* Mark or2uvma02@sneakemail.com [20051122 07:15]:
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.
Great.
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.
Thanks, will be fixed.
- 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.
You don't have to delete any of the packages. ;-) And it's the nature of a live-cd that package selection and copying isn't that flexible.
- 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.
As long as it does not stop it's nothing to worry about. "Normal debian way of life." ;-)
- 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.
That's not possible, think about the way grml2hd has to run. (Copying all files from the[ un]compressed, loopback mounted squashfs-file.)
- 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.
This derives from the debian package, it's not a grml issue. And such questions are important for some people. Just an example: If you remove postgresql 8.0 who says you would like to remove you postgresql database(s) as well? See the point? If you still think this is a bug/problem please run reportbug against Debian's mysql.
In general: if you don't know how to answer a question just stick to the default. This applies to grml's programs as well as to debian's debconf (that's where such questions derive from).
- 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.
Sorry, I don't have any idea what's going wrong here. Must be initrd related again.
Do you have an LCD or TFT? Do you have an "auto adjust" button on your monitor?
- 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).
Sorry, don't know what you mean. :)
- 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.
Yes. A new devel release (0.5-2) is available for grml-developers and beta-testers. It includes all the updates of the last few weeks (and including 2.6.14-grml).
- 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.
Could you provide a screenshot please? grml-autoconfig is the same as on live-cd so it must be an initrd related issue. (IMO too much output is better than the other way around. Helps at debugging. ;-))
- 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.
Quoting http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=tips ->
| Boot grml via floppy disk | | Your computer can not boot from CD-ROM but provides a floppy disk? | Take a look at btmgr (http://btmgr.webframe.org/) or sbm | (http://linux.simple.be/tools/sbm), they provide support for | booting from CD-ROM via a special floppy disk.
The grml-kernel does not fit with all its features on a floppy disk. So you have to use such a specialized floppy disk.
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...
Oh, I'm not yet sure. If you would like to get something like a stable snapshot join the grml-betatesters (just fill out http://grml.org/beta-tester/) and you will get access to 0.5-2.
Thanks for this excellent distro and USB support.
Great you like it. :) Thanks for your feedback!
regards, -mika-