Grml Blog

Debian based Linux Live system

working on grml-usb

grml-small (the 50MB-ISO) is already available, now I’m working on grml-usb. The goal is to provide a grml-ISO with less than 250MB which fits on a 256MB usb stick. Please provide feedback which tools you would like to see on grml-usb. Take a look at the package list to see what’s current status.

some more modules for 2.6.12-grml

While doing kernelrelated work I just built packages for lufs, fuser, eagle-usb, thinkpad and vaiostat against 2.6.12-grml. Again, get them from the usual place. (BTW: I just created a new category for the develblog named kernel.)

ivtv-module and utils for 2.6.12-grml

Someone requested the ivtv-kernelmodule for grml-kernel and I just built the necessary packages (thanks to Eduard Bloch for his source-packages). As I do not have the necessary hardware any testing is welcome of course. Get the ivtv-package at the usual place.

grml-small 0.1 available

I’m proud to be able to announce ‘grml-small 0.1’ with codename ‘Zugschlus’ (because it was inspired by Marc ‘Zugschlus’ Haber.) It’s a ~50MB-ISO which fits on a business card CD-ROM. For more details take a look at the release announcement. Please report feeedback!

wiki available

Thanks to Jimmy, we now have the grml-wiki available online (wiki.grml.org). Please share you knowledge and contribute!

devel release grml 0.4-2

We have another devel release for grml-developers and beta-testers: grml 0.4-2. Main features are:

  • kernel 2.6.12-grml including several additional modules (see grml.org/kernel-devel/) and an updated udev-package (version 060) [thanks to Tobias!]
  • replaced hotplug with hotplug-light
  • new grml-autoconfig infrastructure Now I’ll finish my work on grml-small and hope to be able to upload grml-small 0.1 really soon…. (hmpf)

kernel 2.6.12-grml up and running

Release 0.4-1d is running here with kernel 2.6.12-grml now. The patchset includes:

iteraid.allinone  
reiser4_2.6.12_allinone  
patch-2.6.12.1  
squashfs2.1-patch  
linux-2.6.11-mppe-mppc-1.3.patch  
1900_pci-driver-typo.patch  
1905_mm-BUG.patch  
2100_e1000-spinlock.patch  
4900_speakup-20050622-dsd.patch  
4901_speakup-parport.patch  
4505_vesafb-tng-0.9-rc6-r2.patch  
4330_svw-broadcom.patch  
4325_promise-pdc20619.patch  
4320_promise-pdc2037x.patch  
4305_dm-bbr.patch  
4300_via-vt6410.patch  
3c509-device-support.patch  
2300_qla2xxx-initialization.patch  
2305_sata-bridge-lockup.patch  
grml_logo.diff

Kernel 2.6.12-grml and several modules are available online.

packaged heirloom-sh

I just packaged heirloom-sh - a portable variant of the traditional Unix shell. It has been derived fromOpenSolaris code and thus implements the SVR4/SVID3 level of the shell.As usual it’s available in the grml-repos, feedback welcome.

new grml-autoconfig, several other updates

I uploaded the new grml-autoconfig-framework to the grml-repos. The configuration itself (/etc/grml/autoconfig) provides documentation, some more docs might follow. Now grml-firefox is a seperate package for /etc/skel/.mozilla which provides a preconfigured firefox-environment with some useful extensions (new added: ShowIP and ConQuery). Several other updates as usual in grml-etc, grml-scripts,…
BTW: The current snapshot of grml-small (grml 50MB-ISO) works quite well so far (running with kernel 2.6.12-grml), I’m locking forward to be able to publish it soon. grml-usb (grml ~240MB-ISO) is also coming closer. Please let me know which software you would like to see in grml-usb!

delayed grml-small

I decided to delay grml-small for a few days. A “light version” of kernel 2.6.12-grml is already part of the grml-small-ISO. I now want to include the new grml-autoconfig framework and therefore I need some more time. Sorry for that, but expect a rocking grml-small. ;-)

kernel 2.6.12-grml

A first public version of Kernel 2.6.12-grml is available. It includes support for reiser4, vesafb-tng, squashfs, mppe/mppc and iteraid:

mika@grml ~ % uname -a  
Linux grml 2.6.12-grml #1 SMP Mon Jun 20 15:20:40 CEST 2005 i686 GNU/Linux

The debian-package plus several modules built against 2.6.12-grml are available online. I’m working on a (better) framework for the grml-kernel (using dpatch+debian/…). Expect to find broken-out (d)patches and some more information on grml.org/kernel-devel/ soon. Feedback and help welcome!

grml-autoconfig revisited

I just worked on grml-autoconfig which is a seperate package since 5th of June. I split grml-autoconfig into a shellscript-library, an init-file and a configuration file. Now it’s possible to de-/activate the modules of grml-autoconfig without touching the source itself. As an example:

% cat /etc/grml/autoconfig.config
[...]
CONFIG_DISCOVER=no
CONFIG_HWINFO=yes
CONFIG_HOTPLUG_AGENT=yes
CONFIG_HOTPLUG_BLACKLIST=yes
CONFIG_HOTPLUG=yes

I’ll add the functionality to grml2hd so you will be able to decide on your own what parts you would like to use on a harddisk installation of grml. I’ll do some more testing and will upload the new grml-autoconfig-system to the pool then.

grml in the german linux magazine

AK gave me a hint that grml is part of the german ‘Linux-Magazin’ (edition 07/05) for people with the DELUG-subscription. Very nice! Now I’ll try to get such an edition which contains a grml 0.4 CD. :-)

Quoting the linux-magazine: Service für DELUG-Mitglieder: Linux-Magazin-Monats-CD
Grml 0.4: Die Live-CD enthält 2200 ausgewählte Softwarepakete (entpackt: 2 GByte) für Sysadmins und Fans der Textkonsole. Die Distribution basiert auf Knoppix und Debian, bootet mit ausgeklügelter Hardware-Erkennung, verzichtet aber auf KDE und Gnome und konzentriert sich auf Kommandozeilenwerkzeuge.

grml: small edition

Inspired by Marc Haber’s posting in de.comp.os.unix.linux.misc I was working on a small-ISO variant of grml in the last few days. The ISO will fit on a business-card-CD. Thanks to Marc for his feedback!

Finally I’ve a 53MB grml-ISO. I’ll do some more testing in the next few days and will put the ISO online at the next weekend (~19th of june) if everything works as intended.

JFYI: I’m working on the usb-stick variant as well, stay tuned. ;-)

The Linux sdparm utility (update)

I just packaged sdparm (because the .deb on the homepage is generated by alien ;-)):

The sdparm utility outputs and in some cases modifies SCSI device parameters. When the SCSI device is a disk, sdparm’s role is similar to its Linux namesake: hdparm which is for ATA disks that usually have device names starting with “hd”. More generally sdparm can be used to output and modify parameters on any device that uses a SCSI command set. Apart from SCSI disks, such devices include CD/DVD drives (irrespective of transport), SCSI and ATAPI tape drives and SCSI enclosures.

http://sg.torque.net/sg/sdparm.html

Update: Tomas Fasth made an ITP [bug #312580], so you’ll find it in Debian soon.