grml 0.6 pre1 and grml-small 0.2 pre1
The pre releases of grml 0.6 and grml-small 0.2 are available for beta-testers and developers. We are running some last tests and updating documentation. We are planning to release on this weekend (around 23/24th of january). Stay tuned. :-)
2.6.15-grml
grml@grml ~ % uname -a
Linux grml 2.6.15-grml #1 PREEMPT Wed Jan 4 16:42:22 CEST 2006 i686 GNU/Linux
See kernel-information webpage for more details. If you want to test 2.6.15-grml on your box(es), you are welcome to download them. I’m running a few more tests and finishing work on todolist before I’m releasing a preview-release of grml 0.6 for betatesters. I’ll be working on grml-small with 2.6.15-grml also to be able to release grml-small 0.2 too.
grml 22c3 release
I just finished work on the ‘grml 22c3 release’
The 22nd Chaos Communication Congress (December 27th to 30th, 2005) will take place in Berlin/Germany. I’m not on the event (lacking time), but several grml team members and beta-testers will be there! ‘grml 22c3’ is not a public release, it is only available for beta-testers and people at 22c3. It’s a preview release of the upcoming grml 0.6 which will be available in january 2006.
grml2hd and software raid (level 1)
I just added support for installing grml on software RAID level 1 with grml2hd. As we already have support for initrds it wasn’t such a big deal. [Disclaimer: it’s not a frontend for mdadm, you have to use mdadm manually on your own. If you want to use software RAID you should know how to handle it anyway.] So if you want to use RAID1 with ‘/’ on software-raid run mdadm and install grml afterwards on the new created device using the environment variable SWRAID which passes the provided option to the raid-extra-boot-option in lilo.conf:
# mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md0 --level=raid1 \
--raid-devices=2 /dev/hda1 /dev/hdc1
# SWRAID='mbr-only' grml2hd /dev/md0 -mbr /dev/md0
That’s it. :-)
status report... grml 0.5-3
A lot of development has taken place in the last few weeks and days. We now have a full featured 2.6.14-grml kernel with udev replacing hotplug-light (thanks, Tobias!). Using bt-hid it’s possible to connect a bluetooth mouse, some more bluetooth scripts are work in progress… grml2hd supports initrd (and therefor installation on scsi and usb-devices). Improved synaptics touchpad support, ip addresses of network interfaces are displayed in GNU screen (thanks, Gebi!) and lots of other nice stuff. :-) Now we are waiting for kernel 2.6.15, in the meanwhile we are continuing work on the big quality check. We plan to release grml 0.6 and grml-small 0.2 at beginning of 2006.
new team member: Alexander Wirt
Alexander ‘formorer’ Wirt joined the grml-team. He is helping me at the kernel framework and works on the ppc port of grml. Welcome in the grml-team, Alexander!
grml-ppc: testers needed
Yes, that’s not a joke. A ppc-port of grml exists. :-) If everything works as expected a first develrelease of the grml-ppc live-cd will be available on this weekend (~27th of november). Formorer (who works on the ppc-port) needs testers. So if you own a power pc machine, are interested in the grml-ppc flavour and want to help us: please let us know! Either drop us a mail or contact us via #grml. Any help appreciated!
grml user map
I just created the grml-user map at frappr.com. Join us and add yourself as a grml-user! :)
compile farm using grml
At Graz University of Technology (TUG) several software projects have big compile jobs. Yesterday I’ve been working on a specialized grml version to create a compile farm within some few minutes. And the result: grml-distcc. grml-distcc includes a 2.6.14-kernel optimized for up to 32 processors. There’s a new bootparam named ‘distcc’ with the options $NETWORK and $INTERFACE which provides access to the distcc-daemon for the defined network listening on the ip address of the given interface. Usage example: ‘grml distcc=192.168.0.1,eth0’.
Today Hecka and me tested grml-distcc at TUG. As we are lazy guys and don’t want to play disc jokey with a lot of grml-CDs ;-) we booted grml-distcc via network. Running ‘grml-terminalserver’ on the server, configuring bootoptions for distcc within the interface of grml-terminalserver and booting client via PXE was everything we had to do. Afterwards access to the distcc-clients was possible through “export DISTCC_HOSTS=$HOSTS_WHERE_DISTCC_IS_RUNNING”. Running ‘make -j’ was fun of course. :-)
The distcc bootparam will be probably part of the upcoming grml release.
behind grml 0.5 - status report...
So, what has happend since release of grml 0.5? Of course some bugfixing (most of the grml_0-5-issues have been fixed). I also added some new features like a wrapper script for a fluxbox setup providing idesk and gkrellm out-of-the-box, some new scripts and I just finished base work on kernel 2.6.14-grml. So a new develrelease will be available soon…
new mailinglist: grml-announce
Thanks to Jogi from the mur.at-team, we now have a new mailinglist: grml-announce New releases will be announced on this mailinglist. For discussions and questions please refer to the grml-user-mailinglist.
Live Usability Tests
I’m planning to run “live usability tests” with the grml-system within the next few weeks. grml is mainly used by sysadmins and texttool-freaks (as those users are the target audience ;-)). But it seems that a lot of people use grml because “it just works” even though they are neither sysadmins nor texttool-geeks.grml shouldn’t be only a distribution with good hardware recognition and “lots of the right tools” but also be comfortable to use. Running usability tests should help us to improve handling of grml. I’m interested in your opinion regarding what kind of tests might be useful for grml. I already wrote down some basic steps but would like to get your feedback. Last but not least: I’m searching for people in Graz/Styria who would like to be part of the usability study. It does not matter whether you are a sysadmin or texttool-user, I’m searching for people from all kinds of background. It won’t take longer than 30 minutes per person and you will get one of the limited special-edition CDs of the grml 0.5-release for free. Don’t hesitate to contact me.
grml in the distrowatch podcast
grml is mentioned in the podcast of distrowatch.com - to be more precise in dww20051024.mp3 at position 9 minutes and ~40 seconds. :-) Thanks for the pointer, Bernd Haug.
grml on soekris
Kevin Krammer just let me know that he is running grml on his Soekris box:
grml@grml ~ % cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : Geode by NSC
cpu family : 5
model : 9
model name : Unknown
stepping : 1
cpu MHz : 266.695
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 2
wp : yes
flags : fpu tsc msr cx8 cmov mmx cxmmx
bogomips : 534.63
grml@grml ~ % uname -a
Linux grml 2.6.13-grml #1 Sat Oct 22 11:05:29 CEST 2005 i586 GNU/Linux
grml@grml ~ % grml-version
0.5 Release Codename Tokolytika [2005-10-24]
grml@grml ~ %
Rocking :-)