new develrelease: grml 1.0-3

After the Froscon event took place we have a new develrelease. Quoting the main changelog for the new develreleases:

  * several updated configuration files, bugfixes and
    up2date Debian packages as of 20070905
  * atl2 kernel driver added
  * grml2hd: display '***' in password box so user gets feedback when
    typing the password
  * ctrl-alt-del triggers reboot instead of powerdown now
  * use of live-initramfs: the biggest change inside 1.0-3 and the
    one which will break everything. ;-) But: as a long-term
    side-effect it will dramatically simplify customizing grml and
    provide new options like including firmware for booting.
    'ls -la /' looks completely different now as you will notice.
    We have a new unionfs overlay layout. Let's see whether it's
    working for us.
    So please: test all the grml bootoptions and let us know what's
    broken!

new develrelease: grml 1.0-1

Lots of development took place in the last weeks, finally we have a new develrelease. Quoting the main changelog for the new develreleases:

  * featuring new stable kernel 2.6.22
    See http://bts.grml.org/grml/issue216 for details regarding
    development and progress.
  * *no* further speakup patch inside the kernel, see
    http://braille.uwo.ca/pipermail/speakup/2007-June/043478.html
    for the reason
  * update to libc 2.6; packages from Debian pool by 2007-07-13
  * grml-x with multihead support using Xinerama ->
      % grml-x -xinerama ...
    Notice: this is limited to two monitors currently and I can test
    it only on my intel based Samsung X20 laptop. Please report
    feedback if you give it a try! Patches are welcome as well. :)
  * some small improvements in bootsequence when running inside
    VirtualBox
  * grml2hd supports installation on LVM devices through
    'LVM=/dev/mapper/target grml2hd'
  * added bootoption startup=$script to startup the provided
    $script/application instead of grml-quickconfig
  * support LVM (logical volumes) in boot sequence:
    - bootoption 'lvm' activates them
    - no special bootoption just runs 'lvdisplay' and if something
      can be found the user gets a hint to execute 'Start lvm2' to
      set it up
    - bootoption 'nolvm' completely disables the lvm code/checks
  * Due to the emacs21 to emacs22 migration the following packages are not
    yet available:
      auctex:      http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=432206
      python-mode: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=424973
    Whereas the other removed packages "gnus gnus-bonus-el w3-el-e21
    w3-url-e21" shouldn't be necessary with the new emacs version
    AFAICS.
  * the fluxbox theme (~/.fluxbox/styles/Sn33z) is broken with the
    current version. Just delete it manually or choose another theme
    from the fluxbox menu. Would be great if someone could take a
    closer look at fixing this issue!
  * the windows/ directory on the ISO has been renamed (currently
    only for now) due to space problems....
  * several bugfixes, updated configuration files,...

first version of 2.6.22-grml available

The first version of 2.6.22-grml is available for download (the debs are available via the grml-testing repository as well). Follow progress via issue 216 in our BTS or via the according mercurial repository.

% uname -a
Linux meilenschwein 2.6.22-grml #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Jul 10 00:35:57 CEST 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

A new develrelease (1.0-1) providing this kernel build will be available very soon.

current development status report

I continued work on shortening our bugreports, wish- and todolist in the last few weeks. New features include:

• bootoption startup for starting a script when booting finished, usage example: ‘grml startup=netcardconfig’
• LVM (logical volumes) support in the booting process, providing bootoption ’lvm’ now
• grml2hd supports installation on LVM devices also in interactive mode, all you have to do is set up LVM is you want it to and then invoke ‘LVM=/dev/mapper/$target grml2hd’
• support dvorak keyboard layout via bootoption lang=dvorak and lang=dvorak-iso as well as keyboard=dvorak and xkeyboard=dvorak More to come in the next few days… going back to development now…

grml at FrOSCon 2007 and Linux User Group Moenchengladbach

My submission of contribution regarding a talk about grml for the Call for Papers has been accepted for FrOSCon 2007! FrOSCon 2007 takes place on 25th and 26th August at the University of Applied Sciences Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, in St. Augustin near Bonn, Germany. This means we will have grml hackdays at FrOSCon 2007! Oh and on 28th of august 2007 I’ll held another grml-talk at Linux User Group Moenchengladbach (thanks for the invitation, Spida!). On 29th of August I’m flying back to austria then…

grml / grml64 /grml-small in LinuxUser 07/2007

The media edition 07/2007 of the german LinuxUser magazine contains a DVD and a CD providing grml 1.0, grml64 0.1 and grml-small 0.4! It’s a great chance to get different versions of grml on one medium. You’ll even find an article I wrote about grml inside. So get it as long it’s hot off the press and available! :-)

Debian package grml-debian-keyring available

Thanks to formorer we have a grml-debian-keyring Debian package now. This package provides the GnuPG archive key of the grml.org repository for using the GPG signature checking with apt >=0.6. More details can be found in the Debian webpage in the grml-wiki.

results of grml user survey available

The results of the grml user survey are available in the grml-wiki. Thanks to all of you who participated!

grml at linuxdays - photo

I’m sitting at the grml booth and we ran out of grml-cds sooner than expected (now burning some more blank CDs on our own). Oh, BTW - the grml booth is featured at derstandard.at. :)

My grml talk starts in less than 3 hours, I’m just checking my slides once more.

grml at linuxdays vienna 2007

From 31st of May until 2nd of June the Linuxdays Vienna take place. My train is leaving Graz within the next few hours, you can meet me in Vienna for the next few days at the grml-booth as well as in my (german) talk about grml on friday, 1st of June. Hope to see you there!

grml 1.0, grml64 0.1 and grml-small 0.4 available

Yes, we have new stable release available.

grml talk and booth at grazer linuxdays 2007

Grazer Linuxdays 2007 will take place on 19th of May at FH Joanneum. I’ll give a (german) talk about grml and we will have a grml booth at the event. We (several grml developers are there!) will present grml 1.0 of course, showing all the cool and rocking features. Hope to see you there! :-)

grml developer meeting: stable release

We will have a grml developer meeting on 17th of may in Realraum Graz (Sporgasse 16) starting at 2 o’clock pm (“14 uhr” local time ;-)). Alexander ‘formorer’ Wirt is visiting Graz for a few days and will be at the develmeeting too. We will do some further bughunting and if everything goes fine we will finalize the stable release. If you want to help us on getting out the new stable releases you’re invited to join us!

grml 1.0-rc2, grml64 0.1-rc2 and grml-small 0.4-rc2

Today I uploaded rc2 of the current releases, they are meant to be the last release candidates for the upcoming stable release. As the stable version will be available really soon (within the next 3-4 days) I maybe won’t even announce them “officially”. So far the ISOs are available on debian.netcologne.de only, grab and test them if you want to help the grml-team to provide the stable release really soon.

grml 1.0-rc1, grml64 0.1-rc1 and grml-small 0.4-rc1

grml-docs (1.0.0-rc1) unstable; urgency=low
  * Update docs for:
    - grml       1.0-rc1 Release Codename Meilenschwein [2007-05-08]
    - grml-small 0.4-rc1 Release Codename Springginkerl [2007-05-08]
    - grml64     0.1-rc1 Release Codename LiveShell     [2007-05-08]
 -- Michael Prokop   Mon, 07 May 2007 22:35:16 +0200

Yes, it’s on its way…. if everything works as expected you can find the ISOs on the mirrors tomorrow….