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28 <h1 align="center">FAQ for grml</h1>
30 <p><strong>Up2date:</strong> 2011-05-28 - applies to Grml releases version 2011.05</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="#cifsshare">Booting grml-small via PXE using a CIFS share fails</a></li>
76 <li><a href="#missingfiles">I noticed some files are missing on grml</a></li>
77 <li><a href="#aptgethangs">'apt-get install foo' seems to freeze after a while</a></li>
78 <li><a href="#bugreport">Bugreport</a></li>
81 <p class="toc"><a href="#system">System</a>:</p>
83 <li><a href="#isolinux">Where's the old bootsplash?</a></li>
84 <li><a href="#configure">Which tools exist to configure grml?</a></li>
85 <li><a href="#password">What are the passwords of users on grml?</a></li>
86 <li><a href="#version">How do I find out the version of grml</a></li>
87 <li><a href="#remove_cd">Is it possible to run LiveCD and eject CD-ROM?</a></li>
88 <li><a href="#language">How do I change the language/keyboard settings?</a></li>
89 <li><a href="#kde_and_foo">KDE, Gnome, $FOO and $BAR</a></li>
90 <li><a href="#wms">Which window managers can I use?</a></li>
91 <li><a href="#usbmount">How do I mount a USB device / USB stick?</a></li>
92 <li><a href="#lvm">Where are my LVM devices?</a></li>
93 <li><a href="#swraid">Where are my Software-RAID devices?</a></li>
94 <li><a href="#libata">Why doesn't grml find my disks / doesn't boot?</a></li>
95 <li><a href="#booting">Which ways exist to boot grml?</a></li>
96 <li><a href="#timezone">How do I configure timezone on my grml system?</a></li>
97 <li><a href="#hdinstall">Is it possible to install grml to harddisk?</a></li>
100 <p class="toc"><a href="#kernel">Kernel</a>:</p>
102 <li><a href="#kernelconfig">Where can I find the configuration for the kernel used on grml?</a></li>
103 <li><a href="#kernelpatches">Are there any special components/patches in the kernel used on grml?</a></li>
104 <li><a href="#platform">For which platforms is the grml kernel optimized?</a></li>
107 <p class="toc"><a href="#software">Software:</a></p>
109 <li><a href="#sw_general">General</a></li>
110 <li><a href="#sw_version">Which package(s) and which version is available?</a></li>
111 <li><a href="#init">Init-System</a></li>
112 <li><a href="#zsh">Why is zsh the default shell?</a></li>
113 <li><a href="#zsh_binsh">Wasn't zsh the /bin/sh interpreter?</a></li>
114 <li><a href="#bash">Is a bash available?</a></li>
115 <li><a href="#configuration">Where can I find the configuration of zsh, GNU screen,...?</a></li>
116 <li><a href="#truecrypt">Why isn't Truecrypt available within grml?</a></li>
117 <li><a href="#grub">grub does not work on my system?!</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 comes close to 'argl' or 'grrr' in English. People use this when
160 they want to express their dissatisfaction/discontentedness with
161 software (amongst other things):</p>
164 $ grep -ch grml .centericq/**/history | xargs echo | \
165 sed 's/[0-9]*/& + /g' | sed 's/+ $//g' | bc -l
168 <h3><a name="pronounce"></a><a href="#toc">How do you pronounce grml?</a></h3>
171 % flite -o play -t gremel</pre>
173 $ echo 'ghroummel' | festival \-\-tts
176 <h3><a name="releasename"></a><a href="#toc">What about the release name?</a></h3>
178 <p>Codename of Grml 2011.05 is "Just Mari". It's a dedication to someone special.
181 <h3><a name="requirements"></a><a href="#toc">Requirements for running grml</a></h3>
185 <li>Intel-compatible CPU (i586 or later, preferably Pentium class or higher)</li>
187 <li>grml/grml-medium: at least 64MB of RAM (for stable use with
188 ramdisks for aufs and udev and when running X window system we
189 recommend at least 128MB)</li>
191 <li>grml-small: at least 32MB RAM should be available</li>
193 <li>either a bootable CD-ROM drive or <a href="#usbboot">USB-boot
194 capable system</a> (for booting via network/PXE check out <a
195 href="#terminalserver">grml-terminalserver</a>)</li>
199 <h3><a name="why"></a><a href="#toc">Why another Linux distribution?</a></h3>
201 <p>There already exist "<a
202 href="http://www.distrowatch.com/">some</a>" distributions. We
203 decided to base our work on the existing infrastructure of <a
204 href="http://debian.org/">Debian</a> because we don't want to reinvent
205 the wheel. Some admins already use their own rescue CD, Knoppix works
206 but does not bring that many important tools for admins and users of
207 texttools out of the box. Therefor we decided to share our work with
208 others and provide the swiss army knife for sysadmins and texttool
211 <h3><a name="license"></a><a href="#toc">What's the license of grml?</a></h3>
213 <p>Anything written by the grml team is published under the GPL (<a
214 href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU General Public
215 License</a>). You don't have to pay anything for using grml. If you want
216 a special Live-CD or need commercial support, take a look at <a
217 href="http://grml-solutions.com/">Grml Solutions</a>.</p>
219 <h3><a name="difference"></a><a href="#toc">What's the difference between grml and
220 $OTHER-DISTRIBUTION? What are the main goals?</a></h3>
222 <p>The main goal of grml is to be a distribution well suited for
223 sysadmins and users of texttools. Grml includes all the tools for
224 admin's daily work (lvm, mdadm, dd/ddrescue,...) as well as many
225 important texttools (of course awk, sed, grep, ... but also zsh,
226 mutt[ng], slrn, vim and many others). Grml uses the existing
227 infrastructure of <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>. Grml was
228 once based on <a href="http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/">Knoppix</a> (see
229 '<a href="#knoppix">What's the difference between grml and Knoppix?</a>'
230 for more details). We are also merging useful things from other
231 distributions/live-cds to provide a perfect environment.</p>
233 <h3><a name="knoppix"></a><a href="#toc">What's the difference between grml and Knoppix?</a></h3>
235 <p>Grml comes with a vastly different set of software. Missing KDE and
236 OpenOffice provides the opportunity of shipping more than 800 packages
237 which Knoppix does not provide on its CD version. Grml boots a recent
238 2.6 kernel but no X by default for faster startup. Knoppix is based on
239 Debian/testing-experimental (using apt-pinning), but grml is basically
240 based on plain Debian/unstable providing more current versions of
241 software. Grml was once based on Knoppix but nowadays has nothing in
242 common with Knoppix:</p>
246 # find / -iname \*knoppix\*
249 <p>We consider Knoppix as a brand name for live-cds nowadays and provide
250 most of Knoppix' features as well. Grml uses (mostly) the same <a
251 href="http://git.grml.org/?p=grml-live.git;a=blob_plain;f=templates/GRML/grml-cheatcodes.txt;hb=HEAD">cheatcodes</a>
252 for booting as Knoppix and even provides some extra ones. So if you are
253 used to the basic Knoppix features you usually find them on the
254 grml system as well.</p>
256 <h3><a name="accessibility"></a><a href="#toc">What does accessibility at grml mean?</a></h3>
258 <p>The Grml kernel includes <a href="/kernel/#speakup">support for
259 speakup</a> and provides software like brltty (using bootoption 'grml
260 blind brltty=type,port,tbl') and flite.</p>
262 <h3><a name="bootoptions"></a><a href="#toc">Which bootoptions does Grml support?</a></h3>
265 href="http://git.grml.org/?p=grml-live.git;a=blob_plain;f=templates/GRML/grml-cheatcodes.txt;hb=HEAD">grml-cheatcodes
266 file</a> (also available via <a href="http://grml.org/cheatcodes/">grml.org/cheatcodes/</a>). Of
268 href="http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt">kernel-parameters.txt</a>
269 of the Linux kernel applies to Grml as well.</p>
271 <h3><a name="emulation"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to run Grml with $EMULATOR?</a></h3>
273 <p>Sure, Grml works with(in) several emulators and virtual environments,
275 <a href="http://www.linux-kvm.org/">KVM</a>,
276 <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/">MS Virtual PC</a>,
277 <a href="http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/">QEMU</a>
278 <a href="http://www.virtualbox.org/">Virtualbox</a> and
279 <a href="http://www.vmware.com/">VMware</a>.
282 <h3><a name="usbboot"></a><a href="#toc">How do I boot Grml from a USB stick?</a></h3>
285 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb#grml2usb">grml2usb</a> at the
286 <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb">usb webpage in the
289 <h3><a name="store"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to store my settings?</a></h3>
291 <p>Yes. Grml provides a config framework, check out <a
292 href="/config/">grml.org/config/</a>, <a
293 href="file:///usr/share/doc/grml-saveconfig/grml-config.html">/usr/share/doc/grml-saveconfig/grml-config.html</a>
294 and 'man grml-autoconfig save-config restore-config mkpersistenthome' for more
295 details. Starting with release 2009.05 a <a
296 href="#persistency">persistency option</a> is
299 <h3><a name="persistency"></a><a href="#doc">Is a persistency feature available?</a></h3>
301 <p>Starting with release 2009.05 a persistency feature is available. Use
303 href="http://grml.org/online-docs/live-snapshot.en.1.html">live-snapshot</a>
304 (man live-snapshot) and the bootoption 'persistent' for enabling
307 <a name="grmlmedium"></a><a name="grmlsmall"></a><a name="grml64"></a>
308 <h2></a><a href="#toc">grml-medium / grml-small / grml64?</a></h2>
310 <h3><a name="whatismedium"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml-medium?</a></h3>
312 <p>grml-medium is a grml-flavour which tries to close the gap between <a
313 href="#whatissmall">grml-small</a> and <a
314 href="#whatis">normal/large/full version of grml</a>. grml-medium is an
315 ISO with a size of ~200MB providing the most important packages a
316 sysadmin usually needs. It provides the same <a href="/kernel/">kernel
317 version</a> as normal grml does so you can easily integrate and use some
318 further existing external modules as well. The X.org server is shipped
319 as well as the window manager fluxbox. Take a look at the <a
320 href="/files/">'Debian-Information'-section</a> if you are searching for
322 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=accessibility">accessibility
323 features</a> are <strong>NOT</strong> available/supported on grml-medium
326 <h3><a name="whatissmall"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml-small?</a></h3>
328 <p>Whereas grml provides about 2.3GB of software on a 700 MB ISO,
329 grml-small is a flavor with about 100 MB ISO-size (~275 MB
330 uncompressed). It does not provide a lot of software (for example no
331 X.org and no man pages) but the essential stuff for being a rescue
332 system on a business card CD-ROM or a small USB device. You can use the
333 Debian package management system to install software on the fly
334 (assuming you have network access to a Debian mirror). It provides the
335 same <a href="/kernel/">kernel version</a> as normal grml does so you
336 can easily integrate and use some further existing external modules as
337 well. Take a look at the <a
338 href="/files/">'Debian-Information'-section</a> if you are searching for
339 the package list.</p>
341 <h3><a name="whatisgrml64"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml64?</a></h3>
343 <p>grml64 is a 64bit-version of grml, based on <a
344 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/amd64/">the amd64 port of
347 <h3><a name="whatismedium64"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml64-medium?</a></h3>
349 <p>grml64-medium is the 64bit version of <a href="#whatismedium">grml-medium</a>.</p>
351 <h3><a name="whatissmall64">What is grml64-small?</a></h3>
353 <p>grml64-small is the 64bit version of <a href="#whatissmall">grml-small</a>.</p>
355 <h3><a name="grml64vsnormal"></a><a href="#toc">What is the difference between 32 bit grml and 64 bit grml?</a></h3>
357 <p>The main difference of course is that grml64 is a 64bit-version
358 whereas (normal) grml is 32bit-only. grml64 provides a 64bit kernel
359 which supports 32bit userspace applications. grml64 also provides
360 libc6-i386 and libc6-dev-i386. Due to space reasons and because some
361 packages aren't available for amd64 (yet) some few packages are missing on
362 grml64 compared to (normal, 32bit) grml.</p>
364 <h3><a name="smallvsnormal"></a><a href="#toc">What is the
365 difference between 'normal' grml and grml-small?</a></h3>
367 <p>The 700MB-grml brings more than 2500 software packages. grml-small
368 includes about 300 software packages, lacks documentation and manpages
369 on the ISO. <a href="#terminalserver">grml-terminalserver</a> and <a
370 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=accessibility">accessibility
371 features</a> are <strong>not</strong> available/supported on
374 <h3><a name="grmlvsdsl"></a><a href="#toc">What is the
375 difference between grml-small and DSL?</a></h3>
377 <p>DSL (Damns Small Linux) and grml-small have different target
378 audiences. <a href="http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/">Damn Small Linux</a>
379 (DSL) uses kernel version 2.4 whereas grml-small provides a recent
380 version of kernel version 2.6. DSL provides the X window system which
381 grml-small does not. grml-small on the other hand provides the most
382 important packages for sysadmins and ships the original Debian package
383 management which allows you to install packages of the Debian pool with
384 no modifications.</p>
386 <h2><a name="problems"></a><a href="#toc">Problems</a></h2>
388 <a name="release"></a> <!-- old anchor -->
389 <h3><a name="known_issues"></a><a href="#toc">Are there any known issues with this release?</a></h3>
391 <p>We won't hide anything. Therefore, we do provide all known
392 issues/bugs publicly available:</p>
396 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml_2011.05">issues regarding
397 grml 2011.05</a> in <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the grml-wiki</a></li>
398 <li><a href="http://bts.grml.org/">Grml bug tracking system</a></li>
402 <p>If you find another bug, or consider something a problem not yet
403 mentioned <a href="#bugreport">please report it</a>.</p>
405 <h3><a name="hardware"></a><a href="#toc">I have problems with my hardware!</a></h3>
407 <p>Take a look at the script grml-hwinfo. This script generates a file
408 named info.tar.bz2 which contains important information about your
409 hardware. If you think we might help, please run grml-hwinfo and <a
410 href="/contact/">send us the file</a> with additional, relevant
411 information regarding your problem.</p>
413 <h3><a name="boot"></a><a href="#toc">grml does not boot on my computer!</a></h3>
415 <p>Please take a look at <a
416 href="http://git.grml.org/?p=grml-live.git;a=blob_plain;f=templates/GRML/grml-cheatcodes.txt;hb=HEAD">the
417 available bootparamters and cheatcodes</a> and '<a href="#booting">Which
418 ways exist to boot grml?</a>'. Especially booting with 'acpi=off noapm
419 noapic' might help. The bootparameter 'failsafe' provides minimal
420 hardware detection using some special bootoptions (please do NOT boot
421 with 'grml failsafe' but with 'failsafe' as first word of the boot
422 commandline) . If booting hangs during stage "Waiting for /dev to
423 be fully populated" please try booting with 'grml noudev'. If you
424 don't even see the bootsplash of the grml-ISO your BIOS might be broken
425 (pretty common especially on old hardware). Please consider using <a
426 href="http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/">btmgr</a> then for booting your
427 system. Also check out the <a
428 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=problems">problems webpage</a> in
429 <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the grml-wiki</a>. You still have
430 problems? Feel free to <a href="/contact/">contact us</a>.</p>
432 <h3><a name="fbprobs"></a><a href="#toc">I don't see anything when booting grml?!</a></h3>
434 <p>Likely, this is a problem with the vesafb framebuffer. Try to boot
435 with the 'Disable Framebuffer' menuentry (available behind the submenu
436 'Boot options for ...') or manually ad 'vga=normal' to the kernel
437 command line (press TAB to edit a menu entry and add 'vga=normal'
440 <h3><a name="utf8"></a><a href="#toc">I have problems with UTF-8 / Unicode</a></h3>
443 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=utf8">UTF8-webpage in the
446 <h3><a name="cifsshare"></a><a href="#toc">Booting grml-small via PXE using a CIFS share fails</a></h3>
448 <p>When trying to boot grml-small[64] via PXE (network boot) using a
449 CIFS share this will fail because grml-small[64] lacks cifs-utils.
450 cifs-utils would consume >14MB of additional disk space - that's why
451 it isn't part of the release. But there's a simple workaround: you can
452 take the initrd and kernel from the regular grml flavour and use just
453 the squashfs from grml-small[64].</p>
455 <h3><a name="missingfiles"></a><a href="#toc">I noticed some files are missing on grml</a></h3>
457 <p>Yes, output of 'debsums -a 1>/dev/null' might output some
458 failures. The reason is pretty simple: some few modification have been
459 done either because they are required for the provided environment or
460 because of space limitiations on the ISO. The failures are nothing to
461 really care about, but as we don't hide anything we thought it might be
462 worth mentioning.</p>
464 <h3><a name="aptgethangs"></a><a href="#toc">'apt-get install foo' seems to freeze after a while</a></h3>
466 <p>It seems you are running out of RAM - see 'free' while running 'apt-get…'. UnionFS and the debian packetmanagement require some more RAM for the ramdisk. Some tests showed that at least 164 MB RAM should be present for live-installation, otherwise you might run into a freeze.</p>
468 <h3><a name="bugreport"></a><a href="#toc">Bugreport</a></h3>
470 <p>Searching for a bug? Want to report a bug? Take a look at the <a
471 href="/bugs/">bugs webpage</a>.</p>
473 <h2><a name="system"></a><a href="#toc">System</a></h2>
475 <h3><a name="isolinux"></a><a href="#toc">Where's the old bootsplash?</a></h3>
477 <p>Starting with release 2009.10 Grml provides a menu based bootsplash.
478 To adjust boot options just press the TAB-key. To directly switch to the
479 old-style isolinux cmdline just press the escape key within 30 seconds. If you
480 still need access to the old bootsplash layout (including the f2, f3,...
481 pages with further information regarding available bootoptions)
482 select the entry 'Isolinux prompt' in the menu based bootsplash (just
483 press 'i' and ENTER for direct access to it). The timeout until either
484 the selected entry is booted (if specified) or until the system will
485 restore from the cmdline to the menu based bootsplash is 30 seconds.</p>
487 <h3><a name="configure"></a><a href="#toc">Which tools exist to configure grml?</a></h3>
489 <p>Grml provides several scripts and tools which should make life
490 easier. See 'dpkg -L grml-scripts' to get an overview of some main
491 scripts. Run 'grml-config' to get a dialog interface for the most
492 important scripts and tasks. Or just type 'grml-' and press tab-key to
493 get a completion menu in the shell.</p>
495 <h3><a name="password"></a><a href="#toc">What are the passwords of users on grml?</a></h3>
497 <p>There are no default passwords - all accounts are locked by default
498 for security reasons. Even local logins are not possible (unless you set
499 a password or create new user accounts as root). You can create valid
500 passwords using "sudo passwd [username]" from the shell
503 <h3><a name="version"></a><a href="#toc">How do I find out the version of grml</a></h3>
505 <p>Run 'grml-version' or use the following command:</p>
508 $ cat /etc/grml_version</pre>
510 <h3><a name="remove_cd"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to run LiveCD and eject CD-ROM?</a></h3>
513 % sudo umount -l /live/image
514 % sudo eject /dev/cdrom # now don't run any new programs unless you booted using 'toram'
515 % mount /dev/cdrom # mount it again if needed
518 <h3><a name="language"></a><a href="#toc">How do I change the language/keyboard settings?</a></h3>
520 <p>By default grml uses english settings. But it is possible to
521 change the settings via using either the bootparam(s) lang,
522 keyboard and xkeyboard or via executing grml-lang when grml is
523 already running. Usage examples:</p>
526 grml lang=de # enter this at the bootprompt and you will get
527 # german keyboard layout and german $LANG, $LC_ALL,
529 grml keyboard=de xkeyboard=de lang=at # enter this at the bootprompt
530 # and you will get german keyboard and austrian
532 % grml-lang de # enter this in the shell to switch keyboard layout
533 # and $LANG settings in a running grml-system
536 <p>Note: run grml-setlang to get a dialog based frontend for
537 /etc/default/locale. Run grml-setkeyboard to get a dialog based frontend
538 for /etc/sysconfig/keyboard.</p>
540 <h3><a name="kde_and_foo"></a><a href="#toc">KDE, Gnome, $FOO and $BAR</a></h3>
542 <p>Why isn't KDE, Gnome, $FOO or $BAR part of grml? grml is a
543 distribution for users of texttools and sysadmins. If you would like to
544 run KDE with Debian use e.g. <a href="http://sidux.com/">Sidux</a> or <a
545 href="http://www.kubuntu.org/">Kubuntu</a>. Gnome users might find <a
546 href="http://www.ubuntulinux.org/">Ubuntu</a> useful. If you would like
547 to see a specific (software) package added to grml please <a
548 href="/report/">report it to us</a>!</p>
550 <h3><a name="wms"></a><a href="#toc">Which window managers can I use?</a></h3>
552 <p>Grml is shipped with a few selected window managers which are
553 lightweight and fast - so well suited for a live system. At the moment,
554 Grml provides the following window managers:</p>
557 <li><a href="http://awesome.naquadah.org/">awesome</a>
558 <li><a href="http://www.fluxbox.org/">fluxbox</a>
559 <li><a href="http://i3.zekjur.net/">i3</a>
560 <li><a href="http://icculus.org/openbox/index.php/Main_Page">openbox</a>
561 <li><a href="http://www.nongnu.org/ratpoison/">ratpoison</a>
562 <li><a href="http://www.suckless.org/wiki/wmii">wmii</a>
567 <li><a href="http://awesome.naquadah.org/">awesome</a>
568 <li><a href="http://wmii.de/dwm/">dwm</a>
569 <li><a href="http://www.6809.org.uk/evilwm/">evilwm</a>
570 <li><a href="http://www.fluxbox.org/">fluxbox</a>
571 <li><a href="http://www.fvwm.org/">fvwm</a>
572 <li><a href="http://fvwm-crystal.org/">fvwm-crystal</a>
573 <li><a href="http://joewing.net/programs/jwm/index.shtml">jwm</a>
574 <li><a href="http://icculus.org/openbox/index.php/Main_Page">openbox</a>
575 <li><a href="http://pekwm.org/">pekwm</a>
576 <li><a href="http://www.plig.org/xwinman/vtwm.html">twm</a>
577 <li><a href="http://www.grassouille.org/code/w9wm/README">w9wm</a>
578 <li><a href="http://www.nickgravgaard.com/windowlab/">windowlab</a>
579 <li><a href="http://www.suckless.org/wiki/wmii">wmii</a>
583 <p>Tip: If you are new to grml and/or prefer an easy-to-use-desktop run 'grml-x
584 wm-ng' for starting fluxbox with idesk and gkrellm.</p>
586 <h3><a name="usbmount"></a><a href="#toc">How do I mount a USB device / USB stick?</a></h3>
588 <p>Run 'mount /mnt/usb-sda1' for example if you want to mount /dev/sda1.
589 Udev on Grml does multiplexing for USB block devices, so /dev/usb-sda1
590 (device for mountpoint /mnt/usb-sda1) is a symlink to /dev/sda1.</p>
592 <h3><a name="lvm"></a><a href="#toc">Where are my LVM devices?</a></h3>
594 <p>LVM (Logival Volumes) is <strong>not</strong> started by default to
595 avoid any possible damage to your data. To get access to present LVM
596 devices just execute:</p>
599 # /etc/init.d/lvm2 start
601 or use the shorter version:
606 <p>If you want to enable LVM by default just boot using the 'lvm'
607 bootoption which automatically enables LVM.</p>
609 <h3><a name="swraid"></a><a href="#toc">Where are my Software-RAID devices?</a></h3>
611 <p>Software-RAID (usually known as the mdadm stuff) is
612 <strong>not</strong> started by default to avoid any possible damage to
613 your data. To get access to present SW-RAID devices just execute:</p>
616 # /etc/init.d/mdadm-raid start
618 or use the shorter version:
623 <p>If you want to enable SW-RAID by default just boot using the 'swraid'
624 bootoption which enables automatic assembling of software raid arrays.</p>
626 <h3><a name="libata"></a><a href="#toc">Why doesn't grml find my disks / doesn't boot?</a></h3>
628 <p>Starting with release 2008.11 grml uses <a
629 href="http://linux-ata.org/faq.html">libata</a> exclusively (so no
630 longer any old IDE code). Sadly some few (usually pretty old) systems
631 don't boot with libata-only kernels anymore. If you think you've such a
632 system please provide output of 'lspci' <a href="/contact/">to
635 <a name="terminalserver"></a>
636 <h3><a name="booting"></a><a href="#toc">Which ways exist to boot grml?</a></h3>
638 <p>The most common way to boot grml is, of course, running from
639 CD-ROM, but grml provides many more ways to boot grml:</p>
641 <p>It is possible to boot grml via USB (e.g. USB stick or harddisk),
642 firewire, or running from a Compact Flash disk. It works out of the box;
643 you don't need to modify anything. Check out <a
644 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb">the usb webpage in the
645 grml-wiki</a> for more details.</p>
647 <p>Your computer can not boot from CD-ROM but provides a floppy
648 disk? Take a look at <a
649 href="http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/">btmgr</a>, <a
650 href="http://ubcd4win.com/faq.htm#floppy">ubcd4win</a> or <a
651 href="http://linux.simple.be/tools/sbm">sbm</a>. They provide
652 support for booting from CD-ROM via a special floppy disk.</p>
654 <p>grml-terminalserver makes it possible to boot your system via network
656 href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preboot_Execution_Environment">PXE</a>
657 (Preboot Execution Environment). If your network card does not provide
658 support for booting via PXE you can still boot it either using the
659 provided grub image by grml-terminalserver (for example via floppy
660 drive) or using <a href="http://etherboot.org/wiki/index.php">gPXE</a>.
661 For more information, refer to the <a
662 href="/terminalserver/">grml-terminalserver webpage</a>.</p>
664 <h3><a name="timezone"></a><a href="#toc">How do I configure
665 timezone on my grml system?</a></h3>
667 <h4>Available bootoptions relevant in live-cd mode:</h4>
670 <li>utc: set UTC, if your system clock is set to UTC (GMT)
671 <li>gmt: set UTC, if your system clock is set to UTC (GMT) [like bootoption utc]
672 <li>tz=$option: set timezone to corresponding $option, usage example:
676 <h4>Further information:</h4>
678 <p>Manpages: hwclock(8) tzselect(1) tzconfig(8); <a
679 href="http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/system-administrator/ch-sysadmin-time.html">Debian
680 GNU/Linux System Administrator's Manual Chapter 16 - Time</a> and <a
681 href="http://wiki.debian.org/TimeZoneChanges">TimeZoneChanges in the
684 <h3><a name="hdinstall"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to install grml to harddisk?</a></h3>
686 <p>Short anwer: No.</p>
688 <p><strong>ProTip</strong>: If you want to get a plain Debian system take
689 a look at <a href="/grml-debootstrap/">grml-debootstrap</a>.</p>
691 <p>Longer answer: you can get a copy of the live system installed to your
692 hard disk by running a tool called <a href="/grml2hd/">grml2hd</a>.
693 This is <strong>TOTALLY UNSUPPORTED</strong>.</p>
695 <h2><a name="kernel"></a><a href="#toc">Kernel</a></h2>
697 <h3><a name="kernelconfig"></a><a href="#toc">Where can I find the configuration for the kernel used on
700 <p>See /boot/config-`uname -r` and on <a href="/kernel/">the kernel-webpage</a>.</p>
702 <h3><a name="kernelpatches"></a><a href="#toc">Are there any special components/patches in the kernel
703 used on grml?</a></h3>
705 <p>Grml uses the most current stable vanilla Linux kernel from <a
706 href="http://www.kernel.org/">www.kernel.org</a> with some
707 additional patches. More information and an all-in-one patch is
709 href="/kernel/">kernel-page</a>.</p>
711 <h3><a name="platform"></a><a href="#toc">For which platforms is the grml kernel optimized?</a></h3>
713 <p>Plain i586 compatibility-mode with SMP enabled. (Note: of course it
714 works for uniprocessor systems as well)</p>
716 <h2><a name="software"></a><a href="#toc">Software</a></h2>
718 <h3><a name="sw_general"></a><a href="#toc">General</a></h3>
720 <p>Want to run a program as root? Just use "sudo $PROGRAM". To get a
721 root-shell run "sudo -i".</p>
723 <p>Problems with a specific package? Please try "dpkg-reconfigure $foo".
724 Still encountering difficulties? Please send us a <a
725 href="/bugs/">bugreport</a>.</p>
727 <h3><a name="sw_version"></a><a href="#toc">Which package(s) and which
728 version is available?</a></h3>
730 <p>If you want to get details about the provided packages and the
731 package versions without booting the grml ISO check out the dpkg_...
732 files in the <a href="/files/#debian">Debian-Information section on
733 grml.org/files/</a>.</p>
735 <h3><a name="init"></a><a href="#toc">Init-System</a></h3>
737 <p>Why is grml using runlevel 2 as default? Because runlevel 2 is 'the
738 textonly one' and it is Debian's default.</p>
740 <p>Where are all the /etc/rc#.d-directories? grml doesn't use sysv-rc
741 but <a href="http://packages.debian.org/sid/file-rc">file-rc</a>. This
742 means you can configure the init system in one single file named
743 /etc/runlevel.conf with your favourite editor. No symlink-hell
746 <h3><a name="zsh"></a><a href="#toc">Why is zsh the default shell?</a></h3>
748 <p>Short answer: because <a href="/zsh/">Zsh rocks</a>, really!</p>
750 <p>Longer answer taken from <a
751 href="http://zsh.sourceforge.net/FAQ/zshfaq01.html#l3">ZSH FAQ: 1.2: What is
754 <cite> Zsh is a UNIX command interpreter (shell) which of the standard shells most
755 resembles the Korn shell (ksh); its compatibility with the 1988 Korn shell has been
756 gradually increasing. It includes enhancements of many types, notably in the
757 command-line editor, options for customising its behaviour, filename globbing, features
758 to make C-shell (csh) users feel more at home and extra features drawn from tcsh
759 (another `custom' shell).</cite>
761 <p>If you don't know zsh take a look at <a
762 href="http://zsh.sourceforge.net/FAQ/zshfaq02.html#l9">ZSH FAQ: How does zsh
763 differ from ...?</a>, 'man zsh | less -p COMPATIBILITY', the <a
764 href="/zsh/">grml zsh reference card</a> and '<a
765 href="/zsh/">man zsh-lovers</a>'.</p>
767 <p>If you are a bash user and don't know zsh yet, don't be afraid. bash
768 is largely a subset of zsh and you don't have to throw away your
769 knowledge about shell stuff.</p>
771 <h3><a name="zsh_binsh"></a><a href="#toc">Wasn't zsh the /bin/sh interpreter?</a></h3>
773 <p>Yes, until Grml 0.6 zsh was the interpreter for /bin/sh. Starting
774 with release 0.7 Grml used /bin/bash as /bin/sh and nowadays /bin/dash
775 is used for /bin/sh (that's what Debian does as well). The reason?
776 Using zsh as default /bin/sh interpreter leads to some problems,
777 especially since Debian does not care to support zsh as /bin/sh overall.
779 href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=329288">#329288</a>
781 href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=340058">#340058</a>
784 <h3><a name="bash"></a><a href="#toc">Is a bash available?</a></h3>
786 <p>Grml uses <a href="#zsh">zsh</a> as the default interactive shell
787 but, of course, a current version of bash (and many other shells as
788 well) is provided by grml.</p>
790 <h3><a name="configuration"></a><a href="#toc">Where can I find the configuration of zsh, GNU screen,...?</a></h3>
793 href="http://michael-prokop.at/blog/2007/12/22/make-console-work-comfortable/">'Make
794 console work comfortable'</a>.</p>
796 <h3><a name="truecrypt">Why isn't Truecrypt available within grml?</a></h3>
798 <p>Because Truecrypt is licensed under a specific license named
799 'TrueCrypt License' which doesn't permit us to distribute Truecrypt (since at least
800 license version 2.6).
801 See <a href="http://www.truecrypt.org/legal/license">section VI/4 of the
802 license</a> for details. The Ubuntu version from <a
803 href="http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads">truecrypt.org/downloads</a> is
804 known to work under Grml.</p>
806 <h3><a name="grub"></a><a href="#toc">grub does not work on my system?!</a></h3>
808 <p>Looks like you used mkfs.ext3 from grml but are using an old grub
809 version. Notice that older versions of grub do not support 256 byte
810 inodes on ext3, being the default in recent versions of mkfs/e2fsprogs.
811 More information is available at <a
812 href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=463236">#463236</a>
813 in the Debian bug tracking system.</p>
815 <h2><a name="xserver"></a><a href="#toc">X-Server</a></h2>
817 <h3><a name="xstart"></a><a href="#toc">How do I start the X server?</a></h3>
819 <p>Please use 'grml-x' as user grml for starting X on the live-cd. It
820 will, if necessary, generate the config file /etc/X11/xorg.conf and lets you start commands on
821 startup (see ~/.xinitrc). Use it, for example, via switching to TTY4 (press
822 Alt+F4) and run the following command to start wm-ng (window manager fluxbox
823 with idesk and gkrellm):</p>
828 <p>If you have want to start X with the deault options you can use
829 'startx' instead of grml-x. Adjust ~/.xinitrc to your needs.</p>
831 <h3><a name="xproblem"></a><a href="#toc">X does not start on my box?!</a></h3>
833 <p>grml-x supports several options. If you want to set some special options
834 please take a look at the grml-x manpage (man grml-x). Some usage examples:</p>
837 grml-x --module vesa wm-ng # start wm-ng and use vesa module
838 grml-x --mode '800x600' wm-ng # set resolution to 800x600 and start wm-ng
839 grml-x --display 8 wm-ng # start wm-ng on display 8
840 grml-x --force --nostart wm-ng # force creation of xconfig file and don't start X server
841 grml-x --hsync 60 wm-ng # set horizontal frequency and start wm-ng
842 grml-x --hsync 60 --vsync 40 wm-ng # set horizontal and vertical sync frequencies and start wm-ng
845 <h3><a name="xresolution"></a><a href="#toc">I don't like the resolution of X!</a></h3>
847 <p>Just run xrandr to switch the resolution during runtime of X. For
848 example: '<code>xrandr -s 1024x768</code>'.</p>
850 <h2><a name="stuff"></a><a href="#toc">Support / Unanswered stuff</a></h2>
852 <h3><a name="questions"></a><a href="#toc">Further questions</a></h3>
854 <p>Do you have a question which is not answered in the FAQ or in the
855 provided <a href="/docs/">documentation</a> (execute
856 "grml-info" on your grml-system for offline documentation)?
857 Also check out 'grml-tips $KEYWORD' on your grml-system. Take a look at
858 <a href="/">the grml website</a> and <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
859 grml-wiki</a>. A good place to become part of the community is the <a
860 href="/mailinglist/">grml mailinglist</a>. Please don't hesitate to <a
861 href="/contact/">contact us</a>.</p>
863 <h3><a name="support"></a><a href="#toc">Commercial Support</a></h3>
865 <p>You want to deploy Grml in your data center, use it as part of your
866 business or have an emergency case? You're happy with Grml but would
867 like to get your very own live cd (providing your favourite software
868 selection, special configuration, setup and your bootsplash)? As part of
869 our business we do provide commercial support, feel free to <a
870 href="http://grml-solutions.com/">contact us at Grml
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