grml 0.5 is coming...
We are “in the freeze phase” since sunday with pre-release grml 0.4-9. I fixed some minor stuff in the last few days and now I’m bringing documentation up to date and running some final checks. Tomorrow (friday) will be a last develmeeting before the new release is going to be published (planned for 24th of october). There have been so many improvements since grml 0.4 that writing the changelog is a really heavy task. :-) BTW: Using the latest unionfs-release provides a working module-assistant even on live-CD. This means that you will be able to build your own kernelmodules in live-cd-mode of grml 0.5 now. :-) Ok, probably and hopefully this was the last status message before grml 0.5 will be available - so stay tuned! :-)
Many updates...
Today I updated all my packages to latest upstream version. The following packages got up2date:
csync2, ded, dupseek, dmraid, ex, gateguardian, heirloom-sh, libacme-eyedrops-perl
md5deep, mwcollect, pmtools-acpi, shadowsfs, sudosh, yersinia
grml 0.5 is definitely coming closer. ;-) Now I’ll update documentation, finish work on the new config framework and then the prerelease will be available for beta-testers. A few more days of bughunting and grml 0.5 will be available. :-)
zsh-lovers in universe pool of Ubuntu
I just took a look at ubuntu-5.10 live-cd. Our zsh-lovers Debian package is part of the universe pool of Ubuntu (thanks to Reinhard Tartler!). :-)
Timeline for grml 0.5
The latest build of the grml-kernel (2.6.13-grml) has been integrated in the grml-ISO. Currently I’m updating all software packages, finish work on grml2hd and the config-fw. And of course I’m bugfixing and updating documentation.
The timeline for the upcoming release (if everything works like intended):
- ~15th of october: pre-release grml 0.4-9: available for beta-testers and developers; freeze of packages (no more updates, only fixes for grml-packages); Notice: last chance to get your software and updates into the upcoming release!
- ~24th of october: grml 0.5 will be released
zsh geeks out there: zsh glob qualifiers explained by Oliver
Thanks for the hint, Clint: “Oliver wrote an article about file metadata, including some tips about zsh glob qualifiers. Registration required.” I can recommend the article also. :-)
grml-ized debian: apt-get install grml
Yesterday I installed a plain Debian sarge system, added the grml-repository to apt’s sources.list and did an “apt-get install grml”. And it worked :-)
The debian system now uses grml’s hardware recognition system. Even grml-x works right out of the box with Debian’s XFree86 (grml provides X.org). I will create a script which does all the necessary steps to get a “debian system grml-ized”. The “create a grml system out of a debian system” was a long time goal, but we are already very close to it. :-)
grml and Robocup
Great news. Now I’m part of the Robocup team “Mostly Harmless” at Graz University of Technology, Austria. I will be working on kernelstuff, building debian packages and doing hardware recognition using grml technologies. An embedded system will be used with hardware like a CAN Dongle, compact flash cards, WLAN, serial connection and so on. This means I will work on grml as part of my studies at university at least for this semester.
Thanks to Mabu for his investigations!
request for help: SCSI
I’m preparing the development release for the upcoming grml 0.5 release. As we have a kernel upgrade in this release (using 2.6.13-grml) and I’m still lacking hardware using SCSI-controllers for booting I request your help. If you have access to a computer which is able to boot via SCSI please help me. You just have to send me the file ‘/proc/pci’ and which module is used for the device (if you don’t know which one is used just send me output of ’lsmod’ and the kernel configuration). Just drop me a mail (mika [at] grml.org), your help is appreciated!
grml-vpn
We just have a developer meeting in Graz and Gebi wrote a script namend grml-vpn. grml-vpn is a program to establish encrypted communication channels in a network. We just tested it and it really rocks. :-) It’s very easy to use, take a look at the usage example: Gebi (root@gebi) starts grml-vpn on his laptop with key/passphrase ’test’ and uses his and my ip for the encrypted communication channel:
root@gebi # grml-vpn -k test add 1000 192.168.1.104 192.168.1.101
I (root@mika) am using the same command line on my laptop:
root@mika # grml-vpn -k test add 1000 192.168.1.104 192.168.1.101
To demonstrate that it’s working let’s use IPsec’s setkey command:
root@mika # setkey -D
192.168.1.101 192.168.1.104
esp mode=transport spi=1000(0x000003e8) reqid=0(0x00000000)
E: aes-cbc d8e8fca2 dc0f896f d7cb4cb0 031ba249
seq=0x00000000 replay=0 flags=0x00000000 state=mature
created: Sep 22 15:15:02 2005 current: Sep 22 15:19:40 2005
diff: 278(s) hard: 0(s) soft: 0(s)
last: Sep 22 15:15:14 2005 hard: 0(s) soft: 0(s)
current: 1488(bytes) hard: 0(bytes) soft: 0(bytes)
allocated: 12 hard: 0 soft: 0
sadb_seq=1 pid=20148 refcnt=0
192.168.1.104 192.168.1.101
esp mode=transport spi=1001(0x000003e9) reqid=0(0x00000000)
E: aes-cbc d8e8fca2 dc0f896f d7cb4cb0 031ba249
seq=0x00000000 replay=0 flags=0x00000000 state=mature
created: Sep 22 15:15:02 2005 current: Sep 22 15:19:40 2005
diff: 278(s) hard: 0(s) soft: 0(s)
last: Sep 22 15:15:14 2005 hard: 0(s) soft: 0(s)
current: 768(bytes) hard: 0(bytes) soft: 0(bytes)
allocated: 12 hard: 0 soft: 0
sadb_seq=0 pid=20148 refcnt=0
Now let’s check whether it’s really encrypted:
root@mika # ping 192.168.1.104
[...]
root@gebi # tcpdump
15:16:26.066885 IP 192.168.1.101 > 192.168.1.104: ESP(spi=0x000003e8, seq=0xa)
15:16:26.067040 IP 192.168.1.104 > 192.168.1.101: ESP(spi=0x000003e9, seq=0xa)
Bingo! :-)
fullautomatic grml-installation
I just implemented the code for running grml2hd in full automized mode. This means you can run:
# GRML2HD_NONINTERACTIVE=yes grml2hd
… drink some coffee and some minutes later - without any further interaction - you have a full functional linux system on your harddisk. Configuration of grml2hd is possible via /etc/grml2hd/config. You can even run pre- and post-commands to partition your harddisk automatically, run upgrades without interaction or whatever you like. Now I will implement a bootoption ‘grml2hd’ which allows booting and installing grml without any further interaction right out of the box. This means it will be possible to set up a cluster of - let’s say for example - 30 computers in a computer lab without any further interaction just via using grml with grml2hd and grml-terminalserver.
grml: laptop optimization - grml-laptop
Hardware recognition of grml is quite stable. But there exist are some laptops which require deep woodo and magic to work as intented to. Some laptops provide additional hotkeys and specific resolutions which might not work right out-of-the-box. Therefore I just created the package grml-laptop:
grml provides a hardware recognition system right out
of the box. But some laptops provide special functions
like hotkeys and specific resolutions. This package
provides scripts for improving the grml system on such
laptops.
.
If you would like to see some more script(s) as part of
the package please contribute them!
https://grml.org/contact/ I will add a cheatcode laptop=… for using those scripts. So if you would like to see a script for a specific/your laptop: please contribute!
grml2hd with reiser4-support
root@grml ~ # mount
/dev/hda1 on / type reiser4 (rw)
Yes, that’s grml running on a reiser4-partition. I had some problems with lilo out-of-the-box but I’m looking forward to get a full working version into grml2hd. :-)
2.6.13-grml working with unionfs
Good news! I just booted 2.6.13-grml with unionfs working. Thanks to Dave Quigley and the other unionfs-guys for their work! That was a very important step for current state of grml. Today (14th of september) we will have a developer meeting in Graz and a new devel-release should be available really soon now. There’s only one release-stopper left, that’s the new config-framework. People out there: we are coming closer to grml 0.5. :)
install plain Debian via grml
I just created a new tip named “Install (plain) Debian via grml” in the grml-wiki on the tips-page. It’s a short (example) guide how to install a plain(!) Debian system via grml and debootstrap. I just tested it on my box using the current grml-small-snapshot. Rocks :-)
package grml-fixes
I just created a package namend grml-fixes. From the package description:
This package includes some fixes for the grml system. There are for example some problems with (upstream/debian) shell scripts and the zsh. Therefor this package fixes them until they are fixes upstream. Now we are again a step closer to the big goal to be once able to run ‘apt-get install grml’ on a plain Debian system and get a full-featured grml-system out of it. :-)