Release Notes for grml64-small 2010.04 - codename Grmlmonster
+ +About
+ +Grml is a bootable live system (Live-CD) based on Debian. It + includes a collection of GNU/Linux software especially for system + administrators and users of texttools. Grml provides automatic hardware + detection. You can use Grml (for example) as a rescue system, for + analyzing systems/networks or as a working environment. It is not + necessary to install anything to a harddisk; you don't even need a + harddisk to run it. Due to on-the-fly decompression Grml includes about + 2 GB of software and documentation on the CD.
+ +Whereas Grml provides about 2 GB of software on a 700 MB ISO, grml64-small is a flavor with only ~100 MB + ISO-size (~275 MB uncompressed). It does not provide a lot of software + but the essential stuff for being a rescue system on a business card + CD-ROM or a small USB device. You can use the Debian package management + system to install software on the fly (assuming you have network access + to a Debian mirror). Take a look at the 'Debian-Information'-section if you are searching for + the package list.
+ +New features
+ +Special new features:
+ +-
+
+
- dmraid related bootoptions: nodmraid to not + enable present dmraid devices, + dmraid=on to automatically enable any present dmraid devices and + dmraid=off to actively try to stop any possibly present dmraid + devices. + +
- New bootoption bootid for improving reliability + of boot process. The specified argument to the bootoption is matched + against a token on the ISO to make sure that only the correct Grml + version gets booted. + +
- More robust network booting: The last Grml + release (2009.10) already invented the ethdevice= bootoption which + allows you to specify a specific NIC for booting. The bootoption + ethdevice and its surrounding code has been extended so it is possible to specify + multiple devices at once that should be configured. If you don't have + any specific configuration all present NICs will be used for + configuration via DHCP automatically. Visit the + Grml developer blog for further information + +
- Providing an improved default configuration for + top(1) utility when running as (non-root) user + +
- Improved serial console handling through + /etc/inittab*. Using normal getty instead of mgetty and several baud + rate settings (115200,57600,38400,19200,9600,4800,2400,1200) to let + getty figure out which mode should be used. + +
New features in Grml's Zsh
+ +-
+
+
- new function changed() + +
- zshrc: map backtab to reverse-menu-complete + +
- smarter C-z shortcut + +
- Switch `minimal-shell()' from ksh93 to mksh + +
- Use wrapper functions for changing title/screen + +
- Some minor bugfixes and code enhancements + +
Major changes in grml-scripts:
+ +-
+
+
- grml-quickconfig: rewritten from scratch with proper customisation support, now being shipped through + new Debian package grml-quickconfig + +
- Remove deprecated bt-audio script + +
- grml-setlang: do not set LC_CTYPE any longer + +
- grml-hostname: address xauth issue + +
- zsh-login: do not disable grml-quickconfig for serial console + +
- grml-info: improve support for customisation + +
grml2usb (install Grml ISO(s) on usb device for booting):
+ +-
+
+
- Mount vfat devices with explicit iocharset option +
- Support bootid bootoption +
- Also set GRML_DEFAULT when running with --dry-run +
- Make sure that --grub-mbr requires --grub +
- ... some minor bugfixes + +
Visit the usb webpage + in the Grml wiki and grml.org/grml2usb for + more details regarding grml2usb.
+ +grml-debootstrap (wrapper around debootstrap for installing plain Debian via Grml):
+ +-
+
+
- Add support for specifying filesystem + provide /etc/network/interfaces.examples +
- Introduce option --nopackages +
- Display executed debootstrap cmdline when running it +
- Introduce --pre-scripts to be executed before chroot-scripts +
- Remove cached debs by default to reduce diskpace during bootstrap +
- Support and enable per default --keyring option +
- ... plus some bugfixes and minor enhancements + +
Visit grml.org/grml-debootstrap/ for more + details regarding grml-debootstrap.
+ +Kernel
+ +Based on vanilla kernel 2.6.33.2 including several patches and the aufs module.
+ +Visit grml.org/kernel/ for more details + regarding Grml's kernel.
+ +Bugfixes
+ +Fixed several bugs and issues reported on grml64-small_2009.10 @ + grml-wiki and in the bug + tracking system.
+ +Important Changes
+ +-
+
+
- Bootoption home has been dropped, the persistency + feature present since 2009.10 replaces this option. + +
- Grml uses lang=en as default instead of lang=us + if no 'lang' bootoption has been specified. + +
- Grml's udev package has been dropped in favour of Debian's plain + version and adding Grml specified configuration and scripts through + Debian package grml-udev-config. + +
- As the bootoption bootid is used as default + bootoption you need to make sure that you've an according and valid + bootid=... entry in your kernel cmdline or use the ignore_bootid + bootoption to skip the boot id check. This is especially relevant for + grml2usb installations (make sure to use a recent grml2usb version) as + well as booting with isofrom/findiso bootoptions from harddisks. + +
Packages / Software
+ +Details about shipped packages and their versions on grml are + available at the Debian section. Visit dpkg_get_selections + for a main package listing and dpkg_list for a more + detailed list of packages shipped with Grml 2010.04.
+ +Updates
+ +Updated all packages to Debian Unstable branch by 24st of march + 2010 (plus some further selected updates).
+ +Removed 2 packages (excluding lib* and *2.6.31-grml64*) - please + notice that some of them are available under + different names/in different packages:
+ ++ *2.6.31-grml* lib* + + gcc-4.3-base grml-scanpartitions ++ +
Added 10 new packages (exluding lib* and *2.6.33-grml64*):
+ ++ acpi-support-base gettext-base grml-quickconfig + grml-quickconfig-standard grml-udev-config + jfsutils kexec-tools mksh slsh ufsutils ++ +
Major changes since release 2009.10 (20091031)
+ +-
+
+
- Grml goes microblogging. +
- New Grml developer mailinglist. + +
Known issues
+ +Take a look at grml64-small_2010.04 @ grml-wiki. + Please report problems using information on grml.org/bugs/.
+ +Download grml64-small 2010.04
+ +grml64-small 2010.04 can be downloaded from the mirrors listed on grml.org/download/.
+ +Feedback
+ +Your comments, bug reports, patches, and suggestions will help + fixing bugs and improving future releases. If you find a problem with + the release please check grml64-small_2010.04 @ + grml-wiki and report problems using information on grml.org/bugs/. Please send your feedback and + feature requests to the grml-team!
+ + + +Thanks
+ +Many thanks (alphabetically) in this release go to + Alexander Menk, + Andras Korn, + Axel Beckert, + Christoph Biedl, + Christian Hofstaedtler, + Daniel Borkmann, + Gregor Perner, + Jordan Uggla, + Mark Jonas, + Moritz Augsburger, + Pawel Sadkowski, + Richard Hartmann, + Sedat Dilek, + Stefan Weiss, + Suhanov Maxim, + Timo Boettcher, + Thomas Arendsen Hein, + Tong Sun, + Xuân Baldauf and + Zoran Dzelajlija + for their contributions.
+ +More Information
+ +You can find out more about grml on our website, IRC channel, and wiki. + +
To sign up for future Grml announcements, please subscribe to Grml's + announcement list.
+ +If you are interested in development releases grab the daily ISOs + from daily.grml.org.
+ +Further Questions?
+ +Please feel free to contact us.
+ +