1 CHEATCODES AND HINTS FOR GRML
2 ==============================================================================
4 *IMPORTANT NOTICE*: Some bootoptions may not work as expected (and documented) yet
5 because grml is based on a new framework named grml-live now - see
6 http://grml.org/grml-live/ for details. Please report all bootoptions
7 that do not work as expected. Thank you! http://grml.org/bugs/
9 These options (can be combined) work from the (isolinux/grub) bootprompt:
11 grml Use default settings (same as just pressing return)
12 memtest Run Memtest86+ instead of Linux
13 fb1280x1024 Use fixed framebuffer graphics (1)
14 fb1024x768 Use fixed framebuffer graphics (2) [notice: grml's default]
15 fb800x600 Use fixed framebuffer graphics (3)
16 nofb Disable framebuffer
17 floppy Boot from floppydisk
18 hd / hd1 / hd2 / hd3 Boot from (local) primary / secondary /... harddisk
19 failsafe Boot with (almost) no HW-detection
20 debug Get shells during process of booting for debugging
21 bootchart Create chart of booting sequence in /var/log/bootchart.tgz
22 forensic Do not touch any harddisks during hardware recognition
23 serial Activate ttyS0 and start mgetty
25 grub Boot into the Grub bootloader
26 qemu Boot with special options for use in Qemu
27 vmware Boot with special options for use in VMware
29 Important: if you notice any problems with one of the
30 following options please report it to the grml-team:
33 Notice: not all of the following cheatcodes are available on all the grml flavours.
34 For example the X window system is not part of grml-small.
38 grml lang=at|de|cn|da|es|fr|it Specify language ($LANG, $LC_ALL, $LANGUAGE - utf8) + keyboard
39 grml lang=nl|pl|ru|sk|tr|tw|us Specify language ($LANG, $LC_ALL, $LANGUAGE - utf8) + keyboard
40 grml lang=$LANG-iso Activate $LANG (use like in lines above) with iso-mode instead of utf8
41 grml gmt Use GMT-based time
42 grml tz=Europe/Vienna Use this timezone for TZ
43 grml keyboard=us xkeyboard=us Use different keyboard layout (text-console/X)
44 grml setkeycodes Set some special function keys for MS/HP keyboards
46 Configuration settings:
47 -----------------------
48 grml myconfig=/dev/fd0 Execute "grml.sh" and extract config.tbz from a partition:
49 /dev/fd0 for floppy disk
50 /dev/sda1 for USB-stick/first SCSI-device
51 grml netconfig=server/config.tbz Download file and extract configuration archive
52 grml partconf=/dev/hda2 Copy files specified in /etc/grml/partconf from /dev/hda2
53 to booting grml system
54 grml file=foobar.tbz Use specified file as name for configuration archive
55 instead of the default one (config.tbz)
56 grml extract=/etc Extract only /etc from configuration archive,
57 use it in combination with myconfig or netconfig
58 grml home=/dev/hda2 Mount specified partition as grml homedir
59 grml home=/dev/sda1/grml.img Mount loopback file as /home/grml
60 grml home=scan Automatic search for grml homedir (using file grml.img)
61 grml hostname=... Set hostname
62 grml debnet Search through local partitions for file /etc/network/interfaces,
63 copy /etc/network to local system and restart networking then
64 grml distri=... Set distribution name to given argument. If a jpg file named like the
65 given distri name can be found in directory desktop on the ISO
66 (/cdrom/desktop/"$DISTRI") it will be taken as wallpaper for grml
67 grml unionfs Use unionfs instead of aufs as overlay filesystem
69 Notice: Take a look at http://grml.org/config/ and
70 /usr/share/doc/grml-saveconfig/grml-config.html
71 for more information regarding the configuration
74 Booting related options:
75 ------------------------
76 grml toram Copy CD to RAM and run from there
77 grml tohd=/dev/hda1 Copy CD to HD partition and run from there
78 grml fromhd Skip checking for grml on CD-ROM
79 grml fromhd=/dev/hda1 Boot from previously copied CD-Image
80 grml bootfrom=/dev/hda1 Access Image then boot from previously
82 grml bootfrom=/dev/hda1/GRML.iso Access image, boot from ISO-Image
83 grml grml_dir=GRML Directory to search for on the CD
84 grml grml_name=GRML SquashFS-File to search for on the CD
86 Debugging related settings:
87 ---------------------------
88 debug Get shells during process of booting
89 grml nocolor Disable colorized output while booting
90 grml log Log error messages while booting and
91 grml testcd Check CD data integrity and md5sums
93 Service related settings:
94 -------------------------
95 grml ssh=password Set password for user grml and start ssh-server
96 grml startup=script Start $script instead of grml-quickconfig on startup
97 grml nosyslog Do not start syslog-ng
98 grml nogpm Disable GPM daemon
99 grml noconsolefont Disable setting of console font (using consolechars)
100 grml noblank Disable console blanking
101 grml tsplash Text based bootsplash
102 grml small Do not start that many consoles
103 grml wondershaper=eth0,1000,500 Set up basic traffic shaping
104 grml services={postfix,mysql,...} Start service(s) which have an init-script (/etc/init.d/)
105 grml welcome Welcome message via soundoutput
106 grml noeject Do NOT eject CD after halt/reboot
107 grml noprompt Do NOT prompt to remove the CD when halting/rebooting the system
108 grml distcc=$NETWORK,$INTERFACE Activate distcc-daemon to listen on specified network
109 and interface, usage example:
110 distcc=192.168.0.1/24,eth0
111 grml gcc=3.4 gpp=3.4 Link /usr/bin/gcc, /usr/bin/cpp and /usr/bin/c++ to specified version
112 grml startx{=windowmanager} Start X window system automatically
113 Default window manager (if not provided): wm-ng (wrapper around fluxbox)
115 Accessibility related settings:
116 -------------------------------
117 grml blind Start Braille-Terminal (no X)
118 grml swspeak Prepare system for use with software synthesizer through speakup
119 Run 'swspeak' after booting up to activate sound output
120 grml brltty=type,port,table Parameters for Braille device (e.g.: brltty=al,/dev/ttyS0,text.de.tbl)
121 grml speakup_synth=... Use speakup kernel module with given hardware type
123 Hardware related settings:
124 --------------------------
125 grml swap Activate present/detected swap partitions
126 grml noswraid Disable scanning for software raid arrays (creates /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf)
127 grml swraid Enable automatic assembling of software raid arrays
128 grml nolvm Disable scanning for Logical Volumes (LVM)
129 grml lvm Automatically activate Logival Volumes (LVM) during boot
130 grml scandelay[=seconds] Delay accessing ISO-device (useful for booting via usb/firewire)
131 grml cdrom=/dev/... Use specifed device as CD-ROM device (used for mounting the grml-ISO)
132 grml xmodule=ati|fbdev|i810|mga Use specified X.org-Module (1)
133 grml xmodule=nv|radeon|savage|s3 Use specified X.org-Module (2)
134 grml xmodule=radeon|svga|i810 Use specified X.org-Module (3)
135 grml no{acpi,agp,apm,cpu,dhcp} Skip parts of HW-detection (1)
136 grml no{dma,fstab,modem} Skip parts of HW-detection (2)
137 grml no{pcmcia,scsi,swap,usb} Skip parts of HW-detection (3)
138 grml 915resolution=... Start resolution modify tool for Intel graphic chipset
139 usage: $MODE,$XRESO,$YRESO
140 grml blacklist=modulename Completely disable loading of specified module via
141 blacklisting through /etc/modprobe.d/grml
142 grml fwtimeout=50 Set firmware timeout via /sys/class/firmware/timeout to specified value
143 grml nosound Mute sound devices (notice: this does not deactivate loading of sound drivers!)
144 grml vol=number Set mixer volumes to level $number
145 grml micvol=number Set mixer volume of microphone to level $number (default: 0)
146 grml pnpbios=off No PnP Bios initialization
147 grml acpi=off Disable ACPI Bios completely
148 grml nousb2 Disable initialization of USB 2.x controller(s)
149 grml nousb Disable initialization of USB in booting sequence
150 grml nofirewire Disable initialization of firewire devices in booting sequence
151 grml pci=irqmask=0x0e98 Try this, if PS/2 mouse doesn't work *)
152 grml pci=bios Workaround for bad PCI controllers
153 grml ide2=0x180 nopcmcia Boot from PCMCIA-CD-ROM (some notebooks)
154 grml mem=128M Specify Memory size in MByte
155 grml dma Enable DMA accelleration for ALL IDE-Drives
156 grml nodma ide=nodma Disable DMA accelleration for ALL IDE-Drives
157 grml vga=normal [video=ofonly] No-framebuffer mode (does not influence X)
158 grml vga=ask [video=ofonly] Display menu for framebuffer mode
160 Installation related settings:
161 ------------------------------
163 Caution: do *not* use the grml2hd and/or debian2hd bootoption if you do not know what you are doing!
165 Install plain Debian via debian2hd bootoption (which runs grml-debootstrap in non-interactive mode):
167 debian2hd <options> ... whereas valid options for debian2hd are:
169 target= target partition/directory of the new Debian system, e.g.: target=/dev/hda1
170 grub= where to install grub to? Use grub syntax for specifying, e.g.: grub=hd0
171 groot= specify root device for usage in grub (use grub syntax), e.g.: groot=hd0,0
172 release= specify release of new Debian system (default is stable), e.g.: release=sid
173 mirror= specify mirror for apt-get/aptitude, e,g.: mirror=ftp://ftp.tugraz.at/mirror/debian
174 password= set passwort of user root without prompting for it, e.g.: password=AiTh5ahn
176 Usage example for automatic installation:
177 debian2hd target=/dev/hda1 grub=hd0 groot=hd0,0 mirror=ftp://ftp.tugraz.at/mirror/debian password=foobar
179 See http://grml.org/grml-debootstrap/ for more information.
181 Install grml via grml2hd bootoption (which runs grml2hd in non-interactive mode):
183 grml2hd <options> ... whereas valid options for grml2hd are:
185 user= user name for user which should be used at hd-install
186 filesystem={ext2|ext3|reiserfs|reiser4|jfs|xfs} filesystem to be used
187 mbr=/dev/... partition where MBR should be installed (default:=partition)
188 partition=/dev/... partition where grml should be installed
190 Usage example for booting:
191 grml2hd partition=/dev/hda4 mbr=/dev/hda filesystem=ext3 user=mika
193 Passwords of user root and user are "grml" - please adjust after hd-install!
195 See http://grml.org/grml2hd/ for more information.
200 *) Try "grml pci=irqmask=0x0e98" if (you have a notebook and) your
201 PS/2 mouse doesn't work. (Possibly caused by a BIOS-flaw on your board,
202 BIOS updates can help.) Sometimes, switching to the text console with
203 Control-Alt-F1 and back to the X-screen with Control-Alt-F7 solves the
204 problem without rebooting, since the X server reinitializes the mouse
205 driver during that procedure.
207 *) Bootfrom needs access to a running grml-System with the same Kernel
208 as the Bootkernel, before it is able to mount the partition / ISO-Image.
209 This should allow a poor mans install from NTFS-Partitions and makes it
210 also possible to boot an ISO-Image directly. You can also use wildcards
211 in the ISO-Filename, but it must be unique. So: If you have just one
212 grml.iso on /dev/hda1 you can access it as: bootfrom=/dev/hda1/G*.iso,
213 but if there are several, you need to make clear, which one you want.
214 (Feature added by Fabian Franz.)
216 *) If your grml-CD makes strange noises during boot, or you see frequent
217 errors like "squashfs: read error", or programs are crashing randomly,
218 then your CD image is probably defective or incomplete, or your CD-burner
219 created a defective CD due to wrong writing speed or bad media. This is
220 the most common error reported. Please boot with "grml testcd" to check
221 if the CD is OK, and/or even better, verify the MD5 checksums that are
222 present on the mirrors before writing the CD. Check your CD low-level
223 via running 'readcd -c2scan dev=/dev/cdrom'. In some cases, defective
224 IDE controllers cause this error if you have DMA enabled. Also, please
227 *) In case of a failing hardware autodetection, try booting with any of
228 the "no-" options as shown in the table above, like in
229 grml noagp noapm noapic acpi=off nodma
230 to skip some critical parts of the autodetection system.
232 *) Some boards apparently don't pass the proper memory size to the
233 linux-kernel. It may cause the message "Panic: cannot mount root file
234 system" and the system hangs. Use "grml mem=128M" to solve that
235 problem if your system has 128MByte memory for example (caution:
236 you MUST use a capital "M" here).
238 *) The "myconfig=/dev/partition" option allows you to reconfigure the
239 system after autoconfiguration by running a bourne shell script called
240 "grml.sh" and/or extracting configuration files from a file named
241 config.tbz from the root directory on the given device (or floppy).
242 Take a look at http://grml.org/config/ for more information regarding
243 the configuration framework of grml.
245 *) If you wish to remaster the CD, please don't forget to specify
247 -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table \
248 -b boot/isolinux/isolinux.bin -c boot/isolinux/boot.cat
250 as option to mkisofs. Otherwise your CD won't be bootable. The
251 directory GRML, containig the compressed filesystem file "GRML",
252 must be located in the top level directory of the CD.
254 *) Caution: screensavers: Don't start xlock/vlock or any other screensaver
255 that requires a password. There are no default passwords on grml,
256 i.e. all accounts are LOCKED unless you explicitly set a password.
257 See also README_Security.txt about this issue.
258 Hint: If you accidentially started a screensaver switch to one of the
259 textconsoles by Control-Alt-F1 and kill the screensaver (or just set a
260 password for the grml user). Take a look at the script grml-lock.