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GRML and debian unstable?
by Michael Whapples 29 Jun '09

29 Jun '09

Hello, There's one thing which has slightly puzzled me about GRML, why does it use debian unstable? I can imagine stable is not wanted as it can get quite out dated due to the time between debian stable releases, but why not testing? Why this puzzles me is that due to it using debian unstable problems can occur with package conflicts, broken packages, etc, so leading to it really not being good for those unfamiliar with linux and debian package management. However there are parts of GRML which I feel are good for useability, eg. some of the scripts for configuring the system, like grml-network which is probably the simplest way of configuring a network interface I have found for a text console. Also as a blind user the in built accessibility is something which makes it good for me (some other distros either didn't have any accessibility for the install process, required a separate modified CD (eg. fedora) or in the case of slackware which while providing the accessibility only could use a hardware speech synthesiser for the install). This meant if anyone asked about an accessible install then GRML was good from that angle. However things are changing, vinux has moved towards being debian based and may be now would be my suggestion for a first time users distro with accessibility. Michael Whapples

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grml_2009.05.iso and swspeak
by Martin McCormick 29 Jun '09

29 Jun '09

I have been trying to install grml_2009.05.iso on a Dell Enspiron laptop from the 2002 era. This computer does work as it does have the last edition of oralux on it with speakup. The speech and Ethernet functions work fine but such things as sound recording and serial communications do not work so I have been hoping that a newer distribution would bring more systems to life. I downloaded grml_2009.05.iso and did the following: Boot the CDROM and wait for things to settle down. type swspeak=espeak and hit Enter. Nothing. I had a sighted person watch and the first thing to hit the screen is a picture of a keyboard and the boot prompt. If I then type swspeak=espeak or swspeak=speechd, the screen goes black and the CDROM drive runs for a few more seconds and then nothing. Am I forgetting something, possibly an en cantation over a frog killed in the first quarter of the Moon or what? I even downloaded the medium image and tried it with the same results. Does the medium ISO image contain any software speech? I did get a 2-year-old grml live CD to talk, but it began spelling any time one tried to go in to the installation routine so so much for that. Any other suggestions as to what to try or do I have some part of the procedure wrong? Many thanks. Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK Systems Engineer OSU Information Technology Department Telecommunications Services Group

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Invitation to connect on LinkedIn
by Joshua Kennedy 26 Jun '09

26 Jun '09

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Joshua Kennedy added you as a connection on Plaxo
by Joshua Kennedy 26 Jun '09

26 Jun '09

Joshua Kennedy wants to add you as a connection on Plaxo. To accept this connection request, go to: http://www.plaxo.com/invite?i=74489501&k=138736788&l=en&src=email&et=1&est=… Thanks! The Plaxo team More than 20 million people use Plaxo to keep in touch with the people they care about. Don't want to receive emails from Plaxo any more? Go to: http://www.plaxo.com/stop?src=email&et=1&est=nolevels&etv=jun09a&el=en&emai…

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Kvm howto
by T o n g 18 Jun '09

18 Jun '09

Hi mika, Would you please write something about Kvm? Searching the keyword Kvm didn't result good hist in mlist archive and wiki. I use to test new grml releases with VMware (the thing I hate most is to reboot my box just for the testing), but installing VMware into the newly installed grml every time has been a pain. I like to streamline the testing/using grml with kvm if possible. So I want to know how to install/config kvm, and test new grml releases with it. Thanks PS. for people who don't know KVM: "KVM (for Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a full virtualization solution on x86 hardware containing virtualization extensions (Intel VT or AMD-V CPU is needed). Each virtual machine has private virtualized hardware: a network card, disk, graphics adapter, etc. KVM is a similar to XEN, but KVM is part of Linux and uses the regular Linux scheduler and memory management. KVM is perfectly suited to unmodified operating systems including windows operating systems like Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. " -- http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Container_and_Full_Virtualization -- Tong (remove underscore(s) to reply) http://xpt.sourceforge.net/techdocs/ http://xpt.sourceforge.net/tools/

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speakup.synth boot parameter and grml2hd
by Michael Whapples 16 Jun '09

16 Jun '09

Hello, I noticed that in grml2hd when it prompts you for which boot parameters should be used for the append line it gives the speakup one as speakup_synth although now grml uses speakup.synth, therefore users can't add speakup.synth to an installed system through the interface, they have to do it manually using the boot loader. I noticed this when using a grml 2009.05RC2 CD (I know that grml 2009.05 has been released but I had the rc2 CD to hand when I needed to perform the install and I have just updated grml2hd on my system and examined the source code and this bug seems to still be present). Michael Whapples

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vol boot option overridden by any boot option which implies sound
by Michael Whapples 15 Jun '09

15 Jun '09

Hello, I noticed that when I use boot options which imply sound as they give speech messages in the boot process (eg. swspeak, brltty, etc) then the vol option for setting volume level doesn't work (IE. volume always ends up being 90%). This is a problem when using a system with no physical volume control (eg. a laptop using internal speakers). This is using the grml 2009.05 CD. Michael Whapples

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Bug with setting passwords when installing using grml2hd and grml-debootstrap
by Michael Whapples 14 Jun '09

14 Jun '09

Hello, I noticed that yesterday when I did an install of debian using grml-debootstrap it seemed to fail to set the password of the root account, it seemed to just print out the help message of the chpasswd command. This was using grml installed on a USB drive using grml2usb and the ISO image of grml 2009.05. I also encountered the same when I did the grml2hd installation using the RC2 CD. The only way I was able to log in to the installed system was to boot grml again, mount the drive where I had done the installation and remove the x from the password field of the /etc/passwd file and then reboot back to the HD installation and log in without a password and then set a new password (there may be another way but this is the one I am certain of). This seems like a critical bug to me as by default it seems grml2hd and grml-debootstrap leave the installed system unuseable. Michael Whapples

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Two patches for grml-scripts
by Ernesto Domato 12 Jun '09

12 Jun '09

Here I send you two patches for /usr/bin/grml-lang and /usr/sbin/grml-quickconfig that add the option for spanish keyboards, I use spanish keyboards usually :-P I don't know if they are really necessary since you can boot with the option lang=es but is nice for me when I forget that option :-) Greettings. Ernesto

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Extraction of the small and medium flavors from the full one.
by Ernesto Domato 10 Jun '09

10 Jun '09

Hi, now that the grml2iso from git is working, I was wondering is there's some way to create the small and medium images from the full one. For example, if I want to create a DVD with grml, grml-medium and grml-small on it, I'll have to download the 3 flavors even when the grml one also contains (in some way) the other two. So, if we have some way to extract the small and medium flavor from the full one, we could save some bandwidth from the mirrors. I guess that the other option is to create the images using grml-live with a local mirror so the packages are only downloaded once. Another option could be to create differential squashfs from small to medium and from medium to full, and place the three squashfs on the full CD so when you chose full for example, the system will mount the three squashfs together using unionfs to create the full version. I don't know if it's possible or if you can understand what I trying to explain, but I think could be an interesting idea. Anyway, we should also consider the performance issue of stacking several squashfs with unionfs. Greetings. Ernesto

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