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28 <h1 align="center">FAQ for grml</h1>
30 <p><strong>Up2date:</strong> 20100126 - applies to grml releases version 2009.10</p>
32 <p><a name="toc"></a><strong>Index:</strong></p>
34 <p class="toc"><a href="#general">General:</a></p>
36 <li><a href="#whatis">What is grml?</a></li>
37 <li><a href="#get">Where do I get grml?</a></li>
38 <li><a href="#whatmeans">What does grml mean?</a></li>
39 <li><a href="#pronounce">How do you pronounce grml?</a></li>
40 <li><a href="#releasename">What about the release name?</a></li>
41 <li><a href="#requirements">Requirements for running grml</a></li>
42 <li><a href="#why">Why another Linux distribution?</a></li>
43 <li><a href="#license">What's the license of grml?</a></li>
44 <li><a href="#difference">What's the difference between grml and $OTHER-DISTRIBUTION? What are the main goals?</a></li>
45 <li><a href="#knoppix">What's the difference between grml and Knoppix?</a></li>
46 <li><a href="#accessibility">What does accessibility at grml mean?</a></li>
47 <li><a href="#bootoptions">Which bootoptions does grml support?</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>
51 <li><a href="#persistency">Is a persistency feature available?</a></li>
54 <p class="toc"><a href="#grmlmedium">grml-medium</a> / <a
55 href="#grmlsmall">grml-small</a> / <a
56 href="#grml64">grml64</a>:</p>
58 <li><a href="#whatismedium">What is grml-medium?</a></li>
59 <li><a href="#whatissmall">What is grml-small?</a></li>
60 <li><a href="#whatisgrml64">What is grml64?</a></li>
61 <li><a href="#whatismedium64">What is grml64-medium?</a></li>
62 <li><a href="#whatissmall64">What is grml64-small?</a></li>
63 <li><a href="#grml64vsnormal">What is the difference between 32 bit grml and 64 bit grml?</a></li>
64 <li><a href="#smallvsnormal">What is the difference between 'normal' grml and grml-small?</a></li>
65 <li><a href="#grmlvsdsl">What is the difference between grml-small and DSL?</a></li>
68 <p class="toc"><a href="#problems">Problems</a>:</p>
70 <li><a href="#known_issues">Are there any known issues with this release?</a></li>
71 <li><a href="#hardware">I have problems with my hardware!</a></li>
72 <li><a href="#boot">grml does not boot on my computer!</a></li>
73 <li><a href="#fbprobs">I don't see anything when booting grml?!</a></li>
74 <li><a href="#utf8">I have problems with UTF-8 / Unicode</a></li>
75 <li><a href="#grml2hdhang">grml2hd seems to hang?!</a></li>
76 <li><a href="#missingfiles">I noticed some files are missing on grml</a></li>
77 <li><a href="#bugreport">Bugreport</a></li>
80 <p class="toc"><a href="#system">System</a>:</p>
82 <li><a href="#isolinux">Where's the old bootsplash?</a></li>
83 <li><a href="#configure">Which tools exist to configure grml?</a></li>
84 <li><a href="#password">What are the passwords of users on grml?</a></li>
85 <li><a href="#version">How do I find out the version of grml</a></li>
86 <li><a href="#remove_cd">Is it possible to run LiveCD and eject CD-ROM?</a></li>
87 <li><a href="#language">How do I change the language/keyboard settings?</a></li>
88 <li><a href="#kde_and_foo">KDE, Gnome, $FOO and $BAR</a></li>
89 <li><a href="#wms">Which window managers can I use?</a></li>
90 <li><a href="#usbmount">How do I mount a USB device / USB stick?</a></li>
91 <li><a href="#lvm">Where are my LVM devices?</a></li>
92 <li><a href="#swraid">Where are my Software-RAID devices?</a></li>
93 <li><a href="libata">Why doesn't grml find my disks / doesn't boot?</a></li>
94 <li><a href="#booting">Which ways exist to boot grml?</a></li>
95 <li><a href="#timezone">How do I configure timezone on my grml system?</a></li>
96 <li><a href="#hdinstall">Is it possible to install grml to harddisk?</a></li>
99 <p class="toc"><a href="#kernel">Kernel</a>:</p>
101 <li><a href="#kernelconfig">Where can I find the configuration for the kernel used on grml?</a></li>
102 <li><a href="#kernelpatches">Are there any special components/patches in the kernel used on grml?</a></li>
103 <li><a href="#platform">For which platforms is the grml kernel optimized?</a></li>
106 <p class="toc"><a href="#software">Software:</a></p>
108 <li><a href="#sw_general">General</a></li>
109 <li><a href="#sw_version">Which package(s) and which version is available?</a></li>
110 <li><a href="#init">Init-System</a></li>
111 <li><a href="#zsh">Why is zsh the default shell?</a></li>
112 <li><a href="#zsh_binsh">Wasn't zsh the /bin/sh interpreter?</a></li>
113 <li><a href="#bash">Is a bash available?</a></li>
114 <li><a href="#configuration">Where can I find the configuration of zsh, GNU screen,...?</a></li>
115 <li><a href="#truecrypt">Why isn't Truecrypt available within grml?</a></li>
116 <li><a href="#grub">grub does not work on my system?!</a></li>
117 <li><a href="#fdisk">fdisk/parted/... complains with something like 'unable to open /dev/sda - unrecognised disk label'?!</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="#stuff">Support / Unanswered stuff</a></p>
129 <li><a href="#questions">Further questions?</a></li>
130 <li><a href="#support">Commercial Support</a></li>
133 <h2><a name="general"></a><a href="#toc">General</a></h2>
135 <h3><a name="whatis"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml?</a></h3>
137 <p>Grml is a bootable CD (Live-CD) based on <a
138 href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>. Grml includes a collection of
139 GNU/Linux software especially for system administrators and users of
140 texttools. Grml provides automatic hardware detection. You can use grml
141 as a rescue system, for analyzing systems/networks, or as a working
142 environment. It is not necessary to install anything to a harddisk. Due
143 to on-the-fly decompression grml includes more than 2GB of software and
144 documentation on the CD.</p>
146 <h3><a name="get"></a><a href="#toc">Where do I get grml?</a></h3>
148 <p>Grml is open source, you can download it from the mirrors listed at
149 <a href="/download">grml.org/download/</a>. If you want to get an
150 original grml-CD including <a href="/files/#covers">the grml-cover</a>,
151 need a special amount of CDs or want your own special grml-CD (including
152 your logo, your software and/or special settings) <a
153 href="/contact/">please don't hesitate to contact us</a>. Take a look at
154 <a href="http://grml-solutions.com/">Grml Solutions</a> if you're
155 interested in commercial support.</p>
157 <h3><a name="whatmeans"></a><a href="#toc">What does grml mean?</a></h3>
159 <p>Grml is short for 'grummel' and comes close to 'argl' or 'grrr' in
160 English. People use this when they want to express their
161 dissatisfaction/discontentedness with software (amongst other
165 $ grep -ch grml .centericq/**/history | xargs echo | \
166 sed 's/[0-9]*/& + /g' | sed 's/+ $//g' | bc -l
169 <h3><a name="pronounce"></a><a href="#toc">How do you pronounce grml?</a></h3>
172 % flite -o play -t gremel</pre>
174 $ echo 'ghroummel' | festival \-\-tts
177 <h3><a name="releasename"></a><a href="#toc">What about the release name?</a></h3>
179 <p>Codename of grml 2009.10 is Hello-Wien. Wien is the German language
180 name for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna">Vienna</a>, the
181 city and federal state in Austria. Pronounce Wien like 'ween', take a
182 look at the <a href="http://grml.org/screenshots/#grml0910">release
183 screenshot</a>, think of 31st of october as release date and you should
186 <h3><a name="requirements"></a><a href="#toc">Requirements for running grml</a></h3>
190 <li>Intel-compatible CPU (i586 or later, preferably Pentium class or higher)</li>
192 <li>grml/grml-medium: at least 64MB of RAM (for stable use with
193 ramdisks for aufs and udev and when running X window system we
194 recommend at least 128MB)</li>
196 <li>grml-small: at least 32MB RAM should be available</li>
198 <li>either a bootable CD-ROM drive or <a href="#usbboot">USB-boot
199 capabable system</a> (for booting via network/PXE check out <a
200 href="#terminalserver">grml-terminalserver</a>)</li>
204 <h3><a name="why"></a><a href="#toc">Why another Linux distribution?</a></h3>
206 <p>There already exist "<a
207 href="http://www.distrowatch.com/">some</a>" distributions. We
208 decided to base our work on the existing infrastructure of <a
209 href="http://debian.org/">Debian</a> because we don't want to reinvent
210 the wheel. Some admins already use their own rescue CD, Knoppix works
211 but does not bring that many important tools for admins and users of
212 texttools out of the box. Therefor we decided to share our work with
213 others and provide the swiss army knife for sysadmins and texttool
216 <h3><a name="license"></a><a href="#toc">What's the license of grml?</a></h3>
218 <p>Anything written by the grml team is published under the GPL (<a
219 href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU General Public
220 License</a>). You don't have to pay anything for using grml. If you want
221 a special Live-CD or need commercial support, take a look at <a
222 href="http://grml-solutions.com/">Grml Solutions</a>.</p>
224 <h3><a name="difference"></a><a href="#toc">What's the difference between grml and
225 $OTHER-DISTRIBUTION? What are the main goals?</a></h3>
227 <p>The main goal of grml is to be a distribution well suited for
228 sysadmins and users of texttools. Grml includes all the tools for
229 admin's daily work (lvm, mdadm, dd/ddrescue,...) as well as many
230 important texttools (of course awk, sed, grep, ... but also zsh,
231 mutt[ng], slrn, vim and many others). Grml uses the existing
232 infrastructure of <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>. Grml was
233 once based on <a href="http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/">Knoppix</a> (see
234 '<a href="#knoppix">What's the difference between grml and Knoppix?</a>'
235 for more details). We are also merging useful things from other
236 distributions/live-cds to provide a perfect environment.</p>
238 <h3><a name="knoppix"></a><a href="#toc">What's the difference between grml and Knoppix?</a></h3>
240 <p>Grml comes with a vastly different set of software. Missing KDE and
241 OpenOffice provides the opportunity of shipping more than 800 packages
242 which Knoppix does not provide on its CD version. Grml boots a recent
243 2.6 kernel but no X by default for faster startup. Knoppix is based on
244 Debian/testing-experimental (using apt-pinning), but grml is basically
245 based on plain Debian/unstable providing more current versions of
246 software. Grml was once based on Knoppix but nowadays has nothing in
247 common with Knoppix:</p>
251 # find / -iname \*knoppix\*
254 <p>We consider Knoppix as a brand name for live-cds nowadays and provide
255 most of Knoppix' features as well. Grml uses (mostly) the same <a
256 href="http://git.grml.org/?p=grml-live.git;a=blob_plain;f=templates/GRML/grml-cheatcodes.txt;hb=HEAD">cheatcodes</a>
257 for booting as Knoppix and even provides some extra ones. So if you are
258 used to the basic Knoppix features you usually find them on the
259 grml system as well.</p>
261 <h3><a name="accessibility"></a><a href="#toc">What does accessibility at grml mean?</a></h3>
263 <p>The Grml kernel includes <a href="/kernel/#speakup">support for
264 speakup</a> and provides software like brltty (using bootoption 'grml
265 blind brltty=type,port,tbl') and flite.</p>
267 <h3><a name="bootoptions"></a><a href="#toc">Which bootoptions does Grml support?</a></h3>
270 href="http://git.grml.org/?p=grml-live.git;a=blob_plain;f=templates/GRML/grml-cheatcodes.txt;hb=HEAD">grml-cheatcodes
271 file</a> (also available via <a href="http://grml.org/cheatcodes/">grml.org/cheatcodes/</a>). Of
273 href="http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt">kernel-parameters.txt</a>
274 of the Linux kernel applies to Grml as well.</p>
276 <h3><a name="emulation"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to run grml with $EMULATOR?</a></h3>
278 <p>Sure, Grml works with <a href="http://www.vmware.com/">VMware</a>, <a
279 href="http://www.virtualbox.org/">Virtualbox</a>, <a
280 href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/">MS Virtual PC</a>,
281 <a href="http://www.linux-kvm.org/">KVM</a>... It's also possible to run
282 grml with <a href="http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/">QEMU</a>, an
283 emulator for various CPUs which works on Linux, Windows, FreeBSD and Mac
284 OS X. Take a look at <a href="/qemu/">grml's QEMU webpage</a>.</p>
286 <h3><a name="usbboot"></a><a href="#toc">How do I boot grml from a USB stick?</a></h3>
289 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb#grml2usb">grml2usb</a> at the
290 <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb">usb webpage in the
293 <h3><a name="store"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to store my settings?</a></h3>
295 <p>Yes. Grml provides a config framework, check out <a
296 href="/config/">grml.org/config/</a>, <a
297 href="file:///usr/share/doc/grml-saveconfig/grml-config.html">/usr/share/doc/grml-saveconfig/grml-config.html</a>
298 and 'man grml-autoconfig save-config restore-config mkpersistenthome' for more
299 details. Starting with release 2009.05 a <a
300 href="#persistency">persistency option</a> is
303 <h3><a name="persistency"></a><a href="#doc">Is a persistency feature available?</a></h3>
305 <p>Starting with release 2009.05 a persistency feature is available. Use
307 href="http://grml.org/online-docs/live-snapshot.en.1.html">live-snapshot</a>
308 (man live-snapshot) and the bootoption 'persistent' for enabling
311 <a name="grmlmedium"></a><a name="grmlsmall"></a><a name="grml64"></a>
312 <h2></a><a href="#toc">grml-medium / grml-small / grml64?</a></h2>
314 <h3><a name="whatismedium"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml-medium?</a></h3>
316 <p>grml-medium is a grml-flavour which tries to close the gap between <a
317 href="#whatissmall">grml-small</a> and <a
318 href="#whatis">normal/large/full version of grml</a>. grml-medium is an
319 ISO with a size of ~200MB providing the most important packages a
320 sysadmin usually needs. It provides the same <a href="/kernel/">kernel
321 version</a> as normal grml does so you can easily integrate and use some
322 further existing external modules as well. The X.org server is shipped
323 as well as the window manager fluxbox. Take a look at the <a
324 href="/files/">'Debian-Information'-section</a> if you are searching for
326 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=accessibility">accessibility
327 features</a> are <strong>NOT</strong> available/supported on grml-medium
330 <h3><a name="whatissmall"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml-small?</a></h3>
332 <p>Whereas grml provides about 2.3GB of software on a 700 MB ISO,
333 grml-small is a flavor with about 100 MB ISO-size (~275 MB
334 uncompressed). It does not provide a lot of software (for example no
335 X.org and no man pages) but the essential stuff for being a rescue
336 system on a business card CD-ROM or a small USB device. You can use the
337 Debian package management system to install software on the fly
338 (assuming you have network access to a Debian mirror). It provides the
339 same <a href="/kernel/">kernel version</a> as normal grml does so you
340 can easily integrate and use some further existing external modules as
341 well. Take a look at the <a
342 href="/files/">'Debian-Information'-section</a> if you are searching for
343 the package list.</p>
345 <h3><a name="whatisgrml64"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml64?</a></h3>
347 <p>grml64 is a 64bit-version of grml, based on <a
348 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/amd64/">the amd64 port of
351 <h3><a name="whatismedium64"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml64-medium?</a></h3>
353 <p>grml64-medium is the 64bit version of <a href="#whatismedium">grml-medium</a>.</p>
355 <h3><a name="whatissmall64">What is grml64-small?</a></h3>
357 <p>grml64-small is the 64bit version of <a href="#whatissmall">grml-small</a>.</p>
359 <h3><a name="grml64vsnormal"></a><a href="#toc">What is the difference between 32 bit grml and 64 bit grml?</a></h3>
361 <p>The main difference of course is that grml64 is a 64bit-version
362 whereas (normal) grml is 32bit-only. grml64 provides a 64bit kernel
363 which supports 32bit userspace applications. grml64 also provides
364 libc6-i386 and libc6-dev-i386. Due to space reasons and because some
365 packages aren't available for amd64 yet some packages are missing on
366 grml64 compared to (normal, 32bit) grml. For more details please take a
367 look at <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml64">the grml64
368 webpage in the grml-wiki</a>.</p>
370 <h3><a name="smallvsnormal"></a><a href="#toc">What is the
371 difference between 'normal' grml and grml-small?</a></h3>
373 <p>The 700MB-grml brings more than 2500 software packages. grml-small
374 includes about 300 software packages, lacks documentation and manpages
375 on the ISO. <a href="#terminalserver">grml-terminalserver</a> and <a
376 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=accessibility">accessibility
377 features</a> are <strong>not</strong> available/supported on
380 <h3><a name="grmlvsdsl"></a><a href="#toc">What is the
381 difference between grml-small and DSL?</a></h3>
383 <p>DSL (Damns Small Linux) and grml-small have different target
384 audiences. <a href="http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/">Damn Small Linux</a>
385 (DSL) uses kernel version 2.4 whereas grml-small provides a recent
386 version of kernel version 2.6. DSL provides the X window system which
387 grml-small does not. grml-small on the other hand provides the most
388 important packages for sysadmins and ships the original Debian package
389 management which allows you to install packages of the Debian pool with
390 no modifications.</p>
392 <h2><a name="problems"></a><a href="#toc">Problems</a></h2>
394 <a name="release"></a> <!-- old anchor -->
395 <h3><a name="known_issues"></a><a href="#toc">Are there any known issues with this release?</a></h3>
397 <p>We won't hide anything. Therefore, we do provide all known
398 issues/bugs publicly available:</p>
402 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml_2009.10">issues regarding
403 grml 2009.10</a> in <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the grml-wiki</a></li>
405 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml64_2009.10">issues
406 regarding grml64 2009.10</a> in <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
409 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml-medium_2009.10">issues
410 regarding grml-medium 2009.10</a> in <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
413 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml64-medium_2009.10">issues
414 regarding grml64-medium 2009.10</a> in <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
417 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml-small_2009.10">issues
418 regarding grml-small 2009.10</a> in <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
421 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml64-small_2009.10">issues
422 regarding grml64-small 2009.10</a> in <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
427 <p>If you find another bug, or consider something a problem not yet
428 mentioned <a href="#bugreport">please it</a>.</p>
430 <h3><a name="hardware"></a><a href="#toc">I have problems with my hardware!</a></h3>
432 <p>Take a look at the script grml-hwinfo. This script generates a file
433 named info.tar.bz2 which contains important information about your
434 hardware. If you think we might help, please run grml-hwinfo and <a
435 href="/contact/">send us the file</a> with additional, relevant
436 information regarding your problem.</p>
438 <h3><a name="boot"></a><a href="#toc">grml does not boot on my computer!</a></h3>
440 <p>Please take a look at <a
441 href="http://git.grml.org/?p=grml-live.git;a=blob_plain;f=templates/GRML/grml-cheatcodes.txt;hb=HEAD">the
442 available bootparamters and cheatcodes</a> and '<a href="#booting">Which
443 ways exist to boot grml?</a>'. Especially booting with 'acpi=off noapm
444 noapic' might help. The bootparameter 'failsafe' provides minimal
445 hardware detection using some special bootoptions (please do NOT boot
446 with 'grml failsafe' but with 'failsafe' as first word of the boot
447 commandline) . If booting hangs during stage "Waiting for /dev to
448 be fully populated" please try booting with 'grml noudev'. If you
449 don't even see the bootsplash of the grml-ISO your BIOS might be broken
450 (pretty common especially on old hardware). Please consider using <a
451 href="http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/">btmgr</a> then for booting your
452 system. Also check out the <a
453 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=problems">problems webpage</a> in
454 <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the grml-wiki</a>. You still have
455 problems? Feel free to <a href="/contact/">contact us</a>.</p>
457 <h3><a name="fbprobs"></a><a href="#toc">I don't see anything when booting grml?!</a></h3>
459 <p>Likely, this is a problem with the vesafb framebuffer. Try to boot
460 with the 'Disable Framebuffer' menuentry (available behind the submenu
461 'Boot options for ...') or manually ad 'vga=normal' to the kernel
462 command line (press TAB to edit a menu entry and add 'vga=normal'
465 <h3><a name="utf8"></a><a href="#toc">I have problems with UTF-8 / Unicode</a></h3>
468 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=utf8">UTF8-webpage in the
471 <h3><a name="grml2hdhang"></a><a href="#toc">grml2hd seems to hang?!</a></h3>
473 <p>grml2hd seems to hang? Switch to tty12 and take a look at the syslog output.
474 If you see something like:</p>
477 SQUASHFS error: zlib_fs returned unexpected result 0x........
478 SQUASHFS error: Unable to read cache block [.....]
479 SQUASHFS error: Unable to read inode [.....]</pre>
481 <p>your ISO/CD-ROM <em>very</em> probably is NOT ok. Verify it via
482 booting with grml testcd if that works, or even better check your CD
483 low-level via running:</p>
486 # readcd -c2scan dev=/dev/cdrom</pre>
488 <p>If the medium really is ok and it still fails try to boot with
489 DMA deactivated via 'grml nodma ide=nodma libata.dma=0' at the bootprompt.</p>
492 <h3><a name="missingfiles"></a><a href="#toc">I noticed some files are missing on grml</a></h3>
494 <p>Yes, output of 'debsums -a 1>/dev/null' might output some
495 failures. The reason is pretty simple: some few modification have been
496 done either because they are required for the provided environment or
497 because of space limitiations on the ISO. The failures are nothing to
498 really care about, but as we don't hide anything we thought it might be
499 worth mentioning.</p>
501 <h3><a name="bugreport"></a><a href="#toc">Bugreport</a></h3>
503 <p>Searching for a bug? Want to report a bug? Take a look at the <a
504 href="/bugs/">bugs webpage</a>.</p>
506 <h2><a name="system"></a><a href="#toc">System</a></h2>
508 <h3><a name="isolinux"></a><a href="#toc">Where's the old bootsplash?</a></h3>
510 <p>Starting with release 2009.10 Grml provides a menu based bootsplash.
511 To adjust boot options just press the TAB-key. To directly switch to the
512 old-style isolinux cmdline just press the escape key within 30 seconds. If you
513 still need access to the old bootsplash layout (including the f2, f3,...
514 pages with further information regarding available bootoptions)
515 select the entry 'Isolinux prompt' in the menu based bootsplash (just
516 press 'i' and ENTER for direct access to it). The timeout until either
517 the selected entry is booted (if specified) or until the system will
518 restore from the cmdline to the menu based bootsplash is 30 seconds.</p>
520 <h3><a name="configure"></a><a href="#toc">Which tools exist to configure grml?</a></h3>
522 <p>Grml provides several scripts and tools which should make life
523 easier. See 'dpkg -L grml-scripts' to get an overview of some main
524 scripts. Run 'grml-config' to get a dialog interface for the most
525 important scripts and tasks. Or just type 'grml-' and press tab-key to
526 get a completion menu in the shell.</p>
528 <h3><a name="password"></a><a href="#toc">What are the passwords of users on grml?</a></h3>
530 <p>There are no default passwords - all accounts are locked by default
531 for security reasons. Even local logins are not possible (unless you set
532 a password or create new user accounts as root). You can create valid
533 passwords using "sudo passwd [username]" from the shell
536 <h3><a name="version"></a><a href="#toc">How do I find out the version of grml</a></h3>
538 <p>Run 'grml-version' or use the following command:</p>
541 $ cat /etc/grml_version</pre>
543 <h3><a name="remove_cd"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to run LiveCD and eject CD-ROM?</a></h3>
546 % sudo umount -l /live/image
547 % sudo eject /dev/cdrom # now don't run any new programs unless you booted using 'toram'
548 % mount /dev/cdrom # mount it again if needed
551 <h3><a name="language"></a><a href="#toc">How do I change the language/keyboard settings?</a></h3>
553 <p>By default grml uses english settings. But it is possible to
554 change the settings via using either the bootparam(s) lang,
555 keyboard and xkeyboard or via executing grml-lang when grml is
556 already running. Usage examples:</p>
559 grml lang=de # enter this at the bootprompt and you will get
560 # german keyboard layout and german $LANG, $LC_ALL,
562 grml keyboard=de xkeyboard=de lang=at # enter this at the bootprompt
563 # and you will get german keyboard and austrian
565 % grml-lang de # enter this in the shell to switch keyboard layout
566 # and $LANG settings in a running grml-system
569 <p>If you are running grml from harddisk (using <a
570 href="#hdinstall">grml2hd</a>) you have several options how to set
571 language options:</p>
575 <li>adjust /etc/default/locale to configure global language and
576 environment settings</li>
578 <li>set environment variables like $LC_ALL, $LANG, $LANGUAGE in your
579 personal configuration files (like ~/.zshrc.local, see <a
580 href="/zsh/">grml zsh reference card</a> for details)
581 if you do not want to use them system wide/global</li>
583 <li>adjust /etc/sysconfig/keyboard to configure keyboard layout
584 on console, or run 'loadkeys $KEYTABLE' manually</li>
586 <li>add "setxkbmap $LANGUAGE" to the keybindings section in
587 your ~/.xinitrc to configure keyboard setup for the X window system
588 (deactivate the xmodmap lines if necessary)</li>
592 <p>Note: run grml-setlang to get a dialog based frontend for
593 /etc/default/locale. Run grml-setkeyboard to get a dialog based frontend
594 for /etc/sysconfig/keyboard.</p>
596 <h3><a name="kde_and_foo"></a><a href="#toc">KDE, Gnome, $FOO and $BAR</a></h3>
598 <p>Why isn't KDE, Gnome, $FOO or $BAR part of grml? grml is a
599 distribution for users of texttools and sysadmins. If you would like to
600 run KDE with Debian use e.g. <a href="http://sidux.com/">Sidux</a> or <a
601 href="http://www.kubuntu.org/">Kubuntu</a>. Gnome users might find <a
602 href="http://www.ubuntulinux.org/">Ubuntu</a> useful. If you would like
603 to see a specific (software) package added to grml please <a
604 href="/report/">report it to us</a>!</p>
606 <h3><a name="wms"></a><a href="#toc">Which window managers can I use?</a></h3>
608 <p>Grml is shipped only with window managers which are lightweight and
609 fast - so well suited for a live system. At the moment, grml provides the
610 following window managers:</p>
612 <li><a href="http://awesome.naquadah.org/">awesome</a>
613 <li><a href="http://wmii.de/dwm/">dwm</a>
614 <li><a href="http://www.6809.org.uk/evilwm/">evilwm</a>
615 <li><a href="http://www.fluxbox.org/">fluxbox</a>
616 <li><a href="http://www.fvwm.org/">fvwm</a>
617 <li><a href="http://fvwm-crystal.org/">fvwm-crystal</a>
618 <li><a href="http://joewing.net/programs/jwm/index.shtml">jwm</a>
619 <li><a href="http://icculus.org/openbox/index.php/Main_Page">openbox</a>
620 <li><a href="http://pekwm.org/">pekwm</a>
621 <li><a href="http://www.nongnu.org/ratpoison/">ratpoison</a>
622 <li><a href="http://www.plig.org/xwinman/vtwm.html">twm</a>
623 <li><a href="http://www.grassouille.org/code/w9wm/README">w9wm</a>
624 <li><a href="http://www.nickgravgaard.com/windowlab/">windowlab</a>
625 <li><a href="http://www.suckless.org/wiki/wmii">wmii</a>
628 <p>Tip: If you are new to grml and/or prefer an easy-to-use-desktop run 'grml-x
629 wm-ng' for starting fluxbox with idesk and gkrellm.</p>
631 <h3><a name="usbmount"></a><a href="#toc">How do I mount a USB device / USB stick?</a></h3>
633 <p>Run 'mount /mnt/usb-sda1' for example if you want to mount /dev/sda1.
634 udev on grml does multiplexing for USB block devices, so /dev/usb-sda1
635 (device for mountpoint /mnt/usb-sda1) is a symlink to /dev/sda1.</p>
637 <h3><a name="lvm"></a><a href="#toc">Where are my LVM devices?</a></h3>
639 <p>LVM (Logival Volumes) is <strong>not</strong> started by default to
640 avoid any possible damage to your data. To get access to present LVM
641 devices just execute:</p>
644 # /etc/init.d/lvm2 start
646 or use the shorter version:
651 <p>If you want to enable LVM by default just boot using the 'lvm'
652 bootoption which automatically enables LVM.</p>
654 <h3><a name="swraid"></a><a href="#toc">Where are my Software-RAID devices?</a></h3>
656 <p>Software-RAID (usually known as the mdadm stuff) is
657 <strong>not</strong> started by default to avoid any possible damage to
658 your data. To get access to present SW-RAID devices just execute:</p>
661 # /etc/init.d/mdadm-raid start
663 or use the shorter version:
668 <p>If you want to enable SW-RAID by default just boot using the 'swraid'
669 bootoption which enables automatic assembling of software raid arrays.</p>
671 <h3><a name="libata"></a><a href="#toc">Why doesn't grml find my disks / doesn't boot?</a></h3>
673 <p>Since release 2008.11 grml uses <a
674 href="http://linux-ata.org/faq.html">libata</a> exclusively (so no
675 longer any old IDE code). Sadly some few (usually pretty old) systems
676 don't boot with libata-only kernels anymore. If you think you've such a
677 system please provide output of 'lspci' <a href="/contact/">to
680 <a name="terminalserver"></a>
681 <h3><a name="booting"></a><a href="#toc">Which ways exist to boot grml?</a></h3>
683 <p>The most common way to boot grml is, of course, running from
684 CD-ROM, but grml provides many more ways to boot grml:</p>
686 <p>It is possible to boot grml via USB (e.g. USB stick or harddisk),
687 firewire, or running from a Compact Flash disk. It works out of the box;
688 you don't need to modify anything. Check out <a
689 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb">the usb webpage in the
690 grml-wiki</a> for more details.</p>
692 <p>Your computer can not boot from CD-ROM but provides a floppy
693 disk? Take a look at <a
694 href="http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/">btmgr</a>, <a
695 href="http://ubcd4win.com/faq.htm#floppy">ubcd4win</a> or <a
696 href="http://linux.simple.be/tools/sbm">sbm</a>. They provide
697 support for booting from CD-ROM via a special floppy disk.</p>
699 <p>grml-terminalserver makes it possible to boot your system via network
701 href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preboot_Execution_Environment">PXE</a>
702 (Preboot Execution Environment). If your network card does not provide
703 support for booting via PXE you can still boot it either using the
704 provided grub image by grml-terminalserver (for example via floppy
705 drive) or using <a href="http://etherboot.org/wiki/index.php">gPXE</a>.
706 For more information, refer to the <a
707 href="/terminalserver/">grml-terminalserver webpage</a>.</p>
709 <h3><a name="timezone"></a><a href="#toc">How do I configure
710 timezone on my grml system?</a></h3>
712 <h4>Available bootoptions relevant in live-cd mode:</h4>
715 <li>utc: set UTC, if your system clock is set to UTC (GMT)
716 <li>gmt: set UTC, if your system clock is set to UTC (GMT) [like bootoption utc]
717 <li>tz=$option: set timezone to corresponding $option, usage example:
721 <h4>Configuration options relevant on harddisk installation:</h4>
726 # dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
729 <p>to adjust /etc/timezone and /etc/localtime according to the
730 provided information.</p>
732 <p><strong>/etc/default/rcS:</strong> set variable UTC according
733 to your needs, whether your system clock is set to UTC
734 (UTC='yes') or not (UTC='no')</p>
736 <p><strong>/etc/localtime:</strong> adjust zoneinfo according to
740 # ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/$WHATEVER_YOU_WANT /etc/localtime
743 <p>The zoneinfo directory contains the time zone files that were
744 compiled by zic. The files contain information such as rules
745 about DST. They allow the kernel to convert UTC UNIX time into
746 appropriate local dates and times. Use the zdump utility to
747 print current time and date (in the specified time zone).</p>
749 <p><strong>/etc/adjtime:</strong> This file is used e.g. by the
750 adjtimex function, which can smoothly adjust system time while
753 <p>If you change the time (using 'date --set ...', ntpdate,...)
754 it is worth setting also the hardware clock to the correct
758 # hwclock --systohc [--utc]
761 <p>Remember to add the --utc -option if the hardware clock is set to
764 <h4>Still problems?</h4>
766 <p>Check your current settings via:</p>
773 grep hwclock /etc/runlevel.conf
774 grep '^UTC' /etc/default/rc
777 <h4>Further information:</h4>
779 <p>Manpages: hwclock(8) tzselect(1) tzconfig(8); <a
780 href="http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/system-administrator/ch-sysadmin-time.html">Debian
781 GNU/Linux System Administrator's Manual Chapter 16 - Time</a> and <a
782 href="http://wiki.debian.org/TimeZoneChanges">TimeZoneChanges in the
785 <h3><a name="hdinstall"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to install grml to harddisk?</a></h3>
787 <p>Yes. Grml provides a tool called <a href="/grml2hd/">grml2hd</a> (see
788 '<a href="/grml2hd/grml2hd.html">man grml2hd</a>'). grml is developed
789 on a box running the grml-system itself, and we - the grml-developers -
790 especially like grml2hd because it gives us a working Linux box within
791 10 to 30 minutes. grml2hd is perfect for prototyping: test hardware
792 support of Linux, test a specific setup, ... You can even use grml2hd in
793 a fully automatic mode without any further interaction.</p>
795 <p>But <strong>please note</strong>: grml2hd does <strong>NOT</strong>
796 provide a Linux distribution for newbies and should be installed to hard
797 disk only if really know what you are doing (or don't care about
798 maintainability, seriously). Please install grml using grml2hd only if
799 can answer all of the following questions with 'sure, YES':</p>
802 <li>Are you used to work with Debian/unstable?
803 <li>Do you know how to report bugs to Debian?
804 <li>Are you aware of the differences between plain Debian and grml?
807 <p><strong>Tip</strong>: If you want to get a plain Debian system take
808 a look at <a href="/grml-debootstrap/">grml-debootstrap</a>.</p>
810 <p><strong>Note:</strong> If you are using grml in a production
811 environment and/or use a grml2hd installation, we strongly recommend you
812 subscribe to <a href="/mailinglist/">the grml user mailinglist</a>!</p>
814 <h2><a name="kernel"></a><a href="#toc">Kernel</a></h2>
816 <h3><a name="kernelconfig"></a><a href="#toc">Where can I find the configuration for the kernel used on
819 <p>See /boot/config-`uname -r` and on <a href="/kernel/">the kernel-webpage</a>.</p>
821 <h3><a name="kernelpatches"></a><a href="#toc">Are there any special components/patches in the kernel
822 used on grml?</a></h3>
824 <p>Grml uses the most current stable vanilla Linux kernel from <a
825 href="http://www.kernel.org/">www.kernel.org</a> with some
826 additional patches. More information and an all-in-one patch is
828 href="/kernel/">kernel-page</a>.</p>
830 <h3><a name="platform"></a><a href="#toc">For which platforms is the grml kernel optimized?</a></h3>
832 <p>Plain i586 compatibility-mode with SMP enabled. (Note: of course it
833 works for uniprocessor systems as well)</p>
835 <h2><a name="software"></a><a href="#toc">Software</a></h2>
837 <h3><a name="sw_general"></a><a href="#toc">General</a></h3>
839 <p>Want to run a program as root? Just use "sudo $PROGRAM". To get a
840 root-shell run "sudo -i".</p>
842 <p>Problems with a specific package? Please try "dpkg-reconfigure $foo".
843 Still encountering difficulties? Please send us a <a
844 href="/bugs/">bugreport</a>.</p>
846 <h3><a name="sw_version"></a><a href="#toc">Which package(s) and which
847 version is available?</a></h3>
849 <p>If you want to get details about the provided packages and the
850 package versions without booting the grml ISO check out the dpkg_...
851 files in the <a href="/files/#debian">Debian-Information section on
852 grml.org/files/</a>.</p>
854 <h3><a name="init"></a><a href="#toc">Init-System</a></h3>
856 <p>Why is grml using runlevel 2 as default? Because runlevel 2 is 'the
857 textonly one' and it is Debian's default.</p>
859 <p>Where are all the /etc/rc#.d-directories? grml doesn't use sysv-rc
860 but <a href="http://packages.debian.org/sid/file-rc">file-rc</a>. This
861 means you can configure the init system in one single file named
862 /etc/runlevel.conf with your favourite editor. No symlink-hell
865 <h3><a name="zsh"></a><a href="#toc">Why is zsh the default shell?</a></h3>
867 <p>Short answer: because <a href="/zsh/">Zsh rocks</a>, really!</p>
869 <p>Longer answer taken from <a
870 href="http://zsh.sunsite.dk/FAQ/zshfaq01.html#l3">ZSH FAQ: 1.2: What is
873 <cite> Zsh is a UNIX command interpreter (shell) which of the standard shells most
874 resembles the Korn shell (ksh); its compatibility with the 1988 Korn shell has been
875 gradually increasing. It includes enhancements of many types, notably in the
876 command-line editor, options for customising its behaviour, filename globbing, features
877 to make C-shell (csh) users feel more at home and extra features drawn from tcsh
878 (another `custom' shell).</cite>
880 <p>If you don't know zsh take a look at <a
881 href="http://zsh.sunsite.dk/FAQ/zshfaq02.html#l9">ZSH FAQ: How does zsh
882 differ from ...?</a>, 'man zsh | less -p COMPATIBILITY', the <a
883 href="/zsh/">grml zsh reference card</a> and '<a
884 href="/zsh/">man zsh-lovers</a>'.</p>
886 <p>If you are a bash user and don't know zsh yet, don't be afraid. bash
887 is largely a subset of zsh and you don't have to throw away your
888 knowledge about shell stuff.</p>
890 <h3><a name="zsh_binsh"></a><a href="#toc">Wasn't zsh the /bin/sh interpreter?</a></h3>
892 <p>Yes, until grml 0.6 zsh was the interpreter for /bin/sh. Starting
893 with release 0.7 grml used /bin/bash as /bin/sh and nowadays /bin/dash
894 is used for /bin/sh (that's what Debian does as well). The reason?
895 Using zsh as default /bin/sh interpreter leads to some problems,
896 especially since Debian does not care to support zsh as /bin/sh overall.
898 href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=329288">#329288</a>
900 href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=340058">#340058</a>
903 <h3><a name="bash"></a><a href="#toc">Is a bash available?</a></h3>
905 <p>Grml uses <a href="#zsh">zsh</a> as the default interactive shell
906 but, of course, a current version of bash (and many other shells as
907 well) is provided by grml.</p>
909 <h3><a name="configuration"></a><a href="#toc">Where can I find the configuration of zsh, GNU screen,...?</a></h3>
912 href="http://michael-prokop.at/blog/2007/12/22/make-console-work-comfortable/">'Make
913 console work comfortable'</a>.</p>
915 <h3><a name="truecrypt">Why isn't Truecrypt available within grml?</a></h3>
917 <p>Because Truecrypt is licensed under a specific license named
918 'TrueCrypt License' which doesn't permit us to distribute Truecrypt (since at least
919 license version 2.6).
920 See <a href="http://www.truecrypt.org/legal/license">section VI/4 of the
921 license</a> for details. The Ubuntu version from <a
922 href="http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads">truecrypt.org/downloads</a> is
923 known to work under grml.</p>
925 <h3><a name="grub"></a><a href="#toc">grub does not work on my system?!</a></h3>
927 <p>Looks like you used mkfs.ext3 from grml but are using an old grub
928 version. Notice that older versions of grub do not support 256 byte
929 inodes on ext3, being the default in recent versions of mkfs/e2fsprogs.
930 More information is available at <a
931 href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=463236">#463236</a>
932 in the Debian bug tracking system.</p>
934 <h3><a name="fdisk"></a><a href="#toc">fdisk/parted/... complains with
935 something like 'unable to open /dev/sda - unrecognised disk
938 <p>The 'disk label' is libparted's word for 'partition table'. It looks
939 like you installed gnu-fdisk on your system. To work around this problem
940 you might want to try one the following options:</p>
943 <li>use /sbin/fdisk.distrib from util-linux</li>
944 <li>switch to sfdisk, cfdisk,...</li>
945 <li>use parted's mklabel command (but please read the <a
946 href="http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/manual/">parted manual</a>
947 before executing this command)</li>
950 <h2><a name="xserver"></a><a href="#toc">X-Server</a></h2>
952 <h3><a name="xstart"></a><a href="#toc">How do I start the X server?</a></h3>
954 <p>Please use 'grml-x' as user grml for starting X on the live-cd. It
955 generates the config file /etc/X11/xorg.conf and lets you start commands on
956 startup (see ~/.xinitrc). Use it, for example, via switching to TTY4 (press
957 Alt+F4) and run the following command to start wm-ng (window manager fluxbox
958 with idesk and gkrellm):</p>
963 <p>If you have /etc/X11/xorg.conf already you can use 'startx' instead of
964 grml-x of course. Adjust ~/.xinitrc to your needs.</p>
966 <h3><a name="xproblem"></a><a href="#toc">X does not start on my box?!</a></h3>
968 <p>grml-x supports several options. If you want to set some special options
969 please take a look at the grml-x manpage (man grml-x). Some usage examples:</p>
972 grml-x -module vesa fluxbox # start fluxbox and use vesa module
973 grml-x -mode '800x600' fluxbox # set resolution to 800x600 and start fluxbox
974 grml-x -display 8 fluxbox # start fluxbox on display 8
975 grml-x -force -nostart fluxbox # force creation of xconfig file and don't start X server
976 grml-x -hsync 60 fluxbox # set horizontal frequency and start fluxbox
977 grml-x -hsync 60 -vsync 40 fluxbox # set horizontal and vertical sync frequencies and start fluxbox
980 <h3><a name="xresolution"></a><a href="#toc">I don't like the resolution of X!</a></h3>
982 <p>Just run xrandr to switch the resolution during runtime of X. For
983 example: 'xrandr -s 1024x768'.</p>
985 <h2><a name="stuff"></a><a href="#toc">Support / Unanswered stuff</a></h2>
987 <h3><a name="questions"></a><a href="#toc">Further questions</a></h3>
989 <p>Do you have a question which is not answered in the FAQ or in the
990 provided <a href="/docs/">documentation</a> (execute
991 "grml-info" on your grml-system for offline documentation)?
992 Also check out 'grml-tips $KEYWORD' on your grml-system. Take a look at
993 <a href="/">the grml website</a> and <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
994 grml-wiki</a>. A good place to become part of the community is the <a
995 href="/mailinglist/">grml mailinglist</a>. Please don't hesitate to <a
996 href="/contact/">contact us</a>.</p>
998 <h3><a name="support"></a><a href="#toc">Commercial Support</a></h3>
1000 <p>You want to deploy grml in your data center, use it as part of your
1001 business or have an emergency case? You're happy with grml but would
1002 like to get your very own live cd (providing your favourite software
1003 selection, special configuration, setup and your bootsplash)? As part of
1004 our business we do provide commercial support, feel free to <a
1005 href="http://grml-solutions.com/">contact us at Grml
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