locking a grml box
I was thinking of a reliable way to lock a grml box. Logging out is not possible due to the respawn-feature of init.
The solution is to run passwd && vlock -a.
This sets a password for the current user (which is disabled by default for security reasons) and then locks the current console and disables switching to other consoles.
several updates + kernel 2.6.11
Martin sent me his script grml-pptp-xdsl-students (thanks!), I updated grml-muttng, Christoph Wegscheider sent me a fix for szs (statusbar for WMI), several updates in grml-etc and finally Jimmy and me fixed grml2hd (thanks, Jimmy!). Now I’ll do some more testing. 0.3 is coming closer! :)
BTW: Kernel 2.6.11 is available. This means that as soon as we release grml 0.3 I’ll start working at the kernel.
If you want to see any (special) patches inside grml-kernel please let me know!
grml-* updates
I updated and fixed several stuff in grml-etc, grml-files and grml-scripts. Release 0.3 is coming closer. Please report your wishes/bugfixes now!
new bootparams: nocolor + log
Finally we have working nocolor and log bootparams. nocolor disables colorized output while booting, log starts bootlogd and logs all stderr-output to an extra file. (nocolor isn’t just for pragmatists but avoids color sequences in the bootlog ;-))
updated grml-scripts
Matthias and me wrote a small shellscript namend fex to extract archives without thinking too much. ;-) I just added it to grml-scripts.
BTW: Please test grml-muttng and provide me feedback!
grml-muttng
I just wrote the script grml-muttng, based on grml-mutt to let users create a basic configuration for the mailclient mutt-ng.
The current grml-ISO has 702 MB, I’m thinking of dropping wmaker and adding muttng instead. What’s your opinion?
removed packages
I added several packages since release 0.2 to my grml-chroot. As usual I try to create an ISO with exactly 700 MB. My last ISO had 710MB.
# apt-get remove --purge printconf foomatic-db-gimp-print
The result was an ISO with still about 705MB. So:
# apt-get remove --purge autotrace libautotrace3 libmagick++6 libplot2 libpstoedit0
I hope to get a 700MB version now. Notice: If you have any special wishes on software which should be removed/included please let me know, last chance for grml 0.3. :-)
create a perl debian package
I wanted to add ACME::Bleach, ACME::EyeDrops and ACME::Smirch to grml. So I had to create my first perl debian packages.
It couldn’t be easier:
% dh-make-perl --cpan Acme::Smirch --build
grml-etc
I added szs2nd and sti.pl to grml-etc (0.2-13). Those tools improve the statusline of windowmanager WMI. szs2nd is loaded by default now. Updated /etc/skel/.zshrc and /etc/zsh/zshrc as well.
Current ISO build 0.2-9b works like a charme. :-)
new grml-mirror available
Jim Dio provided a mirror in california for grml, thanks Jim! See download-section @ grml.org for details.
BTW: the TUG-mirror has a downtime due to problems with harddisks, according to the admin-team it should be up again at the end of the week.
GNU units
GNU units was missing in grml, fixed that.
Now we are able to do stuff like:
grml@grml ~ % units
You have: 1000 km
You want: miles
* 621.37119
/ 0.001609344
schedtool
I stumbled upon schedtool via ck’s audio hints and just packaged it. As usual it’s available via the grml-repository.
Seems to work:
root@grml ~ # schedtool $$
PID 1903: PRIO 0, POLICY N: SCHED_NORMAL, NICE 0
root@grml ~ #
grml-templates
I’ve added MinUnit to package grml-templates. MinUnit is a minimal unit testing framework for C, see www.jera.com/techinfo/jtns/jtn002.html for more details.
SFS-KNOPPIX
SFS-KNOPPIX is a kind of KNOPPIX which boots form Internet with a cloop on SFS(Self-certifying File System). It requires small boot loader (20MB image) and offers full KNOPPIX functions, Autoconfig, etc.
SFS-KNOPPIX makes possible to change a cloop file (root file system of KNOPPIX) at boot time. It means we don’t need to burn extra CD for many KNOPPIX offshoots.