FAQ

grml is a bootable CD (Live-CD) based on Knoppix and Debian. grml includes a collection of GNU/Linux software especially for users of texttools and system administrators. grml provides automatic hardware detection. You can use grml as a rescue system, for analyzing systems/networks or as a working environment. It is not necessary to install anything to a harddisk. Due to on-the-fly decompression grml includes about 2.1 GiB of software and documentation on the CD.

Where do I get grml?

You can download grml of course: take a look at grml.org/download/. If you want to get an original grml-CD including the grml-cover, need a special amount of CDs or want your own special grml-CD (including your logo, your software and/or special settings) please don't hesitate to contact us! Take a look at grml-solutions for more information regarding our offers.

What does grml mean?

grml is short for 'grummel' and comes close to 'argl' or 'grrr' in english. People use this when they want to express their dissatisfaction/discontentedness with software (amongst other things):

$ grep -ch grml .centericq/**/history | xargs echo | \
  sed 's/[0-9]*/& + /g' | sed 's/+ $//g' | bc -l
3746

How to pronounce grml?

$ echo 'ghroummel' | festival --tts
$ flite -o play -t gremel

What about the release name?

Codename of grml 0.5 is Tokolytika. This is the german word for tocolytics.

Codename of grml-small 0.1 is Zugschlus. Zugschlus is the nickname of Marc Haber who brought the initial idea for grml-small.

Requirements for running grml

Intel-compatible CPU (i586 or later, preferably Pentium class or higher)
at least 56MB of RAM (for stable use with ramdisks for unionfs and udev and running X window system we recommend at least 128MB)
grml-small: at least 32MB RAM should be available
bootable CD-ROM drive (or a boot floppy and standard CD-ROM [IDE/ATAPI or SCSI]) [or network - see grml-terminalserver]

Why another Linux distribution?

There already exist "some" distributions. We decided to base our work on the existing infrastructure of Debian and Knoppix because we don't want to reinvent the wheel. Some admins already use their own rescue-CD and Knoppix works but does not bring that many important tools for admins out of the box so we decided to share our work with others.

What's the license of grml?

Anything written by the grml team is published under the GPL (GNU General Public License). You don't have to pay anything for running grml. Donations and feedback are welcome of course. If you want to get a special grml version or need support take a lookt at the grml-solutions.

What's the difference between grml and $OTHER-DISTRIBUTION? What are your main goals?

The main goal of grml is to be a distribution well suited for users of texttools and sysadmins. grml includes many important texttools (of course awk, sed, grep,... but also zsh, mutt[ng], slrn, vim and many other stuff we like) and useful programs for admin's daily work too. grml uses the existing infrastructure of Debian and Knoppix and merges useful things also from other distributions/live-cds.

What's the difference between grml and Knoppix?

grml comes with a vastly different set of software. Missing KDE and OpenOffice provides the opportunity of shipping more than 800 packages which Knoppix does not provide on it's CD version. grml boots a 2.6.x kernel but no X for faster startup. Knoppix is based on Debian/testing-experimental (using apt-pinning), but grml is basically based on plain Debian/unstable providing more current versions of software and less painfull upgrades. grml was once based on Knoppix but has nowadays (except of a similar initial ramdisk) nothing in common with Knoppix anymore:

# locate knoppix
# find / -iname \*knoppix\*
#

We consider Knoppix as a brand name for live-cds nowadays and provide most of Knoppix features as well. grml uses (mostly) the same cheatcodes for booting as Knoppix and provides even some extra ones. So if you are used to the basic Knoppix features you might find them on the grml-system as well. Ripping out the Knoppix stuff provides the possibility to create a grml system out of a Debian system and vice versa. Running 'apt-get install grml' on a Debian box will be officially supported in an upcoming version of grml.

What does accessibility at grml mean?

The grml kernel includes support for speakup and provides software like brltty (using bootoption 'grml blind brltty=type,port,tbl'), emacspeak and flite. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions, suggestions or feedback regarding accessibility!

Is it possible to run grml with $EMULATOR?

VMWare should work without any problems. It's also possible to run grml with QEMU, an emulator for various CPUs which works on Linux, Windows, FreeBSD and Mac OS X. Running grml with QEMU has been tested successful on Windows and Linux, take a look at the QEMU-grml-webpage.

grml-small?

What is grml-small?

Whereas grml provides about 2.1GiB of software on a 700MB-ISO, grml-small is a flavor with online 50MB ISO-size (~150MB 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. Take a look at the 'Debian-Information'-section if you are searching for the package list.

What is the difference between 'normal' grml and grml-small?

The 700MB-grml brings more than 2350 packages of software and a full-featured kernel. grml-small includes about 200 software-packages, lacks documentation and manpages on the ISO and has a stripped-down kernel (but still provides hardware recognition of course). grml-terminalserver is not available/supported on grml-small.

System

What are the passwords of users on grml?

There are no default passwords. All accounts are locked by default. Even local logins are not possible (unless you set a password or create new user accounts as root). You can create valid passwords using "sudo passwd [username]" from the shell, individually.

How to find out the version of grml

Run 'grml-version' or use the following command:

$ cat /etc/grml_version

Is it possible to run LiveCD and eject CD-ROM?

$ sudo umount -l /cdrom
$ sudo eject /dev/cdrom # now don't run any new programs ;)
$ mount /dev/cdrom      # mount it again if needed ;)

How do I change the language/keyboard settings?

By default grml uses english settings. But it is possible to change the settings via using either the lang-bootparam or via running grml-lang when grml is running already. Usage examples:

grml lang=de      # enter this at the bootprompt and you will get
                  # german keyboard layout and german $LANG, $LC_ALL,...
$ grml-lang de    # enter this in the shell to switch keyboard layout
                  # and $LANG settings in a running grml-system

KDE, Gnome, $FOO and $BAR

Why isn't KDE, Gnome, $FOO or $BAR part of grml? grml is a distribution for users of texttools and sysadmins. If you would like to run KDE with Debian use e.g. Knoppix, Munjoy-Linux, Kanotix, Kalyxo or Kubuntu. Gnome users might find Gnoppix useful. If you would like to see a special (software) package inside grml please report it to us!

Which window managers can I use?

grml is shipped only with window managers which are lightweight and fast - so well suited for a live-cd. At the moment grml provides the window managers: fluxbox, ion2 and ion3, jwm, pekwm, ratpoison, twm, w9wm, windowlab, wmi and wmii.

Can I boot grml without CD-ROM? What's the grml-terminalserver?

grml-terminalserver let you boot from network. For more information refer to the grml-terminalserver-webpage.

Bugreport

Report bugs via the tool reportbug which is part of the package grml-reportbug and provided with the grml system. If you don't know how to handle reportbug either take a look at the bugs-webpage in the grml-wiki or you can send us your bug report via the bugs-webpage.

Is it possible to install grml to harddisk?

Yes. grml provides a tool called grml2hd (see 'man grml2hd'). If you want to get a working Linux to your workstation consider using grml2hd. grml is developed on a box running the grml-system itself and we - the grml-developers - especially like grml2hd because it gives us a working Linux box within 10 to 30 minutes! You can use grml2hd even in a full automatic mode without any further interaction. More information is available on grml.org/grml2hd/.

I have problems with my hardware!

Take a look at the script grml-hwinfo. This scripts generates a file namend info.tar.bz2 which contains important information of your hardware. If you think we might help you please run grml-hwinfo and send us the file with additional, relevant information regarding your problem.

grml does not boot on my computer!

Please take a look at the available bootparamters and cheatcodes. Especially booting with 'acpi=off noapm noapic' might help. Bootparameter 'failsafe' provides a minimal hardware recognition. You still have problems? Please contact us!

Kernel

Where can I find the configuration for the kernel used on grml?

See /boot/config-`uname -r` and on the kernel-webpage.

Are there any special components/patches in the kernel used on grml?

grml uses the currentmost stable vanilla Linux kernel from www.kernel.org with some additional patches. More information and an all-in-one patch is available on the kernel-page.

Which platforms is the grml kernel optimized for?

Plain i586 compatibility-mode with SMP deactivated to avoid problems with specific systems and drivers.

Software

General

Want to run a program as root? Just use 'sudo $PROGRAM'. To get a root-shell run 'sudo su'.

Problems with a specific package? Please try 'dpkg-reconfigure $package'. Still encountering difficulties? Please send us a bugreport!

What version of $PACKAGE is available?

Take a look at the dpkg_...-files in the Debian-Information section on grml.org/files/.

Init-System

Why is grml using runlevel 2 as default? Because runlevel 2 is 'the textonly one' and it's debian's default.

Where are all the /etc/rc#.d-directories? grml doesn't use sysv-rc but file-rc. This means you can configure the init system in one single file namend /etc/runlevel.conf with your favourite editor. No symlink-hell anymore.

Why is zsh the default shell (/bin/sh)?

Short answer: because zsh rocks.

Longer answer taken from ZSH FAQ: 1.2: What is it?:

Zsh is a UNIX command interpreter (shell) which of the standard shells most resembles the Korn shell (ksh); its compatibility with the 1988 Korn shell has been gradually increasing. It includes enhancements of many types, notably in the command-line editor, options for customising its behaviour, filename globbing, features to make C-shell (csh) users feel more at home and extra features drawn from tcsh (another `custom' shell).

If you don't know zsh take a look at ZSH FAQ: How does zsh differ from...?, 'man zsh | less -p COMPATIBILITY' and 'man zsh-lovers'.

If you are a bash-user and don't know the zsh yet don't be afraid. bash is largely a subset of zsh and you don't have to throw away your knowledge about shell-stuff.

Is a bash available?

grml uses the zsh as the default shell but of course a current version of the bash (as many other shells as well) is provided by grml anyway.

setuid/SUID

If you set a programm SUID (setuid/mode 4755) unprivileged users on your system will be able to run it. This could be a potentially security hole so by default the packages are configured not to install binaries with setuid. If you want to use the binaries with setuid please run 'dpkg-reconfigure $packagename' or 'chmod 4755 =programm'. The following packages are well known to have a programm with not-set setuid:

hddtemp
pconsole
pdsh
prospect
rssh
scponly
sing

aide

Before AIDE can be used, you will have to initialize a database. In order to do this, simply run the following command:

/usr/sbin/aideinit

bitchx

Why isn't bitchx part of grml? bitchx sucks. Please use a better alternative like irssi or weechat which are part of grml.

ispell

You don't want to use the preselected default for ispell? Run 'select-default-ispell' for changing it.

LaTeX

auctex and preview-latex are loaded by default in emacs. If you want to load auctex based on your personal settings put the string "(require 'tex-site)" in your ~/.emacs, for preview-latex use the string '(load "preview-latex")'.
To change this run 'dpkg-reconfigure auctex' and/or 'dpkg-reconfigure preview-latex'.

slapd

The password for the admin entry in the LDAP directory is 'grml'.

tripwire

The site-key pass-phrase and the local key pass-phrase for tripwire are 'grml'.

Release related issues

Using IPW driver with DHCP

The ipw-drivers in grml already contain special fixes for fixing problems with ipw and kernel 2.6.13. But you might have to run 'iwlist $DEVICE scanning' (adjust $DEVICE with the corresponding network device) anyway to get an associated connection to the access point.

Using WPA with 2.6.13-grml

Kernel 2.6.13 includes wireless extensions version 18 (12.3.05). The ipw2200 module uses the wireless extensions instead of custom ioctl()s now. As a result you have to use '-Dwext' for wpa_supplicant to use the wireless extensions when wpa_supplicant is running. Adjust $OPTIONS in /etc/default/wpasupplicant, for example using:

OPTIONS="-Dwext -i eth1 -c /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf"

X-Server

How do I start the X server?

Please use 'grml-x' as user grml for starting X. It generates the config file /etc/X11/xorg.conf and lets you start commands on startup (see ~/.xinitrc). Use it for example via switching to TTY4 (press Alt+F4) and run the following command to start window manager fluxbox:

grml-x fluxbox

X does not start on my box?!

grml-x supports several options. If you want to set some special options please take a look at the grml-x manpage (man grml-x)! Some usage examples:

grml-x -display 8 fluxbox          # start fluxbox on display 8
grml-x -force -nostart             # force creation of xconfig file and don't start X server
grml-x -hsync 60 fluxbox           # set horizontal frequency and start fluxbox
grml-x -hsync 60 -vsync 40 fluxbox # set horizontal and vertical sync frequencies and start fluxbox
grml-x -mode '800x600' fluxbox     # set resolution to 800x600 and start ion3
grml-x -module vesa fluxbox        # start fluxbox and use vesa module

I don't like the resolution of X!

Just run xrandr to switch the resolution. For example: 'xrandr -s 1024x768'.

Framebuffer

The boot option vga does not work as expected?

grml (starting with version 0.4) uses vesafb-tng instead of vesafb. This means you have to set the bootopion via video= instead of vga=. See bootsplash F6 for more details.

I don't see anything when booting grml?!

Probably this is a problem with vesafb-tng. Try to boot via bootoption 'nofb' or 'grml video=ofonly'. Some laptops need a special keysequence to switch between monitor and beamer settings (e.g. Samsung X20: press Fn+F4) when booting. Often it's possible to switch resolution also after booting grml:

modprobe -l | grep fb.ko # try to find out which module fits for your system
modprobe atyfb           # load the appropriate module
fbset 1024x768-60        # now try to switch the resolution on current console

Further questions

Do you have a question which is not answered in the FAQ or in the provided documentation (also run 'grml-info' on your grml-system)? Take a look at the grml-website and the grml-wiki. Please don't hesitate to contact us, a good place to start is the grml mailinglist.