Grml Blog

Debian based Linux Live system

roadmap to grml 1.0

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

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

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

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.

packaged incron

I packagedincron, an inotify cron system. As usual the debian package is available in the grml-testing repository.

packaged gatling

Today I finished work on packaginggatling, a high performance web server. Get the Debian package from the grml testing repository.

New team member: Frank Terbeck

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

new develrelease: 0.9-1

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,...

grml 0.9 and grml-small 0.3 available

We have a new release: grml 0.9 with codename ‘Dioptrienotto’ and grml-small 0.3 with codename ‘Zwergenaufstand’ are available for public download.

changes from grml 0.9-rc1 to stable release

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!)

new Debian repositories for grml

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.

grml 0.9 - release candidate 1 available

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/.

searching for artwork for grml 0.9 [update]

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…