? Further, my currently grml was first grml2hd'ed from grml ver0.7, and there is no /UNIONFS mount point or directory in my current system. I guess I can't use grml2hd to dupe my currently grml to another HD as well, can I? thanks -- Tong (remove underscore(s) to reply) http://xpt.sourceforge.net/techdocs/ http://xpt.sourceforge.net/tools/

2 4

Number of partitions for sata limitation lifted?
by - Tong - 26 Aug '07

26 Aug '07

Hi, A while back, I discussed the problem why Linux can only see 15 partitions on my sata HD. http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.linux.distributions.grml.user/844/focus=847 Just now I saw there's a guy saikee puts 145 operating systems on 145 partitions. So I'm wondering if the limitation for the number of partitions for sata HD has been lifted or not in grml, or it is only justlinux that allows doing so. thanks -- Tong (remove underscore(s) to reply) http://xpt.sourceforge.net/techdocs/ http://xpt.sourceforge.net/tools/

2 1

tomcat5.5 server on grml1.0 hd install?
by Lars Schimmer 24 Aug '07

24 Aug '07

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi! Another "silly" question: Has anyone installed tomcat5.5 on a grml HD install? I installed sun-java-sdk 6 and updated java alternatives. Afterwars I installed tomcat5.5 (-admin, -webapps). But instead of a running tomcat5.5 (like it is told in the man/Readme.DEBIAN), tomcat won't start at all and logfiles are empty :-/ MfG, Lars Schimmer - -- - ------------------------------------------------------------- TU Graz, Institut für ComputerGraphik & WissensVisualisierung Tel: +43 316 873-5405 E-Mail: l.schimmer(a)cgv.tugraz.at Fax: +43 316 873-5402 PGP-Key-ID: 0x4A9B1723 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFGzqDwmWhuE0qbFyMRAiC/AJ9adt95iVsVC/X8I5ejVD4PIgpS1QCfS3se mqaSoPCv5IXca8D71V8MfBw= =pFKb -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

2 1

xorg does not have extension for dpms option
by - Tong - 23 Aug '07

23 Aug '07

Hi, My newly installed xorg doesn't support dpms any more: $ xset dpms force off server does not have extension for dpms option xset: unknown option force Which package should I install to get back the functionality? thanks PS my xorg: xserver-xorg: Installed: 1:7.1.0-16 -- Tong (remove underscore(s) to reply) http://xpt.sourceforge.net/techdocs/ http://xpt.sourceforge.net/tools/

1 1

Re: [Grml] Why does the speech system like to spell instead of readwords?
by Martin McCormick 22 Aug '07

22 Aug '07

Michael Prokop writes: > No, that's not an option (due to maintenance and space reasons) for > us, sorry. Especially as speakup (which provides the speech feature) > does not work any longer with kernels >=2.6.22. Let's see what > future will bring us. I certainly understand. I did subscribe to the announcement list in case either a different speech engine is used or there is some other way that software speech becomes an option again in grml. In the mean time, it looks like the last Oralux disk works properly on the laptop in question but I sure would have rather used a Debian-based distribution since all my other Linux systems are pure Debian. Thank you. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK Systems Engineer OSU Information Technology Department Network Operations Group

1 0

Problems booting GRML via fromhd
by Philipp Richter 22 Aug '07

22 Aug '07

Hi, We use GRML as rescue system on our machines. The /boot partition (which sits on a software raid1) of the main system includes the GRML-Kernel, initrd and squashfs so in case someone unintentionally removes libc6 or does some other bad things it's possible to recover the machine via the grml boot option in grub. the good thing is that this works if the /boot partition is on ide devices because the ide drivers are compiled into the kernel and the raid code in the kernel autostarts the raid. the bad thing: it doesn't work with our new dell boxes with mpt fusion controllers. the second problem here is that these boxes don't have ps/2 keyboard connectors and grml doesn't recognise the usb keyboard when it puts me into the rescue shell ... argh. here is what i did to fix these problems: - when grml loads the usb kernel modules it also tries to insmod usbhid.ko but this one has unknown symbols because ff-memless.ko has to be loaded first. so i copied ff-memless.ko to the initrd and added it to the list of usb.modules. cool. now i have a keyboard. - the next thing was that the sysfs-scsi-detection code did not find my fusion mpt controller. after reading /modules/scsi/scsi-modules.txt i knew why: because it was missing from there. after adding the entries for it i ended with a correctly detected controller but without a raid. how is the scsi-modules.txt file created? by hand? maybe it would be better to generate it from /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/modules.{dep,pcimap} because in these files the mpt drivers where referenced ... - ok so after having the devices i needed to start the raid1 to access the filesystem. unfortunately there is no mdadm in the initrd image of grml so i had to compile a static version of mdadm and put it in /static. after this i added some code to assemble all arrays in case there exists a boot option fromhd=/dev/md* ok so now everything works. great! btw: grml is a really cool tool cheers, -- : Philipp Richter Tel +43-1-8178292-51 : : LINBIT Information Technologies GmbH Fax +43-1-8178292-82 : : Vivenotgasse 48, A-1120 Vienna/Europe http://www.linbit.com :

2 3

VMware tools on grml guest OS
by Lars Schimmer 22 Aug '07

22 Aug '07

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi! I setup a grml 1.0 VMware server host system and a few grml 1.0 vmware guest systems til yet. But the time on the guest systems runs absolutely wrong, so I try to install the vmware-tools packages on the guests. I grabbed VMware workstation and grabbed VMwareTools-6.0.0-45731.tar.gz out of them. Now I try to install these tools on the guests systems with 2.6.20, but every kernel module fails to built. The any-any patch is just for the host, not for the guests. Anyone managed to built the vmware-tools kernel modules on grml 1.0 guests? MfG, Lars Schimmer - -- - ------------------------------------------------------------- TU Graz, Institut für ComputerGraphik & WissensVisualisierung Tel: +43 316 873-5405 E-Mail: l.schimmer(a)cgv.tugraz.at Fax: +43 316 873-5402 PGP-Key-ID: 0x4A9B1723 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFGypclmWhuE0qbFyMRAhf+AJ0RdzV+IaBqaCWcAhc+/BTSdO9IYACffhH8 5emBIphKBopEiHYOOBBZbuY= =ELSa -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

2 2

Chroot using
by Frank Lehmann 22 Aug '07

22 Aug '07

Hello everybody, the other day I wanted to use "chroot" to access a XFS-partition (hda2) from grml, but it did not work. The failure notice was: "chroot: cannot run command '/bin/zsh': No such file or directory". True, zsh was not installed on the partition I tried to get chrooted - but is that necessary? And if yes, can I switch to another shell? (Entering the word "bash" before trying to chroot leads to the same result.) PS: Of course I am riding the "Meilenschwein"... :-) Thanks in advance, Frank

3 3

Re: [Grml] Why does the speech system like to spell instead of readwords?
by Martin McCormick 21 Aug '07

21 Aug '07

"Tom Moore" writes: > The reason for Speakup spelling words has to do with the preempt kernel > option being turned on in the default Grml kernel. > If you compile a kernel with the Grml sources and turn this option off > this > will go away and Speakup will operate as you expect. I am quoting a message from the archives that was posted last March. I downloaded the live CD grml_1.0.iso image and am experiencing this very problem with software speech. Before reen venting any more wheels than necessary, is there any ISO image of this live CD that has the kernel compiled without the preempt option turned on? Does this, itself cause any other side effects? I am not afraid of building kernels but haven't built any ISO images before other than to use mkisofs to enshrine directories on a CDROM. Another idea might be to have 2 kernels on the live CD and boot from, say, grml or grml-alt. Judging from the present size of this image, there might not be enough room for that, but it is a thought. I tested the live CD on a Dell Enspiron2600 with a 1-gig Celeron CPU and 256-megs of RAM, and a ten-year-old Gateway Pentium with only 64 megs of ram and a 400-MHZ processor. Both had the spelling torture response and, surprisingly, both spoke at about the same speed. The Gateway probably would have worked just fine if not for the preemption issue. It probably wouldn't have had much memory left over for doing work with just the 64 megs. The laptop delivered little bursts of good speech and then lapsed in to slow spelling any time it was doing other work such as scrolling the screen. Thanks for any advice. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK Systems Engineer OSU Information Technology Department Network Operations Group

2 1

Upgrading Grml-Small0.4 HD install
by - Tong - 13 Aug '07

13 Aug '07

Hi, Ever since I did 'apt-get upgrade' in my Grml-Small v0.4 HD install, I can't use 'shutdown now' or 'reboot' properly any more. E.g., reboot will complain that '/etc/init.d/grml-reboot' not found. I looked into the problem, learned that /etc/init.d/grml-reboot is from grml-etc, but I have grml-etc installed. Finally I found that somehow the 'apt-get upgrade' installed the '/etc/init.d/grml-reboot' file as '/etc/init.d/grml-reboot.dpkg-new'. I don't understand why apt-get/dpkg is doing this, ie, deliberately breaking my working system. I remember lots of packages have been updated, I don't know how many those .dpkg-new files are out there breaking my system. So, - how to fix the problem? - how to prevent it from happening again? thx a lot -- Tong (remove underscore(s) to reply) http://xpt.sourceforge.net/techdocs/ http://xpt.sourceforge.net/tools/

2 3

Installing X in Grml-Small0.4 HD install
by - Tong - 12 Aug '07

12 Aug '07

Hi, I've done Grml-Small v0.4 HD install, and now I want to install X to it. when I 'apt-get install grml-x', I was informed that 'acpid grml-autoconfig grml-etc hwinfo libhal1 libhd13 rungetty' packages will be installed. The problem is the acpid: Setting up acpid (1.0.4-7.1) ... Loading ACPI modules.... Starting Advanced Configuration and Power Interface daemon...acpid: invoke-rc.d: initscript acpid, action "start" failed. As the consequence: dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of grml-autoconfig: grml-autoconfig depends on acpid | apmd; however: Package acpid is not configured yet. Package apmd is not installed. dpkg: error processing grml-autoconfig (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of grml-etc: grml-etc depends on grml-autoconfig; however: Package grml-autoconfig is not configured yet. dpkg: error processing grml-etc (--configure): dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of grml-x: grml-x depends on grml-etc (>= 0.5-20); however: Package grml-etc is not configured yet. Errors were encountered while processing: acpid grml-autoconfig grml-etc grml-x Q1: How can I overcome the "acpid: invoke-rc.d: initscript acpid, action "start" failed" problem? I continued on ("grml-x -force -nostart fluxbox"), but startx failed with font fixed not found. I used to solve such problem by installing xfonts-75dpi, but noticed that there is no such xfonts-75dpi packages any more. So, Q2: How to solve the "font fixed not found" problem? thanks -- Tong (remove underscore(s) to reply) http://xpt.sourceforge.net/techdocs/ http://xpt.sourceforge.net/tools/

2 6

GRML at the Froscon 2007
by Alexander Wirt 09 Aug '07

09 Aug '07

Hi folks, as you may already know Mika and I will be at the Froscon [1] in Sankt Augustin (near Bonn) in Germany which will take place on August 25th and 26th. Today I got the offer of a development/talk room for sunday. It would be nice if we could be able to give some talks and maybe some demonstations about GRML. Unfortunatly Mika and I have talk on Sunday ([2],[3]) and I also belong to the organisation team. So I would invite YOU (yes! we need you! [4]). If you use or develop GRML and if you want to show or tell others about GRML let me know so I can provide you with a slot. If you are fast I would also be able to declare you as booth personal which means a sleeping place (you need a sleeping bag) and breakfast for no cost :). Thanks in advance for your attention. [1] http://www.froscon.org [2] http://programm.froscon.org/2007/events/102.en.html [3] http://programm.froscon.org/2007/events/27.en.html [4] http://www.cumas.org/images/weneedyou.jpg -- Alexander Wirt, formorer(a)grml.org CC99 2DDD D39E 75B0 B0AA B25C D35B BC99 BC7D 020A

1 0

serial kernel config, network and ssh
by Andri Handoko 09 Aug '07

09 Aug '07

Hi Mika and Grml team, I have a request and two questions :) Request: I was just looking at "http://hg.grml.org/grml-kernel" and noticed that the link "Initial config for 2.6.22-grml64" to the kernel configuration, still have the serial configuration set to 4. CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_NR_UARTS=4 CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_RUNTIME_UARTS=4 In the "grml configuration changes for 2.6.22:" link, the CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_NR_UARTS is set to 16, and the CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_RUNTIME_UARTS is set to 4. I was able to recompile the grml-small 0.4 kernel with CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_NR_UARTS=16 CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_RUNTIME_UARTS=8 and did the test to the serial ports. They are good to go :) Since I'm using 6 ports, I set the CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_RUNTIME_UARTS to 8 so I don't have to create the ttyS4..ttyS7 manually. A request, can you set the CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_NR_UARTS to 16, and CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_RUNTIME_UARTS to 8 in the grml small, grml and grml64 kernel configurations. Thanks. Question 1: I set "/etc/init.d/ssh start" to bootlocal.last file to run ssh deamon automatically. Is there proper way to run the ssh daemon, when grml-small boots? Question 2: The PC that I'm using has an ethernet card and a wifi card build in. I also use a SMC usb-ethernet adapter. How do I set grml small when it boots up, the ethernet card is set as eth0 with static ip 192.168.xx.xx, and wifi as eth1 with dhcp, and usb-ethernet adapter as eth2 when it is plug-in. In Fedora OS, at "/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/" I configured them in ifcfg-eth0, ifcfg-eth1 and ifcfg-eth2 (usb-ethernet) files. Currently I have to run the ifconfig ethX ip_address manually. Thanks a bunch. Cheers Andri ____________________________________________________________________________________ Fussy? Opinionated? Impossible to please? Perfect. Join Yahoo!'s user panel and lay it on us. http://surveylink.yahoo.com/gmrs/yahoo_panel_invite.asp?a=7

2 1

Controlling CPU Frequency
by - Tong - 09 Aug '07

09 Aug '07

Hi, I rebooted my PC the other day, and only then I know that my CPU is overheated, because I saw a BIOS warning. The fact that my CPU might have been overheated for months made me consider seriously to control my CPU frequency (My AMD cpu has that feature available in bios). I've tried to make use powernowd before, but never able to. I should feel lucky this time since the latest kernel that grml 1.0-1 uses, support cpu frequency control by default: http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_2_6_20 "Grand unification of ACPI based speedstep-centrino and acpi-cpufreq drivers. It combines functionality of these two driver into acpi-cpufreq driver." But the problem is that googling "acpi-cpufreq" didn't come up much result. The closest is from http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=256607 "... you should try the 'acpi-cpufreq' module. My favorite governor is the 'conservative' one. Under load, it will ramp up the frequency, but it will generally keep it as low as possible." But there is no details. So I'm wondering if anyone can help me here? thanks a lot! -- Tong (remove underscore(s) to reply) http://xpt.sourceforge.net/techdocs/ http://xpt.sourceforge.net/tools/

3 8

uxterm unicode problem - part 2
by Matej Rehak 09 Aug '07

09 Aug '07

Hello people, I have made some progress with displaying non-english characters in uxterm. I've tried to run uxterm: uxterm -fn '-misc-fixed-medium-r-semicondensed-*-*-120-*-*-*-*-iso10646-1' and it worked ! Furthermore, I found (u)xterm's definitions (aliases) of tiny, small, medium, .... font sizes (look for 'resizing-fu') here: ~/.zshrc, /etc/skel/.zshrc and I've replaced '-iso8859-15' with '-iso10646-1'. But what a surprise ! It did nothing, even after PC reboot :-( Is there a font-search utility so that I can dynamically see list of existing fonts when changing/clearing attributes ? Because it seems to me that there are no corresponding fonts for iso10646-1 and so the nearest alternative is taken, which is iso8859-15, with one exception (Huge). Best regards, M. Rehak

2 1

uxterm unicode problem
by Matej Rehak 09 Aug '07

09 Aug '07

Hello people, I have a strange problem displaynig non-english characters in uxterm. I am using the default fonts in /etc/X11/app-defaults/UXTerm: *VT100.font2: -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--8-80-75-75-c-50-iso10646-1 *VT100.font: -misc-fixed-medium-r-semicondensed--13-120-75-75-c-60-iso10646-1 *VT100.font3: -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--14-130-75-75-c-70-iso10646-1 *VT100.font4: -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-c-80-iso10646-1 *VT100.font5: -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--18-120-100-100-c-90-iso10646-1 *VT100.font6: -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--20-200-75-75-c-100-iso10646-1 But most national characters are displayed as blanks: čďľňšťž. They are all consonants, more info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO/IEC_8859-2 The most strange thing is when I switch the font (via uxterm Unicode Fonts menu or Shift+KP_add) to "Huge", then all the chars are displayed correctly. Other applications (e.g. gvim) behave correctly. Another strange thing is that another terminal - URxvt, displays these chars correctly using (I think) the same font as uxterm's "Large". Now I've looked into ~/.Xresources: urxvt*.font: -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-*-140-*-*-c-*-iso8859-15 It seems to me as a display-encoding problem, but I don't know what to put in uxterm's defaults (/etc/X11/app-defaults/UXTerm) instead of iso10646-1 (none of {utf8, iso8859-15, iso8859-2} worked). Best regards, M. Rehak

2 1

Booting with grub on usb-flash-pen
by Morten Christensen 29 Jul '07

29 Jul '07

I have installed grml-small 0.40 on an usb flash-pen with grml2hd. When I try to boot it grub answers root (hd1,0) Filesystem unknown, partition type 0x7 Error 17: Cannot mount selected partition Can any of you help me with, how to identify the flash-pen in grub? I expect to make several lines in the grub/menu, and choose between them depending on, if the PC already has a sata-harddisk or a pata-harddisk. -- Morten Christensen

4 6

Installing grml with encrypted root with encrypted swap
by Mathew Brown 28 Jul '07

28 Jul '07

Hi, I was wondering if it was possible to install grml on an encrypted root partition and with an encrypted swap partition. I plan on installing grml on an external USB drive and since it can be stolen so easily, I'd rather protect my data using encryption. So is this possible? According to htt://grml.org/grml2hd/grml2hd.html this can't be done but that web page hasn't been updated since Jan. 2006. Any ideas? Thanks for your help. -- Mathew Brown mathewbrown(a)fastmail.fm -- http://www.fastmail.fm - And now for something completely different

2 1

vmware server 1.0.3 on grml 1.0
by Lars Schimmer 27 Jul '07

27 Jul '07

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi! Has anyone managed to compile and run the vmware 1.0.3 server (with any-any-112 patch) on grml 1.0 with kernel 2.6.20 ? At my HD install it won´t compile the kernel module :-( MfG, Lars Schimmer - -- - ------------------------------------------------------------- TU Graz, Institut für ComputerGraphik & WissensVisualisierung Tel: +43 316 873-5405 E-Mail: l.schimmer(a)cgv.tugraz.at Fax: +43 316 873-5402 PGP-Key-ID: 0x4A9B1723 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFGqJrDmWhuE0qbFyMRAsrwAJ9XZCAmyj2NPdfFFjDF1ehd6SMG/gCfTIZj ge5O40vZrMVQYYFYHnGOIR0= =zxl1 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

2 3

Opera browser
by Matej Rehak 25 Jul '07

25 Jul '07

Hello, Today I have tried to install Opera web browser via Aptitude, and I didn't find it. Will it be available for GRML in the future ? Thanx, M.Rehak

4 4

Problem with make mrproper
by Charles Hewson 23 Jul '07

23 Jul '07

I did install of kernel source tree (linux-source-2.6.20-grml) and make mrproper still can not find parts of the amos1100 driver. Console output is attached. What am I missing? Charles ____________________________________________________________________________________ Need a vacation? Get great deals to amazing places on Yahoo! Travel. http://travel.yahoo.com/

2 1

noon initrd question
by martin yazdzik 16 Jul '07

16 Jul '07

Dear Friends, On my explerimental partition, just for fun, and to test drivers, &c, I sometimes do things either adventursome or stupid, depending upon one's point of view. I should like to install the grml 2.6.22 kernel, but, having installed the image, sources, some modules I use, &c, after mkinitrdramfs while the package is built and installed, lilo is correct, upon boot everything fails because, at least according to the running text, it does not find /lib/modules...? Now, lib modules 2.6.22 is there, but very sparsely populated. Could someone, forgiving my inexperience and inadequacy, tell me, step by step, how to make this kernel work, as I am either failing to install something necessary, or failing to create the proper initrd image? I apologise for the inconvenience. All good wishes, martin In caecus terrae, luscus rex est.

3 6

nfs - impossible to mount a remote nfs-share
by Frank Eisenblaetter 16 Jul '07

16 Jul '07

I have a Ubuntu-Server with a configured NFS-Share. It's possible to mount this share on an other host which run's kubuntu. If I try to mount the share with my grml hd installation with # mount -t nfs server:/share /mnt/server I get the following error: mount.nfs: rpc.statd is not running but is required for remote locking Either use "-o nolocks" to keep locks local, or start statd. If I try to start rpc.statd with # /etc/init.d/nfs-common it takes about 1 minute to finish "Starting NFS common utilities: statd.", but id doesn't change anything. # ps ax | grep statd gives no output # rpcinfo -p localhost rpcinfo: can't contact portmapper: RPC: Remote system error - Connection timed out # ps ax | grep portmap 4410 ? Ss 0:00 /sbin/portmap -i 127.0.0.1 Installed versions: - portmap 6.0-2 - nfs-common 1:1.1.0-6 Any Ideas why I cannot start nfs-common? Regards, Frank

3 11

how to turn off / control the usb led display?
by Andri Handoko 14 Jul '07

14 Jul '07

Hi, I'm using the grml small 0.4. I created a hotplug event that automatically copy files to the USB stick when it's plugin. The stick is Sandisk micro cruzer 2G USB stick. Here is the dilema: I don't know when the copy will be completed without looking at the monitor, and I'm planning not to use any monitor. Is there a way to control the led; make it blinks every second when files are being copy to the stick, and/or (the most importance part) to turn OFF the led when the device is unmounted? (the "other" popular OS turns off the led when the "Safely remove hardware" is selected). Can Grml do the same action? Another question, since I need to recompile the kernel to support more than 4 serial ports (haven't have a big success yet, newbie :) ), is there a default date configuration that I can modify to make the kernel date start from Jan 1, 2007? so it will keep running for 50+ years from now :P Thanks and Cheers Andri ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a PS3 game guru. Get your game face on with the latest PS3 news and previews at Yahoo! Games. http://videogames.yahoo.com/platform?platform=120121

2 3

Re: [Grml] how to turn off / control the usb led display?
by Andri Handoko 13 Jul '07

13 Jul '07

Hi Moritz, What is the brand and model of the USB stick that you use? Mine doesn't work with the eject command. I was able to switch usb sandisk cruzer stick led off by "rmmod usb_storage". See my previous post for detail. Cheers Andri --- Moritz Augsburger <grml(a)moritz.augsburger.name> wrote: > On Thu, Jul 05, 2007 at 05:45:07PM -0700, Andri Handoko wrote: > > Hi, > > I'm using the grml small 0.4. I created a hotplug event that > automatically > > copy files to the USB stick when it's plugin. The stick is Sandisk micro > > cruzer 2G USB stick. Here is the dilema: I don't know when the copy will > be > > completed without looking at the monitor, and I'm planning not to use > any > > monitor. Is there a way to control the led; make it blinks every second > when > > files are being copy to the stick, and/or (the most importance part) to > turn > > OFF the led when the device is unmounted? (the "other" popular OS turns > off > > the led when the "Safely remove hardware" is selected). Can Grml do the > same > > action? > > With my USB stick, I can use "eject /dev/whatevermystickis" and then the > LED turns off. > > Greets > momo > ____________________________________________________________________________________ Get the free Yahoo! toolbar and rest assured with the added security of spyware protection. http://new.toolbar.yahoo.com/toolbar/features/norton/index.php

1 0

Help needed for OLPC-Austria - School on a Stick
by Andreas.Trawoeger＠wgkk.at 06 Jul '07

06 Jul '07

Hi to everybody! Is anybody from the grml community interested to help the 'school on a stick' project from OLPC-Austria ( http://olpcaustria.org/mediawiki/index.php/School_on_a_stick)? The idea is to provide every pupil in a class with its own bootable usb-stick running Linux. Currently we have: - A school in Vienna for testing - 18 brand new PCs which will be delivered next week. - A bunch of kids who will return from hiding on 3.Sep.2007. So everything that is left to do is buying a couple of usb-sticks and finding a Linux distribution that is able to boot from an usb-stick :-)) cu andreas

2 1

adp94xx driver
by David Koski 28 Jun '07

28 Jun '07

I thought that grml has the adp94xx driver so I downloaded version 1.0, burned the iso to CD and mounted it. I noticed there is no driver adp94* in /lib/modules/2.6.20-grml/* recursive. Is it supported or not? The README for version 0.9 shows it should be there: http://grml.org/files/README-0.9.php Has adp94xx been dropped? If so, where can I get it? I am looking for a way to install generic Debian on hardware that requires adp94xx and grml seemed to be a good path. Best Regards, David Koski david(a)kosmosisland.com

4 7

Anyone using maple on grml 1.0?
by Lars Schimmer 25 Jun '07

25 Jun '07

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi! Is there anyone out there who is using maple on grml 1.0 (HD install) ? MfG, Lars Schimmer - -- - ------------------------------------------------------------- TU Graz, Institut für ComputerGraphik & WissensVisualisierung Tel: +43 316 873-5405 E-Mail: l.schimmer(a)cgv.tugraz.at Fax: +43 316 873-5402 PGP-Key-ID: 0x4A9B1723 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFGeTOAmWhuE0qbFyMRAkUwAJ4lq+9qRmJt7Tdh2L63QEU0jevV1ACfdKq4 NKQR1ngnF7f6mLdk4WA2jHY= =UFam -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

1 1

grml 1.0 grml2hd issues
by Lars Schimmer 24 Jun '07

24 Jun '07

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi! I just installed grml 1.0 to 5 PCs with grml2hd. I let it run, added root pwd, username,userpwd, deleted the apache server, added hal, choosed grub in mbr and waited til it was done and rebooted. After reboot, it couldn´t mount /root, because "device not found or busy". I tried it with UUID and with /dev/sda3 in grub.... MfG, Lars Schimmer - -- - ------------------------------------------------------------- TU Graz, Institut für ComputerGraphik & WissensVisualisierung Tel: +43 316 873-5405 E-Mail: l.schimmer(a)cgv.tugraz.at Fax: +43 316 873-5402 PGP-Key-ID: 0x4A9B1723 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFGfS54mWhuE0qbFyMRAsKNAJ98AESKr3xYMPoyKu9KYHf64C2QpACghBM7 CBF2dEXYcj8BnNMEHNFcUv4= =afXW -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

2 2

REMASTER with modified squashfs
by Charles A. Hewson 22 Jun '07

22 Jun '07

Hi All, I am new to GRML but, have been linux admin for years. I have attempted remaster example from V1.0 both live and installed. When I try "make menuconfig" in /lib/modules/2.6.20/build it gives many errors mostly undefined variables. This happens even without a patch on clean install. Is some cheetcode required? I have copied config from /boot and attemped "make oldconfig" that does same. I would attach specific messages but, we keep machines off net until security modules are installed and configered. If you have suggestions please post to mail list as I am in Seattle. Thanks, Charles

2 1

technical information website http://grml.org
by stappers＠stappers.nl 22 Jun '07

22 Jun '07

Hello, The website http://grml.org is a nice looking one. My intension is to use the same skeleton. But does it has a skeleton? Or other framework? In other words: Could someone provide technical information about the GRML website? Cheers Geert Stappers

2 4

Keyboard does not work in 1.0
by Alexander Skwar 21 Jun '07

21 Jun '07

Good evening! I burned grml 1.0 to a CD and booted my Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Pro V2010 notebook (a 32bit system) with it. When boot was finished, I was not able to type anything at all. Not even Alt+F1... worked - not even ctrl+alt+del worked! In isolinux, ie. at the "boot prompt", keyboard still works. I booted grml also without "modifying" anything with the help of the isolinux prompt. Ie. just defaults. With the help of the mouse, I selected "x" at the menu presented when grml finished booting. I started fvwm-crystal. Even in X, keyboard does not work. Keyboard worked just fine in previous releases of grml. It worked for sure in 0.8. Keyboard also works just fine right now; I'm typing this message on the same computer (booted into Mandriva). Best regards, Alexander Skwar -- We are using Linux daily to UP our productivity - so UP yours! (Adapted from Pat Paulsen by Joe Sloan)

2 4

Grml Beta Test Coordination
by Mark 21 Jun '07

21 Jun '07

> I really appreciate your feedback but you seem to prefer writing > mails instead of trying what I wrote. [Mika] Because 2.6.21 is not going to help us even if it works; I need more data; it's not the only test; and Linux ++ fixes anything but is not a distro. My users need grml repos, 0.9 or 1.0. They can't function with 2.6.21. Communication & research is all that's possible anyway. Memorial Day vacation - I'm packing now. (Incidentally: verified as kernel regression under Ubuntu 7.04; same problems.) During beta I would have done as requested to improve 1.0 final. Grml gave me no task, no suspect kernel config flags to isolate, etc. Radio silence made me hungry for info-crumbs... But a broken (from our standpoint) final release makes me ask how grml beta cycles are supposed to work. I just need to know what grml does/thinks so I can work with, or around the philosophy & constraints involved. Beta cycles are meant to catch bugs before release. Kernel regression is just another bug category. A kernel regression which, for instance, broke your laptop, would prevent a grml release. And that is how it should be. Re bisect: Other people do that coordinated by -stable. My job is sysadmin, not kernel dev. The whole point of Linux for us, rather than BSD or Open Solaris or Nexenta or whatever, is hardware support. If we have to become kernel devs too, supporting/debugging our own hardware, then we would consider other kernels to develop, with possibly more rational code. Note about USB in Linux, "the in-kernel USB interfaces have undergone at least three different reworks over the lifetime of this subsystem" (Greg Kroah-Hartman). Anyway it's not my call. The last thing my boss will allow is debugging Linux hardware drivers. What I'm asking is, do you inspect a grml bug report, and then talk to -stable to see if they have anything related in their pipeline, and then decide whether grml should wait for a patch? Looking at -stable patch-2.6.20.12, I see USB fixes relating to mutexes, IRQs, etc. - the big stuff. What -stable version is 2.6.20-grml in grml 1.0 final? Next, how does Debian fit into all this? Grml tracks Debian unstable. But grml releases are tied to Linus's kernel releases, not Debian kernel work, right? Correct me on anything. Does grml kernel customization include the possibility of using a -stable release that is not yet incorporated into Debian? Or is Debian a limiting factor? Dumb question maybe, but if I compile my own 2.6.20-x using grml source and patched from -stable, will it work with grml 2.6.20-grml repos? I'm willing to compile a kernel but if I start having to build repos too, I've already become a custom distro, and I'd rather not. Thanks - see you a week from now. Mark

3 4

sambastart
by gareth 18 Jun '07

18 Jun '07

Hi people. Can anyone tell me if there is an equivalent for the script 'sambastart' in knoppix. It's one of the things I use all the time to automatically share drives and then copy data off from another machine. Thanks. -- Gareth ----------- Randomly Generated Fortune: "Who is General Failure and why is he reading my hard disk?" Microsoft spel chekar vor sail, worgs grate !! -- Felix von Leitner, leitner(a)inf.fu-berlin.de

2 1

building elinks with javascript support
by Doug Smith 17 Jun '07

17 Jun '07

Ok, I hate to do this. I really don't like to ask questions before finding the answer, but this one seems to be limited by information that does not seem to be true. It's probably outdated. I need to build elinks with javascript support. I am one of your blind grmlers. I heard that it wasn't built into the stock Debian binary so I went testing. I went to: http://www.rfbd.org This is a library from which I get a lot of the textbooks I do my research out of. Well, sure enough, the information I had received was true. I received a page with a header about scripts needed for data processing. Well, I went googling. First of all, I found a mail message at the speakup mailing list archives from a year or two ago about installing a spidermonkey and spidermonkey-dev package. Neither of these existed when I tried to install them. Well, I went hunting again. Out comes the weapon, the google site. Well, no big game this time neither. However, I found a manual at the elinks site. It appears to be incomplete and possibly unmaintained. It said to do the following, so I did it. First of all install libmozjs-dev, so that this install would pull in the library packages that go with this package. This was successful. Next, when finished doing this, you were supposed to do an apt-build install elinks. The program wєnt to the source site at the Debian archives and pulled down the package and built the binary. It successfully installed it, but there was still no javascript support. I tried it again, rebuilding the elinks package so that I might have a clean, new install incase I had done something wrong. Still no javascript support. Well, I tried reconfiguring the elinks package: dpkg-reconfigure elinks after the binary was built. Nothing yet. I would appreciate any info I can get. I guess I will go googling again, plowing through the mass of data to try to ┴unt it up and apply the correct procedure. Any help would be appreciated. -- Doug Smith: C.S.F.C. Computer Scientist For CHRIST

3 2

JFYI: results of grml user survey available
by Michael Prokop 10 Jun '07

10 Jun '07

Hi, I just wanted to inform you that the results of the grml user survey are available now. Find the details in the grml wiki: http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=survey07 Thanks to everyone who participated! 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

Re: screenreader and grml
by cbrannon＠itlnet.net.net 06 Jun '07

06 Jun '07

Hi, The screenreader that you get when booting with swspeak is called speakup. The homepage is http://linux-speakup.org. There is a user's guide on that site. If you cannot find it, I'll be more than glad to send a copy via email. PS. there have been a couple of new blind grml'ers in the last week or so; very cool.

2 1

screenreader and grml
by Adam Thompson 03 Jun '07

03 Jun '07

Hi all, My name is adam and I am completely blind. I am extremely interested in using grml and have had a go all ready. I don't own a hardware synth and so have had to use swspeak, however I am not intirely sure how to use the screenreader (and indeed, not entirely sure what screenreader it is), so I was just wondering if anyone can help me with the basics (for example is there an equivalent to the "JAWS cursor" in this screenreader?). Also I was wondering how you use the screenreader with anything which has a gui. Please can someone point me in the direction of a manual, or give some basic keystroke information? Thanks in advance, from Adam.

2 1

grml on USB flash drive or CF through cardbus adaptor.
by gary ng 02 Jun '07

02 Jun '07

Hi, I am wondering if there anyone has experience with this kind of usage, both in terms of performance and possibility to boot(in the case of cardbus) In the case of USB(most newer machine with 2.0 can boot without any problem), I believe it would be slower to boot comparing with USB HD(throughput difference but would still be much faster than CD) but would it be faster to use once boot as ReadyBoost on Vista relies on the much faster seek time ? As for the cardbus mode, if it cannot be boot from there, is there any support in grml boot mode where I can boot from a CD(which is slow) yet with the real meat pull from another device say USB drive or cardbus ? This can be quite useful for some older notebook/machine where the boot option is very limited(just CD or IDE). thanks for any pointer in advance. regards, gary PS. please CC if possible as I am not on the list but do read it from the archive. ____________________________________________________________________________________Luggage? GPS? Comic books? Check out fitting gifts for grads at Yahoo! Search http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=oni_on_mail&p=graduation+gifts&cs=bz

2 1

DBUS <--> FILE-RC
by v.klemt＠online.de 31 Mai '07

31 Mai '07

Hi everybody! Is DBUS compatible with FILE-RC? On my system, originally generated with grml2hd (grml 0.9), kernel 2.6.18-grml, I got: root@acergrml: apt-get install dbus Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree... Done The following extra packages will be installed: dbus-x11 The following NEW packages will be installed: dbus dbus-x11 0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 3 not upgraded. Need to get 0B/535kB of archives. After unpacking 983kB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue [Y/n]? Reading package fields... Done Reading package status... Done Retrieving bug reports... Done Parsing Found/Fixed information... Done Selecting previously deselected package dbus-x11. (Reading database ... 173918 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking dbus-x11 (from .../dbus-x11_1.0.2-5_i386.deb) ... Selecting previously deselected package dbus. Unpacking dbus (from .../archives/dbus_1.0.2-5_i386.deb) ... Setting up dbus-x11 (1.0.2-5) ... Setting up dbus (1.0.2-5) ... Starting system message bus: dbus. grep: /etc/rc2.d/S??*: No such file or directory root@acergrml: Adding the missing softlink in /etc/rc2.d, ln -s ../init.d/dbus S20dbus by hand solved the problem for me (for the time being), but certainly can't be the appropriate solution. Best regards, Vilmar Klemt v.klemt(a)online.de

2 1

grml 1.0: grml-network hickups
by Werner Flamme 30 Mai '07

30 Mai '07

Hi all, I installed grml i386 via grml2hd onto my laptop that ran with grml 0.9 before. It is a IBM ThinkPad T23. After booting from harddisk, I used grml-network to set up a static IP address for the on-board eth card. Now I can access the laptop via ssh, everything works fine. Several hours later, my ssh connection is down, the laptop does not respond to pings. I use the console and - much to my astonishment - the static IP address was exchanged with an address from the DHCP range of my router! I used grml-network again to enter the static IP address - and next morning, it again was away and a dynamic IP address was used! Well, since that first surprise this happens all few hours. I always chose "enable at boot" at the last prompt. What can I do do have my system remember the static IP address assigned via grml-network instead of looking for a DHCP address? Regards, Werner

3 4

followup to boot-hang
by yazdzik 30 Mai '07

30 Mai '07

Dear M and friends, So, I did the quick and ugly, violent and disgusting solution: I changed fstab first line to plain old /dev/sda4 and got rid of the uuid stuff in the lilo append. Now, I am writing from the new fangled grml 1.0. However, having done this, aside from the schuldgefuehl, I would like to know what went wrong with mounting via the uuid, why we do so in the first place, and so on. Since there are stupid things that do not work on my .9 box, like axiom(really!) and everything works here, for now, I would like to move all production laptops to grml 1, but need to know that everything will work. So, the question is: what changed to disable the mounting via uuid? I suspect it is something I disabled in the runlevel.conf to speed booting along. Also, while on that topic, there has to be a way to complete disable and remove all raid like things from boot-up for laptops, no? Warm regards to all, Martin

2 1

boot hangs
by martin yazdzik 29 Mai '07

29 Mai '07

Dear M and friends, Can anyone think of a reason why boot hangs at: "begin searching for root file system" It worked yesteday, not today. Obviously, without being able to mount /, there is no log. Other than installing k3b, there were no changes. Best, m

1 0

TTYS 4 and 5
by Andri Handoko 26 Mai '07

26 Mai '07

Hi, I'm using the grml-small 0.3. There are only 4 serials, ttyS0 - ttyS3, in /dev folder, and I'm trying to use /dev/ttyS4 and /dev/ttyS5. I created the ttyS4 and ttyS5 manually in /etc/init.d/bootlocal.last. Use the mknod to create the device and setserial to assign the port and interrupt channel. Please see the list of commands below: mknod -m 660 /dev/ttyS4 c 4 68 chown root.dialout /dev/ttyS4 mknod -m 660 /dev/ttyS5 c 4 69 chown root.dialout /dev/ttyS5 setserial /dev/ttyS4 irq 5 port 0x1c0 ^fourport autoconfigure baud_base 115200 -v low_latency setserial /dev/ttyS5 irq 0 port 0x1c8 ^fourport autoconfigure baud_base 115200 -v low_latency The setserial command returns "/dev/ttyS#: No such file or directory" for both devices where # is 4 and 5. Is this because the kernel only support up to 4 serial devices? if this is the case, is CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_NR_UARTS is the variable that I have to change, "CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_NR_UARTS=4" to "CONFIG_SERIAL_8250_NR_UARTS=6" in the grml-small kernel configuration? Thanks a bunch.. Cheers Andri ____________________________________________________________________________________ The fish are biting. Get more visitors on your site using Yahoo! Search Marketing. http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/arp/sponsoredsearch_v2.php

2 3

new member intro and questions.
by Allison Mervis 26 Mai '07

26 Mai '07

Hi all! My name is Allison, and I am totally blind. I understand that grml includes some degree of screen reader support, but here is what I need to be able to do. Right now, I'm using an Acer Laptop running Windows XP home SP2. I would like to burn an image of GRML to a CD, insert it into my drive, restart the computer, and have it boot up talking in Linux. I would like to later restart the computer, and have it boot back up in windows. I don't own a hardware synthesizer, and I've been led to understand that this limits my options somewhat. Is the scenario I've just descried even possible? Thanks! Allison

3 2

Suspend resume bugs
by Mark 26 Mai '07

26 Mai '07

Linus Torvalds : "For example, look at suspend/resume bugs. Do you realize that 99% of them are device driver issues, but how the heck do you connect a "my laptop does't resume" to the _right_ device driver maintainer?" http://lkml.org/lkml/2007/4/28/438 (So USB_CONFIG_SUSPEND may cause issues with hardware devices, which kernel upgrades alone won't fix, only driver upgrades, one per device.)

2 12

2.6.21 IDE change
by Mark 21 Mai '07

21 Mai '07

Is this change in Debian too, or just RedHat? https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2007-April/msg01252.html The 2.6.21 kernel uses new IDE drivers which use the same 'libata' subsystem as the SATA drivers. As a side-effect, IDE devices previously named /dev/hdX will now be named /dev/sdX. This may cause problems with anything that mentions devices by name instead of by filesystem label. Anaconda should be able to detect most of these problems and help you fix them.

2 3

grml-halt on usb disk, for writing on unionfs
by pat 21 Mai '07

21 Mai '07

hi there i have installed grml successfully on my cf card. i'm searching a way how to write my new configurations and files on the disk. i've found a way how to sync an unionfs with the originaly readonly mounted directory... but i'm a bit confused. i don't now how it should look like in the grml debian derivate. here is the original debian wrap script: #!/bin/bash # halt-wrap mount -o remount rw /OLD_ROOT/real_root rsync --delete -abRvz --exclude "/sys" --exclude "/proc" --exclude "/dev" --exclude "/OLD_ROOT" / /OLD_ROOT/real_root/ halt should i copy this script in /usr/sbin or put it in /etc/init.d/ and modifier the /etc/rc.conf ( or something i don't remember anymore... because i'm using the symlinking stuff )??

2 1

kernel to support powertop ?
by gary ng 20 Mai '07

20 Mai '07

Hi, I am wondering if it is possible in newer version that features in the kernel to support powertop be enabled ? ____________________________________________________________________________________Get the free Yahoo! toolbar and rest assured with the added security of spyware protection. http://new.toolbar.yahoo.com/toolbar/features/norton/index.php

2 1

Please test 1.0rc2 usb
by Mark 19 Mai '07

19 Mai '07

Anyone with access to external USB disks should test grml 1.0rc2. At our site USB has worked fine with all previous grmls but rc2 USB seems broken. A bug report #203 has been filed. File your own if you discover problems. Mika's close to a final release. Please perform tests with rc2 if you have time, both of us would appreciate it very much. Mark

2 8

grml 1.0, grml64 0.1 and grml-small 0.4 released
by Michael Prokop 19 Mai '07

19 Mai '07

Hi grml users and developers, grml 1.0 with codename Meilenschwein, grml64 0.1 with codename LiveShell and grml-small 0.4 with codename Springinkerl have been released and are hitting the mirrors. The official release announcements providing all the relevant news are available at: grml 1.0 => http://grml.org/files/README-grml-1.0.php grml64 0.1 => http://grml.org/files/README-grml64-0.1.php grml-small 0.4 => http://grml.org/files/README-grml-small-0.4.php Issues regarding the release can be found in the grml-wiki at http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml_1.0 and http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml64_0.1 and http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml-small_0.4 As usual you can get the ISO(s) via bittorrent, http and/or ftp from the mirrors listed at http://grml.org/download/ Have fun and enjoy the new release! As usual feedback your is welcome. 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

rc1
by martin yazdzik 14 Mai '07

14 Mai '07

Dear Mika and friends, What does work for me, ignorant noob that I am? everything, basically - getting a complete gnome desktop is a matter of really knowing deps, but otherwise, cool. All serious issues, drivers, sound, ndiswrapper, xorg config worked otob. note - one can no longer set time or services via gnome apps because gnome is convinced that the distro is not debian 3d accel works with my ancient ati x600 card with ati as driver in xorg, which is fantastic....wow .... note one must install gl dri libs by hand! there is no reason to leave out such a small package, and if the mesa dri were included and the xorg conf for ati drivers set to ati, this would happen by itself. for some reason, one still needs "ide1-noprobe" to get the atapi drivers for a sata dvd drive - I am not sure why this does not happen with feisty or sabayon... the directories to mount the fstab or mtab entries are no longer created automatically - silly this, as that was default behaviour on 0.9, and saved unnecessary typing. the time zone thing is a disaster - after install grml is convinced that the hw clock is set to cest, so booting in and out of it requires a reset of the bios clock.There has to be a way to set this ab initio. Either issue a warning that, before installing, the system should be rebooted and the parameter TZ= set, or better yet, script the questions:' a. is the hw clock set to utc? if no, then b. to what time zone is the clock set. Thus, in my case, no, and America/New_York. Now, if I had remembered to set the parameter at the original boot of the live cd, this probably would not have happened, but that is not something one considers, thus the warning or scripted questions would save a failed install or two. While almost all grml users are in europe, this is a simple matter to remedy. Although hardly necessary, since the distro is not designed to be a consumer desktop, it would be nice if the entire gnome were available somewhere, a la ubuntu. for kde, this is unnecessary, as the versions in either unstable or experimental all match, and most always do. gnome is a mess over two or three versions. There is still no subsitute for runlevel.conf anywhere - this is the best thing anyone has ever invented for the end user. All in all, grml 1 is nigh on perfect. Gratefully, Martin

2 2

GNOME in grml rc1
by Mark 11 Mai '07

11 Mai '07

Martin, Do you use apt-get install gnome-desktop-environment or some other method? Simplicity appeals, but the above command causes problems. Later, apt wants to uninstall the whole gnome-desktop-environment when asked to remove just one tiny piece. I haven't tested grml rc1 yet. Can you elaborate on the GNOME issues you encountered? Thanks, M

3 4

Re: [Grml] Unmet dependencies ?
by Hubert Gabler 10 Mai '07

10 Mai '07

Am Donnerstag, den 10.05.2007, 09:06 -0400 schrieb martin yazdzik: > > What version of grml, and what sources do you have enabled - Hello Martin, I used grml 0.9 and changed sources as you suggested but no effect - same error messages. The problem was solved however after upgrading to grml 1.0 and reistalling grml2hd. Regards, Hubert

1 0

Unmet dependencies ?
by Hubert Gabler 10 Mai '07

10 Mai '07

After installing grml on HD using grml2hd I ran apt-get update and apt-get upgrade. This resulted in a) downloading some 300 MB of data and b) this message: "The following packages have unmet dependencies:" followed by some 20 lines like this: "xserver-xorg: Depends: xserver-xorg-core (>=2:1.3.0.0) but 2:1.1.1.1.-11 is installed" ...... ...... The suggested workaround "try using -f" did not change the situation. How can I install the right dependencies? Hubert

2 1

grml release candidates: grml 1.0-rc1, grml64 0.1-rc1 and grml-small 0.4-rc1
by Michael Prokop 08 Mai '07

08 Mai '07

Hi! I'm proud to be able to present new grml release candidates. New features? Tons of new features! Including a 64bit version of grml. grml 1.0 - release candidate 1 Codename Meilenschwein: http://grml.org/files/README-grml-1.0-rc1.php grml64 0.1 - release candidate 1 Codename LiveShell: http://grml.org/files/README-grml64-0.1-rc1.php grml-small 0.4 - release candidate 1 Codename Springinkerl: http://grml.org/files/README-grml-small-0.4-rc1.php Please consider using bittorrent for downloading the ISOs: http://grml.gwendoline.at/devel/grml_1.0-rc1.iso.torrent http://grml.gwendoline.at/devel/grml64_0.1-rc1.iso.torrent http://grml.gwendoline.at/devel/grml_small_0.4-rc1.iso.torrent If you can't use bittorrent check out the http/ftp URLs (not all available mirrors are in sync yet - but the listed ones are OK): http://grml.org/download/ Known issues can be found at: http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=release_candidate Please report any bug you notice so we can provide stable releases soon! http://grml.org/bugs/ Enjoy grml! 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

grml bug reporting
by Tong Sun 04 Mai '07

04 Mai '07

> Tong, please don't use the grml-user mailinglist as bug report > medium, please use http://bts.grml.org/grml/ instead. Does submit bugs by email still supported in new BTS? As you have noticed, I was using the old grml bug reporting way, sending to: submit(a)bugs.grml.org and only Cc: grml(a)mur.at I hope when the new BTS is fully setup, I can still submit bugs by email while cc grml-user mailinglist. The reason is that, I only use this email address for tons of mailinglists that I'm on, and will not check this email (personally), but via corresponding gmane news. If you need further clarrification of the bug, normally I won't get it. Now things is different because my own confort system has not setup yet, and have to rely on yahoo email... Further, cc grml-user mailinglist might stur up some disscusion from other grml users. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

3 2

The bootfrom=xxx.iso doesn't work
by Tong Sun 03 Mai '07

03 Mai '07

Package: grml Version: 0.9-stable2 Severity: important Hi, I found that the bootfrom=xxx.iso cheatcode does not work as expected. I notice the following grub boot menu, title GRML 0.9 from .ISO on sda2 root (hd0,2) kernel /boot.grml/isolinux/linux26 welcome noeject noprompt ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791 nomce bootfrom=/dev/sda2/Grml/grml_0.9.iso initrd /boot.grml/isolinux/minirt26.gz savedefault boot only works as long as my USB key was plugged in. If not, it won't work. Having Looked into the issue, I realized that, grml search for grml image in all patitions first before doing the bootfrom= cheatcode. When my USB key is plugged in, it can continue on, mounting the .iso as root the second time, though it report missing /lib/.../modeprobe.dep beforehand. When my USB key is not plugged in, i.e., the image scan doesn't find anything, grml will panic before doing the bootfrom=xxx.iso. Test environment: grml 0.9 -- System Information: Debian Release: 4.0 Architecture: i386 (i686) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /UNIONFS/bin/bash Kernel: Linux 2.6.18-grml Locale: LANG=en_US.iso885915, LC_CTYPE=en_US.iso885915 (charmap=ISO-8859-15) Versions of packages grml depends on: ii grml-autoconfig 0.6-8 main bootup process of a grml syst ii grml-docs 0.9-5 documentation for grml (grml.org) ii grml-etc 0.9-4 ecetera files for the grml system ii grml-files 0.9-1 some misc files for grml ii grml-hwinfo 0.3-2 collect hardware information ii grml-scripts 0.9.5 some small scripts which should ma ii grml-tips 0.3-14 search for tips and hints via a ke grml recommends no packages. -- no debconf information __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

2 1

The misbehaving emacs spell check language setting
by Tong Sun 03 Mai '07

03 Mai '07

Package: emacs Version: 21.4a+1-2 Severity: important I boot grml with 'lang=us', and I get the following as my locale: LANG=en_US.iso885915, LC_CTYPE=en_US.iso885915 (charmap=ISO-8859-15) Yet, when I enable flyspell-mode, I get: Loading flyspell...done (Next local Ispell command will use german-new8 dictionary) [2 times] I.e., the spell check language is german, instead of en_US. Test environment: grml 0.9 -- System Information: Debian Release: 4.0 Architecture: i386 (i686) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /UNIONFS/bin/bash Kernel: Linux 2.6.18-grml Locale: LANG=en_US.iso885915, LC_CTYPE=en_US.iso885915 (charmap=ISO-8859-15) Versions of packages emacs depends on: ii emacs21 21.4a+1-2 The GNU Emacs editor emacs recommends no packages. -- no debconf information __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

2 1

config.d & scripts.d cheatcodes
by Tong Sun 03 Mai '07

03 Mai '07

Hi mika, I'm going to implement the config.d & scripts.d functionality in /cdrom/scripts/grml.sh for now. I'm thinking, to make it easy for you to adopt my code into future grml, please write a skeloton code for me, especially, how you'd like to name variable and functions. I'll implement the details, test them, and sent them back to you. PS. The doc is not clear where exactly should the script be put, is it under /scripts/ or /cdrom/scripts/ on the disk (CD/USB)? Ref: From: Michael Prokop <mika <at> grml.org> Subject: Re: Re: [grml-bugs] bug#25: Wish lists for enhancing the grml configuration system Newsgroups: gmane.linux.distributions.grml.user Date: 2007-04-23 12:28:26 GMT > >> - 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. > > You mean like the config bootoption which does: > > | restore configuration using file config.tbz from directory /cdrom/config/ > > (see http://grml.org/config/grml-config.html for more details) but > > not only use *one* config.tbz but *all* the available tbz files from > > the directory? > > So it would become: > > | config.d => restore all tbz. files from directory /cdrom/config.d/ > > That's what you want? > Exactly! restore them in the order of their names. Ok. > >> 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. > > You can name your config.tbz like you want (even when generating it > > with save-config), see the config=config_foobar.tbz stuff at > > http://grml.org/config/grml-config.html > > AFAICS all that has to be done for this feature is the config.d > > stuff, right? > Exactly. Ok. I'll add the above stuff to our TODO list and will work on it post grml 1.0. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

2 1

The fromhd cheatcode does not work for NTFS partitions
by Tong Sun 03 Mai '07

03 Mai '07

Package: grml Version: 0.9-stable2 Severity: important Hi, I found that the fromhd cheatcode does not work for NTFS partitions. Of the following grub boot menu, title GRML 0.9 root (hd0,2) kernel /boot.grml/isolinux/linux26 welcome noeject noprompt ramdisk_size=1000 00 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791\ nomce fromhd=/dev/sda2 initrd /boot.grml/isolinux/minirt26.gz savedefault boot the fromhd=/dev/sda2 won't work -- can't find grml image, while the fromhd=/dev/sda8 works fine. Both /dev/sda2 & /dev/sda8 have identical /GRML root directory. The only difference is that my sda2 is NTFS and sda8 is FAT. Test environment: grml 0.9. -- System Information: Debian Release: 4.0 Architecture: i386 (i686) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /UNIONFS/bin/bash Kernel: Linux 2.6.18-grml Locale: LANG=en_US.iso885915, LC_CTYPE=en_US.iso885915 (charmap=ISO-8859-15) Versions of packages grml depends on: ii grml-autoconfig 0.6-8 main bootup process of a grml syst ii grml-docs 0.9-5 documentation for grml (grml.org) ii grml-etc 0.9-4 ecetera files for the grml system ii grml-files 0.9-1 some misc files for grml ii grml-hwinfo 0.3-2 collect hardware information ii grml-scripts 0.9.5 some small scripts which should ma ii grml-tips 0.3-14 search for tips and hints via a ke grml recommends no packages. -- no debconf information __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

2 1

Boot grml iso using grml-small
by Tong Sun 02 Mai '07

02 Mai '07

Re: The bootfrom=xxx.iso doesn't work --- Tong wrote: > I found that the bootfrom=xxx.iso cheatcode does not work as expected. > > I notice the following grub boot menu, > > title GRML 0.9 from .ISO on sda2 > root (hd0,2) > kernel /boot.grml/isolinux/linux26 welcome noeject noprompt > ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us apm=power-off vga=791 nomce > bootfrom=/dev/sda2/Grml/grml_0.9.iso > initrd /boot.grml/isolinux/minirt26.gz > savedefault > boot > > only works as long as my USB key was plugged in. If not, it won't work. Using the equvalient syslinux.cfg entry, I was able to boot grml iso from HD using grml-small from USB, but there is a problem, > Having Looked into the issue, I realized that, > > grml search for grml image in all patitions first before doing the bootfrom= > cheatcode. When my USB key is plugged in, it can continue on, mounting the > .iso > as root the second time, though it report missing /lib/.../modeprobe.dep > beforehand. The problem may related to this (unable to load modules). Thy symptom is that the ifconfig -a only shows lo device, not eth0. If I specified 'ifup eth0', the respond was no such device or similar. Duplicated the result each time when tested. Booting grml-small or grml directly won't have such problem. eth0 works fine. Test environment: grml 0.9/grml-small 0.3 tong __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

1 0

NTOP not working -- segfault
by Peter Eberl 01 Mai '07

01 Mai '07

OK, just want to let you know: the current grml setting (0.9) + related libraries draw a bogus ntop version. when you try to run it, you receive a segfault :-( OK, that was my approach for a fast and easy network monitoring ..... anyone an idea on how I can fix pretty fast this "bogus" ntop version and get back a working one? regards peb

2 1

[OT] Setup grml sshd
by Tong Sun 01 Mai '07

01 Mai '07

Hi, I'm trying to setup grml to accept my remote ssh login. No problem with that, but I'm facing a configuration problem: How to allow the sshd to verify ssh1 signature before verifying ssh2's, just like what sourceforge.net is doing? I've done the following changes to /etc/ssh/sshd_config: $ diff1 /etc/ssh/sshd_config~ /etc/ssh/sshd_config @@ -8,3 +8,3 @@ Port 22 -Protocol 2,1 +Protocol 1,2 #ListenAddress 0.0.0.0 but that didn't work [1]. Please help. thanks a lot. Tong [1] Correct log to ssh into sourceforge.net: debug1: ssh_rsa_verify: signature correct [...] debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password debug1: Next authentication method: publickey debug1: Offering public key: /home/dsl/.ssh/id_rsa debug1: Server accepts key: pkalg ssh-rsa blen 149 My own sshd server: debug1: ssh_rsa_verify: signature correct [...] debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password,keyboard-interactive debug1: Next authentication method: publickey debug1: Offering public key: /home/dsl/.ssh/id_rsa debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey,password,keyboard-interactive __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

1 0

Re: Boot grml-small 0.3 from usb-stick
by Tong Sun 01 Mai '07

01 Mai '07

> > Missing parameter in syslinux.cfg. > > > after hitting enter after boot: > > > I got: > > > Could not find kernel image: grml > > Looks like syslinux.cfg contains keywords which your syslinux > version does not like. Yes, that was exactly the reason. The syslinux that I used was too old for grml. Problem solved after using the right version. > > * Get the grml iso (and verifed the md5sum) > > * Mount the iso loopback (e.g. mount -o loop > [...] > > JFYI: grml2usb automates all those steps for you. ;) Hmm, would grml2usb still works running from USB? it was meant to run from CD originally I believe, just checking. thanks __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com

2 1

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

How to disable the SMP support in GRML
by Keith Hinton 27 Mär '07

27 Mär '07

I am trying to have a friend of mine with software speech on GRML have SMP shut off on his system. Why is this? Speechd-up and Speech-Dispatcher, have some issues with the threading support in SMP or something, that makes them crash at random, (and only when SMP) is used in the kernel. This bug has existed for a long time, and only some machines are effected while other similar dual-core processers are not. So far, we have tryed the following ordering of options: grml nosmp swspeak, grml swspeak nosmp, swspeak nosmp (without GRML) nosmp swspeak (Again without typing grml first) His box seems to boot fine if you only pass "GRML sswspeak" to it, but if he uses nosmp, the machine seems to freze at the loading of theLinux kernel. Is that chete code broken on GRML0.8 (The version being used)? Have there been any spisific issues that anyone has had with grml and the nosmp option? I could manually shut off SMP support in GRML's kernel, grab the kernel sources, disable SMP, try to figure out how to define "Broken_on_SMP=yes, or whatever, (wich would work fine) But I really do not wish to begin manually compiling the kernel. I can, you understand. But I find it an annoyance to have to spend time downloading the sources for 2.6.17-grml, turning off SMP support, (I am not eaven sure) if the kernel could be recompiled from the CD. Would that work, Mika? Or, would I, (most likely) encounter kernel compilation errors because the CD is being used. Would there eaven be enough space in the LiveCD environment (what get's loaded onto the system) to eaven extract the deb file? Or, would I encounter an error? Probably, I would. That is just my idea on that. Could anyone send me an email about these questions? I have asked multiple questions today, and need more then one answer. I know this started out as an "NoSMP" issue, but I need to also get my questions about the recompilation of the kernel in LivecCD mode being possible or not. I was going to have my friend do the following: rsync to get the deb file from my Gentoo Linux server, then do the following: DPKG -I linux-source-2.6.17-grml_grml.06_all.deb Then, assuming that worked, cd /usr/src/linux cp /boot/config-2.6.17-grml .config make oldconfig && make menuconfig Then finally: make && make modules_install Once the kernel is recompiled, coppy the changed config file back to the /boot folder, erase the deb file, install GRML to the hard-drive, and reboot. This would be better Mika then me making a deb file already, I'd just use the kernel sources long enough to recompile everything. What I am afraid of is that my wonderful idea will fail because I'll be trying to do all this on a running LiveCD. Could you kindly please try to get back to me with any information on the questions about nosmp and kernel compilation, CD-space (when the environment has been uncompressed from squashfs) into memory, etc? Regards, --Keith, KeithNet Network Administrator. Website http://www.KeithNet.DynDNS.0org (If you do not wish to try typing that out) then visit it at: http://www.KeithNet.HomeLinux.com Please feel free to comment in english to me off list, as I rote this by hand. (Is the site accessible with a non WIndows browser?) Can it be visited fine under other systems like Windows? Does the site look visually organized?

1 0

error when using aptitude for upgrade
by Andreas Kalex 26 Mär '07

26 Mär '07

Hi, since 2 days I get an error when upgrading packages via aptitude Reading package fields... Done Reading package status... Done Retrieving bug reports... 0% Error retrieving bug reports Retry downloading bug information?[Y/n]? Answering yes will not work. What/Where is the problem? Andreas

2 1

GRML boot logo.16
by Ing. Diego Cueva 23 Mär '07

23 Mär '07

2 1

Re: booting from external disk
by August C. Quint 23 Mär '07

23 Mär '07

Hi, and thanks Michael for your reply. >> Maybe using Grub instead is worth a try. I think we should first try to solve problem #2. >> Sorry no idea yet. Can you please provide me a screenshot of the >> booting process where it hangs? Sorry, I don't know how to make a screenshot in this stage of booting. And I don't have a digital camera (yet). So I try to write down the lines visible: the last lines before the problem happesn are related to raidx, so here it goes: Success: loaded module raid456 Success: loaded module raid5 Success: loaded module raid6 Modprobe: FATAL: Module raid10 not found Done. Begin: Assemblying all MD arrays ... Now I get 6x the lines: usb 2-2: reset high speed USB device running ehci_hcd and address 2 followed by sd: 0:0:0:0: SCSI error: return code = 0x00050000 And this will continue. It looks like it accessed the disk successfully but it tries to access the single disk as a raid-disk in this stage (but I'm no expert here). What can I do? Which information do you need? >> Oh, and you might want to try to use root=UUID=... instead of >> root=/dev/sd[a-z]... so you can make sure your system uses the >> correct device for booting. where do I have to put these modifications (I'm no expert here) ? I guess: I can use Knoppix to boot the machine and look for the file lio.conf (or so) on this external harddisk. Right? AugustQ

2 1

booting from external disk
by August C. Quint 22 Mär '07

22 Mär '07

Hi, I'm looing for a Linux-system that can boot from an USB-hard-disk. Via a Google I found Grml. But I have some problems with this. So please allow me to describe the system, the problems etc. My system: Aldi offered a notebook in may 2006 and I bought one. This is my system, if you need more information about it let me know. What I did: I downloaded the grml.iso-file via grml.gwendoline.at, burned a Cd and started the notebook: works, fine. I added my external hard-disk via USB ( I removed the internal hard-disk for safety, I want to keep the installed XP) and installed the software via grml2hd: works, fine. For a test I stopped the machine, removed the CD and started it again. In the BIOS I've checked 'boot from USB-device' already and voila: it worked. The next day I wanted to do this again: problems. So please allow me to describe my problems. problem #1: the inital screen comes up with the 3 choices. By doing nothing the choice 'grml' was started. Next was a scrren with the text: loading 2.6.18-grml, followed by approx. 180 dots (takes 10 minutes or so). What's this? At the end of this a message was displayed: BIOS data check succesfull (or something similar). Now we come to the booting-process. This works, a lot of lines are running on the screen. But we come to problem #2: a message appears: usb 2-2: reset high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2 This will be repeated multiple times, some other messages are appearing and these messages appear over and over again. One of the messages between is: SCSI-error, return-code = 0x00050000 What's this? Can you please give me a hint. Thanks. AugustQ PS: on my desktop-machine I can easily switch operating system by removing the hard-disk (power off). I'm looking for a similar solution for my notebook. Opening a bay and swapping the disk is possible but I don't want it this way.

2 1

chroot again
by martin yazdzik 21 Mär '07

21 Mär '07

Dear M and friends, Just for information, and please realise I am not complaining: root@grmllap1 ~ # chroot /mnt/sda4 root@grmllap1 / # apt-get update Err http://www.debian-multimedia.org sid Release.gpg Could not resolve 'www.debian-multimedia.org' Err http://ftp.de.debian.org stable Release.gpg Could not resolve 'ftp.de.debian.org' Note that, when my experimental partition(/mnt/sda4) is plain old debian, I do the same thing and can do all package management or upgrades, install drives, and so on, from my working workhorse grml install, but, as now, when the /mnt/sda4 is a grml install, something stops me from using my internet connexion to fetch things. I think it may be a bind issue, or not? At any rate, this means I cannot work on one OS while in the other, which is silly. It obviously has nothing to do with the working grml, because every other one day install, zb, debian, SuSE, Sabayon, lets me use my running connexion to work. All other chrooted commands work, as long as, obviously, they are not x server dependent. Best, martin

3 3

time
by coscell＠mail.batol.net 19 Mär '07

19 Mär '07

Hello, After reboot, the system time is always incorrect. How to adjust it? Thank you!

4 6

Third question
by coscell＠mail.batol.net 15 Mär '07

15 Mär '07

Hello, After startx, the screen disappeared (all black). Why and how to fix it? Thank you! Coscell

2 1

Second question
by coscell＠mail.batol.net 15 Mär '07

15 Mär '07

Hello, After installed gnome-desktop-environment, my computer booted direct into gui. How can I still boot at text mode? Thank you! Coscell

2 2

First question
by coscell＠mail.batol.net 15 Mär '07

15 Mär '07

Hello I'm a new user of grml. I've installed grml into hard disk. First question is: How to set sound volume? Thank you! Coscell

2 1

grml2hd with a preexisting partition
by cmbrannon＠cox.net 11 Mär '07

11 Mär '07

Hi list, I just discovered Grml recently. I want to install it on my laptop's hard drive, using grml2hd. The laptop already runs Slackware 11.0. I chose a really lousy partitioning scheme when I installed Slackware: /dev/hda1, /boot, approx 40Mb /dev/hda2, swap, approx 512 Mb /dev/hda3, /, the remaining 19.5 Gb I don't want to get rid of /home when I install Grml, because it holds several gigabytes of assorted files. Is it possible to make grml2hd install to /dev/hda3 without destroying /home? PS, this is a good argument for having separate / and /home partitions; wish I had done that on the laptop! -- Chris

3 3

time zone configuration, minor problem.
by Doug Smith 09 Mär '07

09 Mär '07

Ok, I am sorry I am writing about this again. However, here's whyu. I pulled in my mail today, and I had 104 messages, most of them absolute and total first order junk. Well, mailfilter to the rescue, and, as far as I know now, I am getting only the messages I want. Well, I need to know how to solve this: I have runb tzconfig as root, and set the time zone to the proper us-eastern. Tzconfig says, on repeated runs that this is what I am set to. However, I still, when running date, get results in CET. My TZ invironmental variable didn't change when I ran the configuration program. Shœuld I just change this variable's value, then run ntpdate on the time server? Thanks. -- Doug Smith: C.S.F.C. Computer Scientist For CHRIST

2 1

minor problem with time zone configuration
by Doug Smith 08 Mär '07

08 Mär '07

--n Tine. I need to correct this before the change to daylight saving time here in the Eastern Us on Saturday night. What do I still need to change. Should I reconfigure locales or what? Thanks. Doug Smith: C.S.F.C. Computer Scientist For CHRIST

2 1

grml2hd: more files not found (was initrd.img not found)
by Hubert Gabler 07 Mär '07

07 Mär '07

Thank you for the hint (initrd), it works now! Another problem occured, here is the genesis: boot greml on hd user: hubert startx working on the graphical destop - ok exit Now, on the console again, I find a dozen error messages like this: Can't load /home/grml/.idesktop/icons/xxxx.png bailing --aterm (or--amix or ... --xterm) Check to see if the image and path to image is valid What can I do to make grml find the directory containig the *.png files? Thank you! hubert

2 4

grml2hd: initrd.img not found
by Hubert Gabler 06 Mär '07

06 Mär '07

I installed grml 0.9 on a free partition and copied the essential lines from grml /boot/grub/menu.lst to my standard menu.lst. It reads now: title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.18-3-486 root (hd0,2) kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-3-486 root=/dev/sda3 vga=792 ro initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-3-486 savedefault title 2.6.18-grml root (hd1,3) kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.18-grml root=/dev/hdd4 vga=0x0317 initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.18-grml savedefault # boot title Windows XP Home root (hd0,0) makeactive chainloader +1 Booting grml does not work because the system cannot find initrd.img-2.6.18-grml. In fact it does not exist in grml's boot file. Where does it hide ?? (I tried to use initrd.img -2.6.18-3-486, grml starts but I get a lot of error messages) Please give me a hint! Hubert

3 4

Re: [Grml] Grub on USB Stick
by Patrick 26 Feb '07

26 Feb '07

Hi Mika On Fri, 2007-02-23 at 21:18 +0100, Michael Prokop wrote: > * Patrick <patritsch(a)gmx.ch> [20070223 17:15]: > > > I'm trying to boot from my USB-Stick. I have an CF-USB adapter 512MB and > > a 4GB Stick. Both have the same problem. After an grml2usb my > > Genode-System won't boot. So I mad it with Grub. > > What does "won't boot" mean? Your box(es) can't boot using > isolinux/syslinux but grub works? Exectly. Syslinux doesn't work. And grub is doing the job.. My laptop have also problems with syslinux... but that's an other story. > Try dropping the 'root (hd0,0)' line and the root=/dev/sda1 > kernel-option of the 'Grml minitrd' section in your menu.lst, AFAICS > your system tries to boot from /dev/sda1 currently. :) Sorry, I don't understand that. Should I remove the 'root (hd0,0)' section and the 'root=/dev/sda1' ?? How should this look like?? Sorry, everything that I emagine, couldn't work. Thanx Pat

2 2

grml2hd / 0.9-3
by Tube 26 Feb '07

26 Feb '07

hi mikap, i miss the option to select the swap partition when installing grml to harddisk. when there is a preformatted swap partition then the auto-fstab-mechanism will surely detect that but when there is not, you have to mkswap manually afterwards. that is a little bit uncomfortable. cheers tube

2 1

virtual x windows server, possible or not?
by Doug Smith 24 Feb '07

24 Feb '07

This is a really strange question, but I feel that it must be answered, either in the positive or negative in order that I might know if I will be able to continue to compute for the forseeable future. What is the possibility of building a kind of x windows server that is really not a window system at all? What I mean is this: For the past 21 years, as of August 18, 2006, I have used computers, and have done so successfully. I have done it all with text-only systems, on which I have been able to run any program that I have wanted to run. Now, we have a problem, and I mean a big one. It is called the graphical user interface. I do not mean to put anyone down, or show disrespect, for the ways in which other people choose to use computers. What I need is a way to make the programs written for the graphical user interface work on the console so that I will not have to make that change in the future to an interface which I really do not like. Is it possible to take those programs and make them work as I want them to, without losing anymore of their functionality, than the graphical part? For example, a javascript-enabled browser such as mozilla or firefox should be able to render its output as text, while still able to perform all of its functionality with the exception of that which directly involves images. Is this possible? What if I want to use an office application, or some kind of video-intensive program, but I only need the messages and other text stuff they put out? What I am asking is this: Since the x-windows libraries, support applications, and other components are on grml, is it possible to use these to make a kind of virtual x server that will render things on the console so that I can continue to use speakup? Speakup is the best speech interface I have used in all the time I have been using computers, and I like it. If there are any takers on the list, that is, sighted people who want to work with me so that we can get this project going, please feel free to contact me. Most sincerely: -- I use grml (http://grml.org/)

3 2

problem with swspeak on amd 64 X 2 dual core.
by Doug Smith 24 Feb '07

24 Feb '07

Ok, here we go again. I have a question to ask you before my wife buys me a new system. She told me that she would get me a new AMD 64 X 2 dual core, and that I can get it in any configuration I want. Of course, I want the media center edition with the radio/tv tuner card, the a/v in and out, and the big drive and boat-loads of memory, but I need to ask you about this: Ok, when I go into any store, this has happened two times in the last couple or three weeks. When I put the disk into the drive on one of the display models and start it back up, right there, in front of everyone in the store, and I am supposed to know what to do with a computer, the swspeak fails. Here's what happens, to the best of my understanding. First of all, my wife along with the store employee are watching to see if the thing will work. Neither of them knows jack swish about a talking computer. Well, everything, as far as the hardware is detected, and it tells me to just run swspeak when the boot sequence is finished, though I never hear this. Well, I just run swspeak when everything is finished. I get a message about having "failed to write 128 samples." Does this have to do with the kind of on-board sound hardware on the machine, or not?:"Should I have this disabled in the bios when I buy the machine, and just put my soundblaster live ls in it or what? Should I run a sound configuration program in GRML to detect this new sound hardware? I just want to know. I hope that there is nothing totally fatal in the system that makes GRML not boot on one of these machines. I really like GRML and plan to use it. Should I not get a system like this, or is there sopme simple fix? Thank you very much. -- I use grml (http://grml.org/)

1 0

Grub on USB Stick
by Patrick 23 Feb '07

23 Feb '07

Hi Together I'm trying to boot from my USB-Stick. I have an CF-USB adapter 512MB and a 4GB Stick. Both have the same problem. After an grml2usb my Genode-System won't boot. So I mad it with Grub. My /boot/grub/menue.lst: title Grml minirt root (hd0,0) kernel /boot/vmlinu root=/dev/sda1 ro acpi=off ramdisk_size=100000 init=/etc/init lang=us usb apm=power-off vga=791 nomce BOOT_IMAGE=grml initrd /boot/minirt.img boot I had to make an initrd.img and I made it like wirtten in the wiki: #update-initramfs -u -t -k $(uname -r) I got: Could not stat the resume device file.... /scripts/init-bottom |no such file or directory /root/sys |no such file or directory /proc |no such file or directory so I tried it again with the original minirt26.gz. after a #gzip -d minirt26.gz and renamed as minirt26.img i can boot with grub but I got now only: Could not stat the resume device file.... /scripts/local-bottom |done Begin: Running /scripts/init-bottom... mount: Mounting /root/dev on /dev/.static/dev faild: No such file or directory

2 1

Pondering a mid-size grml...
by Juergen Fiedler 20 Feb '07

20 Feb '07

Wouldn't it be nice to have a grml that would fit on an 8cm CD? I'm playing around with adding things to grml_small (being that stipping the big one down seems rather intimidating), but having an official release in the 200M size range would be even nicer. I'm envisioning something that still has the man pages and some basic X tools. The big hurdle for me right now are actually the man pages, being that reinstalling everything just to get the accompanying man pages is a pretty big project - but then again, remastering a Live CD is pretty much supposed to be big. Is there any chance of there being an official release somewhere between grml_small and grml (regular)? Even just a version of small without stuff being stripped post install would be a mightily cool thing. Thanks for a cool distribution :) --j

2 2

Why does the speech system like to spell instead of read words?
by Doug Smith 15 Feb '07

15 Feb '07

Hello, once more, and probably for the last time for a while. I know I am really bothering people on here, so I will leave it alone after this one. I have to use the speech on here so I have to make sure that it is really working well. It is except for one minor thing. How do I keep the speech system from jumkping into this strange mode where it likes to spell everything letter by letter, and, rather slowly, at that, rather than just read the words. Is there a way to correct this? I will get it done. Thank you. -- I use grml (http://grml.org/)

3 2

remastering a live cd, Can someone explain it to me?
by Doug Smith 15 Feb '07

15 Feb '07

I knownow this is a real strange one. I am, however, feeling more and more comfortable on this list, and I thought it might be possible to understand something that I have wondered about for a couple of years. What I want to know is how do you actually make a live cd? What I mean is this, and I will explain what I mean in more detail. Ok, starting from a running grml system on your development machine, all the programs are on there, the bugs are out, to the best of your knowledge, and you are ready to make a new release. What is done to get from that to the iso file system with its large compressed file system, and the other files that are with it. I know how to make an iso-9660 file system, at least, well enough to make a cd, but how do you make the thing bootable? How does the technology work that is used to compress the software and documentation down? How does the thing know which parts of this large file to use when accessing programs? Why I wonder this is, I like to add in a few packages that I use. I would like to have my own disk with config files, new packages and more so that I can just set up on any machine and rock and roll. If you don't have the time to explain this to me in full detail, do you know of a good reference where I can just read about it and get all the detæils? I really appreciate this, because the person who tried to explain this to me before, didn't put on a lievl where I could understand it. I am sorry to come on here with such strange questions, but I hope there is a simply-understood answer for this one. Thank you. -- I use grml (http://grml.org/)

4 3

txt2tags
by Mark 15 Feb '07

15 Feb '07

http://txt2tags.sourceforge.net/docs.html definitely a text tool..related, http://txt2tags.wordpress.com/2007/02/03/wixi-a-desktop-wiki-powered-by-txt…

1 0

vim, grml 0.9 on hd - strange characters after using backspace
by Frank Eisenblaetter 12 Feb '07

12 Feb '07

I have a strange problem with vim. When I use backspace to delete some characters while I am in instering mode, there appear blanks or other characters which I definitely not typed. example: [a], [backspace], [a] results in the folowing character å Maybe it has something to do with unicode. I use unicode_start in /etc/zsh/zlogin. Regards, Frank

3 5

One more question I have to ask, sorry.
by Doug Smith 12 Feb '07

12 Feb '07

- Ok, let's try this one again. This time, a little more careful with vim and it should be fine. Now, I believe I can get the vim problem solved here. I will just be careful with it. I have one more question, rather couple of questions to ask about the mkpersistenthome script. It appears to me, and I may be totally wrong, that the mkpersistenthome script does not work. When I try to make my persistent home directory on the usb device I have, I cannot get past the part of the script where it asks you for the partition to put the image file onto. How do I move and select the item in the menu for the partition /dev/sda1 and make it go on past that? Now, the only other question I have is this. I used to use a knoppix knock-off. This is what the Oralux distribution is based on. However, there appear to be many more packages here than in this version. The good thing I miss is this: On Oralux, and you can try it by downloading the file: http://oralux.rs.sr/Oralux_0.7.iso You have this program called knoppix-mkimage, which allows you to create this kind of virtual hard disk image of your entire system. Then, through the wonders of unionfs, you can have the usb device mounted, boot the cd, and you can have this image where you can install your favorite packages on the hard drive, and the unionfs will bring it all together and put the files into the right directories. Does grml do this with þhe mkpersistenthome script? Thank you for your information. I look forward to hearing from you about this. Thank you. - I use grml (http://grml.org/)

2 1

Well, blast, I'll have to try that one again.
by Doug Smith 11 Feb '07

11 Feb '07

To whom it may concern: My name is Doug Smith. I just want to let you know that I am really enjoying my new grml system. However, I have a few quick questions I need to ask you so that I can still get more out of it. First of all, I wish to thank you for including speech output in the system. This is the only way I have of using computers at all. I am blind, and, of course, a monitor will do me no good at all. You solved that one for me. I would also like to thank you for including brltty in here as well. This is very good for people who like to use computers by means of a braille monitor. This is the message I meant to send out last night, but, wow, I found myself trapped inside the editor with no way out. I discovered, much to my surprise, that the environment variable EDITOR is set to vim which is fine with me, except for the small problem I have of not knowing how to use vim. How, when using vim with mutt, the mail client I use, do you get into the menu which allows you to send the message. I wrote the last night's message with nano, which I can use, then tried to send it out and found myself trapped inside vim with no way to get back into mutt. Well, now that you know why you received a blank message last evening, let me continue. The next question concerns the install I did, with grml2hd, on a usb hard drive. When I did the install, I made the initrd as instructed. Now, there was something in a previous message about which file in the initrd needs to be edited to make the usb boot work as it should. Which file is that, and what needs to be changed. I have never done this before. Now, the third and final question I have has to do with the compression technology used to make the compressed GRML file. How does that work? How can so much data be put onto the cd and, then, the system know which parts to decompress to get the programs you want to use? This leads me to a new idea. Is it possible to make a new way to install software into the system? The way it would work is this: Just put the system onto the hard drive with grml tohd. Now, we need to boot with grml fromhd and we can get started. Ok, let's select a piece of software to install, for this example, the missing binary codecs for mplayer. Can this somehow be done? Why can't the image file on the hard drive have the relevant parts decompressed, just as in memory, written back to the drive, the new files introduced into these directories, then the compressed image file re-made just as it was before, except with the new files. Is this possible, using the same decompression scenario as is used with the decompression of needed programs in memory for use? Well, that's about it for now. I hope to get this one out with no problems. I appollogize for the messiness of this letter. Until I can use mutt with vim, I have to use the emulated mailx composition mode and try to press returnin the proper positions before running off the lines and losing data. Once more thank you for such a wonderful system. I am more than glad to have it. I just want to learn more about it to be able to use it better. Thank you. Doug Smith

3 4

Network devices - stop automatic connection
by Frank Eisenblaetter 09 Feb '07

09 Feb '07

I use grml on hd. 1) I have configured my networdevices at /etc/network/interfaces. There is no automatic ifup configured in it, but if I am connected to my router the networkconnection get's automatically established on startup of the system: * Network device eth0 detected, DHCP broadcasting for IP (Backgrounding) I think the connection get's established because an init script detects my networkdevice an runs a DHCP-client butI dont't know which script it is. How can i stop the autoconnection of my network device(s)? Or is there an other grml/debian way of configuring network devices? 2) On system startup I get the message: EXT3-fs warning: maximal mountcount The message tells me that I should run e2fsck. Why isn't this done automatical as it is on any other linux I uses before? Frank

2 2

Thank you for such a wonderful system, I just have a few questions
by Doug Smith 09 Feb '07

09 Feb '07

3 2

Sendmail hostname error
by ][ 08 Feb '07

08 Feb '07

Hi, I wasn't able to use sendmail recently. I've now track it down that the hostname that my Sendmail uses is wrong. How can I fix it? % /usr/sbin/sendmail -bi WARNING: local host name (;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached) is not qualified; see cf/README: WHO AM I? /etc/mail/aliases: 24 aliases, longest 10 bytes, 233 bytes total % grep 'WHO AM I' -r /etc/mail/* || echo no found no found Please help. FYI, this is the respond that I got explaining why it is happening. _________________________________________________________________ You seem to be a victim of the same broken "helpfulness" as described in the (apparently misthreaded by google) thread at http://groups.google.com/group/comp.mail.sendmail/browse_frm/thread/7095fe4… - i.e. some install script or whatever has "configured" your sendmail with a *host name* of literally ";; connection timed out; no servers could be reached"! This is actually an error message from the 'dig' command - i.e. the script probably tries to use 'dig' to get the fully-qualified host name, and blindly accepts any output from 'dig'. The slightly different greeting comes from the fact that sendmail inserts the "ESMTP" there as the second word, under the reasonable assumption that the host name is a single word... _________________________________________________________________ -- Tong (remove underscore(s) to reply) http://xpt.sf.net/techdocs/ http://xpt.sf.net/tools/

3 2

Grml initrd
by ][ 08 Feb '07

08 Feb '07

Hi, I've been trying for several weeks to make my grml USB pen bootable. I think I finally found the problem, quite a simple one -- I need a initrd which has findfs to find the root device. However, I didn't find a initrd in my grml2hd disk, and neither the minirt26.gz borrowed from grml_small_0.3.iso works. So, is there anywhere I can get a grml initrd, or I have to build one myself? If so, any good source of info for the building? thanks PS. Here is what I get: Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0) My grub menu.lst: title Debian Live root (hd0,1) kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=UUID=b53f0a8b-deab-40b3-a84c-0779cb8b7772 ro initrd /boot/minirt26.gz boot title From grml.live root (hd0,1) kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=LABEL=grml.live ro initrd /boot/minirt26.gz boot -- Tong (remove underscore(s) to reply) http://xpt.sf.net/techdocs/ http://xpt.sf.net/tools/

2 1

Loop mount not automatically cleaned
by ][ 08 Feb '07

08 Feb '07

Hi, I noticed that loop mounts are not automatically cleaned in my system. Is there any way that I can fix it? Each time after I loop mount, the loop device number increased. When I do ps, I found that there are many loop process in execution: $ ps -eaf | grep loop root 5566 1 0 Jan05 ? 00:01:44 [loop0] root 5597 1 0 Jan05 ? 00:00:00 [loop1] root 5603 1 0 Jan05 ? 00:00:00 [loop2] root 10995 1 0 00:28 ? 00:01:41 [loop3] root 26656 1 0 11:42 ? 00:01:40 [loop4] root 6234 1 0 17:45 ? 00:00:00 [loop5] Previously, the loop process will be gone after I umount the loop mount. As the result, my disk space did not re-gain after deleting loop mounted iso files: sudo mount -o loop my-big.iso /mnt/tmp1 $ df /dev/sda14 79631676 52241640 27390036 66% /lfs/cache12 /dev/loop3 4571190 4571190 0 100% /mnt/tmp1 sudo umount /mnt/tmp1 $ lsof | grep my-big rm my-big.iso $ df /dev/sda14 79631676 52241640 27390036 66% /lfs/cache12 The my-big.iso is over 4G in size, but there is no space increase after it being deleted. I've checked with lsof that no one is using it. please help. thanks -- Tong (remove underscore(s) to reply) http://xpt.sf.net/techdocs/ http://xpt.sf.net/tools/

3 5

interfaces
by harry meyers 07 Feb '07

07 Feb '07

My wireless interface is eth1 In /etc/network/interfaces the according lines are simply: ,---- | iface eth1 inet dhcp | wpa-passphrase waaskaaner | wpa-ssid irgdnwoos `---- Under debian I had no problems with this configuration. But under grml the interfaces are often changed, so eth0 comes up instead fo eth1, which of course doesn't work. As a workaround I wrote a small script which changes everything and restarts networking but gradually it became quit annoying. What can I do? harry

2 2

Boot by UUID or disk label
by ][ 03 Feb '07

03 Feb '07

Hi, Grml wiki indicates that grml can use disk labels/UUIDs as root= option for booting [1]. What's the correct syntax for that? [1] http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb&DokuWiki=88eb0d5110993c6c4d0ca5992abee… I searched hard and came up with the following, trying to boot my USB key: title GRML on 1st HD root (hd0,1) kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/b53f0a8b-deab-40b3-a84c-0779cb8b7772 ro boot title GRML on 1st HD root (hd0,1) kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/disk/by-label/grml.boot ro boot title GRML on 2nd HD root (hd1,1) kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/b53f0a8b-deab-40b3-a84c-0779cb8b7772 ro boot But all gave me root filesystem not found error (grub boot normally, just can't find root fs). I'm sure the uuid and disk label are correct. What else could be the problem? thanks -- Tong (remove underscore(s) to reply) http://xpt.sf.net/techdocs/ http://xpt.sf.net/tools/

2 3

nohwcap
by Erich Minderlein 31 Jan '07

31 Jan '07

Hello I refer to my posting http://www.mail-archive.com/grml@mur.at/msg00781.html in which a whole discussion thread deals with the subject. It had also been relayed to the maintainers of x-servers x.org IMHO the nohwcap issue shall be dealt with only by the kernel and / or any other hardware related software, which are currently the Xserver and the drivers only (in case of insertion / removal of hw). No application should try to find something out about hardware. Kernel shall do it once after booting, insertion or removal of hw only and then hold the data in its virtual filesystem. then such a weird device as /etc/ld.so.nohwcap is at best not existing or second best once read updated during system boot, insertion or removal of hw. best regards a system engineer -- Erich Minderlein <erminderlein(a)locoware.de> MARC Mannheim Rail Commerce GmbH

1 0

sarge and kernel 2.6.18-grml
by Erich Minderlein 30 Jan '07

30 Jan '07

Am Freitag, den 26.01.2007, 12:00 +0100 schrieb grml-request(a)mur.at: > sarge and kernel 2.6.18-grml (Erich Minderlein) Hello I repeat this mail _console and keyboard_ I did not post a question in this mail, so it has been overlooked. I removed console-terminus from the stable(sarge) package(250 kByte) and installed console-terminus from the testing(etch) package(565 kByte). Adding SCREEN_FONT=Lat15-Terminus16 in /etc/console-tools/config did not help; rebooting, prompt login as root, the normal font with serifs shows up, if I type unicode_start: answer : already in UTF8 mode after some fiddling around, I remove /etc/console-tools/config.d/fonty and /etc/console-tools/config.d/ and now it boots and changes to Terminus 16 for all consoles. This will probably not survive an update of package fonty! --Meanwhile fonty removed without negative consequences. Small Umlaut "ae,oe,ue" is properly printed on the console Capital Umlaut "Ae,Oe,Ue" and "scharf S"or (sz) like greek beta is not printed on the console, but results in circumflex accent ^^^^ dpkg-reconfigure console-common and dpkg-reconfigure console-data do not help, sometimes after testing these umlauts the console crashes and I get a new boot-prompt. regards I think the events described are severe: pressing Capital Umlauts Ae Oe Ue leads to console possibly exit or crash Is is a bug in the console-terminus package or is it a bug in the keyboard driver or is it a bug in the interfaces associated with these packages and the kernel ? Is it a bug between sarge and etch ? Is it a bug in front of the display ? All that is possible. I believe that I have exhausted all combinations of rebooting, installing fonts and keyboard drivers, .... Do I have to adapt /etc/console-tools/remap ? I add the result of showkey > somefile kb Modus war UNICODE Taste drücken (Programm beendet sich 10s nach dem letzten Tastendruck)...) 0x9c There are two funktion keys on the keyboard: Key Enveloppe press 0x00 0x81 0x9b release 0x80 0x81 0x9b key (i) Information symbol 0x00 0x81 0x96 0x80 0x81 0x96 kb Modus war UNICODE Taste drücken (Programm beendet sich 10s nach dem letzten Tastendruck)...) key "Ae" 0x28 0xa8 key "Oe" 0x27 0xa7 key "Ue" 0x1a 0x9a key Return 0x1c 0x9c Now from comparing the latter with the first, .. first UTF8 then UNICODE The latter was today immediately after a system boot. Small äöü (ae oe ue) work fine, capital Ae Oe Ue dont show on the console and result in three circumflex accent ^^^. Console specialists, what are the consequences ? Thanks -- Erich Minderlein <erminderlein(a)locoware.de> MARC Mannheim Rail Commerce GmbH

1 0

T2 Linux build harness
by Mark 29 Jan '07

29 Jan '07

OK, this tip might not be exactly right for grml, but still: since grml is working on new processor architectures like PPC and 64-bit x86 (and don't forget 64-bit PowerPC!). T2 Linux is all about re-targeting. It impressed us by booting obscure machines on which other "ported" distributions croak. It runs many OEM eval boards. There might be ideas here to help porting work. Just fyi. http://www.t2-project.org/about.html "T2 is highly portable. Adding new architectures is easy and can be done within a day!"

1 0

Brittle init.d scripts - tmpfs ramfs
by Mark 28 Jan '07

28 Jan '07

I never thought Linux was so breakable. We're moving mount points into RAM for performance ( /var/log /var/run /var/lock etc. ). Tmpfs or ramfs can stop disk thrashing and speedup a system. (Flash USB needs it even more, to minimize writes.) Example fstab, http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/179 But....brittle /etc/init.d scripts fail without having their private subdirectories persist across boots, in certain places like /var/log and /var/run. If you write or test init.d scripts, please test with tmpfs and ramfs - do not assume pre-existence of application directories. (P.S. Ubuntu Dapper btw already defaults to tmpfs for such directories, though not /var/log. Dapper uses old style init, Edgy/Feisty have something new.) M

2 4

grml-quickconfig?
by Michael Schierl 28 Jan '07

28 Jan '07

Hi, when I use grml (the live cd), there are a few tasks that I do quite often directly after boot. For example, loading keyboard layout (always), configuring non-dhcp network (sometimes) or starting X or running grml-info for looking something up (rarely). Using cheatcodes for configuring it does not "help", since I have to type the kernel name first, and sometimes I am not even there when it boots (I give the CD to the friend/relative that has problems and tell him that he should boot from it until I am back, and just press Return when "an image of a huge keyboard" appears). So, I'd like to write a script (grml-quickconfig) started at bootup on console 1 that shows a nice screen (with highlighted letters) that allows to do things like that by pressing a single key; the Return key will exit it. Like: Welcome to GRML. Press one of the highlighted keys. Press Return to exit this menu. Configure keyboard language: [d]e [a]t [c]h Configure your [n]etwork card. Show [i]nformation Start [x] d: grml-lang de a: grml-lang at c: grml-lang ch n: netcardconfig i: grml-info x: grml-x (asking for the windowmanager) Windowmanager would be (taken from the completion menu): [d]wm [e]vilwm [f]luxbox f[v]wm fvwm[2] fvwm-[c]rystal ion[3] [j]wm pe[k]wm [p]wm3 [r]atpoison [t]wm w[9]wm [w]indowlab w[m]i wm[i]i wm-[n]g I guess even for people that type really fast this is an improvement (if not, it requires a single keystroke to get out) - and even better for those that cannot type that fast (typing »su grml -c 'grml-x fluxbox'« is a bit more than typing »xf«). The main question now is if something like that would be included into grml and if yes, what other things to add to it (there are still some keys "free"). Michael PS: Recently I tried the "soundtest" script (I wanted to test if a sound card is supported by Linux) and unfortunately it worked... Unfortunately because it got me into a discussion about bad pronunciation of English. I don't want to say that my English pronunciation is much better, but if any native English speaker could re-record the sample file, it would be great. In the meantime, I'm going to use the emacspeak intro sound for such tests...

4 9

grml user survey - please participate
by Michael Prokop 28 Jan '07

28 Jan '07

Hi, I am pleased to announce that I am running a grml user survey. The purpose of this is to help grml developers gain a better idea of what the grml user community is really doing and using, and what aspects people would most like to see improved. This user survey is heavily based on the survey done by Bryan O'Sullivan for the Mercurial Project: http://www.selenic.com/pipermail/mercurial/2006-April/007513.html Mercurial is a great distributed version control system used at grml, see http://grml.org/mercurial/ Please participate! If you know grml users who do not read the grml mailing list, please forward the survey to them and ask them to take part. The more people that respond, the more useful the survey will be! The user survey itself is available online at: http://grml.org/user-survey/grml.txt as well. Please send your responses directly to me (mika(a)grml.org), and do *not* CC the mailing list. Regarding privacy: I will not share your name or contact information with anyone else unless you explicitly allow me to, but I may quote you anonymously (unless you would prefer me not to). At the end of February 2007 I will post a detailed report to the grml mailing list and the grml wiki. Thanks again for taking part! regards, -mika- ---->8 cut here 8<---- About you 1. What country are you in? What is your preferred language? Getting started with grml 1. How did you hear about grml? 2. Did you encounter any problems with grml when starting to use it and if so which ones? 3. Since which release do you use grml? 4. Which version(s) of grml do you currently use? Your habits 1. Do you use grml for private use, work, unpaid projects, or even all of them? 2. How do you obtain grml? Internet (http, ftp, bittorent or rsync?), magazines (Linux-Magazin, Linux-User,...), CD from friends? 3. Do you use any other Live-CDs? * If yes: which ones and why? * If yes: how does grml compare to other Live-CDs you have used? 4. Which operating systems/distribution do you usually work with? 5. Do you use any platforms not x86 based? * If yes, which ones and how often? (daily, weekly,...) 6. Which languages do you speak and which ones do you use via lang=... bootoption with grml? What you think of grml 1. Overall, how happy are you with grml? 2. What do you like about using grml? 3. What would you most like to see improved about grml? (features, bugs, plugins, documentation, ... - whatever you think of) 4. If you want to see grml more widely used, what do you think we could do to make this happen? Documentation 1. Do you use the grml wiki? If yes, do you find it useful? 2. Do you find available documentation useful? 3. What is your favourite user documentation for any software projects or products you have used? Which tools do you use 1. Which tools do you use most frequently on grml? 2. Which scripts of the following ones do you use? [add yes/no] * grml-ap: * grml-bridge: * grml-crypt: * grml-debootstrap: * grml-network: * grml-router: * grml-vpn: * grml-x: 3. Do you use grml as harddisk installation (grml2hd)? * If yes: why? 4. Do you use grml on your usb device through grml2usb? 5. Do you use any special bootoption on regular base? Getting help, staying in touch 1. Have you tried to get grml help from other people? * If yes, did you get these problems resolved quickly and to your liking? 2. Have you used the bug database? * If yes, did you find it useful, easy to use? 3. Do you subscribe to the mailing list? * If yes, do you find it useful, and traffic levels OK? 4. Do you use the IRC channel (#grml on irc.freenode.net)? * If no, did you know that grml developers use IRC, and that there's almost 24-hour help available? Open forum 1. What other comments or suggestions do you have that are not covered by the questions above?

1 0

udev rule for usb boot device
by Mark 26 Jan '07

26 Jan '07

What is the best/approved udev rule for a usb hard drive to escape random drive letter variations /dev/sd[a|b|c|d]. The drives have ATTRS{serial} but I want to walk carefully amidst grml's built-in rules. For example, if sandwiched between other grml rules, what lexical filename to use. Second question: will the udev name work from /etc/fstab during boot, or should we stick to mount-by-label. (Idea for grml2hd - use hostname to auto-generate a related udev naming rule for the drive.)

1 1

sarge and kernel 2.6.18-grml
by Erich Minderlein 26 Jan '07

26 Jan '07

_console and keyboard_ Hallo , I removed console-terminus from the stable(sarge) package(250 kByte) and installed console-terminus from the testing(etch) package(565 kByte). Adding SCREEN_FONT=Lat15-Terminus16 in /etc/console-tools/config did not help; rebooting, prompt login as root, the normal font with serifs shows up, if I type unicode_start: answer : already in UTF8 mode after some fiddling around, I remove /etc/console-tools/config.d/fonty and /etc/console-tools/config.d/ and now it boots and changes to Terminus 16 for all consoles. This will probably not survive an update of package fonty! Small Umlaut äöü is properly printed on the console Capital Umlaut ÄÖÜ and "scharf S"~ß is not printed on the console, but results in ^^^^ dpkg-reconfigure console-common and dpkg-reconfigure console-data do not help, sometimes after testing these umlauts the console crashes and I get a new boot-prompt. regards -- Erich Minderlein <erminderlein(a)locoware.de> MARC Mannheim Rail Commerce GmbH

1 0

Write barriers for journaling filesystems
by Mark 22 Jan '07

22 Jan '07

Testing exercises with XFS, ext3, and power failure. I found advice to use write barriers. It appears that any journaling file system (XFS/Reiser/ext3) will benefit w.r.t. power failures. Almost all hard drives, IDE, SATA, USB, SCSI have a ~multimegabyte write cache nowadays. "OK, enough theory. Do this: mount all of your filesystems with I/O barrier turned on. Something like this (example line from my /etc/fstab): /dev/sda5 / ext3 defaults,barrier=1 1 1" http://kerneltrap.org/node/6173#comment-193357 "Fortunately, you can have your cake and eat it too. The trick is to implement IO barriers using the CACHE FLUSH and/or FUA commands. That way you can have the performance and MTBF benefits of write-back caching while still having a safe fsync() (safe as in doesn't return before data is on the platters)." http://lwn.net/Articles/181393/ It seems like maybe a good default setting for journaled filesystems, especially on USB (which users often yank out...). M P.S. Update on ZFS. Apple will include it in their next OS release (mika: not as default/boot, still HFS+ for that). Also, Sun may release ZFS under GPLv3 "eventually." http://apple.slashdot.org/apple/06/12/18/1155226.shtml http://www.itweek.co.uk/vnunet/news/2172823/sun-kills-gpl3-rumours

2 2

GRUB 2 & LILO delays
by Mark 20 Jan '07

20 Jan '07

The grml FAQ says LILO is used because it works. I have no problem with that and have been using LILO. The problem is that during grml boot, messages appear about sleeping for X seconds to fix problems with LILO. Boot delays I do not enjoy. Would grub be better? What about grub version 2, is anyone using that with grml? Thank you, M

2 1

sarge and kernel 2.6.18-grml: console and keyboard
by Erich Minderlein 19 Jan '07

19 Jan '07

console and keyboard: man zsh*(something) creates some unexpected special characters in the output instead of the foreseen text manipulations like e.g. underscore or ?? (bold works.) Keys Home (Pos1), End, Insert (Einfg) and Delete (Entf) dont work, but give a tilde on the console. Umlaute äöü ÄÖÜ dont work. Tried not very hard to find Lat15-Terminus16 in the repos-pool, did not succeed. where is it ? What is the fitting console font ? and where is it in repos? (booting with lang=de) Thanks -- Erich Minderlein <erminderlein(a)locoware.de> MARC Mannheim Rail Commerce GmbH

2 1

sarge and kernel 2.6.18-grml on amilopro : LAN , zsh
by Erich Minderlein 19 Jan '07

19 Jan '07

Hello _LAN a lot of the difficulty arose from not having known the new udev system. now with inserting a module list in /etc/modules, a consistent booting of network devices can be achieved. the udev solution is still in work. _zsh has been modified with the grml zshrc text hilighting is fine, (done also for vim) however there is a complaint when login : line 779 histring not found. also _console and keyboard_: man zsh* creates some unexpected special characters instead of the foreseen text manipulations like underscore?? Keys Home (Pos1), End, Insert (Einfg) and Delete (Entf) dont work, but give a tilde on the console. Tried not very hard to find Lat15-Terminus16 in the repos-pool, did not succeed. where is it ? What is the fitting console font ? and where is it in repos? Thanks for the patience in this forum. best regards -- Erich Minderlein <erminderlein(a)locoware.de> MARC Mannheim Rail Commerce GmbH

3 2