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28 <h1 align="center">FAQ for grml</h1>
30 <p><strong>Up2date:</strong> applies to Grml version 2020.06</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="#flavours">What are grml32 / grml64 and grml96?</a></li>
38 <li><a href="#grmlsmall">What is the difference between grml-full and grml-small?</a></li>
39 <li><a href="#get">Where do I get Grml?</a></li>
40 <li><a href="#whatmeans">What does Grml mean?</a></li>
41 <li><a href="#releasename">What about the release name?</a></li>
42 <li><a href="#requirements">Requirements for running Grml</a></li>
43 <li><a href="#bootoptions">Which boot options does Grml support?</a></li>
44 <li><a href="#systemd">Why is Grml using systemd?</a></li>
45 <li><a href="#known_issues">Are there any known issues with this release? How about reporting bugs?</a></li>
48 <p class="toc"><a href="#features">Features</a>:</p>
50 <li><a href="#usbboot">How do I boot Grml from a USB stick?</a></li>
51 <li><a href="#persistency">Is it possible to store my settings?</a></li>
52 <li><a href="#password">What are the passwords of users on Grml?</a></li>
53 <li><a href="#version">How do I find out the version of Grml</a></li>
54 <li><a href="#language">How do I change the language/keyboard settings?</a></li>
55 <li><a href="#wms">Which window managers can I use?</a></li>
56 <li><a href="#lvm">Where are my LVM devices?</a></li>
57 <li><a href="#swraid">Where are my Software-RAID devices?</a></li>
58 <li><a href="#booting">Which ways exist to boot Grml?</a></li>
59 <li><a href="#timezone">How do I configure timezone on my Grml system?</a></li>
60 <li><a href="#hdinstall">Is it possible to install Grml to harddisk?</a></li>
63 <p class="toc"><a href="#software">Software:</a></p>
65 <li><a href="#sw_version">Which package(s) and which version is available?</a></li>
66 <li><a href="#zsh">Why is Zsh the default shell?</a></li>
70 <p class="toc"><a href="#stuff">Support / Unanswered stuff:</a></p>
72 <li><a href="#questions">Further questions?</a></li>
73 <li><a href="#support">Commercial Support</a></li>
76 <h2><a name="general"></a><a href="#toc">General</a></h2>
78 <h3><a name="whatis"></a><a href="#toc">What is Grml?</a></h3>
80 <p>Grml is a bootable live system (Live-CD) based
81 on <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>. It is not
82 necessary to install anything to a harddisk. Grml includes a
83 collection of GNU/Linux software especially for system
84 administrators. It specializes on administrative tasks like
85 installation, deployment and system rescue.</p>
87 <h3><a name="flavours"></a><a href="#toc">What are grml32 / grml64 and grml96?</a></h3>
90 <li>grml32-full: 32bit version (kernel and userspace)</li>
91 <li>grml64-full: 64bit version (kernel and userspace)</li>
92 <li>grml96-full: multi boot version (featuring the grml32-full and grml64-full ISOs combined on one ISO)</li>
95 <p>Unless you've a good reason to really choose the 32bit flavour we
96 <em>strongly</em> encourage you to use either the grml64 or the grml96
99 <h3><a name="grmlsmall"></a><a href="#toc">What is the difference between grml-full and grml-small?</a></h3>
101 <p>grml-small provides a reduced set of available software compared to
102 grml-full. It provides the same Linux kernel image as grml-full and is
103 fully binary compatible. Choose the grml-small flavour if size - for
104 whatever reason - really matters to you.</p>
106 <h3><a name="get"></a><a href="#toc">Where do I get Grml?</a></h3>
108 <p>Grml is open source, you can download it from the mirrors
109 listed at <a href="/download">grml.org/download/</a>.</p>
111 <h3><a name="whatmeans"></a><a href="#toc">What does Grml mean?</a></h3>
113 <p>Grml comes close to 'argl' or 'grrr' in English. People use
114 this when they want to express their dissatisfaction with
115 software (amongst other things).</p>
117 <h3><a name="releasename"></a><a href="#toc">What about the release name?</a></h3>
119 <p>Codename of Grml 2020.06 is "Ausgehfuahangl", which is
120 an austrian word for a face mask.</p>
122 <h3><a name="requirements"></a><a href="#toc">Requirements for running Grml</a></h3>
126 <li>Intel-compatible CPU (i686 or later, preferably Pentium class or higher; although some i586 processors e.g. the 'AMD Geode' are still supported)</li>
128 <li>>=384MB of RAM (>=512MB recommended)</p>
130 <li>either a bootable CD-/DVD-ROM drive,
131 a <a href="#usbboot">USB-boot capable system</a> or a
132 network card for booting via network/PXE (check
133 out <a href="#terminalserver">grml-terminalserver</a>)</li>
137 <h3><a name="accessibility"></a><a href="#toc">What does accessibility at Grml mean?</a></h3>
139 <p>The Grml kernel includes support for speakup. For software,
140 brltty and espeakup are included.</p>
142 <h3><a name="bootoptions"></a><a href="#toc">Which boot options does Grml support?</a></h3>
145 href="http://git.grml.org/?p=grml-live.git;a=blob_plain;f=templates/GRML/grml-cheatcodes.txt;hb=HEAD">grml-cheatcodes
146 file</a> (also available via <a href="http://grml.org/cheatcodes/">grml.org/cheatcodes/</a>). Of
148 href="https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.html">the command-line parameters</a>
149 of the Linux kernel applies to Grml as well.</p>
151 <h3><a name="systemd"></a><a href="#toc">Why is Grml using systemd?</a></h3>
153 <p>The switch from file-rc to systemd happened for various reasons.
154 Grml used file-rc for many years, mainly because it provided a better
155 way to control startup behavior via its /etc/runlevel.conf configuration
156 than with using sysvinit. Though for us Grml developers this also meant
157 that whenever there have been any changes in Debian's startup
158 configuration we had to compare our /etc/runlevel.conf setup with what a
159 normal Debian system would give us. Users who wanted to remaster Grml
160 with a custom startup procedure as well had to practically fork
161 maintenance of the /etc/runlevel.conf file. This didn't only mean
162 tracking new features/services, but also solve any possible issues
163 around it - duplicating efforts and wasting developers time
164 unnecessarily. Lately we also started to see problems that no one else
165 seemed to have (or cared about enough), for example with multiple network
166 cards we ran into race-conditions with resolvconf. Problems like that
167 turned out to be release stoppers for us.</p>
169 <p>systemd on the other hand provides great documentation, service
170 supervision, takes care of parallel service startup and is the default
171 init system on most Linux distributions nowadays. This means more users,
172 better testing and integration. Logging, startup time investigation (to
173 get a fast boot procedure) and identifying failed service startups with
174 sysvinit/file-rc was always hard, unreliable or even impossible under
175 certain conditions. bootlogd was unreliable (while `journalctl -b` is
176 available out-of-the-box with systemd), bootchart was not nicely integrated
177 (while systemd-analyze blame/critical-chain works out-of-the-box) and we
178 aren't aware of any equivalence for e.g.
179 `systemctl --failed`.</p>
181 <p>It also turned out that it gives users who want to remaster Grml (or
182 build their very own ISOs from scratch using grml-live) more flexibility
184 over the startup process. systemd's override.conf mechanism and preset
185 feature provides the flexibility to overwrite unwanted behavior, without
186 losing the option to use existing defaults.</p>
188 <p>We think it's good that systemd is actively
189 maintained and receives attention. The sysvinit/file-rc ecosystem was
190 stagnating/non-existent for too many years. Grml used its own initrd
191 implementation in its very beginnings, until a more broadly available
192 initramfs-tools / live-boot solution appeared, broadening the user base,
193 sharing goals amongst different (live) distributions. Back in the days
194 Grml - like many other live distributions - had to implement hardware
195 recognition on its own. While udev received lots of complaints back
196 then, its integration actually solved all the hardware recognition
197 problems for the good. systemd's vision of stateless systems is
198 something which helps building live systems like Grml.</p>
200 <p>While we don't claim that systemd is perfect and doesn't have its
201 issues and drawbacks (like any software), we're happy about its
202 existence and more than happy about development and support by Debian's
205 <p>With the Grml release 2020.06 we consider the migration of our stack
206 to systemd as complete. If you encounter problems please i
207 <a href="/bugs/">file a bug</a> and let us know.</p>
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>
220 <p>Check out the <a href="/grml2usb/">grml2usb manpage</a>
221 and the grml-wiki page
222 "<a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb">Boot Grml from usb-stick/firewire-device</a>".</p>
224 <h3><a name="store"></a><a name="persistency"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to store my settings?</a></h3>
227 a <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=persistency">persistency
230 <h3><a name="password"></a><a href="#toc">What are the passwords of users on Grml?</a></h3>
232 <p>There are no default passwords - all accounts are locked by
233 default for security reasons. Even local logins are not
234 possible (unless you set a password or create new user
235 accounts as root). You can create valid passwords using "sudo
236 passwd [username]" from the shell individually.
237 With the <a href="#bootoptions">boot option</a> 'ssh' a password for the
238 users 'root' and 'grml' is and SSH login is enabled.</p>
240 <h3><a name="version"></a><a href="#toc">How do I find out the version of Grml</a></h3>
242 <p>Run 'grml-version' or use the following command:</p>
245 $ cat /etc/grml_version</pre>
247 <h3><a name="language"></a><a href="#toc">How do I change the language/keyboard layout?</a></h3>
249 <p>The default language of the Grml system is English (en_US.UTF-8).
250 All other locales are removed by default.
251 But it is possible to change the keyboard layout via either using 'grml-quickconfig',
252 the <a href="#bootoptions">boot option(s)</a> 'lang', 'keyboard' and 'xkeyboard'
253 or via executing grml-lang when Grml is already running.</p>
255 <p>Boot option examples:</p>
258 grml lang=de # enter this at the bootprompt and you will get
259 # german keyboard layout and german $LANG, $LC_ALL,
261 grml keyboard=de xkeyboard=de lang=at # enter this at the bootprompt
262 # and you will get german keyboard and austrian
266 <p>'grml-lang' example:</p>
269 % grml-lang de # enter this in the shell to switch keyboard layout
272 <p>Note: Run 'grml-setlang' to get a dialog based frontend for '/etc/default/locale'.</p>
274 <h3><a name="wms"></a><a href="#toc">Which window managers can I use?</a></h3>
276 <p>Starting with the 2011.12 release Grml provides <a
277 href="http://www.fluxbox.org/">Fluxbox</a> as window manager.</p>
279 <h3><a name="lvm"></a><a href="#toc">Where are my LVM devices?</a></h3>
281 <p>LVM (Logival Volumes) is <strong>not</strong> started by default to
282 avoid any possible damage to your data. To activate present LVM
283 devices execute (replace "$name" with the name of the PV):</p>
286 # Start lvm2-pvscan@$name
289 <p>or if you don't know its name and to enable all present ones, use:</p>
295 <p>If you want to enable LVM by default just boot using the 'lvm'
296 <a href="#bootoptions">boot option</a> which automatically enables LVM.</p>
298 <h3><a name="swraid"></a><a href="#toc">Where are my Software-RAID devices?</a></h3>
300 <p>Software-RAID (usually known as the mdadm stuff) is
301 <strong>not</strong> started by default to avoid any possible damage to
302 your data. To get access to present SW-RAID devices just execute:</p>
305 # mdadm --asssemble --scan
308 <p>If you want to enable SW-RAID by default just boot using
309 the 'swraid' <a href="#bootoptions">boot option</a> which enables automatic assembling of
310 software raid arrays.</p>
312 <a name="terminalserver"></a>
313 <h3><a name="booting"></a><a href="#toc">Which ways exist to boot Grml?</a></h3>
315 <!-- TODO: needs rework -->
317 <p>Of course running from CD/DVD is a common way to boot
318 Grml. But Grml provides many more ways to boot:</p>
320 <p>It is possible to boot Grml via USB (e.g. USB stick or
321 harddisk), firewire, or running from a Compact Flash disk. It
322 works out of the box; you don't need to modify anything. Check
323 out <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb">the usb
324 webpage in the grml-wiki</a> for more details.</p>
326 <p>Your computer can not boot from CD-ROM but provides a
327 floppy disk? Take a look
328 at <a href="http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/">btmgr</a>, <a href="http://ubcd4win.com/faq.htm#floppy">ubcd4win</a>
329 or <a href="http://linux.simple.be/tools/sbm">sbm</a>. They
330 provide support for booting from CD-ROM via a special floppy
333 <p>grml-terminalserver makes it possible to boot your system
335 using <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preboot_Execution_Environment">PXE</a>
336 (Preboot Execution Environment). If your network card does not
337 provide support for booting via PXE you can still boot it
338 either using the provided grub image by grml-terminalserver
339 (for example via floppy drive) or
340 using <a href="http://etherboot.org/wiki/index.php">gPXE</a>.
341 For more information, refer to
342 the <a href="/terminalserver/">grml-terminalserver
345 <h3><a name="timezone"></a><a href="#toc">How do I configure
346 timezone on my Grml system?</a></h3>
348 <p>Availabe boot options:</p>
351 grml utc # set UTC, if your system/hardware clock is set to UTC (Coordinated Universal Time)
352 grml localtime # Hardware Clock is set to local time (LOCAL), this is the default
353 grml tz=$option # set timezone to corresponding $option, usage example: tz=Europe/Vienna, defaults to UTC if unset
356 <p>Further information: manpages hwclock(8), tzselect(1) and tzconfig(8); <a
357 href="http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/system-administrator/ch-sysadmin-time.html">Debian
358 GNU/Linux System Administrator's Manual Chapter 16 - Time</a> and <a
359 href="http://wiki.debian.org/TimeZoneChanges">TimeZoneChanges in the
362 <h3><a name="hdinstall"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to install Grml to harddisk?</a></h3>
364 <p>No. If you want to get a Debian system take a look at <a
365 href="/grml-debootstrap/">grml-debootstrap</a> (or use the <a
366 href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian Installer</a> instead).</p>
368 <h2><a name="software"></a><a href="#toc">Software</a></h2>
370 <h3><a name="sw_version"></a><a href="#toc">Which package(s) and which
371 version is available?</a></h3>
373 <p>If you want to get details about the provided packages and the
374 package versions without booting the Grml ISO check out the dpkg_...
375 files in the <a href="/files/#debian">Debian-Information section on
376 grml.org/files/</a>.</p>
378 <h3><a name="zsh"></a><a href="#toc">Why is Zsh the default shell?</a></h3>
380 <p>Short answer: because <a href="/zsh/">Zsh rocks</a>, really!</p>
382 <p>Long(er) answer: If you don't know Zsh take a look the <a
383 href="/zsh/">Grml Zsh reference card</a>.</p>
385 <p>If you are a Bash user and don't know Zsh yet, don't be
386 afraid. Bash is largely a subset of Zsh and you don't have to
387 throw away your knowledge about shell stuff.</p>
389 <h2><a name="stuff"></a><a href="#toc">Support / Unanswered stuff</a></h2>
391 <h3><a name="questions"></a><a href="#toc">Further questions</a></h3>
393 <p>Do you have a question which is not answered in the FAQ or
394 in the provided <a href="/docs/">documentation</a> (execute
395 "grml-info" on your Grml system for offline
396 documentation)? Also check out 'grml-tips $KEYWORD' on your
397 Grml system. Take a look at
398 <a href="/">the Grml website</a> and <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
399 grml-wiki</a>. A good place to become part of the community is the <a
400 href="/mailinglist/">Grml mailinglist</a>.</p>
402 <h3><a name="support"></a><a href="#toc">Commercial Support</a></h3>
404 <p>You want to deploy Grml in your data center, use it as part of your
405 business or have an emergency case? You're happy with Grml but would
406 like to get your very own live system (providing your favourite software
407 selection, special configuration, setup and a custom bootsplash)?
408 Please get in <a href="/contact/">touch with us</a>.</p>
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