- Grml - lists.mur.at

Terminalserver
by Steffen Liebergeld 19 Dez '05

19 Dez '05

Hi, gibt es neue Dokumentation, wie ich den grml-terminalserver in Debian installieren kann? Auf der Webseite ist -gegen die Änkündigung von Michael- noch nichts neues zu finden. -- mit freundlichen Grüssen Steffen Liebergeld

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grml 0.5 and WPA
by Oliver Vecernik 19 Dez '05

19 Dez '05

Hi again, I'm still trying to connect an Acer TM636 to a local WLAN. I've got an integrated ORiNOCO Mini PCI Card (802.11b), but when I start grml-network to configure eth1 WPA is not offered as choice. Then I read that WG511T should work flawlessly. After rebooting I tried to configure ath0 (again with grml-network). The only information I've got is the SSID and the WPA passphrase. But unfortunately dhclient get's no response. :-( Both cards are fully working under another commercial operating system originally installed on this machine. I'd prefer to use the built in ORiNOCO, but at least the Netgear card should be working. Has anybody got some pointers? -- Oliver

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grml cdrom script to import Debian network configuration
by Marc Haber 17 Dez '05

17 Dez '05

Hi, today, I have written a /cdrom/scripts script which imports the network configuration from an installed Debian system. That way, it becomes possible to have _one_ grml medium around which could then in turn be used as a rescue system for _all_ Debian systems at the place for remote rescue, as long as the root filesystem is still reachable. The script searches all found hard disk partitions and LVM devices for a mounteable filesystem containing a file /etc/network/interfaces and then proceeds to copy /etc/network from that filesystem into the grml system before restarting the network devices. That way, the grml system comes up with a network configuration that is likely to work. The script doesn't integrate nicely into grml, it is written in bash, not in zsh, and doesn't use the fancy colorful output of the normal grml init procedure. Maybe one of the grml makers can adapt it to integrate more nicely and then publish it as an example on the grml wiki. One issue that I find especiall annoying is the fact that grml starts a pump process which is still around when our script runs, and will take down the freshly configured interface after timing out. pump -k will also wait for that timeout, and thus impose a delay in system boot. Greetings Marc -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marc Haber | "I don't trust Computers. They | Mailadresse im Header Mannheim, Germany | lose things." Winona Ryder | Fon: *49 621 72739834 Nordisch by Nature | How to make an American Quilt | Fax: *49 621 72739835

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why pump?
by Marc Haber 17 Dez '05

17 Dez '05

Hi, why is pump still being used as dhcp client in grml? I find dhcp3-client generally more flexible, more verbose in its debug output, and easier to configure. Is this only like "we have always used pump", or are these space issues? Any hints will be appreciated. Greetings Marc -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Marc Haber | "I don't trust Computers. They | Mailadresse im Header Mannheim, Germany | lose things." Winona Ryder | Fon: *49 621 72739834 Nordisch by Nature | How to make an American Quilt | Fax: *49 621 72739835

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Acer TravelMate 636LCi
by Oliver Vecernik 16 Dez '05

16 Dez '05

Hi, I recently discovered grml and I tried to boot it on my laptop. The screen remains black after booting so I tried fb1400x1050, but this resoltution is not supported. I tried with fb1280x1024 and it works, but the font is not displayed well (of course). X works out of the box (`grml-x wmi'), but I'd prefer a clear console display. Is it possible to use the native solution of 1400x1050 (NVIDIA GeForce2 Go)? -- Oliver

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documentation on kwfirewall..
by Ishwar Rattan 06 Dez '05

06 Dez '05

Is there any documentation available on kwfirewall started at ppp connection set up time? -ishwar

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Chainboot Cheatcode
by Mark 04 Dez '05

04 Dez '05

Older PCs do not have BIOS support for USB boot. Some offer USB boot, but it just doesn't work. Some machines only have USB support by means of PCI or ISA cards, and these cannot be booted. All these machines will boot GRML off CD. So, the idea is this - offer a cheatcode to transfer control to a USB/Firewire/SCSI drive. This is not the same thing as using a /home directory on the drive, it means complete Linux system transfer. Mark

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grml 0.5 won't boot (Samsung X20)
by Christian Schneider 03 Dez '05

03 Dez '05

Hi, since 0.5 i can't boot GRML on my holy Samsung X20 (GRML 0.4 works fine). I've try all kinds of bootoptions (services=samsung_x20, failsafe, noacpi, nolacpi, nofirewire, ..) but after | Accessing ghrml CD-ROM at: /dev/hdb [ OK ] it hangs up. It only happens on my Laptop; the same CD boot (and works) without any problems on my other workstation. Any hints? TIA Chris -- // ('< " Millitary Intelligence. ` _ ' Christian 'strcat' Schneider <o) ,',) Two words combined that - (_) - <strcat(a)gmx.net> >o) (|) ''<< can't make sence." ' ` Key-ID: 47E322CE (() +-"-"----""---------MegadetH----------M _\|/_ -<http://www.keyserver.net/>-+

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apt behavior..
by Ishwar Rattan 30 Nov '05

30 Nov '05

I have hd-install of grml-0.5 at home that connects to school over a dial-up. It takes too long to do apt-get update every time time I have to search/install a package. I trimmed down my /etc/apt/sources.list to one repository: # Unstable deb ftp://ftp.us.debian.org/debian unstable main contrib non-free When I try to search or install without doing an 'apt-get update' first it complains with the following messages: W: Couldn't stat source package list ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/main Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.us.debian.org_debian_dists_unstable_main_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory) W: Couldn't stat source package list ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/contrib Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.us.debian.org_debian_dists_unstable_contrib_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory) W: Couldn't stat source package list ftp://ftp.us.debian.org unstable/non-free Packages (/var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.us.debian.org_debian_dists_unstable_non-free_binary-i386_Packages) - stat (2 No such file or directory) W: You may want to run apt-get update to correct these problems Why would it complain about source package lists when thay are not specified in sources.list? I was under the impression that apt is supposed to remember the result of last update operation.. Any ideas? -ishwar

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module load at boot time..
by Ishwar Rattan 30 Nov '05

30 Nov '05

I am missing something obvious. I want module kqemu to be loaded at system (re)boot, so, I placed it in /etc/modules but it does not get loaded. Any ideas how to achieve this goal? -ishwar

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Ubuntu = poor boot-time example
by Mark 29 Nov '05

29 Nov '05

Something scared me on GRML's to-do list. http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=todo Todo for grml 0.6 Ubuntu's FasterBoot The reason I am "scared" is that GRML is light years beyond Ubuntu in live booting (w/hardware detection). Ubuntu should be learning from GRML, not vice-versa. Ubuntu took 7 times longer to boot my workstation than Knoppix (let alone GRML). Others report similar results, http://www.osnews.com/permalink.php?news_id=11998&comment_id=36650 Ubuntu developers admit their live boot stuff is a huge mess, unmaintainable, and will be scrapped. That's what their "FasterBoot" initiative is partly about. But GRML is already there! I like very much GRML's pure-Debianized-Knoppix approach, which is so much faster and better than Ubuntu's modified-Morphix-Gnoppix junk. GRML gives all benefits of Knoppix without drawbacks in terms of Debian standards. Mark

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kwrsync_backup fertig
by Kai Wilke 27 Nov '05

27 Nov '05

Hallo Leute, kwrsync_backup ist fertig. Es ist in der naechsten Release von kwtools (0.4.2) dabei. Eine Vorabversion findet ihr unter: ftp://ftp.berlios.de/pub/netzworkk/scripts/kwtools/upload/0.4/ Ist im Paket kwtools-net und die Doku in kwtools-doc. Lest auch die Manpage (man 5 kwrsync_backup.cf) kwrsync_backup erstellt einen Snapshot von Rechnern, auch remote, und rotiert die Backup Verzeichnisse. Doku findet ihr unter: http://netzworkk.berlios.de/doku/kwtools/net/kwrsync_backup.html Berlios hat aber gerade wieder ein Webserver Problem. Was geht nicht: Das Backup Verzeichnis darf nicht in einem, mit losetup, verschluesselten Device liegen. In der Vorabversion sind die Scripts kwparted und film2film noch im devel Zustand. mfg Kiste -- ####################################################################### Netzworkk Kai Wilke kiste(a)netzworkk.de http://www.netzworkk.de http://netzworkk.berlios.de

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Upgrade scenarios and GRML versions
by Mark 27 Nov '05

27 Nov '05

A new theme now, user upgrades. This note is not about grml2hd, just how to keep my users current over time. Suppose that, for my users, I execute grml2hd to install GRML; and then, on top of GRML, Debian desktop packages (mostly GNOME, maybe Ubuntu if it will work). This is my current plan. The question I have is what problems/issues you foresee in terms of upgrading users over time where GRML is the underlying Debian system. I need to avoid full system re-installs (grml2hd all over again). I believe this job is easy. I just thought I would ask. Experience teaches me that others often think of things that I do not foresee. The main items I want to keep upgraded are (1) kernel and (2) GRML h/w autodetection. These are the critical ones. Both affect driver/hardware support. Mark (p.s. I signed up as a beta tester and would be willing to use beta versions as necessary - since I only have 0.5 right now assume that as baseline)

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USB boot success: grml-big-0.5 + grml2hd-0.5.5
by Mark 27 Nov '05

27 Nov '05

Good news: grml2hd 0.5.5 worked on my test user's USB hard drive. The USB drive booted a system from power up to GRML user login prompt with full hardware autodetection. Here are some observations. In general I'm very happy, I just want to offer some thoughts on room for improvement in grml2hd. GRML is beautiful, don't get me wrong. * The yaird install dialog box mentions SCSI, but not USB or Firewire. It should mention all three explicitly. I know they are all SCSI to Linux, but please help the user. It's an easy string change. * The installer undoes its own work. It spends lots of time copying, as it must, but some of what it copies it later deletes - services like apache, mysql. Note that I kept all the default selections. * I got lots of error and warning messages during this stage - can't stop process, can't delete file, permission denied, things like that; several pages of it; very worrisome and confusing. * A better way (?) is to copy only what the user wants, rather than asking what to delete after it has all been copied over. Show the menu before the copy, not after. Should save lots of time and errors. * The chroot jail question is weird and I didn't know how to answer it. There was another question about MySQL that probably shouldn't be there. If the user doesn't want MySQL, just get rid of everything associated. * The video came out bad. Video for booting from CD-ROM was fine, my font and video scale just what I would expect (without any cheatcodes, just default CD boot). However the USB boot produced an ugly (larger) font size and/or video scale that was also painfully mashed to the left (leftmost character columns not even visible). This was on the same monitor. I don't understand why the difference. CD-ROM video defaults would have been fine for the USB install. We're not talking X here, just text GRML. I did create the X config at the install dialog prompt, but the ugliness lies in the basic GRML screen, not X per se. * I used ReiserFS 3.x and it worked fine, though there seemed to be some miscellany error messages at boot time about accessing this or that (can't remember what). * Just before install, I did a full apt-upgrade on the CD-ROM boot system. It seems there are lots of patches since grml-big-0.5. I mention this only so you know what I actually intalled to the hard drive. * The USB bootup process flashed the screen a few times more than the CD-ROM boot. This flashing must have to do with initrd and all that. It was a little bothersome, that's all. If you can minimize the flashing and jumping, it would be nice. Just keep scrolling the boot text, don't flash around so much. * Some of our older PCs don't have USB boot support in BIOS. They need "helper boot floppies." It would be nice if the installer could create one as an optional step. I'm eagerly awaiting grml-big 0.6. I will hold off configuring my user systems until 0.6 is released. How close is it? Last I heard a few more days... Thanks for this excellent distro and USB support. Regards, Mark

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Fragen nach einer hd Installation
by Andreas Kalex 26 Nov '05

26 Nov '05

Hallo, 1. wie kann ich nach einer grml2hd Installation den Tastenstandard auf das deutsche Layout setzen? Bei den bootoptionen gebe ich es per grml lang=de an aber nach der grml2hd Installation wird bereits beim booten gemeldte dass das us layout benutzt wird. Temporär kann ich es mit grml-lang de ändern. Doch wie dauerhaft? dpkg-reconfigure console-data hat nicht den gewünschten Effekt 1.a Nach der temporären Änderung ist die Änderung nur auf der Konsole aktiv nicht unter X. In der xorg.conf ist dies:"XkbLayout" "de" enthalten. 2. ich möchte die Auflösung unter X auf 1024x768 setzen. Der Aufruf grml-x -mode 1024x768 fluxbox funktioniert nur wenn die Live-CD läuft, nicht von der HD-Installation. Wo kann ich das ändern? 3. Ich will eine feste IP Adresse vergeben aber beim Start wird immer der dhcp benutzt; wenn ich den über die autoconfig nicht starten lasse, wird überhaupt keine IP Adresse gesetzt. Nutze ich dann netcardconfig so stehen die schon mal benutzten Werte bereits als Vorgabe drin. hmm? Gruss Andreas

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Grml-0.5
by Ishwar Rattan 22 Nov '05

22 Nov '05

Two queries: 1. Is there a way to reconfigure ispell for us_english dictionary? 2. Is thre a music CD palyer (need not be gui)? Thanks, -ishwar

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Vshnu (Mix out of shell, perl and mc) maybe for an upcimong release of grml?
by Michael Cracauer 22 Nov '05

22 Nov '05

In the current Linux-Magazine is a report about Vshnu. Vshnu exist now for several years, but was anknown for me and many others. Have a look: http://www.linux-mag.com/content/view/2332/ It´s a nice program, maybe it can be added to grml, as an alternative to zsh and mc. Would really like it. --------------------------------- Gesendet von Yahoo! Mail - Jetzt mit 1GB kostenlosem Speicher

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grml-user map
by Michael Prokop 22 Nov '05

22 Nov '05

Hoi! I just stumbled upon frappr.com and added a map for grml-users: http://www.frappr.com/grmlusers Join us and add yourself! :) regards, -mika- -- ((lambda (foo) (bar foo)) (baz))

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yaird failure in grml-small-0.1y + grml2hd 0.5.5
by Mark 22 Nov '05

22 Nov '05

I've been testing USB hard drive boot with grml-small-0.1y, and Michael has helped - thanks. It's close to solved, but not quite yet. The last thing I tried was a grml2hd 0.5.5 from http://grml.org/tmp/grml2hd_0.5.5_i386.deb which includes the initrd step. It failed as follows: "There was an error running yaird for creating an initrd: create_initrd: 21: command not found: yaird. Sorry" I begin to think grml-small is the wrong test platform. It lacks too many packages and documentation. (I need docs when all I have is a command prompt.) It gets frustrating to constantly wget and apt-get before I can run a script. I wish to stop using grml-small. The only version of grml-big that I have is 0.5. I can install grml2hd 0.5.5 on that, presumably. Someone send email if you have any better thoughts. I am open to suggestions. Thanks- Mark

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Post HD-install again..
by Ishwar Rattan 21 Nov '05

21 Nov '05

The grml version is 0.5 Release Codename Tokolytika [2005-10-24] What should be the contents of /etc/modules file? I just now added autofs4 es1371 parport usb-storage to see if things will change. Syslog does not write anything to /var/log/messages till I start /etc/init.s/syslog-ng start The entries in /etc/runlevel.conf are 20 0,1,6 - /etc/init.d/cupsys 20 0,1,6 - /etc/init.d/autofs and none for hotplug-light and syslog-ng so far I start them by hand. -ishwar

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Re: [Grml] Post HD-install (fwd)
by Ishwar Rattan 20 Nov '05

20 Nov '05

It is looks like that I missed the reply to this post.. Thanks, -ishwar ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 19 Nov 2005 18:13:23 -0500 (EST) From: Ishwar Rattan <ishwar(a)pali.cps.cmich.edu> To: Michael Prokop <mika(a)grml.org> Cc: grml(a)mur.at Subject: Re: [Grml] Post HD-install On Sat, 19 Nov 2005, Michael Prokop wrote: > * Ishwar Rattan <ishwar(a)pali.cps.cmich.edu> [20051119 14:50]: > > > Last night I did a grml2hd install at my home box. It is an > > old Dron based PC with ensoniq-1370 sound card. > > > It comes out that the install different from live-cd. > > The usb storage hotplug does not work any more, it > > was operational in live-cd usage (the usb stick was > > detected at /dev/sda1 and mounted automatically). > > > So, how do I get the functionality back? > > What does "usb storage hotplug does not work any more" mean exactly? > Mounting of usb-stick does not work anymore? The usb-modules aren't > loaded? Which version of grml did you install? Does running 'Restart > hotplug-light' as user root solve the problem? > > JFYI: USB sticks are available through /dev/external1 -> /mnt/external1 > I might have a buggy HD-install. Should I reinstall? I think that usb-modules are not loaded even after starting hotplug-light. It comes out that usb-storage module is not loaded at system boot. Modprobe usb-storage, followed by hotplug-light start works fine. Also, I am confused about entries in /etc/runlevel.conf, the third column has '-' in most of the entries. How is the runlevel (3rd col entry) determined for a service? For services: autofs, cupsys, hotplug-light, syslog-ng as in update-rc.d cupsys defaults 20 does not specify the runlevel of cupsys... My guess for runlevels would be: autofs/3, cupsys/3, hotplug-light/3, syslog-ng/2?? For stopping these services I would guess runlevel 6. Is there a rule of thumb for this decision? Regards, -ishwar

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Post HD-install
by Ishwar Rattan 20 Nov '05

20 Nov '05

Last night I did a grml2hd install at my home box. It is an old Dron based PC with ensoniq-1370 sound card. It comes out that the install different from live-cd. The usb storage hotplug does not work any more, it was operational in live-cd usage (the usb stick was detected at /dev/sda1 and mounted automatically). So, how do I get the functionality back? -ishwar

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Mobile GRML
by Mark 18 Nov '05

18 Nov '05

Hi, GRML is very nice work, my new favorite distro. I'm not a heavy sysadmin; but GRML almost matches some needs here. Since you ask for feedback and wishes...mine relates to grml2hd and the user scenario. The grml-small release is great for USB flash sticks. Thank you for providing that. Consider another scenario with grml-big. Think of a "mobile Linux desktop" on this type of device, http://mobilemag.com/content/100/334/C3401/ http://castle.pricewatch.com/s/search.asp?s=WD+passport&srt=t&his=0&paging=1 These drives have lots of room for less money than flash, without lifespan problems. They sell around US$120 and get cheaper all the time. They allow a mobile user to carry his entire desktop and data between home, work, school, friends, hotel. Let other people carry laptops around, you can boot them too. GRML doesn't load down heavy stuff in advance, which I like. After GRML installs, I can add GNOME or KDE per user requests. So, I ran grml2hd to a drive and rebooted...but got a kernel panic. No SCSI, I guess. Next I followed verbatim FAQ instructions, to test the FAQ. Nothing worked. grml2hd makes the same assumption of all installers: if the OS is going to hard disk, it can ditch drivers and keep only the running system. For example even yaird boasts of doing "a better job of deciding which modules are needed for your system, so it produces smaller images." Culling is evil for the mobile scenario. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but... Ideally a mobile user boots like the CD-ROM (same ramdisk-based autodetection?), but without compressed CD images, ISOLINUX, or loopback tricks. The mobile user just needs Debian with full hardware auto-detection and all hardware modules. I would prefer h/w autodetection even on IDE drives inside tower PC cases. That way I can swap boards, memory, ethernet, etc. without breaking configs. I can drop the IDE drive into a USB enclosure for instant mobility. A few other other ideas: - the status line at bottom of screen shows date/time *twice* (?!?) - show IP on the status line (w/ flag for DHCP or static) - grml2hd could offer multi-partition features, e.g. a separate boot partition - grml2hd could set up secure partitions -- http://mareichelt.de/pub/texts.cryptoloop.php -- optional choice for all top-levels /home /var and such, except /boot - grml2hd's X question for the mobile scenario is puzzling; yes the user needs X, but not for a specific PC - grml-big won't fit on CD-RW media or older (650 MB) CD-R; would be nice to fit on CD-RW, could trim a little to fit Thanks...GRML is super and I like it. Mark

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Again..
by Ishwar Rattan 16 Nov '05

16 Nov '05

Thanks for the ~/.Xresources hint for font size. Also printer works with old (as in not new) deskjet driver in CUPS. So far, everything works great. -ishwar

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grml 0.5 released
by Michael Prokop 15 Nov '05

15 Nov '05

Hoi grml-users, -tester and developers, grml 0.5 with codename Tokolytika has been released! Tokolytika is release with a lot of new features! A german release announcement is available in my personal weblog: http://www.michael-prokop.at/blog/?p=432 The official release announcement providing all the relevant news is available at: http://grml.org/files/README-0.5.txt Issues regarding the release can be found in the grml-wiki at: http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml_0.5 Thanks to all of you who helped to improve grml! Special thanks go to Mark Riedesel for providing the rocking wallpaper! Have fun and enjoy the new release! Feedback is welcome of course. 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

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