general - 7

As written in my personal blog I'm running Debian on my ppc efika board already. Now I've a first, working grml-kernel for ppc:

# uname -a
Linux grmlppc 2.6.19-grml #2 PREEMPT Sat Jan 20 20:26:15 CET 2007 ppc GNU/Linux

Now I can really start working on grml-ppc on my own. The plan is to have grml64 and grml-ppc available with release of grml 1.0.

Currently I'm crosscompiling the kernel on x86. It works but it would be nice to have a more powerful compile system, especially another (native) ppc system would be fine....

Frank Terbeck joined the grml-team. Frank did a lot of work in the zsh setup of grml. Welcome in the grml team, Frank!

We have a new develrelease. grml 0.9-1 is available for beta-testers and grml-developers.

Quoting the main changelog:

  * kernel 2.6.19-grml

  * use utf8 by default:

    - when using lang=$LANG it defaults to utf8, it's possible to
      use lang=$LANG-utf8 as well for backward compability
    - fallback to iso is possible through bootoption lang=$LANG-iso
    - now using Uni3-Terminus14 as default font instead of
      Lat15-Terminus16 which should improve use of utf8 on console;
      very probably I'll change the font to Uni3-Terminus16

  * update Debian packages to pool by today (except initramfs-tools
    which is once again broken, using an older version therefore)

  * grml2hd should work on SW-RAID again, installs
    /etc/grml2hd/config with permissions 600 now so possible sensible
    data can't be read by non-root

  * zsh: use of global dirstack, this allows switching directories
    via "cd -<press_tab>" also when running a new/fresh shell
    session (thanks schula + ft)

  * some minor bugfixes, improvements,...

The final release is on its way, should be available on 6th of december. JFTR:

Changes from grml 0.9-rc1 to stable release:

* Update packages to Debian pool by 4th of december 2006

* sw-raid: do not automatically assemble md arrays anymore,
  instead create /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf by default (disable via
  bootoption noswraid) and boot using swraid to enable automatic
  assembling of swraid/md arrays or run 'Start mdadm-raid' then

* added iscsitarget-2.6.18-grml

* removed thc-ipv6, ipmasqadm, tex-refs, open-iscsi, pnpbios-tools
  thc-pptp-bruter, ndiswrapper-utils-1.8, giflib-bin, giflib3g

* renamed script fma into qma (quick manual access) and provide
  less-like vim (thanks to wuehlmaus)

* zsh: new default umask setting is 002

* grml-terminalserver: some small fixes (including the
  /etc/resolv.conf issue, thanks to Wolfgang Karall)

* fixed problem when booting via firewire (thanks for noticing,
  Hendrik Scholz!)

Please notice that grml has new Debian package repositories as announced on the grml user mailinglist. Please adjust the line containing grml.org/repos/ in your /etc/apt/sources.list to something like:

# stable grml repository:
  deb     http://deb.grml.org/ grml-stable  main
  deb-src http://deb.grml.org/ grml-stable  main

See the announce mail for more details.

The first release candidate of grml 0.9 is available. Take a look at the release announcement for details about all the nifty new features. Please test the ISO and all the stuff you usually need so we can provide a rocking stable 0.9 release soon. Download the ISO from the devel directory of the mirrors listed at grml.org/download/.

We don't have artwork for grml 0.9 yet (besides a fallback version from myself) and therefore the release-name for grml 0.9 isn't stable either. So if you want to 'immortalize' yourself in grml and can contribute a nice wallpaper and/or a cd-cover: please let me know!

Update: wallpaper is ready, release-name as well (thanks for ideas - formorer and Martin Piskernig!). The cd-cover is pending but will be done in the next few days...

You might notice problems with the subdomains (wiki, hg, lists,...) of grml.org. It's a problem at the DNS-provider which has been informed already...

Update: the problem has been solved a few hours ago. Everything should be working again...

We have a new develrelease. grml 0.8-5 is available for beta-testers and grml-developers.

Quoting the main changelog:

   * Added support for detection and activation of SW-RAIDs in
     live-cd mode. Can be disabled via bootoption noraid (and is
     disabled as well through forensic and raid=noautodetect).

   * Added grml-debootstrap: wrapper around debootstrap for
     installing plain Debian via grml very simple and fast

   * Added script fma: shipped with grml 0.8-4 already but not yet
     mentioned, provides "fast manual access" (take a look at it!)

   * zsh:
     - new alias hidiff (highlight important stuff in diff
       output using histring) [thanks for the idea, T!]
     - added power completion, thanks wuehlmaus!
       See http://zshwiki.org/home/examples/zleiab for details.
       Notice: this deactivates the global aliases by default now,
       just use the global aliases as well but press ',.' afterwards
       to expand the abbreviation! Trust me: you should know and use
       it! :-)

   * Fixed some issues in configuration framework handling, thanks
     for the reports, Marc Haber!

   * language stuff: added support for Norsk environment, thanks to
     Arnt Karlsen! [not yet visible in grml-setlang though]

   * grml-bootsplash: replaced the clear command with
     "echo -ne '\033[H\033[25l'" to avoid flickering at bootoption'splash'. Thanks a lot, Michael Schierl!

As written in my private blog (german article only, sorry) I own a amd64 system now. A grml64 kernel is available and I already have a first working grml64 live-cd version. I plan to be able to release a first public version of grml64 together with grml 1.0. Stay tuned.

Today Gebi and me had a developer meeting and concentrated on working with mercurial. We figured out the mq-extension (Mercurial Queues, similar to quilt) for working with Linux kernel and the grml patches, improved ACL system on our repositories, set up push notification via mail and extended our mercurial documentation. Thanks for the interesting day, Gebi.

We have a new develrelease. grml 0.8-4 is available for beta-testers and grml-developers.

Quoting the main changelog:

  * fixed known issues from develrelease 0.8-3

  * updated kernel 2.6.18-grml:
    http://blog.grml.org/archives/199-updated-kernel-2.6.18-grml.html

  * grml2hd has a new feature: it's possible to customize grml2hd's
    execution via a configuration file named
    /etc/grml2hd/customization. Using this feature you can toggle
    which functions of grml2hd should be executed when running
    grml2hd.

  * switched to mplayer version available in Debian/unstable

  * OOTB support for vmmouse driver if running grml inside vmware

  * many minor updates, lots of cleanups, new shell
    aliases/functions,... [just too many too mention all]

Packages removed since 0.8 (excluding lib* and *2.6.17-grml*;
notice: some of them are available under a differnet name now):

  apache2-common bluez-pin bookmarkbridge camgrab cdw cdw-common
  cthumb divine dnotify drbd0.7-utils gcj-4.1-base gconf2-common
  grml-kerneladdons grml-reportbug ht jaxml lout-doc lpr
  mozilla-mplayer mplayer-nogui ndiswrapper-utils-1.7 netkit-inetd
  ppmtofb python2.3-pymad python2.3-pyopenssl python2.3-pyparsing
  python2.3-twisted-bin python2.4-selinux python2.4-semanage
  scanerrlog stunnel turkey xfonts-100dpi-transcoded
  xfonts-75dpi-transcoded xorg x-window-system-core

Packages added since 0.8 (excluding lib* and *2.6.18-grml*):

  ace-of-penguins afflib apache2.2-common aria2 automake ccontrol
  cdrskin classpath-gtkpeer conntrack cupsys-bsd ddccontrol
  ddccontrol-db diakonos diction drbd8-utils dwm-tools dynafont
  emacs emelfm firmware-qlogic glipper grml-etc-core
  grml-kerneladdons-2.6.18 guessnet ink inotail inotify-tools iwatch
  konwert konwert-filters latex-ucs mathomatic medusa misdn-utils
  mpg123-alsa mplayer ne obexpushd openbsd-inetd pax-utils ptfinder
  python2.5 python2.5-minimal python-jaxml python-pymad
  python-selinux python-semanage python-twisted-bin qtparted rake
  rdoc rdoc1.8 reniced reportbug resolvconf ruby-prof sic smap
  ssdeep stealth stunnel4 synergy sysvinit-utils update-inetd
  vim-python vim-ruby wodim xen-utils-common xmms2 xmms2-client-cli
  xmms2-core xmms2-plugin-alsa xmms2-plugin-id3v2 xmms2-plugin-jack
  xmms2-plugin-mad xmms2-plugin-vorbis xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse
  youtube-dl

Exactly two years ago (on 22nd of october 2004) the first release of grml (named OS04) was released. Happy birthday. :-)

The grml-team uses Mercurial and we are providing public repositories via hg.grml.org. Documentation regarding our setup and how to work with mercurial can be found at grml.org/mercurial/.

Notice that grml.org moved to a new server (more space, RAM, power,...). The new ip address of grml.org is 88.198.6.110, JFYI.