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28 <h1 align="center">FAQ for grml</h1>
30 <p><strong>Up2date:</strong> 20071019 - applies to versions grml
31 1.0 / grml64 0.1 / grml-small 0.4</p>
33 <p><a name="toc"></a><strong>Index:</strong></p>
35 <p class="toc"><a href="#general">General:</a></p>
37 <li><a href="#whatis">What is grml?</a></li>
38 <li><a href="#get">Where do I get grml?</a></li>
39 <li><a href="#whatmeans">What does grml mean?</a></li>
40 <li><a href="#pronounce">How do you pronounce grml?</a></li>
41 <li><a href="#releasename">What about the release name?</a></li>
42 <li><a href="#requirements">Requirements for running grml</a></li>
43 <li><a href="#why">Why another Linux distribution?</a></li>
44 <li><a href="#license">What's the license of grml?</a></li>
45 <li><a href="#difference">What's the difference between grml and $OTHER-DISTRIBUTION? What are your main goals?</a></li>
46 <li><a href="#knoppix">What's the difference between grml and Knoppix?</a></li>
47 <li><a href="#accessibility">What does accessibility at grml mean?</a></li>
48 <li><a href="#emulation">Is it possible to run grml with $EMULATOR?</a></li>
49 <li><a href="#usbboot">How do I boot grml from a USB stick?</a></li>
50 <li><a href="#store">Is it possible to store my settings?</a></li>
53 <p class="toc"><a href="#grml64">grml64</a></p>
55 <li><a href="#whatisgrml64">What is grml64?</a></li>
56 <li><a href="#grml64vsnormal">What is the difference between 32 bit grml and 64 bit grml?</a></li>
59 <p class="toc"><a href="#grmlsmall">grml-small:</a></p>
61 <li><a href="#whatissmall">What is grml-small?</a></li>
62 <li><a href="#smallvsnormal">What is the difference between 'normal' grml and grml-small?</a></li>
63 <li><a href="#grmlvsdsl">What is the difference between grml-small and DSL?</a></li>
66 <p class="toc"><a href="#grmlmedium">grml-medium</a></p>
68 <li><a href="#whatismedium">What is grml-medium?</a></li>
71 <p class="toc"><a href="#system">System</a>:</p>
73 <li><a href="#configure">Which tools exist to configure grml?</a></li>
74 <li><a href="#password">What are the passwords of users on grml?</a></li>
75 <li><a href="#version">How do I find out the version of grml</a></li>
76 <li><a href="#remove_cd">Is it possible to run LiveCD and eject CD-ROM?</a></li>
77 <li><a href="#language">How do I change the language/keyboard settings?</a></li>
78 <li><a href="#kde_and_foo">KDE, Gnome, $FOO and $BAR</a></li>
79 <li><a href="#wms">Which window managers can I use?</a></li>
80 <li><a href="#usbmount">How do I mount a USB device / USB stick?</a></li>
81 <li><a href="#booting">Which ways exist to boot grml?</a></li>
82 <li><a href="#timezone">How do I configure timezone on my grml system?</a></li>
83 <li><a href="#utf8">I have problems with UTF-8 / Unicode</a></li>
84 <li><a href="#missingfiles">I noticed some files are missing on grml</a></li>
85 <li><a href="#bugreport">Bugreport</a></li>
86 <li><a href="#hdinstall">Is it possible to install grml to harddisk?</a></li>
87 <li><a href="#grml2hdhang">grml2hd seems to hang?!</a></li>
88 <li><a href="#hardware">I have problems with my hardware!</a></li>
89 <li><a href="#boot">grml does not boot on my computer!</a></li>
92 <p class="toc"><a href="#kernel">Kernel</a>:</p>
94 <li><a href="#kernelconfig">Where can I find the configuration for the kernel used on grml?</a></li>
95 <li><a href="#kernelpatches">Are there any special components/patches in the kernel used on grml?</a></li>
96 <li><a href="#platform">For which platforms is the grml kernel optimized?</a></li>
99 <p class="toc"><a href="#software">Software:</a></p>
101 <li><a href="#sw_general">General</a></li>
102 <li><a href="#sw_version">What version of $PACKAGE is available?</a></li>
103 <li><a href="#init">Init-System</a></li>
104 <li><a href="#zsh">Why is zsh the default shell?</a></li>
105 <li><a href="#zsh_binsh">Wasn't zsh the /bin/sh interpreter?</a></li>
106 <li><a href="#bash">Is a bash available?</a></li>
107 <li><a href="#setuid">setuid/SUID</a></li>
108 <li><a href="#bitchx">bitchx</a></li>
109 <li><a href="#ispell">ispell</a></li>
110 <li><a href="#latex">LaTeX</a></li>
111 <li><a href="#slapd">slapd</a></li>
114 <p class="toc"><a href="#release">Release related issues</a>:</p>
116 <li><a href="#known_issues">Are there any known issues with this release?</a></li>
117 <li><a href="#proc_usb">Why isn't /proc/bus/usb mounted anymore?</a></li>
120 <p class="toc"><a href="#xserver">X-Server</a></p>
122 <li><a href="#xstart">How do I start the X server?</a></li>
123 <li><a href="#xproblem">X does not start on my box?!</a></li>
124 <li><a href="#xresolution">I don't like the resolution of X!</a></li>
127 <p class="toc"><a href="#framebuffer">Framebuffer</a></p>
129 <li><a href="#video">The boot option video does not work as expected anymore</a></li>
130 <li><a href="#fbprobs">I don't see anything when booting grml?!</a></li>
133 <p class="toc"><a href="#stuff">Unanswered stuff</a></p>
135 <li><a href="#questions">Further questions?</a></li>
136 <li><a href="#donate">You like grml? Make a donation to support our work!</a></li>
139 <h2><a name="general"></a><a href="#toc">General</a></h2>
141 <h3><a name="whatis"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml?</a></h3>
143 <p>grml is a bootable CD (Live-CD) once based on <a
144 href="http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/">Knoppix</a> and nowadays based on <a
145 href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>. grml includes a collection of
146 GNU/Linux software especially for users of texttools and system
147 administrators. grml provides automatic hardware detection. You can use grml
148 as a rescue system, for analyzing systems/networks, or as a working
149 environment. It is not necessary to install anything to a harddisk. Due to
150 on-the-fly decompression grml includes about 2.1 GB of software and
151 documentation on the CD.</p>
153 <h3><a name="get"></a><a href="#toc">Where do I get grml?</a></h3>
155 <p>You can download grml of course: take a look at <a
156 href="/download/">grml.org/download/</a>. If you want
157 to get an original grml-CD including <a
158 href="/files/#covers">the grml-cover</a>, need a
159 special amount of CDs or want your own special grml-CD (including
160 your logo, your software and/or special settings) <a
161 href="/contact/">please don't hesitate to contact
162 us</a>! Take a look at <a
163 href="http://solutions.grml.org/">grml-solutions</a> for more
164 information regarding our offers.</p>
166 <h3><a name="whatmeans"></a><a href="#toc">What does grml mean?</a></h3>
168 <p>grml is short for 'grummel' and comes close to 'argl' or 'grrr' in English. People
169 use this when they want to express their dissatisfaction/discontentedness with software
170 (amongst other things):</p>
173 $ grep -ch grml .centericq/**/history | xargs echo | \
174 sed 's/[0-9]*/& + /g' | sed 's/+ $//g' | bc -l
177 <h3><a name="pronounce"></a><a href="#toc">How do you pronounce grml?</a></h3>
180 % flite -o play -t gremel</pre>
183 $ echo 'ghroummel' | festival \-\-tts
186 <h3><a name="releasename"></a><a href="#toc">What about the release name?</a></h3>
188 <p>Codename of grml 1.0 is Meilenschwein. 'Meilenstein' is german for
189 milestone. Schwein is german word for pig/pork. (Thanks for the idea
190 to Frank '<a href="/team/#ft">ft</a>' Terbeck.)</p>
192 <p>Codename of grml-small 0.4 is Springinkerl. Springinkerl as
193 austrian word for an uneasy child.</p>
195 <p>Codename of grml64 0.1 is LiveShell. grml64 is the 'shell of life'
196 and can be used in Live mode.</p>
198 <h3><a name="requirements"></a><a href="#toc">Requirements for running grml</a></h3>
202 <li>Intel-compatible CPU (i586 or later, preferably Pentium class or higher)</li>
204 <li>at least 64MB of RAM (for stable use with ramdisks for unionfs and udev
205 and running X window system we recommend at least 128MB)</li>
207 <li>grml-small: at least 32MB RAM should be available</li>
209 <li>bootable CD-ROM drive (or <a
210 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=tips">a boot floppy</a> and standard
211 CD-ROM [IDE/ATAPI or SCSI]) [or network - see <a
212 href="#terminalserver">grml-terminalserver</a>]</li>
216 <h3><a name="why"></a><a href="#toc">Why another Linux distribution?</a></h3>
218 <p>There already exist "<a
219 href="http://www.distrowatch.com/">some</a>" distributions. We decided
220 to base our work on the existing infrastructure of <a
221 href="http://debian.org/">Debian</a> and <a
222 href="http://www.knoppix.net/">Knoppix</a> because we don't want to reinvent
223 the wheel. Some admins already use their own rescue-CD and Knoppix works but
224 does not bring that many important tools for admins and users of texttools
225 out of the box, so we decided to share our work with others.</p>
227 <h3><a name="license"></a><a href="#toc">What's the license of grml?</a></h3>
229 <p>Anything written by the grml team is published under the GPL (<a
230 href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU General Public License</a>).
231 You don't have to pay anything for running grml. <a
232 href="/donations/">Donations</a> and <a href="/contact/">feedback</a> are
233 welcome of course. If you want a special LiveCD or need support, take a
234 look at <a href="http://solutions.grml.org/">grml-solutions</a>.</p>
236 <h3><a name="difference"></a><a href="#toc">What's the difference between grml and
237 $OTHER-DISTRIBUTION? What are your main goals?</a></h3>
239 <p>The main goal of grml is to be a distribution well suited for
240 users of texttools and sysadmins. grml includes many important
241 texttools (of course awk, sed, grep, ... but also zsh, mutt[ng],
242 slrn, vim and many others) and useful programs for admin's
243 daily work. grml uses the existing infrastructure of <a
244 href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>. grml was once based on <a
245 href="http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/">Knoppix</a> (see '<a
246 href="#knoppix">What's the difference between grml and
247 Knoppix?</a>' for more details). We are also merging
248 useful things from other distributions/live-cds to provide a
249 perfect environment.</p>
251 <h3><a name="knoppix"></a><a href="#toc">What's the difference between grml and Knoppix?</a></h3>
253 <p>grml comes with a vastly different set of software. Missing KDE
254 and OpenOffice provides the opportunity of shipping more than 800
255 packages which Knoppix does not provide on its CD version. grml
256 boots a 2.6.x kernel but no X for faster startup. Knoppix is based
257 on Debian/testing-experimental (using apt-pinning), but grml is
258 basically based on plain Debian/unstable providing more current
259 versions of software and less painfull upgrades. grml was once
260 based on Knoppix but nowadays (except for a similar initial
261 ramdisk) has nothing in common with Knoppix:</p>
265 # find / -iname \*knoppix\*
268 <p>We consider Knoppix as a brand name for live-cds nowadays and
269 provide most of Knoppix' features as well. grml uses (mostly) the
270 same cheatcodes for booting as Knoppix and even provides some extra
271 ones. So if you are used to the basic Knoppix features you might
272 find them on the grml-system as well. Ripping out the Knoppix
273 stuff makes it possible to create a grml system out of a
274 Debian system and vice versa. Running 'apt-get install grml' on a
275 Debian box will be officially supported in an upcoming version of
278 <h3><a name="accessibility"></a><a href="#toc">What does accessibility at grml mean?</a></h3>
280 <p>The grml kernel includes <a href="/kernel/#speakup">support for
281 speakup</a> and provides software like brltty (using bootoption 'grml blind
282 brltty=type,port,tbl'), emacspeak and flite.</p>
284 <h3><a name="emulation"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to run grml with $EMULATOR?</a></h3>
286 <p><a href="http://www.vmware.com/">VMware</a> should work without any
287 problems. It's also possible to run grml with <a
288 href="http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/">QEMU</a>, an emulator for various
289 CPUs which works on Linux, Windows, FreeBSD and Mac OS X. Running grml with
290 QEMU has been tested successfully on Windows and Linux. Take a look at <a
291 href="/qemu/">the QEMU-grml-webpage</a>.</p>
293 <h3><a name="usbboot"></a><a href="#toc">How do I boot grml from a USB stick?</a></h3>
295 <p>Take a look at the script <a
296 href="/scripts/grml2usb">grml2usb</a>. For more
297 details, take a look at the <a
298 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb">usb-webpage in the
301 <h3><a name="store"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to store my settings?</a></h3>
303 <p>Yes. grml provides a powerful config framework. See <a
304 href="/config/">grml.org/config/</a>, <a
305 href="file:///usr/share/doc/grml-saveconfig/grml-config.html">/usr/share/doc/grml-saveconfig/grml-config.html</a>
306 and 'man save-config restore-config mkpersistenthome' for more
309 <h2><a name="grml64"></a><a href="#toc">grml64?</a></h2>
311 <h3><a name="whatisgrml64"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml64?</a></h3>
313 <p>grml64 is a 64bit-version of grml, based on <a
314 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/amd64/">the amd64 port of
317 <h3><a name="grml64vsnormal"></a><a href="#toc">What is the difference between 32 bit grml and 64 bit grml?</a></h3>
319 <p>The main difference of course is that grml64 is a 64bit-version
320 whereas (normal) grml is 32bit-only. grml64 provides a 64bit kernel
321 which supports 32bit userspace applications. grml64 also provides
322 libc6-i386, libc6-dev-i386, several lib32* packages and ia32-libs. Due
323 to space reasons and because some packages aren't available for amd64
324 yet some packages are missing on grml64 compared to (normal, 32bit)
325 grml. For more details please take a look at <a
326 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml64">the grml64 webpage in the
329 <h2><a name="grmlsmall"></a><a href="#toc">grml-small?</a></h2>
331 <h3><a name="whatissmall"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml-small?</a></h3>
333 <p>Whereas grml provides about 2.1 GB of software on a 700 MB ISO, grml-small
334 is a flavor with online ~58 MB ISO-size (~200 MB uncompressed). It does not
335 provide a lot of software but the essential stuff for being a rescue system
336 on a business card CD-ROM or a small USB device. You can use the Debian
337 package management system to install software on the fly (assuming you have
338 network access to a Debian mirror). Take a look at the <a
339 href="/files/">'Debian-Information'-section</a> if you are
340 searching for the package list.</p>
342 <h3><a name="smallvsnormal"></a><a href="#toc">What is the
343 difference between 'normal' grml and grml-small?</a></h3>
345 <p>The 700 MB-grml brings more than 2500 packages of software and a <a
346 href="/kernel/">full-featured kernel</a>. grml-small includes
347 about 215 software packages, lacks documentation and manpages on the ISO,
348 has a stripped-down <a href="/kernel/">kernel</a> (but still
349 provides hardware detection of course) and does not provide a X server. <a
350 href="#terminalserver">grml-terminalserver</a> is <strong>not</strong>
351 available/supported on grml-small.</p>
353 <h3><a name="grmlvsdsl"></a><a href="#toc">What is the
354 difference between grml-small and DSL?</a></h3>
356 <p>DSL and grml-small have different target audiences. <a
357 href="http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/">Damn Small Linux</a> (DSL) uses kernel
358 version 2.4 whereas grml-small provides a recent version of kernel version
359 2.6. DSL provides the X window system which grml-small does not. grml-small
360 provides the most important packages for sysadmins and ships the original
361 Debian package management which allows you to install packages of the Debian
362 pool with no modifications.</p>
364 <h2><a name="grmlmedium"></a><a href="#toc">grml-medium?</a></h2>
366 <h3><a name="whatismedium"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml-medium?</a></h3>
368 <p>grml-medium is an upcoming grml-flavour currently being worked
369 on. Its target is to close the gap between grml-small and
370 normal/large/full version of grml. grml-medium will be an ISO with
371 a maximum ISO size of 200MB. Stay tuned for more details...</p>
373 <h2><a name="system"></a><a href="#toc">System</a></h2>
375 <h3><a name="configure"></a><a href="#toc">Which tools exist to configure grml?</a></h3>
377 <p>grml provides several scripts and tools which should make life
378 easier. See 'dpkg -L grml-scripts' to get an overview of some main
379 scripts. Run 'grml-config' to get a dialog interface for the most
380 important scripts and tasks. Or just type 'grml-' and press tab-key to
381 get a completion menu.</p>
383 <h3><a name="password"></a><a href="#toc">What are the passwords of users on grml?</a></h3>
385 <p>There are no default passwords. All accounts are locked by
386 default. Even local logins are not possible (unless you set a
387 password or create new user accounts as root). You can create
388 valid passwords using "sudo passwd [username]" from the shell
391 <h3><a name="version"></a><a href="#toc">How do I find out the version of grml</a></h3>
393 <p>Run 'grml-version' or use the following command:</p>
396 $ cat /etc/grml_version</pre>
398 <h3><a name="remove_cd"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to run LiveCD and eject CD-ROM?</a></h3>
401 $ sudo umount -l /cdrom
402 $ sudo eject /dev/cdrom # now don't run any new programs ;)
403 $ mount /dev/cdrom # mount it again if needed ;)
406 <h3><a name="language"></a><a href="#toc">How do I change the language/keyboard settings?</a></h3>
408 <p>By default grml uses English settings. But it is possible to
409 change the settings via using either the bootparam(s) lang,
410 keyboard and xkeyboard or via running grml-lang when grml is
411 already running. Usage examples:</p>
414 grml lang=de # enter this at the bootprompt and you will get
415 # German keyboard layout and German $LANG, $LC_ALL,
417 grml keyboard=de xkeyboard=de lang=at # enter this at the bootprompt
418 # and you will get German keyboard and Austrian
420 % grml-lang de # enter this in the shell to switch keyboard layout
421 # and $LANG settings in a running grml-system
424 <p>If you are running grml from harddisk (using <a
425 href="#hdinstall">grml2hd</a>) you have several options how to set
426 language options:</p>
430 <li>adjust /etc/default/locale to configure global language and
431 environment settings</li>
433 <li>set environment variables like $LC_ALL, $LANG, $LANGUAGE in your
434 personal configuration files (like ~/.zshrc.local, see <a
435 href="/zsh/">grml zsh reference card</a> for details)
436 if you do not want to use them system wide/global</li>
438 <li>adjust /etc/sysconfig/keyboard to configure keyboard layout
439 on console, or run 'loadkeys $KEYTABLE' manually</li>
441 <li>add "setxkbmap $LANGUAGE" to the keybindings section in
442 your ~/.xinitrc to configure keyboard setup for the X window system
443 (deactivate the xmodmap lines if necessary)</li>
447 <p>Notice: run grml-setlang to get a dialog based frontend for
448 /etc/default/locale and grml-setkeyboard to get a dialog based frontend
449 for /etc/sysconfig/keyboard.</p>
451 <h3><a name="kde_and_foo"></a><a href="#toc">KDE, Gnome, $FOO and $BAR</a></h3>
453 <p>Why isn't KDE, Gnome, $FOO or $BAR part of grml? grml is a
454 distribution for users of texttools and sysadmins. If you would like to
455 run KDE with Debian use e.g. <a href="http://sidux.com/">Sidux</a>, <a
456 href="http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/">Knoppix</a> or <a
457 href="http://www.kubuntu.org/">Kubuntu</a>. Gnome users might find <a
458 href="http://www.ubuntulinux.org/">Ubuntu</a> useful. If you would like
459 to see a specific (software) package added to grml please <a
460 href="/report/">report it to us</a>!</p>
462 <h3><a name="wms"></a><a href="#toc">Which window managers can I use?</a></h3>
464 <p>grml is shipped only with window managers which are lightweight and
465 fast - so well suited for a live-CD. At the moment, grml provides the
466 following window managers:
467 <a href="http://www.suckless.org/wiki/dwm">dwm</a>,
468 <a href="http://www.6809.org.uk/evilwm/">evilwm</a>,
469 <a href="http://www.fluxbox.org/">fluxbox</a>,
470 <a href="http://www.fvwm.org/">fvwm</a>,
471 <a href="http://fvwm-crystal.org/">fvwm-crystal</a>,
472 <a href="http://modeemi.cs.tut.fi/~tuomov/ion/">ion3</a>,
473 <a href="http://joewing.net/programs/jwm/index.shtml">jwm</a>,
474 <a href="http://pekwm.org/">pekwm</a>,
475 <a href="http://www.nongnu.org/ratpoison/">ratpoison</a>,
476 <a href="http://www.plig.org/xwinman/vtwm.html">twm</a>,
477 <a href="http://www.grassouille.org/code/w9wm/README">w9wm</a>,
478 <a href="http://www.nickgravgaard.com/windowlab/">windowlab</a> and
479 <a href="http://www.suckless.org/wiki/wmii">wmii</a>.</p>
481 <p>If you are new to grml and/or prefer an easy-to-use-desktop run 'grml-x
482 wm-ng' for starting fluxbox with idesk and gkrellm.</p>
484 <h3><a name="usbmount"></a><a href="#toc">How do I mount a USB device / USB stick?</a></h3>
486 <p>Run 'mount /mnt/usb-sda1' for example if you want to mount /dev/sda1.
487 udev on grml does multiplexing for USB block devices, so /dev/usb-sda1
488 (device for mountpoint /mnt/usb-sda1) is a symlink to /dev/sda1.</p>
490 <a name="terminalserver"></a>
491 <h3><a name="booting"></a><a href="#toc">Which ways exist to boot grml?</a></h3>
493 <p>The most common way to boot grml is, of course, running from
494 CD-ROM, but grml provides many more ways to boot grml:</p>
496 <p>It is possible to boot grml via USB (e.g. USB stick or harddisk),
497 firewire, or running from a Compact Flash disk. It works out of the
498 box; you don't need to modify anything. If accessing the device
499 fails, use the 'scandelay' cheatcode on bootprompt. So, boot with
500 'grml scandelay'. If the timeout is still not long enough add the
501 time to wait in seconds as parameter: 'grml scandelay=15'. See <a
502 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb">usb-webpage in the
503 grml-wiki</a> for more details.</p>
505 <p>Your computer can not boot from CD-ROM but provides a floppy
506 disk? Take a look at <a
507 href="http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/">btmgr</a>, <a
508 href="http://ubcd4win.com/faq.htm#floppy">ubcd4win</a> or <a
509 href="http://linux.simple.be/tools/sbm">sbm</a>. They provide
510 support for booting from CD-ROM via a special floppy disk.</p>
512 <p>grml-terminalserver makes it possible to boot your system via
513 network. If you have a floppy drive, you can even boot your system over
514 network when your network card does not provide PXE-support! For more
515 information, refer to the <a
516 href="/terminalserver/">grml-terminalserver-webpage</a>.</p>
518 <h3><a name="timezone"></a><a href="#toc">How do I configure
519 timezone on my grml system?</a></h3>
521 <h4>Available bootoptions relevant in live-cd mode:</h4>
524 <li>utc: set UTC, if your system clock is set to UTC (GMT)
525 <li>gmt: set UTC, if your system clock is set to UTC (GMT) [like bootoption utc]
526 <li>tz=$option: set timezone to corresponding $option, usage example:
530 <h4>Configuration options relevant on harddisk installation:</h4>
535 # dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
538 <p>to adjust /etc/timezone and /etc/localtime according to the
539 provided information.</p>
541 <p><strong>/etc/default/rcS:</strong> set variable UTC according
542 to your needs, whether your system clock is set to UTC
543 (UTC='yes') or not (UTC='no')</p>
545 <p><strong>/etc/localtime:</strong> adjust zoneinfo according to
549 # ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/$WHATEVER_YOU_WANT /etc/localtime
552 <p>The zoneinfo directory contains the time zone files that were
553 compiled by zic. The files contain information such as rules
554 about DST. They allow the kernel to convert UTC UNIX time into
555 appropriate local dates and times. Use the zdump utility to
556 print current time and date (in the specified time zone).</p>
558 <p><strong>/etc/adjtime:</strong> This file is used e.g. by the
559 adjtimex function, which can smoothly adjust system time while
562 <p>If you change the time (using 'date --set ...', ntpdate,...)
563 it is worth setting also the hardware clock to the correct
567 # hwclock --systohc [--utc]
570 <p>Remember to add the --utc -option if the hardware clock is set to
573 <h4>Still problems?</h4>
575 <p>Check your current settings via:</p>
582 grep hwclock /etc/runlevel.conf
583 grep '^UTC' /etc/default/rc
586 <h4>Further information:</h4>
588 <p>Manpages: hwclock(8) tzselect(1) tzconfig(8); <a
589 href="http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/system-administrator/ch-sysadmin-time.html">Debian
590 GNU/Linux System Administrator's Manual Chapter 16 - Time</a> and <a
591 href="http://wiki.debian.org/TimeZoneChanges">TimeZoneChanges in the
594 <h3><a name="utf8"></a><a href="#toc">I have problems with UTF-8 / Unicode</a></h3>
597 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=utf8">UTF8-webpage in the
600 <h3><a name="missingfiles"></a><a href="#toc">I noticed some files are missing on grml</a></h3>
602 <p>Yes, output of 'debsums -a 1>/dev/null' might output some
603 failures. The reason is pretty simple: some modification have been done
604 because of space limitiations on the ISO. The failures are nothing to
605 really care about, but as we don't hide anything we document them of
608 <p>On <strong>grml</strong> the following modifications have been done:
612 <li>linux-headers-2.6.20-grml: include files
613 (/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.20-grml/include/) of foreign (!x86)
614 architectures have been removed
616 <li>texlive-base-bin: documentation directory
617 /usr/share/doc/texlive-base-bin/pdftex/thanh/ has been removed
619 <li>texlive-latex-base: documentation directories
620 /usr/share/doc/texlive-latex-base/latex/base/,
621 /usr/share/doc/texlive-latex-base/latex/hyperref/ and
622 /usr/share/doc/texlive-latex-base/generic/babel/ have been removed
624 <li>texlive-latex-recommended: documentation directory
625 /usr/share/doc/texlive-latex-recommended/latex/koma-script/ has been
630 <p>On <strong>grml64</strong> the following modifications have been done:</p>
634 <li>some files of valgrind (/usr/lib/valgrind/x86-linux/*) have been stripped
636 <li>.so files of ion3 (/usr/lib/ion3/*.so) have been stripped
641 <p>On <strong>grml-small</strong> nearly all the documentation has been
642 removed to be able to provide a ~60MB iso with kernel 2.6 and all the
643 provided software.</p>
645 <p>Please notice that grml ships a script named
646 <strong>grml2hd-fix</strong> as part of package grml2hd-utils which
647 should fix the relevant of the above errors if you <a
648 href="#hdinstall">use grml as a harddisk installation</a>.</p>
650 <h3><a name="bugreport"></a><a href="#toc">Bugreport</a></h3>
652 <p>Take a look at the <a href="/bugs/">bugs-webpage</a>.</p>
654 <h3><a name="hdinstall"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to install grml to harddisk?</a></h3>
656 <p>Yes. grml provides a tool called grml2hd (see '<a
657 href="/grml2hd/grml2hd.html">man grml2hd</a>'). grml is
658 developed on a box running the grml-system itself, and we - the
659 grml-developers - especially like grml2hd because it gives us a working
660 Linux box within 10 to 30 minutes. grml2hd is perfect for prototyping:
661 test hardware support of Linux, test a specific setup, ... You can even
662 use grml2hd in a fully automatic mode without any further interaction.
663 More information is available on <a
664 href="/grml2hd/">grml.org/grml2hd/</a> and <a
665 href="/grml2hd/grml2hd.html">man grml2hd</a>. Notice: If
666 you are using grml in a production environment and/or use a grml2hd
667 installation, we strongly recommend you subscribe to <a
668 href="/mailinglist/">the grml user mailinglist</a>! Note
669 that grml is based on Debian unstable, so you should be familiar with
670 Debian unstable if you plan to use grml as a harddisk system. If you
671 want to get a plain Debian system take a look at <a
672 href="/grml-debootstrap/">grml-debootstrap</a>.</p>
674 <h3><a name="grml2hdhang"></a><a href="#toc">grml2hd seems to hang?!</a></h3>
676 <p>grml2hd seems to hang? Switch to tty12 and take a look at the syslog output.
677 If you see something like:</p>
680 SQUASHFS error: zlib_fs returned unexpected result 0x........
681 SQUASHFS error: Unable to read cache block [.....]
682 SQUASHFS error: Unable to read inode [.....]</pre>
684 <p>your ISO/CD-ROM very probably is not ok. Verify it via booting with
685 grml testcd. Check your CD low-level via running:</p>
688 # readcd -c2scan dev=/dev/cdrom</pre>
690 <p>If the medium really is ok and it still fails try to boot with
691 DMA deactivated via 'grml nodma ide=nodma' at the bootprompt.</p>
693 <h3><a name="hardware"></a><a href="#toc">I have problems with my hardware!</a></h3>
695 <p>Take a look at the script grml-hwinfo. This script generates a
696 file named info.tar.bz2 which contains important information about
697 your hardware. If you think we might help, please run
698 grml-hwinfo and send us the file with additional, relevant
699 information regarding your problem.</p>
701 <h3><a name="boot"></a><a href="#toc">grml does not boot on my computer!</a></h3>
703 <p>Please take a look at <a
704 href="/files/grml-cheatcodes.txt">the available
705 bootparamters and cheatcodes</a> and '<a href="#booting">Which ways
706 exist to boot grml?</a>'. Especially booting with 'acpi=off noapm
707 noapic' might help. Bootparameter 'failsafe' provides minimal
708 hardware detection. You still have problems? Please <a
709 href="/contact/">contact us</a>!</p>
711 <h2><a name="kernel"></a><a href="#toc">Kernel</a></h2>
713 <h3><a name="kernelconfig"></a><a href="#toc">Where can I find the configuration for the kernel used on
716 <p>See /boot/config-`uname -r` and on <a href="/kernel/">the kernel-webpage</a>.</p>
718 <h3><a name="kernelpatches"></a><a href="#toc">Are there any special components/patches in the kernel
719 used on grml?</a></h3>
721 <p>grml uses the most current stable vanilla Linux kernel from <a
722 href="http://www.kernel.org/">www.kernel.org</a> with some
723 additional patches. More information and an all-in-one patch is
725 href="/kernel/">kernel-page</a>.</p>
727 <h3><a name="platform"></a><a href="#toc">For which platforms is the grml kernel optimized?</a></h3>
729 <p>Plain i586 compatibility-mode with SMP enabled. (Notice: this works
730 for uniprocessor systems as well, thanks to <a
731 href="http://lwn.net/Articles/164121/">SMP alternatives</a>.)</p>
733 <h2><a name="software"></a><a href="#toc">Software</a></h2>
735 <h3><a name="sw_general"></a><a href="#toc">General</a></h3>
737 <p>Want to run a program as root? Just use "sudo $PROGRAM". To get a
738 root-shell run "sudo su".</p>
740 <p>Problems with a specific package? Please try "dpkg-reconfigure $foo".
741 Still encountering difficulties? Please send us a <a
742 href="/bugs/">bugreport</a>!</p>
744 <h3><a name="sw_version"></a><a href="#toc">What version of $PACKAGE is
747 <p>Take a look at the dpkg_... files in the <a
748 href="/files/#debian">Debian-Information section on
749 grml.org/files/</a>. </p>
751 <h3><a name="init"></a><a href="#toc">Init-System</a></h3>
753 <p>Why is grml using runlevel 2 as default? Because runlevel 2 is 'the
754 textonly one' and it's debian's default.</p>
756 <p>Where are all the /etc/rc#.d-directories? grml doesn't use
757 sysv-rc but file-rc. This means you can configure the init system
758 in one single file named /etc/runlevel.conf with your favourite
759 editor. No symlink-hell anymore.</p>
761 <h3><a name="zsh"></a><a href="#toc">Why is zsh the default shell (/bin/sh)?</a></h3>
763 <p>Short answer: because zsh rocks.</p>
765 <p>Longer answer taken from <a href="http://zsh.sunsite.dk/FAQ/zshfaq01.html#l3">ZSH
766 FAQ: 1.2: What is it?</a>:</p>
768 <cite> Zsh is a UNIX command interpreter (shell) which of the standard shells most
769 resembles the Korn shell (ksh); its compatibility with the 1988 Korn shell has been
770 gradually increasing. It includes enhancements of many types, notably in the
771 command-line editor, options for customising its behaviour, filename globbing, features
772 to make C-shell (csh) users feel more at home and extra features drawn from tcsh
773 (another `custom' shell).</cite>
775 <p>If you don't know zsh take a look at <a
776 href="http://zsh.sunsite.dk/FAQ/zshfaq02.html#l9">ZSH FAQ: How does zsh
777 differ from ...?</a>, 'man zsh | less -p COMPATIBILITY', the <a
778 href="/zsh/">grml zsh reference card</a> and '<a
779 href="/zsh/">man zsh-lovers</a>'.</p>
781 <p>If you are a bash user and don't know zsh yet, don't be afraid. bash is largely a
782 subset of zsh and you don't have to throw away your knowledge about shell stuff.</p>
784 <h3><a name="zsh_binsh"></a><a href="#toc">Wasn't zsh the /bin/sh interpreter?</a></h3>
786 <p>Yes, until grml 0.6 zsh was the intepreter for /bin/sh. Starting
787 with release 0.7 grml uses /bin/bash as /bin/sh. The reason?
788 Debian does not support zsh as /bin/sh. Take a look at <a
789 href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=329288">#329288</a>
791 href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=340058">#340058</a>
794 <h3><a name="bash"></a><a href="#toc">Is a bash available?</a></h3>
796 <p>grml uses <a href="#zsh">zsh</a> as the default interactive shell
797 but, of course, a current version of bash (and many other shells as
798 well) is provided by grml.</p>
800 <h3><a name="setuid"></a><a href="#toc">setuid/SUID</a></h3>
802 <p>If you set a programm SUID (setuid/mode 4755), unprivileged users on your system will
803 be able to run it. This <em>could</em> be a potentially security hole, so by default the
804 packages are configured not to install binaries with setuid. If you want to use the
805 binaries with setuid please run 'dpkg-reconfigure $packagename' or 'chmod 4755
806 =programm'. The following packages are well known to have a programm with not set
819 <h3><a name="bitchx"></a><a href="#toc">bitchx</a></h3>
821 <p>Why isn't bitchx part of grml? <a
822 href="http://www.google.com/search?q=bitchx+sucks">bitchx
823 sucks</a>. Please use a better alternative like <a
824 href="http://irssi.org/">irssi</a> or <a
825 href="http://weechat.flashtux.org/index.php?lang=en">weechat</a>
826 which are part of grml.</p>
828 <h3><a name="ispell"></a><a href="#toc">ispell</a></h3>
830 <p>You don't want to use the preselected default for ispell? Run
831 'select-default-ispell' for changing it.</p>
833 <h3><a name="latex"></a><a href="#toc">LaTeX</a></h3>
835 <p>auctex and preview-latex are loaded by default in emacs. If you want to load
836 auctex based on your personal settings put the string "(require 'tex-site)" in your
837 ~/.emacs, for preview-latex use the string '(load "preview-latex")'.<br />
838 To change this run 'dpkg-reconfigure auctex' and/or 'dpkg-reconfigure
841 <h3><a name="slapd"></a><a href="#toc">slapd</a></h3>
843 <p>The password for the admin entry in the LDAP directory is 'grml'.</p>
845 <h2><a name="release"></a><a href="#toc">Release related issues</a></h2>
847 <h3><a name="known_issues"></a><a href="#toc">Are there any known issues with this release?</a></h3>
849 <p>We won't hide anything. Therefore, we do provide all known
850 issues/bugs publicly available:</p>
854 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml_1.0">issues regarding
855 grml 1.0</a> and</li>
857 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml64_0.1">issues
858 regarding grml64 0.1</a> in <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
861 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml-small_0.4">issues
862 regarding grml-small 0.4</a> in <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
867 <p>If you find another bug, or consider something a problem not yet
868 mentioned <a href="#bugreport">please report it to us</a>!</p>
870 <h3><a name="proc_usb"></a><a href="#toc">Why isn't /proc/bus/usb mounted anymore?</a></h3>
872 <p>Starting with kernel 2.6.14, /dev/bus/usb replaces usbfs.
873 Current versions of libusb check for /dev/bus/usb's existence and
874 /proc/bus/usb is not necessary anymore (see <a
875 href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=336596">#336596</a>).
876 Of course 'mount /proc/bus/usb' still works; it is just not mounted
877 by default anymore. If you see any problems please <a
878 href="#bugreport">report them</a>.</p>
880 <h2><a name="xserver"></a><a href="#toc">X-Server</a></h2>
882 <h3><a name="xstart"></a><a href="#toc">How do I start the X server?</a></h3>
884 <p>Please use 'grml-x' as user grml for starting X on the live-cd. It
885 generates the config file /etc/X11/xorg.conf and lets you start commands on
886 startup (see ~/.xinitrc). Use it, for example, via switching to TTY4 (press
887 Alt+F4) and run the following command to start wm-ng (window manager fluxbox
888 with idesk and gkrellm):</p>
893 <p>If you have /etc/X11/xorg.conf already you can use 'startx' instead of
894 grml-x of course. Adjust ~/.xinitrc to your needs.</p>
896 <h3><a name="xproblem"></a><a href="#toc">X does not start on my box?!</a></h3>
898 <p>grml-x supports several options. If you want to set some special options
899 please take a look at the grml-x manpage (man grml-x)! Some usage examples:</p>
902 grml-x -display 8 fluxbox # start fluxbox on display 8
903 grml-x -force -nostart fluxbox # force creation of xconfig file and don't start X server
904 grml-x -hsync 60 fluxbox # set horizontal frequency and start fluxbox
905 grml-x -hsync 60 -vsync 40 fluxbox # set horizontal and vertical sync frequencies and start fluxbox
906 grml-x -mode '800x600' fluxbox # set resolution to 800x600 and start fluxbox
907 grml-x -module vesa fluxbox # start fluxbox and use vesa module
910 <h3><a name="xresolution"></a><a href="#toc">I don't like the resolution of X!</a></h3>
912 <p>Just run xrandr to switch the resolution during runtime of X. For
913 example: 'xrandr -s 1024x768'.</p>
915 <h2><a name="framebuffer"></a><a href="#toc">Framebuffer</a></h2>
917 <h3><a name="video"></a><a href="#toc">The boot option video does not work as
918 expected anymore</a></h3>
920 <p>grml versions 0.4 and 0.5 provided <a
921 href="/kernel/#vesafbtng">vesafb-tng</a> instead of
922 normal vesafb. Starting with grml 0.6 and grml-small 0.2 vesafb-tng
923 is not part of the grml-kernel anymore because it caused too many
924 problems. Therefore, you can use the 'normal' vga=... option
927 <h3><a name="fbprobs"></a><a href="#toc">I don't see anything when booting grml?!</a></h3>
929 <p>Likely, this is a problem with vesafb framebuffer. Try to boot
930 with bootoption 'nofb' or 'grml vga=normal'.</p>
932 <h2><a name="question"></a><a href="#toc">Further questions</a></h2>
934 <p>Do you have a question which is not answered in the FAQ or in the
935 provided <a href="/docs/">documentation</a> (also run
936 "grml-info" on your grml-system)? Run 'grml-tips $KEYWORD' on
937 your grml-system. Take a look at <a href="/">the
938 grml-website</a> and <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
939 grml-wiki</a>. Please don't hesitate to <a
940 href="/contact/">contact us</a>, a good place to start
941 is the <a href="/mailinglist/">grml mailinglist</a>.</p>
943 <h3><a name="donate"></a><a href="#toc">You like grml? Make a donation
944 to support our work!</a></h3>
946 <p>grml is, as every other Open-Source project, driven by the many
947 contributions made by many developers. The grml-team spends a great
948 deal of their time and money toward this project.</p>
950 <p>If you have been using grml you will come to remember how much money you
951 or your company saves by using it and how you have been supported via
952 the project mailing list, personal mail or irc.</p>
954 <p>Now you can contribute by donating to grml. Your donation could either
955 be money or hardware that one of the developers or the project as a whole
956 needs. A donation would enable us to either support a specific
957 hardware/software either at all or simply better.</p>
959 <p>See <a href="/donations/">grml.org/donations/</a> for
960 details. Thank you for helping us to work on grml!</p>
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