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29 <h1 align="center">FAQ for grml</h1>
31 <p><strong>Up2date:</strong> applies to Grml version 2017.05</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="#flavours">What are grml32 / grml64 and grml96?</a></li>
39 <li><a href="#grmlsmall">What is the difference between grml-full and grml-small?</a></li>
40 <li><a href="#get">Where do I get Grml?</a></li>
41 <li><a href="#whatmeans">What does Grml mean?</a></li>
42 <li><a href="#releasename">What about the release name?</a></li>
43 <li><a href="#requirements">Requirements for running Grml</a></li>
44 <li><a href="#bootoptions">Which bootoptions does Grml support?</a></li>
45 <li><a href="#systemd">Why is Grml using systemd?</a></li>
46 <li><a href="#known_issues">Are there any known issues with this release? How about reporting bugs?</a></li>
49 <p class="toc"><a href="#features">Features</a>:</p>
51 <li><a href="#usbboot">How do I boot Grml from a USB stick?</a></li>
52 <li><a href="#persistency">Is it possible to store my settings?</a></li>
53 <li><a href="#password">What are the passwords of users on Grml?</a></li>
54 <li><a href="#version">How do I find out the version of Grml</a></li>
55 <li><a href="#language">How do I change the language/keyboard settings?</a></li>
56 <li><a href="#wms">Which window managers can I use?</a></li>
57 <li><a href="#lvm">Where are my LVM devices?</a></li>
58 <li><a href="#swraid">Where are my Software-RAID devices?</a></li>
59 <li><a href="#booting">Which ways exist to boot Grml?</a></li>
60 <li><a href="#timezone">How do I configure timezone on my Grml system?</a></li>
61 <li><a href="#hdinstall">Is it possible to install Grml to harddisk?</a></li>
64 <p class="toc"><a href="#software">Software:</a></p>
66 <li><a href="#sw_version">Which package(s) and which version is available?</a></li>
67 <li><a href="#zsh">Why is Zsh the default shell?</a></li>
71 <p class="toc"><a href="#stuff">Support / Unanswered stuff:</a></p>
73 <li><a href="#questions">Further questions?</a></li>
74 <li><a href="#support">Commercial Support</a></li>
77 <h2><a name="general"></a><a href="#toc">General</a></h2>
79 <h3><a name="whatis"></a><a href="#toc">What is Grml?</a></h3>
81 <p>Grml is a bootable live system (Live-CD) based
82 on <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>. It is not
83 necessary to install anything to a harddisk. Grml includes a
84 collection of GNU/Linux software especially for system
85 administrators. It specializes on administrative tasks like
86 installation, deployment and system rescue.</p>
88 <h3><a name="flavours"></a><a href="#toc">What are grml32 / grml64 and grml96?</a></h3>
91 <li>grml32-full: 32bit version (kernel and userspace), ~350MB</li>
92 <li>grml64-full: 64bit version (kernel and userspace), ~350MB</li>
93 <li>grml96-full: multi boot version (featuring the grml32-full and grml64-full ISOs combined on one ISO), ~700MB</li>
96 <p>Unless you've a good reason to really choose the 32bit flavour we
97 strongly encourage you to use either the grml64 or the grml96
100 <p>Please notice that this schema was introduced starting with the
101 downsized Grml release 2011.12. Until then grml96 didn't exist and
102 grml32 was known as just 'grml'.</p>
104 <h3><a name="grmlsmall"></a><a href="#toc">What is the difference between grml-full and grml-small?</a></h3>
106 <p>grml-small provides a reduced set of available software compared to
107 grml-full. It provides the same Linux kernel image as grml-full and is
108 fully binary compatible. Choose the grml-small flavour if size - for
109 whatever reason - really matters to you.</p>
111 <h3><a name="get"></a><a href="#toc">Where do I get Grml?</a></h3>
113 <p>Grml is open source, you can download it from the mirrors
114 listed at <a href="/download">grml.org/download/</a>.</p>
116 <h3><a name="whatmeans"></a><a href="#toc">What does Grml mean?</a></h3>
118 <p>Grml comes close to 'argl' or 'grrr' in English. People use
119 this when they want to express their dissatisfaction with
120 software (amongst other things).</p>
122 <h3><a name="releasename"></a><a href="#toc">What about the release name?</a></h3>
124 <p>Codename of Grml 2014.11 is "Gschistigschasti", which is colloquial for 'fuss' in Austria.</p>
126 <h3><a name="requirements"></a><a href="#toc">Requirements for running Grml</a></h3>
130 <li>Intel-compatible CPU (i586 or later, preferably Pentium class or higher)</li>
132 <li>>=256MB of RAM (>=512MB recommended)</p>
134 <li>either a bootable CD-/DVD-ROM drive,
135 a <a href="#usbboot">USB-boot capable system</a> or a
136 network card for booting via network/PXE (check
137 out <a href="#terminalserver">grml-terminalserver</a>)</li>
141 <h3><a name="accessibility"></a><a href="#toc">What does accessibility at Grml mean?</a></h3>
143 <p>The Grml kernel includes support for speakup. For software,
144 brltty and espeakup are included.</p>
146 <h3><a name="bootoptions"></a><a href="#toc">Which bootoptions does Grml support?</a></h3>
149 href="http://git.grml.org/?p=grml-live.git;a=blob_plain;f=templates/GRML/grml-cheatcodes.txt;hb=HEAD">grml-cheatcodes
150 file</a> (also available via <a href="http://grml.org/cheatcodes/">grml.org/cheatcodes/</a>). Of
152 href="http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt">kernel-parameters.txt</a>
153 of the Linux kernel applies to Grml as well.</p>
155 <h3><a name="systemd"></a><a href="#toc">Why is Grml using systemd?</a></h3>
157 <p>The switch from file-rc to systemd happened for various reasons.
158 Grml used file-rc for many years, mainly because it provided a better
159 way to control startup behavior via its /etc/runlevel.conf configuration
160 than with using sysvinit. Though for us Grml developers this also meant
161 that whenever there have been any changes in Debian's startup
162 configuration we had to compare our /etc/runlevel.conf setup with what a
163 normal Debian system would give us. Users who wanted to remaster Grml
164 with a custom startup procedure as well had to practically fork
165 maintenance of the /etc/runlevel.conf file. This didn't only mean
166 tracking new features/services, but also solve any possible issues
167 around it - duplicating efforts and wasting developers time
168 unnecessarily. Lately we also started to see problems that no one else
169 seemed to have (or care about enough), for example with multiple network
170 cards we ran into race-conditions with resolvconf. Problems like that
171 turned out to be release stoppers for us.</p>
173 <p>systemd on the other hand provides great documentation, service
174 supervision, takes care of parallel service startup and is the default
175 init system on most Linux distributions nowadays. This means more users,
176 better testing and integration. Logging, startup time investigation (to
177 get a fast boot procedure) and identifying failed service startups with
178 sysvinit/file-rc was always hard, unreliable or even impossible under
179 certain conditions. bootlogd was unreliable (while `journalctl -b` is
180 available out-of-the-box with systemd), bootchart not nicely integrated
181 (while systemd-analyze blame/critical-chain works out-of-the-box) and we
182 aren't aware of any equivalence for e.g. `systemctl --failed`.</p>
184 <p>While migrating our stack to systemd is <em>not</em> fully finished
185 yet, its switch - at least so far - was easier than expected. It also
186 turns out that it gives users who want to remaster Grml (or build their
187 very own ISOs from scratch using grml-live) more flexibility and control
188 over the startup process. systemd's override.conf mechanism and preset
189 feature provides the flexibility to overwrite unwanted behavior, without
190 losing the option to use existing defaults.</p>
192 <p>Last but not least we think it's good that systemd is actively
193 maintained and receives attention. The sysvinit/file-rc ecosystem was
194 stagnating/non-existend for too many years. Grml used its own initrd
195 implementation in its very beginnings, until a more broadly available
196 initramfs-tools/ live-boot solution appeared, broadening the user base,
197 sharing goals amongst different (live) distributions. Back in the days
198 Grml - like many other live distributions - had to implement hardware
199 recognition on its own. While udev received lots of complaints back
200 then, its integration actually solved all the hardware recognition for
201 the good. systemd's vision of stateless systems is something which helps
202 building live systems like Grml.</p>
204 <p>While we don't claim that systemd is perfect and doesn't have its
205 issues and drawbacks (like any software), we're happy about its
206 existence and more than happy about development and support by Debian's
209 <a name="release"></a> <!-- old anchor -->
210 <a name="bugreport"></a> <!-- old anchor -->
211 <h3><a name="known_issues"></a><a href="#toc">Are there any known issues? How about reporting bugs?</a></h3>
213 <p>Please visit the <a href="/bugs/">bug webpage</a>.</p>
215 <h2><a name="features"></a><a href="#toc">Features</a></h2>
217 <!-- TODO: needs to be improved! -->
218 <h3><a name="usbboot"></a><a href="#toc">How do I boot Grml from a USB stick?</a></h3>
221 out <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb#grml2usb">grml2usb</a>
223 <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb">usb webpage in the
226 <h3><a name="store"></a><a name="persistency"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to store my settings?</a></h3>
229 a <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=persistency">persistency
232 <h3><a name="password"></a><a href="#toc">What are the passwords of users on Grml?</a></h3>
234 <p>There are no default passwords - all accounts are locked by
235 default for security reasons. Even local logins are not
236 possible (unless you set a password or create new user
237 accounts as root). You can create valid passwords using "sudo
238 passwd [username]" from the shell individually. To set a password
239 for users 'root' and 'grml' and enable SSH login you can use the 'ssh'
240 boot option, like 'ssh=yourpassword'.</p>
242 <h3><a name="version"></a><a href="#toc">How do I find out the version of Grml</a></h3>
244 <p>Run 'grml-version' or use the following command:</p>
247 $ cat /etc/grml_version</pre>
249 <h3><a name="language"></a><a href="#toc">How do I change the language/keyboard settings?</a></h3>
251 <p>By default Grml uses english settings. But it is possible to
252 change the settings via using either the bootparam(s) lang,
253 keyboard and xkeyboard or via executing grml-lang when Grml is
254 already running. Usage examples:</p>
257 grml lang=de # enter this at the bootprompt and you will get
258 # german keyboard layout and german $LANG, $LC_ALL,
260 grml keyboard=de xkeyboard=de lang=at # enter this at the bootprompt
261 # and you will get german keyboard and austrian
263 % grml-lang de # enter this in the shell to switch keyboard layout
264 # and $LANG settings in a running Grml system
267 <p>Note: run grml-setlang to get a dialog based frontend for
268 /etc/default/locale. Run grml-setkeyboard to get a dialog
269 based frontend for /etc/sysconfig/keyboard.</p>
272 <h3><a name="wms"></a><a href="#toc">Which window managers can I use?</a></h3>
274 <p>Starting with the 2011.12 release Grml provides <a
275 href="http://www.fluxbox.org/">Fluxbox</a> as window manager.</p>
277 <h3><a name="lvm"></a><a href="#toc">Where are my LVM devices?</a></h3>
279 <p>LVM (Logival Volumes) is <strong>not</strong> started by default to
280 avoid any possible damage to your data. To get access to present LVM
281 devices just execute:</p>
284 # /etc/init.d/lvm2 start
287 <p>If you want to enable LVM by default just boot using the 'lvm'
288 bootoption which automatically enables LVM.</p>
290 <h3><a name="swraid"></a><a href="#toc">Where are my Software-RAID devices?</a></h3>
292 <p>Software-RAID (usually known as the mdadm stuff) is
293 <strong>not</strong> started by default to avoid any possible damage to
294 your data. To get access to present SW-RAID devices just execute:</p>
297 # /etc/init.d/mdadm-raid start
300 <p>If you want to enable SW-RAID by default just boot using
301 the 'swraid' bootoption which enables automatic assembling of
302 software raid arrays.</p>
304 <a name="terminalserver"></a>
305 <h3><a name="booting"></a><a href="#toc">Which ways exist to boot Grml?</a></h3>
307 <!-- TODO: needs rework -->
309 <p>Of course running from CD/DVD is a common way to boot
310 Grml. But Grml provides many more ways to boot:</p>
312 <p>It is possible to boot Grml via USB (e.g. USB stick or
313 harddisk), firewire, or running from a Compact Flash disk. It
314 works out of the box; you don't need to modify anything. Check
315 out <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb">the usb
316 webpage in the grml-wiki</a> for more details.</p>
318 <p>Your computer can not boot from CD-ROM but provides a
319 floppy disk? Take a look
320 at <a href="http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/">btmgr</a>, <a href="http://ubcd4win.com/faq.htm#floppy">ubcd4win</a>
321 or <a href="http://linux.simple.be/tools/sbm">sbm</a>. They
322 provide support for booting from CD-ROM via a special floppy
325 <p>grml-terminalserver makes it possible to boot your system
327 using <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preboot_Execution_Environment">PXE</a>
328 (Preboot Execution Environment). If your network card does not
329 provide support for booting via PXE you can still boot it
330 either using the provided grub image by grml-terminalserver
331 (for example via floppy drive) or
332 using <a href="http://etherboot.org/wiki/index.php">gPXE</a>.
333 For more information, refer to
334 the <a href="/terminalserver/">grml-terminalserver
337 <h3><a name="timezone"></a><a href="#toc">How do I configure
338 timezone on my Grml system?</a></h3>
340 <p>Available bootoptions relevant in live-cd mode:</p>
343 <li>utc: set UTC, if your system clock is set to UTC (GMT)
344 <li>gmt: set UTC, if your system clock is set to UTC (GMT) [like bootoption utc]
345 <li>tz=$option: set timezone to corresponding $option, usage example:
349 <p>Further information: manpages hwclock(8), tzselect(1) and tzconfig(8); <a
350 href="http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/system-administrator/ch-sysadmin-time.html">Debian
351 GNU/Linux System Administrator's Manual Chapter 16 - Time</a> and <a
352 href="http://wiki.debian.org/TimeZoneChanges">TimeZoneChanges in the
355 <h3><a name="hdinstall"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to install Grml to harddisk?</a></h3>
357 <p>Short anwer: No.</p>
359 <p>If you want to get a plain Debian system take a look at <a
360 href="/grml-debootstrap/">grml-debootstrap</a>.</p>
362 <p>Long(er) answer: yes it's possible to install Grml. But it's not
363 supported and you'll be on your own. That's why we decided to make it
364 not-so-obvious. If you really know what you're doing you'll find out on
365 your own. Reminder: use <a
366 href="/grml-debootstrap/">grml-debootstrap</a> or <a
367 href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian Installer</a> instead.</p>
369 <h2><a name="software"></a><a href="#toc">Software</a></h2>
371 <h3><a name="sw_version"></a><a href="#toc">Which package(s) and which
372 version is available?</a></h3>
374 <p>If you want to get details about the provided packages and the
375 package versions without booting the Grml ISO check out the dpkg_...
376 files in the <a href="/files/#debian">Debian-Information section on
377 grml.org/files/</a>.</p>
379 <h3><a name="zsh"></a><a href="#toc">Why is Zsh the default shell?</a></h3>
381 <p>Short answer: because <a href="/zsh/">Zsh rocks</a>, really!</p>
383 <p>Long(er) answer: If you don't know Zsh take a look the <a
384 href="/zsh/">Grml Zsh reference card</a>.</p>
386 <p>If you are a Bash user and don't know Zsh yet, don't be
387 afraid. Bash is largely a subset of Zsh and you don't have to
388 throw away your knowledge about shell stuff.</p>
390 <h2><a name="stuff"></a><a href="#toc">Support / Unanswered stuff</a></h2>
392 <h3><a name="questions"></a><a href="#toc">Further questions</a></h3>
394 <p>Do you have a question which is not answered in the FAQ or
395 in the provided <a href="/docs/">documentation</a> (execute
396 "grml-info" on your Grml system for offline
397 documentation)? Also check out 'grml-tips $KEYWORD' on your
398 Grml system. Take a look at
399 <a href="/">the Grml website</a> and <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
400 grml-wiki</a>. A good place to become part of the community is the <a
401 href="/mailinglist/">Grml mailinglist</a>.</p>
403 <h3><a name="support"></a><a href="#toc">Commercial Support</a></h3>
405 <p>You want to deploy Grml in your data center, use it as part of your
406 business or have an emergency case? You're happy with Grml but would
407 like to get your very own live cd (providing your favourite software
408 selection, special configuration, setup and your bootsplash)?
409 Please get in <a href="/contact/">touch with us</a>.</p>
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