1 <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en">
3 <title>grml.org - FAQ</title>
4 <meta name="Title" content="grml.org - FAQ" />
5 <meta name="Author" content="the grml team [www.grml.org/team/]" />
6 <meta name="Keywords" content="grml.org, grml" />
7 <meta name="Description" content="FAQ of grml.org" />
8 <meta name="Abstract" content="grml, just another linux-distribution" />
9 <meta name="Robots" content="index,follow" />
10 <meta name="Language" content="english" />
11 <meta name="identifier-url" content="https://grml.org/" />
12 <meta name="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" content="true" />
13 <meta http-equiv="imagetoolbar" content="no" />
14 <link rel="home" href="/" title="grml.org" />
15 <link rel="help" href="/features/" title="About" />
16 <link rel="author" href="/team/" title="Team" />
17 <link rel="icon" href="/favicon.png" type="image/png" />
18 <link rel="stylesheet" href="/style.css" type="text/css" />
22 [% INCLUDE static.inc %]
26 <p><img style="float: right" src="/img/clanbomber.png" alt="*" /></p>
28 <h1 align="center">FAQ for grml</h1>
30 <p><strong>Up2date:</strong> 20081103 - applies to versions grml
31 1.1 / grml64 0.2 / grml[64]-medium 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="#grmlmedium">grml-medium</a></p>
61 <li><a href="#whatismedium">What is grml-medium?</a></li>
62 <li><a href="#whatismedium64">What is grml64-medium?</a></li>
65 <p class="toc"><a href="#grmlsmall">grml-small:</a></p>
67 <li><a href="#whatissmall">What is grml-small?</a></li>
68 <li><a href="#smallvsnormal">What is the difference between 'normal' grml and grml-small?</a></li>
69 <li><a href="#grmlvsdsl">What is the difference between grml-small and DSL?</a></li>
72 <p class="toc"><a href="#system">System</a>:</p>
74 <li><a href="#configure">Which tools exist to configure grml?</a></li>
75 <li><a href="#password">What are the passwords of users on grml?</a></li>
76 <li><a href="#version">How do I find out the version of grml</a></li>
77 <li><a href="#remove_cd">Is it possible to run LiveCD and eject CD-ROM?</a></li>
78 <li><a href="#language">How do I change the language/keyboard settings?</a></li>
79 <li><a href="#kde_and_foo">KDE, Gnome, $FOO and $BAR</a></li>
80 <li><a href="#wms">Which window managers can I use?</a></li>
81 <li><a href="#usbmount">How do I mount a USB device / USB stick?</a></li>
82 <li><a href="#lvm">Where are my LVM devices?</a></li>
83 <li><a href="#swraid">Where are my Software-RAID devices?</a></li>
84 <li><a href="#nodma">Why does grml not use DMA mode?</a></li>
85 <li><a href="#booting">Which ways exist to boot grml?</a></li>
86 <li><a href="#timezone">How do I configure timezone on my grml system?</a></li>
87 <li><a href="#utf8">I have problems with UTF-8 / Unicode</a></li>
88 <li><a href="#missingfiles">I noticed some files are missing on grml</a></li>
89 <li><a href="#bugreport">Bugreport</a></li>
90 <li><a href="#hdinstall">Is it possible to install grml to harddisk?</a></li>
91 <li><a href="#grml2hdhang">grml2hd seems to hang?!</a></li>
92 <li><a href="#hardware">I have problems with my hardware!</a></li>
93 <li><a href="#boot">grml does not boot on my computer!</a></li>
96 <p class="toc"><a href="#kernel">Kernel</a>:</p>
98 <li><a href="#kernelconfig">Where can I find the configuration for the kernel used on grml?</a></li>
99 <li><a href="#kernelpatches">Are there any special components/patches in the kernel used on grml?</a></li>
100 <li><a href="#platform">For which platforms is the grml kernel optimized?</a></li>
103 <p class="toc"><a href="#software">Software:</a></p>
105 <li><a href="#sw_general">General</a></li>
106 <li><a href="#sw_version">What version of $PACKAGE is available?</a></li>
107 <li><a href="#init">Init-System</a></li>
108 <li><a href="#zsh">Why is zsh the default shell?</a></li>
109 <li><a href="#zsh_binsh">Wasn't zsh the /bin/sh interpreter?</a></li>
110 <li><a href="#bash">Is a bash available?</a></li>
111 <li><a href="#configuration">Where can I find the configuration of zsh, GNU screen,...?</a></li>
112 <li><a href="truecrypt">Why isn't Truecrypt available within grml?</a></li>
113 <li><a href="#fdisk">fdisk/parted/... complains with something like 'unable to open /dev/sda - unrecognised disk label'?!</a></li>
114 <li><a href="#setuid">setuid/SUID</a></li>
115 <li><a href="#bitchx">bitchx</a></li>
116 <li><a href="#ispell">ispell</a></li>
117 <li><a href="#latex">LaTeX</a></li>
118 <li><a href="#slapd">slapd</a></li>
121 <p class="toc"><a href="#release">Release related issues</a>:</p>
123 <li><a href="#known_issues">Are there any known issues with this release?</a></li>
124 <li><a href="#proc_usb">Why isn't /proc/bus/usb mounted anymore?</a></li>
127 <p class="toc"><a href="#xserver">X-Server</a></p>
129 <li><a href="#xstart">How do I start the X server?</a></li>
130 <li><a href="#xproblem">X does not start on my box?!</a></li>
131 <li><a href="#xresolution">I don't like the resolution of X!</a></li>
134 <p class="toc"><a href="#framebuffer">Framebuffer</a></p>
136 <li><a href="#video">The boot option video does not work as expected anymore</a></li>
137 <li><a href="#fbprobs">I don't see anything when booting grml?!</a></li>
140 <p class="toc"><a href="#stuff">Unanswered stuff</a></p>
142 <li><a href="#questions">Further questions?</a></li>
143 <li><a href="#donate">You like grml? Make a donation to support our work!</a></li>
146 <h2><a name="general"></a><a href="#toc">General</a></h2>
148 <h3><a name="whatis"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml?</a></h3>
150 <p>grml is a bootable CD (Live-CD) once based on <a
151 href="http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/">Knoppix</a> and nowadays based on <a
152 href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>. grml includes a collection of
153 GNU/Linux software especially for users of texttools and system
154 administrators. grml provides automatic hardware detection. You can use grml
155 as a rescue system, for analyzing systems/networks, or as a working
156 environment. It is not necessary to install anything to a harddisk. Due to
157 on-the-fly decompression grml includes about 2.1 GB of software and
158 documentation on the CD.</p>
160 <h3><a name="get"></a><a href="#toc">Where do I get grml?</a></h3>
162 <p>You can download grml of course: take a look at <a
163 href="/download">grml.org/download/</a>. If you want
164 to get an original grml-CD including <a
165 href="/files/#covers">the grml-cover</a>, need a
166 special amount of CDs or want your own special grml-CD (including
167 your logo, your software and/or special settings) <a
168 href="/contact/">please don't hesitate to contact
169 us</a>! Take a look at <a
170 href="http://solutions.grml.org/">grml-solutions</a> for more
171 information regarding our offers.</p>
173 <h3><a name="whatmeans"></a><a href="#toc">What does grml mean?</a></h3>
175 <p>grml is short for 'grummel' and comes close to 'argl' or 'grrr' in English. People
176 use this when they want to express their dissatisfaction/discontentedness with software
177 (amongst other things):</p>
180 $ grep -ch grml .centericq/**/history | xargs echo | \
181 sed 's/[0-9]*/& + /g' | sed 's/+ $//g' | bc -l
184 <h3><a name="pronounce"></a><a href="#toc">How do you pronounce grml?</a></h3>
187 % flite -o play -t gremel</pre>
190 $ echo 'ghroummel' | festival \-\-tts
193 <h3><a name="releasename"></a><a href="#toc">What about the release name?</a></h3>
195 <p>Codename of grml 1.1 is Skunk. The decision
196 whether the Skunk is inside the gas mask or
197 outside the picture is up to you.</p>
199 <p>Codename of grml64 0.2 is Schwammerlklauber.
200 'Schwammerlklauber' is an austrian word for
201 someone who is collecting fungi.</p>
203 <p>Codename of grml-medium and grml64-medium
204 0.1 is Pfuh. 'Pfuh' is a german word for
205 something like calling 'Phew'.</p>
207 <p>Codename of grml-small 0.4 is Springinkerl. 'Springinkerl' is an
208 austrian word for an uneasy child.</p>
210 <h3><a name="requirements"></a><a href="#toc">Requirements for running grml</a></h3>
214 <li>Intel-compatible CPU (i586 or later, preferably Pentium class or higher)</li>
216 <li>at least 64MB of RAM (for stable use with ramdisks for unionfs and udev
217 and running X window system we recommend at least 128MB)</li>
219 <li>grml-small: at least 32MB RAM should be available</li>
221 <li>bootable CD-ROM drive (or <a
222 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=tips">a boot floppy</a> and standard
223 CD-ROM [IDE/ATAPI or SCSI]) [or network - see <a
224 href="#terminalserver">grml-terminalserver</a>]</li>
228 <h3><a name="why"></a><a href="#toc">Why another Linux distribution?</a></h3>
230 <p>There already exist "<a
231 href="http://www.distrowatch.com/">some</a>" distributions. We decided
232 to base our work on the existing infrastructure of <a
233 href="http://debian.org/">Debian</a> and <a
234 href="http://www.knoppix.net/">Knoppix</a> because we don't want to reinvent
235 the wheel. Some admins already use their own rescue-CD and Knoppix works but
236 does not bring that many important tools for admins and users of texttools
237 out of the box, so we decided to share our work with others.</p>
239 <h3><a name="license"></a><a href="#toc">What's the license of grml?</a></h3>
241 <p>Anything written by the grml team is published under the GPL (<a
242 href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU General Public License</a>).
243 You don't have to pay anything for running grml. <a
244 href="/donations/">Donations</a> and <a href="/contact/">feedback</a> are
245 welcome of course. If you want a special LiveCD or need support, take a
246 look at <a href="http://solutions.grml.org/">grml-solutions</a>.</p>
248 <h3><a name="difference"></a><a href="#toc">What's the difference between grml and
249 $OTHER-DISTRIBUTION? What are your main goals?</a></h3>
251 <p>The main goal of grml is to be a distribution well suited for
252 users of texttools and sysadmins. grml includes many important
253 texttools (of course awk, sed, grep, ... but also zsh, mutt[ng],
254 slrn, vim and many others) and useful programs for admin's
255 daily work. grml uses the existing infrastructure of <a
256 href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>. grml was once based on <a
257 href="http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/">Knoppix</a> (see '<a
258 href="#knoppix">What's the difference between grml and
259 Knoppix?</a>' for more details). We are also merging
260 useful things from other distributions/live-cds to provide a
261 perfect environment.</p>
263 <h3><a name="knoppix"></a><a href="#toc">What's the difference between grml and Knoppix?</a></h3>
265 <p>grml comes with a vastly different set of software. Missing KDE
266 and OpenOffice provides the opportunity of shipping more than 800
267 packages which Knoppix does not provide on its CD version. grml
268 boots a 2.6.x kernel but no X for faster startup. Knoppix is based
269 on Debian/testing-experimental (using apt-pinning), but grml is
270 basically based on plain Debian/unstable providing more current
271 versions of software and less painfull upgrades. grml was once
272 based on Knoppix but nowadays (except for a similar initial
273 ramdisk) has nothing in common with Knoppix:</p>
277 # find / -iname \*knoppix\*
280 <p>We consider Knoppix as a brand name for live-cds nowadays and
281 provide most of Knoppix' features as well. grml uses (mostly) the
282 same cheatcodes for booting as Knoppix and even provides some extra
283 ones. So if you are used to the basic Knoppix features you might
284 find them on the grml-system as well. Ripping out the Knoppix
285 stuff makes it possible to create a grml system out of a
286 Debian system and vice versa. Running 'apt-get install grml' on a
287 Debian box will be officially supported in an upcoming version of
290 <h3><a name="accessibility"></a><a href="#toc">What does accessibility at grml mean?</a></h3>
292 <p>The grml kernel includes <a href="/kernel/#speakup">support for
293 speakup</a> and provides software like brltty (using bootoption 'grml blind
294 brltty=type,port,tbl'), emacspeak and flite.</p>
296 <h3><a name="emulation"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to run grml with $EMULATOR?</a></h3>
298 <p><a href="http://www.vmware.com/">VMware</a> should work without any
299 problems. It's also possible to run grml with <a
300 href="http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/">QEMU</a>, an emulator for various
301 CPUs which works on Linux, Windows, FreeBSD and Mac OS X. Running grml with
302 QEMU has been tested successfully on Windows and Linux. Take a look at <a
303 href="/qemu/">the QEMU-grml-webpage</a>.</p>
305 <h3><a name="usbboot"></a><a href="#toc">How do I boot grml from a USB stick?</a></h3>
307 <p>Take a look at the script <a
308 href="/scripts/grml2usb">grml2usb</a>. For more
309 details, take a look at the <a
310 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb">usb-webpage in the
313 <h3><a name="store"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to store my settings?</a></h3>
315 <p>Yes. grml provides a powerful config framework. See <a
316 href="/config/">grml.org/config/</a>, <a
317 href="file:///usr/share/doc/grml-saveconfig/grml-config.html">/usr/share/doc/grml-saveconfig/grml-config.html</a>
318 and 'man save-config restore-config mkpersistenthome' for more
321 <h2><a name="grml64"></a><a href="#toc">grml64?</a></h2>
323 <h3><a name="whatisgrml64"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml64?</a></h3>
325 <p>grml64 is a 64bit-version of grml, based on <a
326 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/amd64/">the amd64 port of
329 <h3><a name="grml64vsnormal"></a><a href="#toc">What is the difference between 32 bit grml and 64 bit grml?</a></h3>
331 <p>The main difference of course is that grml64 is a 64bit-version
332 whereas (normal) grml is 32bit-only. grml64 provides a 64bit kernel
333 which supports 32bit userspace applications. grml64 also provides
334 libc6-i386, libc6-dev-i386, several lib32* packages and ia32-libs. Due
335 to space reasons and because some packages aren't available for amd64
336 yet some packages are missing on grml64 compared to (normal, 32bit)
337 grml. For more details please take a look at <a
338 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml64">the grml64 webpage in the
341 <h2><a name="grmlmedium"></a><a href="#toc">grml-medium?</a></h2>
343 <h3><a name="whatismedium"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml-medium?</a></h3>
345 <p>grml-medium is a grml-flavour which tries to close the gap between <a
346 href="#whatissmall">grml-small</a> and <a href="#whatis">normal/large/full
347 version of grml</a>. grml-medium is an ISO with a maximum size of ~200MB
348 providing the most important packages a sysadmin usually needs. It
349 provides the same <a href="/kernel/">kernel version</a> as normal grml
350 does so you can easily integrate and use some further existing external
351 modules as well. The X.org server is shipped as well as the window
353 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=accessibility">accessibility
354 features</a> are <strong>not</strong> available/supported (currently) on
355 grml-medium though.</p>
357 <h3><a name="whatismedium64"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml64-medium?</a></h3>
359 <p>grml64-medium is the 64bit version of <a href="#whatismedium">grml-medium</a>.</p>
361 <h2><a name="grmlsmall"></a><a href="#toc">grml-small?</a></h2>
363 <h3><a name="whatissmall"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml-small?</a></h3>
365 <p>Whereas grml provides about 2.1 GB of software on a 700 MB ISO, grml-small
366 is a flavor with online ~58 MB ISO-size (~200 MB uncompressed). It does not
367 provide a lot of software but the essential stuff for being a rescue system
368 on a business card CD-ROM or a small USB device. You can use the Debian
369 package management system to install software on the fly (assuming you have
370 network access to a Debian mirror). Take a look at the <a
371 href="/files/">'Debian-Information'-section</a> if you are
372 searching for the package list.</p>
374 <h3><a name="smallvsnormal"></a><a href="#toc">What is the
375 difference between 'normal' grml and grml-small?</a></h3>
377 <p>The 700 MB-grml brings more than 2500 packages of software and a <a
378 href="/kernel/">full-featured kernel</a>. grml-small
379 includes about 215 software packages, lacks documentation and manpages
380 on the ISO and has a stripped-down <a
381 href="/kernel/">kernel</a> (but still provides hardware
382 detection of course). <a href="#terminalserver">grml-terminalserver</a>
384 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=accessibility">accessibility
385 features</a> are <strong>not</strong> available/supported on
388 <h3><a name="grmlvsdsl"></a><a href="#toc">What is the
389 difference between grml-small and DSL?</a></h3>
391 <p>DSL and grml-small have different target audiences. <a
392 href="http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/">Damn Small Linux</a> (DSL) uses
393 kernel version 2.4 whereas grml-small provides a recent version of
394 kernel version 2.6. DSL provides the X window system which grml-small
395 does not. grml-small on the other hand provides the most important
396 packages for sysadmins and ships the original Debian package management
397 which allows you to install packages of the Debian pool with no
400 <h2><a name="system"></a><a href="#toc">System</a></h2>
402 <h3><a name="configure"></a><a href="#toc">Which tools exist to configure grml?</a></h3>
404 <p>grml provides several scripts and tools which should make life
405 easier. See 'dpkg -L grml-scripts' to get an overview of some main
406 scripts. Run 'grml-config' to get a dialog interface for the most
407 important scripts and tasks. Or just type 'grml-' and press tab-key to
408 get a completion menu.</p>
410 <h3><a name="password"></a><a href="#toc">What are the passwords of users on grml?</a></h3>
412 <p>There are no default passwords. All accounts are locked by
413 default. Even local logins are not possible (unless you set a
414 password or create new user accounts as root). You can create
415 valid passwords using "sudo passwd [username]" from the shell
418 <h3><a name="version"></a><a href="#toc">How do I find out the version of grml</a></h3>
420 <p>Run 'grml-version' or use the following command:</p>
423 $ cat /etc/grml_version</pre>
425 <h3><a name="remove_cd"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to run LiveCD and eject CD-ROM?</a></h3>
428 $ sudo umount -l /cdrom
429 $ sudo eject /dev/cdrom # now don't run any new programs ;)
430 $ mount /dev/cdrom # mount it again if needed ;)
433 <h3><a name="language"></a><a href="#toc">How do I change the language/keyboard settings?</a></h3>
435 <p>By default grml uses English settings. But it is possible to
436 change the settings via using either the bootparam(s) lang,
437 keyboard and xkeyboard or via running grml-lang when grml is
438 already running. Usage examples:</p>
441 grml lang=de # enter this at the bootprompt and you will get
442 # German keyboard layout and German $LANG, $LC_ALL,
444 grml keyboard=de xkeyboard=de lang=at # enter this at the bootprompt
445 # and you will get German keyboard and Austrian
447 % grml-lang de # enter this in the shell to switch keyboard layout
448 # and $LANG settings in a running grml-system
451 <p>If you are running grml from harddisk (using <a
452 href="#hdinstall">grml2hd</a>) you have several options how to set
453 language options:</p>
457 <li>adjust /etc/default/locale to configure global language and
458 environment settings</li>
460 <li>set environment variables like $LC_ALL, $LANG, $LANGUAGE in your
461 personal configuration files (like ~/.zshrc.local, see <a
462 href="/zsh/">grml zsh reference card</a> for details)
463 if you do not want to use them system wide/global</li>
465 <li>adjust /etc/sysconfig/keyboard to configure keyboard layout
466 on console, or run 'loadkeys $KEYTABLE' manually</li>
468 <li>add "setxkbmap $LANGUAGE" to the keybindings section in
469 your ~/.xinitrc to configure keyboard setup for the X window system
470 (deactivate the xmodmap lines if necessary)</li>
474 <p>Notice: run grml-setlang to get a dialog based frontend for
475 /etc/default/locale and grml-setkeyboard to get a dialog based frontend
476 for /etc/sysconfig/keyboard.</p>
478 <h3><a name="kde_and_foo"></a><a href="#toc">KDE, Gnome, $FOO and $BAR</a></h3>
480 <p>Why isn't KDE, Gnome, $FOO or $BAR part of grml? grml is a
481 distribution for users of texttools and sysadmins. If you would like to
482 run KDE with Debian use e.g. <a href="http://sidux.com/">Sidux</a>, <a
483 href="http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/">Knoppix</a> or <a
484 href="http://www.kubuntu.org/">Kubuntu</a>. Gnome users might find <a
485 href="http://www.ubuntulinux.org/">Ubuntu</a> useful. If you would like
486 to see a specific (software) package added to grml please <a
487 href="/report/">report it to us</a>!</p>
489 <h3><a name="wms"></a><a href="#toc">Which window managers can I use?</a></h3>
491 <p>grml is shipped only with window managers which are lightweight and
492 fast - so well suited for a live-CD. At the moment, grml provides the
493 following window managers:
494 <a href="http://wmii.de/dwm/">dwm</a>,
495 <a href="http://www.6809.org.uk/evilwm/">evilwm</a>,
496 <a href="http://www.fluxbox.org/">fluxbox</a>,
497 <a href="http://www.fvwm.org/">fvwm</a>,
498 <a href="http://fvwm-crystal.org/">fvwm-crystal</a>,
499 <a href="http://modeemi.cs.tut.fi/~tuomov/ion/">ion3</a>,
500 <a href="http://joewing.net/programs/jwm/index.shtml">jwm</a>,
501 <a href="http://pekwm.org/">pekwm</a>,
502 <a href="http://www.nongnu.org/ratpoison/">ratpoison</a>,
503 <a href="http://www.plig.org/xwinman/vtwm.html">twm</a>,
504 <a href="http://www.grassouille.org/code/w9wm/README">w9wm</a>,
505 <a href="http://www.nickgravgaard.com/windowlab/">windowlab</a> and
506 <a href="http://www.suckless.org/wiki/wmii">wmii</a>.</p>
508 <p>If you are new to grml and/or prefer an easy-to-use-desktop run 'grml-x
509 wm-ng' for starting fluxbox with idesk and gkrellm.</p>
511 <h3><a name="usbmount"></a><a href="#toc">How do I mount a USB device / USB stick?</a></h3>
513 <p>Run 'mount /mnt/usb-sda1' for example if you want to mount /dev/sda1.
514 udev on grml does multiplexing for USB block devices, so /dev/usb-sda1
515 (device for mountpoint /mnt/usb-sda1) is a symlink to /dev/sda1.</p>
517 <h3><a name="lvm"></a><a href="#toc">Where are my LVM devices?</a></h3>
519 <p>LVM (Logival Volumes) is <strong>not</strong> started by default to
520 avoid any possible damage to your data. To get access to present LVM
521 devices just execute:</p>
524 # /etc/init.d/lvm2 start
526 or use the shorter version:
531 <p>If you want to enable LVM by default just boot using the 'lvm'
532 bootoption which automatically activates LVM.</p>
534 <h3><a name="swraid"></a><a href="#toc">Where are my Software-RAID devices?</a></h3>
536 <p>Software-RAID (usually known as the mdadm stuff) is
537 <strong>not</strong> started by default to avoid any possible damage to
538 your data. To get access to present SW-RAID devices just execute:</p>
541 # /etc/init.d/mdadm-raid start
543 or use the shorter version:
548 <p>If you want to enable SW-RAID by default just boot using the 'swraid'
549 bootoption which enables automatic assembling of software raid arrays.</p>
551 <h3><a name="nodma"></a><a href="#toc">Why does grml not use DMA mode?</a></h3>
553 <p>The harddisk is very slow and not using DMA mode? Check out whether
554 your S-ATA drive is detected as /dev/hda (this is a common problem with
555 ICH7 chipsets for example) and you can't set DMA mode:</p>
558 # hdparm -d1 /dev/hda
561 setting using_dma to 1 (on)
562 HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Operation not permitted
566 <p>Workaround: boot with the bootoptions 'hda=noprobe hda=none'. The
567 drive should be handled by the libata driver then (ata_piix for ICH7 for
568 example) and should show up as /dev/sda. (grml supports the old IDE
569 drivers as well as libata currently; this issue should be fixed with an
570 upcoming version of grml where libata is used more exclusively.)</p>
572 <a name="terminalserver"></a>
573 <h3><a name="booting"></a><a href="#toc">Which ways exist to boot grml?</a></h3>
575 <p>The most common way to boot grml is, of course, running from
576 CD-ROM, but grml provides many more ways to boot grml:</p>
578 <p>It is possible to boot grml via USB (e.g. USB stick or harddisk),
579 firewire, or running from a Compact Flash disk. It works out of the
580 box; you don't need to modify anything. If accessing the device
581 fails, use the 'scandelay' cheatcode on bootprompt. So, boot with
582 'grml scandelay'. If the timeout is still not long enough add the
583 time to wait in seconds as parameter: 'grml scandelay=15'. See <a
584 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb">usb-webpage in the
585 grml-wiki</a> for more details.</p>
587 <p>Your computer can not boot from CD-ROM but provides a floppy
588 disk? Take a look at <a
589 href="http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/">btmgr</a>, <a
590 href="http://ubcd4win.com/faq.htm#floppy">ubcd4win</a> or <a
591 href="http://linux.simple.be/tools/sbm">sbm</a>. They provide
592 support for booting from CD-ROM via a special floppy disk.</p>
594 <p>grml-terminalserver makes it possible to boot your system via
595 network. If you have a floppy drive, you can even boot your system over
596 network when your network card does not provide PXE-support! For more
597 information, refer to the <a
598 href="/terminalserver/">grml-terminalserver-webpage</a>.</p>
600 <h3><a name="timezone"></a><a href="#toc">How do I configure
601 timezone on my grml system?</a></h3>
603 <h4>Available bootoptions relevant in live-cd mode:</h4>
606 <li>utc: set UTC, if your system clock is set to UTC (GMT)
607 <li>gmt: set UTC, if your system clock is set to UTC (GMT) [like bootoption utc]
608 <li>tz=$option: set timezone to corresponding $option, usage example:
612 <h4>Configuration options relevant on harddisk installation:</h4>
617 # dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
620 <p>to adjust /etc/timezone and /etc/localtime according to the
621 provided information.</p>
623 <p><strong>/etc/default/rcS:</strong> set variable UTC according
624 to your needs, whether your system clock is set to UTC
625 (UTC='yes') or not (UTC='no')</p>
627 <p><strong>/etc/localtime:</strong> adjust zoneinfo according to
631 # ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/$WHATEVER_YOU_WANT /etc/localtime
634 <p>The zoneinfo directory contains the time zone files that were
635 compiled by zic. The files contain information such as rules
636 about DST. They allow the kernel to convert UTC UNIX time into
637 appropriate local dates and times. Use the zdump utility to
638 print current time and date (in the specified time zone).</p>
640 <p><strong>/etc/adjtime:</strong> This file is used e.g. by the
641 adjtimex function, which can smoothly adjust system time while
644 <p>If you change the time (using 'date --set ...', ntpdate,...)
645 it is worth setting also the hardware clock to the correct
649 # hwclock --systohc [--utc]
652 <p>Remember to add the --utc -option if the hardware clock is set to
655 <h4>Still problems?</h4>
657 <p>Check your current settings via:</p>
664 grep hwclock /etc/runlevel.conf
665 grep '^UTC' /etc/default/rc
668 <h4>Further information:</h4>
670 <p>Manpages: hwclock(8) tzselect(1) tzconfig(8); <a
671 href="http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/system-administrator/ch-sysadmin-time.html">Debian
672 GNU/Linux System Administrator's Manual Chapter 16 - Time</a> and <a
673 href="http://wiki.debian.org/TimeZoneChanges">TimeZoneChanges in the
676 <h3><a name="utf8"></a><a href="#toc">I have problems with UTF-8 / Unicode</a></h3>
679 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=utf8">UTF8-webpage in the
682 <h3><a name="missingfiles"></a><a href="#toc">I noticed some files are missing on grml</a></h3>
684 <p>Yes, output of 'debsums -a 1>/dev/null' might output some
685 failures. The reason is pretty simple: some modification have been done
686 because of space limitiations on the ISO. The failures are nothing to
687 really care about, but as we don't hide anything we document them of
690 <p>On <strong>grml</strong> the following modifications have been done:
694 <li>linux-headers-2.6.20-grml: include files
695 (/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.20-grml/include/) of foreign (!x86)
696 architectures have been removed
698 <li>texlive-base-bin: documentation directory
699 /usr/share/doc/texlive-base-bin/pdftex/thanh/ has been removed
701 <li>texlive-latex-base: documentation directories
702 /usr/share/doc/texlive-latex-base/latex/base/,
703 /usr/share/doc/texlive-latex-base/latex/hyperref/ and
704 /usr/share/doc/texlive-latex-base/generic/babel/ have been removed
706 <li>texlive-latex-recommended: documentation directory
707 /usr/share/doc/texlive-latex-recommended/latex/koma-script/ has been
712 <p>On <strong>grml64</strong> the following modifications have been done:</p>
716 <li>some files of valgrind (/usr/lib/valgrind/x86-linux/*) have been stripped
718 <li>.so files of ion3 (/usr/lib/ion3/*.so) have been stripped
723 <p>On <strong>grml-small</strong> nearly all the documentation has been
724 removed to be able to provide a ~60MB iso with kernel 2.6 and all the
725 provided software.</p>
727 <p>Please notice that grml ships a script named
728 <strong>grml2hd-fix</strong> as part of package grml2hd-utils which
729 should fix the relevant of the above errors if you <a
730 href="#hdinstall">use grml as a harddisk installation</a>.</p>
732 <h3><a name="bugreport"></a><a href="#toc">Bugreport</a></h3>
734 <p>Take a look at the <a href="/bugs/">bugs-webpage</a>.</p>
736 <h3><a name="hdinstall"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to install grml to harddisk?</a></h3>
738 <p>Yes. grml provides a tool called grml2hd (see '<a
739 href="/grml2hd/grml2hd.html">man grml2hd</a>'). grml is
740 developed on a box running the grml-system itself, and we - the
741 grml-developers - especially like grml2hd because it gives us a working
742 Linux box within 10 to 30 minutes. grml2hd is perfect for prototyping:
743 test hardware support of Linux, test a specific setup, ... You can even
744 use grml2hd in a fully automatic mode without any further interaction.
745 More information is available on <a
746 href="/grml2hd/">grml.org/grml2hd/</a> and <a
747 href="/grml2hd/grml2hd.html">man grml2hd</a>. Notice: If
748 you are using grml in a production environment and/or use a grml2hd
749 installation, we strongly recommend you subscribe to <a
750 href="/mailinglist/">the grml user mailinglist</a>! Note
751 that grml is based on Debian unstable, so you should be familiar with
752 Debian unstable if you plan to use grml as a harddisk system. If you
753 want to get a plain Debian system take a look at <a
754 href="/grml-debootstrap/">grml-debootstrap</a>.</p>
756 <h3><a name="grml2hdhang"></a><a href="#toc">grml2hd seems to hang?!</a></h3>
758 <p>grml2hd seems to hang? Switch to tty12 and take a look at the syslog output.
759 If you see something like:</p>
762 SQUASHFS error: zlib_fs returned unexpected result 0x........
763 SQUASHFS error: Unable to read cache block [.....]
764 SQUASHFS error: Unable to read inode [.....]</pre>
766 <p>your ISO/CD-ROM very probably is not ok. Verify it via booting with
767 grml testcd. Check your CD low-level via running:</p>
770 # readcd -c2scan dev=/dev/cdrom</pre>
772 <p>If the medium really is ok and it still fails try to boot with
773 DMA deactivated via 'grml nodma ide=nodma' at the bootprompt.</p>
775 <h3><a name="hardware"></a><a href="#toc">I have problems with my hardware!</a></h3>
777 <p>Take a look at the script grml-hwinfo. This script generates a
778 file named info.tar.bz2 which contains important information about
779 your hardware. If you think we might help, please run
780 grml-hwinfo and send us the file with additional, relevant
781 information regarding your problem.</p>
783 <h3><a name="boot"></a><a href="#toc">grml does not boot on my computer!</a></h3>
785 <p>Please take a look at <a
786 href="http://git.grml.org/?p=grml-live.git;a=blob_plain;f=templates/GRML/grml-cheatcodes.txt;hb=HEAD">the
787 available bootparamters and cheatcodes</a> and '<a href="#booting">Which
788 ways exist to boot grml?</a>'. Especially booting with 'acpi=off noapm
789 noapic' might help. Bootparameter 'failsafe' provides minimal hardware
790 detection using some special bootoptions. If booting hangs during stage
791 "Waiting for /dev to be fully populated" please try booting
792 with 'grml noudev'. If you don't even see the bootsplash of the grml-ISO
793 your BIOS seems to be broken (pretty common especially on old hardware).
794 Please consider using <a href="http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/">btmgr</a>
795 then for booting your system. Also check out the <a
796 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=problems">problems webpage</a> in
797 <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the grml-wiki</a>. You still have
798 problems? Please <a href="/contact/">contact us</a>!</p>
800 <h2><a name="kernel"></a><a href="#toc">Kernel</a></h2>
802 <h3><a name="kernelconfig"></a><a href="#toc">Where can I find the configuration for the kernel used on
805 <p>See /boot/config-`uname -r` and on <a href="/kernel/">the kernel-webpage</a>.</p>
807 <h3><a name="kernelpatches"></a><a href="#toc">Are there any special components/patches in the kernel
808 used on grml?</a></h3>
810 <p>grml uses the most current stable vanilla Linux kernel from <a
811 href="http://www.kernel.org/">www.kernel.org</a> with some
812 additional patches. More information and an all-in-one patch is
814 href="/kernel/">kernel-page</a>.</p>
816 <h3><a name="platform"></a><a href="#toc">For which platforms is the grml kernel optimized?</a></h3>
818 <p>Plain i586 compatibility-mode with SMP enabled. (Notice: this works
819 for uniprocessor systems as well, thanks to <a
820 href="http://lwn.net/Articles/164121/">SMP alternatives</a>.)</p>
822 <h2><a name="software"></a><a href="#toc">Software</a></h2>
824 <h3><a name="sw_general"></a><a href="#toc">General</a></h3>
826 <p>Want to run a program as root? Just use "sudo $PROGRAM". To get a
827 root-shell run "sudo su".</p>
829 <p>Problems with a specific package? Please try "dpkg-reconfigure $foo".
830 Still encountering difficulties? Please send us a <a
831 href="/bugs/">bugreport</a>!</p>
833 <h3><a name="sw_version"></a><a href="#toc">What version of $PACKAGE is
836 <p>Take a look at the dpkg_... files in the <a
837 href="/files/#debian">Debian-Information section on
838 grml.org/files/</a>. </p>
840 <h3><a name="init"></a><a href="#toc">Init-System</a></h3>
842 <p>Why is grml using runlevel 2 as default? Because runlevel 2 is 'the
843 textonly one' and it's debian's default.</p>
845 <p>Where are all the /etc/rc#.d-directories? grml doesn't use
846 sysv-rc but file-rc. This means you can configure the init system
847 in one single file named /etc/runlevel.conf with your favourite
848 editor. No symlink-hell anymore.</p>
850 <h3><a name="zsh"></a><a href="#toc">Why is zsh the default shell (/bin/sh)?</a></h3>
852 <p>Short answer: because zsh rocks.</p>
854 <p>Longer answer taken from <a href="http://zsh.sunsite.dk/FAQ/zshfaq01.html#l3">ZSH
855 FAQ: 1.2: What is it?</a>:</p>
857 <cite> Zsh is a UNIX command interpreter (shell) which of the standard shells most
858 resembles the Korn shell (ksh); its compatibility with the 1988 Korn shell has been
859 gradually increasing. It includes enhancements of many types, notably in the
860 command-line editor, options for customising its behaviour, filename globbing, features
861 to make C-shell (csh) users feel more at home and extra features drawn from tcsh
862 (another `custom' shell).</cite>
864 <p>If you don't know zsh take a look at <a
865 href="http://zsh.sunsite.dk/FAQ/zshfaq02.html#l9">ZSH FAQ: How does zsh
866 differ from ...?</a>, 'man zsh | less -p COMPATIBILITY', the <a
867 href="/zsh/">grml zsh reference card</a> and '<a
868 href="/zsh/">man zsh-lovers</a>'.</p>
870 <p>If you are a bash user and don't know zsh yet, don't be afraid. bash is largely a
871 subset of zsh and you don't have to throw away your knowledge about shell stuff.</p>
873 <h3><a name="zsh_binsh"></a><a href="#toc">Wasn't zsh the /bin/sh interpreter?</a></h3>
875 <p>Yes, until grml 0.6 zsh was the intepreter for /bin/sh. Starting
876 with release 0.7 grml uses /bin/bash as /bin/sh. The reason?
877 Debian does not support zsh as /bin/sh. Take a look at <a
878 href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=329288">#329288</a>
880 href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=340058">#340058</a>
883 <h3><a name="bash"></a><a href="#toc">Is a bash available?</a></h3>
885 <p>grml uses <a href="#zsh">zsh</a> as the default interactive shell
886 but, of course, a current version of bash (and many other shells as
887 well) is provided by grml.</p>
889 <h3><a name="configuration"></a><a href="#toc">Where can I find the configuration of zsh, GNU screen,...?</a></h3>
892 href="http://michael-prokop.at/blog/2007/12/22/make-console-work-comfortable/">'Make
893 console work comfortable'</a>.</p>
895 <h3><a name="truecrypt">Why isn't Truecrypt available within grml?</a></h3>
897 <p>Because Truecrypt is licensed under a specific license named 'TrueCrypt License 2.6'.</p>
899 <h3><a name="fdisk"></a><a href="#toc">fdisk/parted/... complains with
900 something like 'unable to open /dev/sda - unrecognised disk
903 <p>The 'disk label' is libparted's word for 'partition table'. It looks
904 like you installed gnu-fdisk on your system. To work around this problem
905 you might want to try one the following options:</p>
908 <li>use /sbin/fdisk.distrib from util-linux</li>
909 <li>switch to sfdisk, cfdisk,...</li>
910 <li>use parted's mklabel command (but please read the <a
911 href="http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/manual/">parted manual</a>
912 before executing this command)</li>
915 <h3><a name="setuid"></a><a href="#toc">setuid/SUID</a></h3>
917 <p>If you set a programm SUID (setuid/mode 4755), unprivileged users on your system will
918 be able to run it. This <em>could</em> be a potentially security hole, so by default the
919 packages are configured not to install binaries with setuid. If you want to use the
920 binaries with setuid please run 'dpkg-reconfigure $packagename' or 'chmod 4755
921 =programm'. The following packages are well known to have a programm with not set
934 <h3><a name="bitchx"></a><a href="#toc">bitchx</a></h3>
936 <p>Why isn't bitchx part of grml? <a
937 href="http://www.google.com/search?q=bitchx+sucks">bitchx
938 sucks</a>. Please use a better alternative like <a
939 href="http://irssi.org/">irssi</a> or <a
940 href="http://weechat.flashtux.org/index.php?lang=en">weechat</a>
941 which are part of grml.</p>
943 <h3><a name="ispell"></a><a href="#toc">ispell</a></h3>
945 <p>You don't want to use the preselected default for ispell? Run
946 'select-default-ispell' for changing it.</p>
948 <h3><a name="latex"></a><a href="#toc">LaTeX</a></h3>
950 <p>auctex and preview-latex are loaded by default in emacs. If you want to load
951 auctex based on your personal settings put the string "(require 'tex-site)" in your
952 ~/.emacs, for preview-latex use the string '(load "preview-latex")'.<br />
953 To change this run 'dpkg-reconfigure auctex' and/or 'dpkg-reconfigure
956 <h3><a name="slapd"></a><a href="#toc">slapd</a></h3>
958 <p>The password for the admin entry in the LDAP directory is 'grml'.</p>
960 <h2><a name="release"></a><a href="#toc">Release related issues</a></h2>
962 <h3><a name="known_issues"></a><a href="#toc">Are there any known issues with this release?</a></h3>
964 <p>We won't hide anything. Therefore, we do provide all known
965 issues/bugs publicly available:</p>
969 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml_1.1">issues regarding
970 grml 1.1</a> in <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the grml-wiki</a></li>
972 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml64_0.2">issues
973 regarding grml64 0.2</a> in <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
976 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml-medium_0.1">issues
977 regarding grml-medium 0.1</a> in <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
980 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml64-medium_0.1">issues
981 regarding grml64-medium 0.1</a> in <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
984 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml-small_0.4">issues
985 regarding grml-small 0.4</a> in <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
990 <p>If you find another bug, or consider something a problem not yet
991 mentioned <a href="#bugreport">please report it to us</a>!</p>
993 <h3><a name="proc_usb"></a><a href="#toc">Why isn't /proc/bus/usb mounted anymore?</a></h3>
995 <p>Starting with kernel 2.6.14, /dev/bus/usb replaces usbfs.
996 Current versions of libusb check for /dev/bus/usb's existence and
997 /proc/bus/usb is not necessary anymore (see <a
998 href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=336596">#336596</a>).
999 Of course 'mount /proc/bus/usb' still works; it is just not mounted
1000 by default anymore. If you see any problems please <a
1001 href="#bugreport">report them</a>.</p>
1003 <h2><a name="xserver"></a><a href="#toc">X-Server</a></h2>
1005 <h3><a name="xstart"></a><a href="#toc">How do I start the X server?</a></h3>
1007 <p>Please use 'grml-x' as user grml for starting X on the live-cd. It
1008 generates the config file /etc/X11/xorg.conf and lets you start commands on
1009 startup (see ~/.xinitrc). Use it, for example, via switching to TTY4 (press
1010 Alt+F4) and run the following command to start wm-ng (window manager fluxbox
1011 with idesk and gkrellm):</p>
1013 <pre class="rahmen">
1016 <p>If you have /etc/X11/xorg.conf already you can use 'startx' instead of
1017 grml-x of course. Adjust ~/.xinitrc to your needs.</p>
1019 <h3><a name="xproblem"></a><a href="#toc">X does not start on my box?!</a></h3>
1021 <p>grml-x supports several options. If you want to set some special options
1022 please take a look at the grml-x manpage (man grml-x)! Some usage examples:</p>
1024 <pre class="rahmen">
1025 grml-x -display 8 fluxbox # start fluxbox on display 8
1026 grml-x -force -nostart fluxbox # force creation of xconfig file and don't start X server
1027 grml-x -hsync 60 fluxbox # set horizontal frequency and start fluxbox
1028 grml-x -hsync 60 -vsync 40 fluxbox # set horizontal and vertical sync frequencies and start fluxbox
1029 grml-x -mode '800x600' fluxbox # set resolution to 800x600 and start fluxbox
1030 grml-x -module vesa fluxbox # start fluxbox and use vesa module
1033 <h3><a name="xresolution"></a><a href="#toc">I don't like the resolution of X!</a></h3>
1035 <p>Just run xrandr to switch the resolution during runtime of X. For
1036 example: 'xrandr -s 1024x768'.</p>
1038 <h2><a name="framebuffer"></a><a href="#toc">Framebuffer</a></h2>
1040 <h3><a name="video"></a><a href="#toc">The boot option video does not work as
1041 expected anymore</a></h3>
1043 <p>grml versions 0.4 and 0.5 provided <a
1044 href="/kernel/#vesafbtng">vesafb-tng</a> instead of
1045 normal vesafb. Starting with grml 0.6 and grml-small 0.2 vesafb-tng
1046 is not part of the grml-kernel anymore because it caused too many
1047 problems. Therefore, you can use the 'normal' vga=... option
1050 <h3><a name="fbprobs"></a><a href="#toc">I don't see anything when booting grml?!</a></h3>
1052 <p>Likely, this is a problem with vesafb framebuffer. Try to boot
1053 with bootoption 'nofb' or 'grml vga=normal'.</p>
1055 <h2><a name="question"></a><a href="#toc">Further questions</a></h2>
1057 <p>Do you have a question which is not answered in the FAQ or in the
1058 provided <a href="/docs/">documentation</a> (also run
1059 "grml-info" on your grml-system)? Run 'grml-tips $KEYWORD' on
1060 your grml-system. Take a look at <a href="/">the
1061 grml-website</a> and <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
1062 grml-wiki</a>. Please don't hesitate to <a
1063 href="/contact/">contact us</a>, a good place to start
1064 is the <a href="/mailinglist/">grml mailinglist</a>.</p>
1066 <h3><a name="donate"></a><a href="#toc">You like grml? Make a donation
1067 to support our work!</a></h3>
1069 <p>grml is, as every other Open-Source project, driven by the many
1070 contributions made by many developers. The grml-team spends a great
1071 deal of their time and money toward this project.</p>
1073 <p>If you have been using grml you will come to remember how much money you
1074 or your company saves by using it and how you have been supported via
1075 the project mailing list, personal mail or irc.</p>
1077 <p>Now you can contribute by donating to grml. Your donation could either
1078 be money or hardware that one of the developers or the project as a whole
1079 needs. A donation would enable us to either support a specific
1080 hardware/software either at all or simply better.</p>
1082 <p>See <a href="/donations/">grml.org/donations/</a> for
1083 details. Thank you for helping us to work on grml!</p>
1086 [% INCLUDE static_bottom.inc %]