changes between grml 2009.05-rc1 and grml 2009.05
If you’re interested in the main changes between rc1 of 2009.05 and the stable release:
- software related changes: security updates; re-added bitlbee, dnsproxy, farpd, tor and trickle; dropped ifupdown-scripts-zg2 and open-vm-tools
- grml64: windows directory (featuring putty, psftp,…) has been removed due to lack of space
- zsh: added support for directory specific shell configuration using profiles
- bugfix: grml-autoconfig: device with label GRMLCFG without file config.tbz causes error message [issue672]
- bugfix: grml2hd: mount /dev/pts and /dev to chroot to support execution within GNU screen; fix setting password via chpasswd
- bugfix: unmount boot device when using findiso=… in combination with toram
release candidate 1 of grml 2009.05 available
We have new release candidates: the first release candidate of version 2009.05 codename “Lackdose-Allergie” is available. Take a look at the release announcement for details about all the nifty 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. Download the ISOs from devel directories of the mirrors listed at grml.org/download/.
grml2usb supports installation of running system to USB device
News from grml2usb: I just implemented the feature to be able to install the currently running grml system to a USB device running ‘grml2usb /live/image /dev/sdx1’. This means the rewritten grml2usb script provides all the features the old script used to provide and will become part of the upcoming stable release therefor. Of course the new grml2usb script provides several new, additional features - like support for multi-ISOs, specifiying default bootoptions,… (so you can even run ‘grml2usb --bootoptions=“persistent” /live/image /home/grml/grml_2009.05.iso /dev/sdx1’!). Check out grml.org/grml2usb/ for further details and make sure to grab grml2usb 0.9.6.
grml in german magazine c't kompakt 01/2009
Great news: the well known german IT news publisher Heise released a Linux magazine special named c’t kompakt 01/2009. On pages 120 and 121 you’ll find a nice article about grml titled “Grml: Schweizer Messer für Admins” (meaning: “grml: swiss army knife for admins”). The included DVD provides a grml 2008.11 ISO as well.
grml at OSDC 2009, recent developer news
- Event: Mika was talking about grml in a german talk named ‘grml - das Schweizer Taschenmesser der Linux-Notfallsysteme’ at the Open Source Data Center Conference in germany last week. The (german) slides of the talk are available for download: grml - das Schweizer Taschenmesser der Linux-Notfallsysteme (PDF).
- grml featured in another book: grml is featured on page 191 in the german Xen cookbook by Hans-Joachim Picht published at O’Reilly.
- grml featuring HDT (Hardware Detection Tool): current grml-live and grml2usb include support for a new bootoption named ‘hdt’ bringing up a minimalistic “Hardware Detection Tool”. This feature is expected to be available with the upcoming stable release of grml.
- kernel update: kernel 2.6.28-grml[64] was updated to the latest stable patch 2.6.28.10
- release candidate: release candidate version 1 (rc1) of grml 2009.05 (the upcoming stable release) should be available within the next few days
new devel-release: 2009.04.23
I just pushed a new devel release to our mirror. Quoting the main changelog:
- updated to kernel based on 2.6.28
- grml2usb: initial public version of the redesign, providing multi-ISO support and many more features, check out grml.org/grml2usb/
- persistency feature: booting with bootoption ‘persistent’ activates a feature providing persistency for the ISO (so you can store all your changes on a partition and re-use them- cool, or?). Check out live-initramfs.en.7.html and live-snapshot.en.1.html (search for ‘persistent’ and ’live-rw’) until we have our own docs/instructions available. Note: Any help in this area is highly welcome!
- grml-autoconfig: dropped /etc/grml/autoconfig.small
- grml-live: several bugfixes, integration of bsd4grml - a special version of MirBSD (available via ‘bsd’ on the bootprompt - more details will follow later)
- grml-etc-core: using “zsh: $REPOSNAME” as GNU screen title name when standing inside a repository of a version control system (thanks, ft!)
- re-added support for hardware based speakup modules, loadable via speakup.synth=…
- new bootoption ‘hwspeak’ for probing speakup hardware modules
- new bootoption ‘readonly’: mark ALL /dev/[hs]*dX devices as read-only, this is important for forensic investigations and automatically activated as well when booting via ‘forensic’
grml booth at Grazer Linuxdays 2009
You can meet several core developers of grml at the grml booth at Grazer Linuxdays 2009 on 25th of april in Graz/Austria. We’ll have multi-ISO usb devices with us and present some nifty features of the upcoming grml release. Hope to see you there!
Poll: IDE vs. LIBATA
Update on 2009-04-06: sorry, adjusted the wording. Should be *IDE* vs. LIBATA of course. Sorry for the confusion. The GRML Team wants to collect feedback regarding the recent switch from IDE to LIBATA. IDE? LIBATA?
- IDE (CONFIG_IDE) provides the old IDE subsystem (/dev/hdX), considered as legacy code.
- LIBATA is the new subsystem (/dev/sdX - though supports IDE as well) with new features, but some old IDE systems might not work with it.
Please participate in the poll! We highly appreciate and need your feedback.
grml mentioned in c't 07/2009
grml has its own section in an article named Live-Shows - Live-Linuxe für jeden Zweck of the german magazine c’t, edition 07/2009. Check out pages 125 and 126.
Link: "Why we're using GRML in the datacenter"
Nice blog post by Christian Hofstaedtler: Why we’re using GRML in the datacenter
updated kernel 2.6.28-grml available
An updated 2.6.28-grml kernel is available through the grml-testing repository, this update incorporates the latest stable patch (being 2.6.28.7). I’ll provide the according 2.6.28-grml64 kernel soon as well.
grml development - shiny new stuff....
After the bug squashing party lots of further development took place. The most important stuff:* grml2usb: initial public version of the redesign, providing multi-ISO support and many more features, check out grml.org/grml2usb and my mail to the grml mailinglist
- boot process: when using the “forensic” or the new “readonly” bootoption all local harddisks will be forced to read-only mode
- grml-autoconfig: dropped /etc/grml/autoconfig.small
- grml-live: several bugfixes, integration of bsd4grml (available via ‘bsd’ on the bootprompt - more details will follow later),… - check out the changelog
- grml-etc-core: using “zsh: $REPOSNAME” as GNU screen title name when standing inside a repository of a version control system (thanks, ft!)
- git-commits: the git-commits mailinglist finally provides the according hook so updates are sent to the list
results of the bugsquashing party on 2009-02-12
Some stats for the bugsquashing party on 2009-02-12:* starting at 223 open bugs
- finished at 199 open bugs
- filed 3 new bugreports
- overall result: closed 27 bugreports
Participants (alphabetically):
- Alexander ‘z3ttacht’ Steinböck
- Andreas ‘jimmy’ Gredler
- Frank ‘ft’ Terbeck
- Henning ’lazyboy’ Sprang
- Michael ‘mika’ Prokop
- Ulrich ‘mrud’ Dangel
Thanks for your contributions!
grml bug squashing party on 2009-02-12
On 2009-02-12 starting at 02:00p.m. (with open end) a grml bug squashing party takes place via IRC. Coordination takes place on channel #grmldev on freenode. Everyone is welcome to join. Further details are available at the bug squashing party in the grml-wiki.
grml in linux user magazine 2009/02
In the current german Linux User magazine edition 2009/02 is a two pages article about grml titled “Linux alpin”. The DVD edition provides a multiboot DVD featuring grml 2008.11 as well.