Changes between grml 2009.10-rc1 and grml 2009.10

If you’re interested in the main changes between rc1 of 2009.10 and the final stable release: Changes in all flavours:

• updated grml2hd: bugfixes (adjust grub handling to support grub2, fix handling of custom bootoptions in bootloaders, fix grub support in non-interactive mode), added support for ext4 and some further minor updates/bugfixes
• updated grml2usb: integration of grml2usb-compat, updates for new features in grml-live, updated grml2iso (copy additional files to ISO, better support for grml2usb), support removal of bootoptions, use dynamic check for addons as current grml-small includes addons, support running on a generated grml2usb iso/directory
• updated grml-autoconfig: bugfixes (font-handling in non-framebuffer mode, handling of grml.sh)
• updated grml-debootstrap: added support for and use support grub2 by default, dropped $GROOT and modified usage of $GRUB, replaced vol_id command with blkid, use cdn.debian.net as default mirror
• updated grml-docs: update files for release
• updated grml-etc: bugfixes (eject handling)
• updated grml-tips: added further tips, updated existing ones
• updated grub-pc + grub-common (stable release)
• kernel 2.6.31-grml[64]: update to new version based on stable release 2.6.31.5 Changes in flavour grml/grml64:
• added ewf-tools, fio + guymager
• updated grml-live: direct integration of grub1, update and direct integration of grub2, gPXE, update of ldbsd.com
• updated firmware-iwlwifi, firmware-qlogic + firmware-ralink (feature update)
• updated grml-terminalserver: drop support for grub.img (fails to build with recent toolchains, use gPXE/etherboot instead), integrated grml2usb for generating pxeconfig
• dropped deprecated grml-terminalserver-data + ash packages Changes in flavour grml-medium/grml64-medium:
• updated firmware-iwlwifi + firmware-ralink (feature update)
• updated grml-live: direct integration of grub1, update and direct integration of grub2, gPXE, update of ldbsd.com
• updated grml-terminalserver: drop support for grub.img (fails to build with recent toolchains, use gPXE/etherboot instead), integrated grml2usb for generating pxeconfig
• dropped deprecated grml-terminalserver-data + ash packages Changes in flavour grml-small/grml64-small:
• added parted

release candidate 1 of grml 2009.10 available

We have new release candidates: the first release candidate of version 2009.10 codename “Hello-Wien” is available. Take a look at the release announcement for details about all the cool new features. As usual we have different flavours available: the 32bit versions grml, grml-medium and grml-small as well as the 64bit versions grml64, grml64-medium and grml64-small. Please test the ISOs and all the stuff you usually need so we can provide rocking stable releases soon. The stable release is scheduled for 31st of october. Download the ISOs from the ‘devel’ directory of the mirrors listed at grml.org/download.

grml shipped with c't extra 03/2009 Netzwerke

The famous german c’t magazine just released c’t extra 03/2009 Netzwerke, a special edition focusing on network stuff. There’s an article about network diagnosis using Grml (pages 132-133) and Grml is part of the included the DVD as well. Make sure you grab your own copy!

kernel 2.6.31-grml[64]

After busy development days the kernel 2.6.31-grml and 2.6.31-grml64 entered the grml-testing pool today. This kernel version is based on upstream’s 2.6.31-rc9 and features the squashfs file format version 4 with lzma support. Please note that you need squashfs-lzma-tools 4.0-1 for remastering with grml-live if you plan to use LZMA compression. grml-live has been adjusted to be as backwards friendly as possible. Check out ‘current state of grml-live with squashfs-tools and kernel’ for further details if you plan to build your own ISOs. An updated live-initramfs 1.157.3-1grml.00 package is available as well. Starting with tomorrow (2009-09-08) the daily builds of grml should feature kernel 2.6.31-grml[64] already. This means we are coming closer to a new stable release…

updated grml-live, grml2usb and grml-etc-core packages available

grml-live 0.9.22, grml2usb 0.9.10 and grml-etc-core 0.3.75 just entered the grml-testing pool.

Results of the FrOSCon 2009 Grml contest

At the grml booth at FrOSCon we had a contest for the best release name, feature request,… for grml. Out of 16 contributions we elected the first five places. This is the result:

• Sebastian Harl: Release-Name: “Grmlmonster”
• Axel Beckert: Release-Name: “Hello Wien”
• Axel Beckert: zsh should set terminal title to previous jobtitle instead of ‘fg’
• Christian Vervoorts: choose i386/amd64 automatically depending on the architecture
• Christian Bricart: ship libsmbios-bin for flashing BIOS

The winner (Sebastian Harl) will receive a special grml USB pen and a copy of the german LinuxUser magazine edition (2009/08) featuring the Grml-DVD. Places 2 to 5 receive a copy of the german LinuxUser magazine edition (2009/08).

Thanks to all contributors for participating and hope to see you at FrOSCon 2010!

grml development: new bootsplash

Today I decided to implement a new bootsplash layout. Vesamenu of the isolinux project worked fine during our tests so I decided we should think about making it to grml’s default. My implementation in grml-live allows you to fall back to the old bootsplash layout via enabling one single configuration option (being: ISOLINUX_METHOD=console) and you can even get the old function keys layout back during runtime using the ‘Further boot options…’ entry. It should become part of the daily ISOs soon. Hopefully our next development release shows that users like it and it doesn’t cause any problems.

So that’s what I’m talking about - grml’s new bootsplash in its current layout:

forensic mode: readonly blockdevices on hotplug

grml release 2009.05 supports a bootoption ‘readonly’ which marks all /dev/[hs]*dX devices as readonly. This is important for data rescue and forensic investigations and is automatically activated when booting via ‘forensic’. I just implemented readonly support for hotplugging. This means you can safely add new block devices to your system when booted via forensic and the blockdevices will be set to readonly mode automatically. You’ll notice something like that in your syslog:

Aug 12 16:21:49 grml kernel: [ 259.426656] usb 2-3: new high speed USB device using ehci\_hcd and address 4  
Aug 12 16:21:49 grml kernel: [ 259.551346] usb 2-3: configuration \#1 chosen from 1 choice  
Aug 12 16:21:49 grml kernel: [ 259.551582] scsi8 : SCSI emulation for USB Mass Storage devices  
Aug 12 16:21:49 grml kernel: [ 259.551701] usb-storage: device found at 4  
Aug 12 16:21:49 grml kernel: [ 259.551704] usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning  
Aug 12 16:21:49 grml kernel: [ 259.551816] usb 2-3: New USB device found, idVendor=1e3d, idProduct=2092  
Aug 12 16:21:49 grml kernel: [ 259.551819] usb 2-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3  
Aug 12 16:21:49 grml kernel: [ 259.551821] usb 2-3: Product: Flash Disk  
Aug 12 16:21:49 grml kernel: [ 259.551823] usb 2-3: Manufacturer: CBM  
Aug 12 16:21:49 grml kernel: [ 259.551824] usb 2-3: SerialNumber: 301958004BD98A00  
Aug 12 16:21:54 grml kernel: [ 264.550509] scsi 8:0:0:0: Direct-Access CBM Flash Disk 5.00 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2  
Aug 12 16:21:54 grml kernel: [ 264.551366] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] 2041856 512-byte hardware sectors: (1.04 GB/997 MiB)  
Aug 12 16:21:54 grml kernel: [ 264.551860] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off  
Aug 12 16:21:54 grml kernel: [ 264.551864] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 0b 00 00 08  
Aug 12 16:21:54 grml kernel: [ 264.551866] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through  
Aug 12 16:21:54 grml kernel: [ 264.552982] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] 2041856 512-byte hardware sectors: (1.04 GB/997 MiB)  
Aug 12 16:21:54 grml kernel: [ 264.553480] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Write Protect is off  
Aug 12 16:21:54 grml kernel: [ 264.553482] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Mode Sense: 0b 00 00 08  
Aug 12 16:21:54 grml kernel: [ 264.553484] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through  
Aug 12 16:21:54 grml kernel: [ 264.553487] sdc: sdc1  
Aug 12 16:21:54 grml kernel: [ 264.554282] sd 8:0:0:0: [sdc] Attached SCSI removable disk  
Aug 12 16:21:54 grml kernel: [ 264.554346] sd 8:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 0  
Aug 12 16:21:54 grml kernel: [ 264.554528] usb-storage: device scan complete  
**Aug 12 16:21:54 grml logger: forensic mode: setting /dev/sdc [CBM_Flash_Disk_301958004BD98A00-0:0] to readonly  
Aug 12 16:21:54 grml logger: |-> done; execute 'blockdev --setrw /dev/sdc' to unlock
**Aug 12 16:21:54 grml rebuildfstab[13521]: re-generating /etc/fstab - see 'man rebuildfstab'  
Aug 12 16:21:54 grml rebuildfstab[13522]: bootoption nofstab found, ignoring request to re-generate /etc/fstab without force option  
**Aug 12 16:21:55 grml logger: forensic mode: setting /dev/sdc1 [CBM_Flash_Disk_301958004BD98A00-0:0] to readonly  
Aug 12 16:21:55 grml logger: -> done; execute 'blockdev --setrw /dev/sdc1' to unlock
**Aug 12 16:21:55 grml rebuildfstab[13551]: re-generating /etc/fstab - see 'man rebuildfstab'  
Aug 12 16:21:55 grml rebuildfstab[13552]: bootoption nofstab found, ignoring request to re-generate /etc/fstab without force option

Information: broken boot entry on LinuxUser 2009/08 grml-DVD

English Version

(Eine deutsche Version dieses Textes ist am Ende diese Blogeintrags verfügbar. A german version of this text is available at the bottom of this blogentry.) The Grml 2009.05 LinuxUser-Edition DVD shipped with LinuxUser 2009/08 sadly includes two errors. Neither data loss nor security risks, but broken boot entries instead. The grml team wants to inform users of the LinuxUser grml-DVD about this issue.

• The grml64 flavour has two kernel entries (one being a leftover from the bootloader templates used for remastering) and due to murphy the wrong one is used. If you press the tab key with grml64 flavour being selected on the bootprompt you’ll see:

/boot/suse/linux ...

instead of:

/boot/release/grml64/linux26

To work around this issue replace ‘/boot/suse/linux’ with ‘/boot/release/grml64/linux26’ at the grml64 entry on the bootprompt. Note: the failsafe64 entry does NOT have this problem and booting it works without problems when selecting the failsafe64 bootoption.

• The ‘forensic64’ bootoption uses ’live-media-path=/live/grml/’ instead of ’live-media-path=/live/grml64/’. The system will boot with the wrong entry as well but instead of 64bit userland you’ll get the 32bit userspace from flavour grml instead. To workaround this issue just edit the forensic64 bootoption at the bootprompt (press the tab key) and replace ’live-media-path=/live/grml/’ with ’live-media-path=/live/grml64/’. The grml team is very sorry about this fsckup. This was the first official remastering of a multi-ISO grml-DVD including a new bootlayout (isolinux with vesamenu) and sadly the configuration error wasn’t caught during our tests. Please note that this error happened to the grml team and is NOT the fault of LinuxUser.

German / Deutsche Version

Die Grml 2009.05 LinuxUser-DVD die der LinuxUser-Ausgabe 2009/08 beiliegt hat leider zwei Fehler. Kein Datenverlust, keine Security-Probleme, sondern kaputte Bootloader-Einträge. Das Grml-Team möchte mit diesem Blogeintrag Anwender der LinuxUser-grml-DVD über dieses Problem informieren.

• Der grml64-Flavour besitzt zwei Kernel-Einträge (einer ist ein Überbleibsel der Bootloader-Vorlagen die für das Remastern verwendet wurden) und gemäß Murphy wird der falsche Eintrag verwendet. Wenn man bei ausgewähltem grml64-Eintrag am Bootprompt die Tabulator-Taste drückt, sieht man:

/boot/suse/linux ...

statt dem korrekten Eintrag:

/boot/release/grml64/linux26

Um dieses Problem zu umgehen, am Bootprompt bei den grml64-Einträge das ‘/boot/suse/linux’ einfach durch ‘/boot/release/grml64/linux26’ ersetzen, dann bootet das System korrekt. Anmerkung: der Booteintrag ‘failsafe64’ hat dieses Problem NICHT und bootet defaultmäßig wie gewünscht!

• Die Bootoption ‘forensic64’ bootoption nutzt fälschlicherweise ’live-media-path=/live/grml/’ statt dem korrektem ’live-media-path=/live/grml64/’. Das System bootet auch mit dem falschen Eintrag anstandslos, allerdings wird dann statt dem 64bit-Userspace der 32bit-Userspace vom Grml-Flavour verwendet. Um dieses Problem zu korrigieren bitte am Bootprompt die forensic64-Bootoption mit der Tabulator-Taste editieren und ’live-media-path=/live/grml/’ durch ’live-media-path=/live/grml64/’ ersetzen. Dem Grml-Team tut dieser Fehler sehr leid und es bittet um Entschuldigung bei den Anwendern. Die grml-DVD war das erste offizielle multi-ISO in dieser Größe mit einem neuen Bootlayout (isolinux mit vesamenu). Leider wurde das Konfigurationsproblem in den Testläufen nicht entdeckt. Das Grml-Team möchte explizit darauf hinweisen, dass dieser Fehler NICHT die Schuld von LinuxUser ist.

Event: grml at FrOSCon 2009

Several core developers of the grml team will be available at FrOSCon (Free and Open Source Software Conference) on 22nd and 23rd of August 2009 in Sankt Augustin/Germany. We’ll have a grml booth featuring grml CDs, usb pens with multiboot ISO setup, grml t-shirts, flyers…. Mika will present some nifty tips and tricks what you can do with grml (including topics like useful bootoptions, Zsh, USB booting and remote access via iSCSI) in his german talk “grml - das Schweizer Taschenmesser der Linux-Notfallsysteme”. Please come and visit us!

Call for help: grmlzshrc.5

Please check out Frank’s call for help on the grml mailinglist regarding a reference for grml’s zsh configuration. Please let us know if you can help!

Grml 2009.05 LinuxUser-Edition

The current edition (2009/08) of the german LinuxUser magazine provides a four pages article about Grml and ships a special Grml-DVD providing a multiboot setup of grml, grml64 and the grml based juxlala live system including the ISOs of all grml flavours. The DVD provides ISOs based on grml’s release 2009.05 including bugfixes which got part of the grml-stable repository since the last release.

You can find the german article about grml titled “Chirurgisches Besteck - Live-Werkzeugkasten für die Shell” online as well as part of the community edition PDF.

Make sure to grab your own copy of the LinuxUser magazine! :)

grml 2009.05 in Linux-Magazin 2009/08

The current edition of the well known german Linux Magazin (2009/08) provides grml 2009.05 on the DELUG-DVD.

Request for Comments / Poll: removal of LaTeX on grml

Especially on grml64 we are running out of space and we are thinking about removing LaTeX from grml, which would save us 100MB of uncompressed space. We’re talking about the following Debian packages:

auctex catdvi ctioga dvipng gnuhtml2latex lacheck latex-beamer latexmk latex-mk latextug latex-xcolor libkpathsea4 libtioga-ruby libtioga-ruby1.8 pdfjam pgf preview-latex-style tetex-bin tex-common texify texlive texlive-base texlive-base-bin texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-extra-utils texlive-fonts-recommended texlive-lang-german texlive-latex-base texlive-latex-recommended texpower tth vim-latexsuite We’d like to know your opinion on this issue, so please let us know your opinion through the removal of LaTeX on grml poll.

grml 2009.05 released

grml 2009.05 with codename Lackdose-Allergie, available in flavours grml, grml-medium and grml-small and all of them as 32bit and 64bit version has been released. The official release announcements providing all the relevant news are available at grml.org/changelogs/.

Issues regarding the releases can be found in the grml-wiki. Grab the ISOs from the mirrors listed at grml.org/download/.