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28 <h1 align="center">FAQ for grml</h1>
30 <p><strong>Up2date:</strong> applies to Grml version 2022.11</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 2022.11 is "MalGuckes".
120 This is a wordplay on 'mal gucken' (german for 'we'll wait and see what happens), which we used to have with Sven Guckes, a friend of many of us and a long time contributor to Grml,
121 who sadly passed away way too early. The Grml team dedicates this release to Sven, RIP.</p>
123 <p>Codename of Grml 2024.02 is "Glumpad".
124 This is an austrian word for odds and ends, bits and pieces, useless stuff.
125 Related words in Austrian are "Klumpert" and "Krimskrams", though the 'glum' and 'pad' might make the pronunciation more interesting.</p>
127 <h3><a name="requirements"></a><a href="#toc">Requirements for running Grml</a></h3>
131 <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>
133 <li>>=576MB of RAM (>=1GB recommended)</p>
135 <li>either a bootable CD-/DVD-ROM drive,
136 a <a href="#usbboot">USB-boot capable system</a> or a
137 network card for booting via network/PXE (check
138 out <a href="#terminalserver">grml-terminalserver</a>)</li>
142 <h3><a name="accessibility"></a><a href="#toc">What does accessibility at Grml mean?</a></h3>
144 <p>The Grml kernel includes support for speakup. For software,
145 brltty and espeakup are included.</p>
147 <h3><a name="bootoptions"></a><a href="#toc">Which boot options does Grml support?</a></h3>
150 href="http://git.grml.org/?p=grml-live.git;a=blob_plain;f=templates/GRML/grml-cheatcodes.txt;hb=HEAD">grml-cheatcodes
151 file</a> (also available via <a href="http://grml.org/cheatcodes/">grml.org/cheatcodes/</a>). Of
153 href="https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.html">the command-line parameters</a>
154 of the Linux kernel applies to Grml as well.</p>
156 <h3><a name="systemd"></a><a href="#toc">Why is Grml using systemd?</a></h3>
158 <p>The switch from file-rc to systemd happened for various reasons.
159 Grml used file-rc for many years, mainly because it provided a better
160 way to control startup behavior via its /etc/runlevel.conf configuration
161 than with using sysvinit. Though for us Grml developers this also meant
162 that whenever there have been any changes in Debian's startup
163 configuration we had to compare our /etc/runlevel.conf setup with what a
164 normal Debian system would give us. Users who wanted to remaster Grml
165 with a custom startup procedure as well had to practically fork
166 maintenance of the /etc/runlevel.conf file. This didn't only mean
167 tracking new features/services, but also solve any possible issues
168 around it - duplicating efforts and wasting developers time
169 unnecessarily. Lately we also started to see problems that no one else
170 seemed to have (or cared about enough), for example with multiple network
171 cards we ran into race-conditions with resolvconf. Problems like that
172 turned out to be release stoppers for us.</p>
174 <p>systemd on the other hand provides great documentation, service
175 supervision, takes care of parallel service startup and is the default
176 init system on most Linux distributions nowadays. This means more users,
177 better testing and integration. Logging, startup time investigation (to
178 get a fast boot procedure) and identifying failed service startups with
179 sysvinit/file-rc was always hard, unreliable or even impossible under
180 certain conditions. bootlogd was unreliable (while `journalctl -b` is
181 available out-of-the-box with systemd), bootchart was not nicely integrated
182 (while systemd-analyze blame/critical-chain works out-of-the-box) and we
183 aren't aware of any equivalence for e.g.
184 `systemctl --failed`.</p>
186 <p>It also turned out that it gives users who want to remaster Grml (or
187 build their very own ISOs from scratch using grml-live) more flexibility
189 over the startup process. systemd's override.conf mechanism and preset
190 feature provides the flexibility to overwrite unwanted behavior, without
191 losing the option to use existing defaults.</p>
193 <p>We think it's good that systemd is actively
194 maintained and receives attention. The sysvinit/file-rc ecosystem was
195 stagnating/non-existent for too many years. Grml used its own initrd
196 implementation in its very beginnings, until a more broadly available
197 initramfs-tools / live-boot solution appeared, broadening the user base,
198 sharing goals amongst different (live) distributions. Back in the days
199 Grml - like many other live distributions - had to implement hardware
200 recognition on its own. While udev received lots of complaints back
201 then, its integration actually solved all the hardware recognition
202 problems for the good. systemd's vision of stateless systems is
203 something which helps building live systems like Grml.</p>
205 <p>While we don't claim that systemd is perfect and doesn't have its
206 issues and drawbacks (like any software), we're happy about its
207 existence and more than happy about development and support by Debian's
210 <a name="release"></a> <!-- old anchor -->
211 <a name="bugreport"></a> <!-- old anchor -->
212 <h3><a name="known_issues"></a><a href="#toc">Are there any known issues? How about reporting bugs?</a></h3>
214 <p>Please visit the <a href="/bugs/">bug webpage</a>.</p>
216 <h2><a name="features"></a><a href="#toc">Features</a></h2>
218 <!-- TODO: needs to be improved! -->
219 <h3><a name="usbboot"></a><a href="#toc">How do I boot Grml from a USB stick?</a></h3>
221 <p>Check out the <a href="/grml2usb/">grml2usb manpage</a>
222 and the grml-wiki page
223 "<a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb">Boot Grml from usb-stick/firewire-device</a>".</p>
225 <h3><a name="store"></a><a name="persistency"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to store my settings?</a></h3>
228 <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=persistency">persistency
231 <h3><a name="password"></a><a href="#toc">What are the passwords of users on Grml?</a></h3>
233 <p>There are no default passwords - all accounts are locked by
234 default for security reasons. Even local logins are not
235 possible (unless you set a password or create new user
236 accounts as root). You can create valid passwords using "sudo
237 passwd [username]" from the shell individually.
238 With the <a href="#bootoptions">boot option</a> 'ssh' a password for the
239 users 'root' and 'grml' is and SSH login is enabled.</p>
241 <h3><a name="version"></a><a href="#toc">How do I find out the version of Grml</a></h3>
243 <p>Run 'grml-version' or use the following command:</p>
246 $ cat /etc/grml_version</pre>
248 <h3><a name="language"></a><a href="#toc">How do I change the language/keyboard layout?</a></h3>
250 <p>The default language of the Grml system is English (en_US.UTF-8).
251 All other locales are removed by default.
252 But it is possible to change the keyboard layout via either using 'grml-quickconfig',
253 the <a href="#bootoptions">boot option(s)</a> 'lang', 'keyboard' and 'xkeyboard'
254 or via executing grml-lang when Grml is already running.</p>
256 <p>Boot option examples:</p>
259 grml lang=de # enter this at the bootprompt and you will get
260 # german keyboard layout and german $LANG, $LC_ALL,
262 grml keyboard=de xkeyboard=de lang=at # enter this at the bootprompt
263 # and you will get german keyboard and austrian
267 <p>'grml-lang' example:</p>
270 % grml-lang de # enter this in the shell to switch keyboard layout
273 <p>Note: Run 'grml-setlang' to get a dialog based frontend for '/etc/default/locale'.</p>
275 <h3><a name="wms"></a><a href="#toc">Which window managers can I use?</a></h3>
277 <p>Starting with the 2011.12 release Grml provides <a
278 href="http://www.fluxbox.org/">Fluxbox</a> as window manager.</p>
280 <h3><a name="lvm"></a><a href="#toc">Where are my LVM devices?</a></h3>
282 <p>LVM (Logival Volumes) is <strong>not</strong> started by default to
283 avoid any possible damage to your data. To activate present LVM
284 devices execute (replace "$name" with the name of the PV):</p>
287 # Start lvm2-pvscan@$name
290 <p>or if you don't know its name and to enable all present ones, use:</p>
296 <p>If you want to enable LVM by default just boot using the 'lvm'
297 <a href="#bootoptions">boot option</a> which automatically enables LVM.</p>
299 <h3><a name="swraid"></a><a href="#toc">Where are my Software-RAID devices?</a></h3>
301 <p>Software-RAID (usually known as the mdadm stuff) is
302 <strong>not</strong> started by default to avoid any possible damage to
303 your data. To get access to present SW-RAID devices just execute:</p>
306 # mdadm --asssemble --scan
309 <p>If you want to enable SW-RAID by default just boot using
310 the 'swraid' <a href="#bootoptions">boot option</a> which enables automatic assembling of
311 software raid arrays.</p>
313 <a name="terminalserver"></a>
314 <h3><a name="booting"></a><a href="#toc">Which ways exist to boot Grml?</a></h3>
316 <!-- TODO: needs rework -->
318 <p>Of course running from CD/DVD is a common way to boot
319 Grml. But Grml provides many more ways to boot:</p>
321 <p>It is possible to boot Grml via USB (e.g. USB stick or
322 harddisk), firewire, or running from a Compact Flash disk. It
323 works out of the box; you don't need to modify anything. Check
324 out <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb">the usb
325 webpage in the grml-wiki</a> for more details.</p>
327 <p>Your computer can not boot from CD-ROM but provides a
328 floppy disk? Take a look
329 at <a href="http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/">btmgr</a>, <a href="http://ubcd4win.com/faq.htm#floppy">ubcd4win</a>
330 or <a href="http://linux.simple.be/tools/sbm">sbm</a>. They
331 provide support for booting from CD-ROM via a special floppy
334 <p>grml-terminalserver makes it possible to boot your system
336 using <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preboot_Execution_Environment">PXE</a>
337 (Preboot Execution Environment). If your network card does not
338 provide support for booting via PXE you can still boot it
339 either using the provided grub image by grml-terminalserver
340 (for example via floppy drive) or
341 using <a href="http://etherboot.org/wiki/index.php">gPXE</a>.
342 For more information, refer to
343 the <a href="/terminalserver/">grml-terminalserver
346 <h3><a name="timezone"></a><a href="#toc">How do I configure
347 timezone on my Grml system?</a></h3>
349 <p>Availabe boot options:</p>
352 grml utc # set UTC, if your system/hardware clock is set to UTC (Coordinated Universal Time)
353 grml localtime # Hardware Clock is set to local time (LOCAL), this is the default
354 grml tz=$option # set timezone to corresponding $option, usage example: tz=Europe/Vienna, defaults to UTC if unset
357 <p>Further information: manpages hwclock(8), tzselect(1) and tzconfig(8); <a
358 href="http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/system-administrator/ch-sysadmin-time.html">Debian
359 GNU/Linux System Administrator's Manual Chapter 16 - Time</a> and <a
360 href="http://wiki.debian.org/TimeZoneChanges">TimeZoneChanges in the
363 <h3><a name="hdinstall"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to install Grml to harddisk?</a></h3>
365 <p>No. If you want to get a Debian system take a look at <a
366 href="/grml-debootstrap/">grml-debootstrap</a> (or use the <a
367 href="https://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 system (providing your favourite software
408 selection, special configuration, setup and a custom bootsplash)?
409 Please get in <a href="/contact/">touch with us</a>.</p>
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