new develrelease: 0.9-3

Published on February 18, 2007

We have a new develrelease. grml 0.9-3 is available for beta-testers and grml-developers. Quoting the main changelog:

  * kernel 2.6.20-grml
    Notice: not all *extra*, external modules are available yet but
    I think the most important ones are there, see
    http://dufo.tugraz.at/~prokop/grml-kernel/2.6.20-grml/ for details
  * several updates regarding utf8 handling: all known issues should
    be resolved now - if you notice any further problems regarding
    utf8/language/... please report them!
  * grml2hd: support for grub and use of UUID by default
    /archives/225-grml2hd-supports-grub-and-rootUUID.html
    Notice: the grub code is new, there *might* be bugs present
    even though I tested it carefully, so don't use it on your
    productive environment unless you really want to. :)
  * fixed issues known from previous develreleases
  * several updates of configuration files
  * Does anyone of you suffer from the "timezone problem" with grml?
    http://bts.grml.org/grml/issue82
    If so please contact me! Thanks to Jan-Pieter Jacobs we might
    have a fix for the problem but I need your feedback.

grml2hd supports grub and root=UUID

Published on February 15, 2007

I just finished main work of supporting grub directly within grml2hd and uploaded grml2hd_0.9.3_all.deb to the grml-testing pool in those minutes. Now there’s a new dialog in grml2hd which lets you choose between lilo and grub as bootloader:

Notes:

using grub on SW-RAID devices is not yet supported
grub configuration does not provide artwork currently. I’d be happy if someone could contribute a nice bootsplash for grub at grml!
please do not use the testing version of grml2hd on your productive environment yet! It needs some further heavy testing before entering stable… any feedback is welcome of course.

Oh, and another nifty feature within grml2hd: installation now uses root=UUID by default. This feature requires an initrd/initramfs so we use initramfs by default now (a dialog less within grml2hd) but you can make sure booting your grml system always choses the right partition, no matter how you are booting your system (like via external usb device):

first version of 2.6.20-grml

Published on February 8, 2007

A first version of kernel 2.6.20-grml is available:

Linux grml 2.6.20-grml #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Feb 8 00:15:11 CET 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

Some external, extra modules are missing currently (compare with grml.org/kernel/) due to API changes. Anyway, I’d like to base grml 1.0 on kernel 2.6.20-grml so expect several updates in the next few weeks.

new devel release: 0.9-2

Published on January 28, 2007

We have a new develrelease. grml 0.9-2 is available for beta-testers and grml-developers. Quoting the main changelog:

  * *no* kernel update, I'm lacking time and 2.6.20 should be
     available soon, I don't want to put further work into 2.6.19 now
  * some updates for "utf8 mode by default", main issues should be
    resolved now (some problems are present inside GNU screen though)
    [notice: handling of unicode_start for hd-installation is on the
    todo-list: http://bts.grml.org/grml/issue75 ]
  * several bugfixes and updates in grml-network's netcardconfig,
    in grml-rebuildfstab and grml-scanpartitions
  * extended zsh configuration
  * big update and rewrite of zsh-lovers, thanks to Christian Schneider:
    /archives/221-update-of-zsh-lovers-in-asciidoc-format.html
  * added script gsuggest.pl: google suggest - ask google for
    keyword suggestions
  * Packages removed since 0.9 (excluding lib* and 2.6.18-grml):
    ethereal-common linux-wlan-ng linux-wlan-ng-firmware lout
    lout-common olsrd-plugin opie-server unionfs-utils xen-tools
    xen-utils-common
  * Packages added since 0.9 (excluding lib* and 2.6.19-grml):
    advchk cryopid dnsproxy fatresize flashplugin-nonfree funionfs
    gatling gems genisoimage icedax imsniff keyutils keyutils-lib
    kvm mcabber ncc olsrd-plugins pnputils python-urwid
    recordmydesktop scalpel smbnetfs tesseract-ocr-data uncrustify
    urlscan vde2 vinetto xserver-xorg-input-aiptek
    xserver-xorg-input-elo2300 xserver-xorg-input-elographics
    xserver-xorg-input-hyperpen xserver-xorg-input-joystick
    xserver-xorg-input-penmount xserver-xorg-input-void xwatchwin

grml user survey

Published on January 28, 2007

The first grml user survey is online. The purpose of this is to help grml developers gain a better idea of what the grml user community is really doing and using, and what aspects people would most like to see improved. Please contribute!

update of zsh-lovers - in asciidoc format

Published on January 28, 2007

It was on my todolist for ages, thanks to Christian ‘strcat’ Schneider we have the zsh-lovers manpage in asciidoc format now. asciidoc provides much smoother output than my nroff hacks. :-) Adding new tips is much easier now as well, especially since we maintain the manpage within a mercurial repository (hg.grml.org/zsh-lovers). Get the zsh-lovers manpage in manpage format, as HTML or PDF from grml.org/zsh/, a Debian package is available via the grml-testing pool as well of course.

roadmap to grml 1.0

Published on January 28, 2007

What’s my roadmap to grml 1.0?

kernel 2.6.20-grml (issue96)
grml-ppc: provide a first version of grml for PowerPC (issue95)
grml64: provide a first version of grml 64 bit version (issue13)
use utf8 as default mode (issue43)
grml2hd: use UUID for root-device (issue93), provide dialog for dis-/enabling services (issue89), support for grub within grml2hd itself (issue81) Of course resolving the other issues on grml’s BTS is on the todo list as well. Features like unionfs-overlays and additional squashfs-files are on the wishlist too of course. My plan is to release grml 1.0 in march 2007. Needs a lot of work of course…

grml at Chemnitzer Linux-Tage 2007

Published on January 27, 2007

grml will be present at Chemnitzer Linux-Tage 2007 (in germany) which take place on 3rd and 4th of march 2007. Several grml developers will be there and have a develmeeting. We plan to provide a special release available on the event exclusive. You can meet us at the grml-booth, hope to see you there!

working on grml-ppc

Published on January 22, 2007

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….

packaged advchk

Published on January 22, 2007

I created a Debian package of advchk, a tool for monitoring the security of installed software. Advisory Check gathers security advisories using RSS / RDF / XML feeds, compares them against a list of known software, and alerts you if you`re vulnerable. As usual the Debian package is available via the grml-testing pool.