1 <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en">
3 <title>grml.org - FAQ</title>
4 <meta name="Title" content="grml.org - FAQ" />
5 <meta name="Author" content="the grml team [www.grml.org/team/]" />
6 <meta name="Keywords" content="grml.org, grml" />
7 <meta name="Description" content="FAQ of grml.org" />
8 <meta name="Abstract" content="grml, just another linux-distribution" />
9 <meta name="fdse-index-as" content="http://www.grml.org/faq/" />
10 <meta name="Robots" content="index,follow" />
11 <meta name="Language" content="english" />
12 <meta name="identifier-url" content="http://www.grml.org/" />
13 <meta name="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" content="true" />
14 <meta http-equiv="imagetoolbar" content="no" />
15 <link rel="home" href="/" title="grml.org" />
16 <link rel="help" href="/features/" title="About" />
17 <link rel="author" href="/team/" title="Team" />
18 <link rel="icon" href="/favicon.png" type="image/png" />
19 <link rel="stylesheet" href="/style.css" type="text/css" />
23 <?php include '../static.inc'; ?>
27 <p><img style="float: right" src="/img/clanbomber.png" alt="*" /></p>
29 <h1 align="center">FAQ for grml</h1>
31 <p><strong>Up2date:</strong> 20071019 - applies to versions grml
32 1.0 / grml64 0.1 / grml-small 0.4</p>
34 <p><a name="toc"></a><strong>Index:</strong></p>
36 <p class="toc"><a href="#general">General:</a></p>
38 <li><a href="#whatis">What is grml?</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="#pronounce">How do you pronounce grml?</a></li>
42 <li><a href="#releasename">What about the release name?</a></li>
43 <li><a href="#requirements">Requirements for running grml</a></li>
44 <li><a href="#why">Why another Linux distribution?</a></li>
45 <li><a href="#license">What's the license of grml?</a></li>
46 <li><a href="#difference">What's the difference between grml and $OTHER-DISTRIBUTION? What are your main goals?</a></li>
47 <li><a href="#knoppix">What's the difference between grml and Knoppix?</a></li>
48 <li><a href="#accessibility">What does accessibility at grml mean?</a></li>
49 <li><a href="#emulation">Is it possible to run grml with $EMULATOR?</a></li>
50 <li><a href="#usbboot">How do I boot grml from a USB stick?</a></li>
51 <li><a href="#store">Is it possible to store my settings?</a></li>
54 <p class="toc"><a href="#grml64">grml64</a></p>
56 <li><a href="#whatisgrml64">What is grml64?</a></li>
57 <li><a href="#grml64vsnormal">What is the difference between 32 bit grml and 64 bit grml?</a></li>
60 <p class="toc"><a href="#grmlsmall">grml-small:</a></p>
62 <li><a href="#whatissmall">What is grml-small?</a></li>
63 <li><a href="#smallvsnormal">What is the difference between 'normal' grml and grml-small?</a></li>
64 <li><a href="#grmlvsdsl">What is the difference between grml-small and DSL?</a></li>
67 <p class="toc"><a href="#grmlmedium">grml-medium</a></p>
69 <li><a href="#whatismedium">What is grml-medium?</a></li>
72 <p class="toc"><a href="#system">System</a>:</p>
74 <li><a href="#configure">Which tools exist to configure grml?</a></li>
75 <li><a href="#password">What are the passwords of users on grml?</a></li>
76 <li><a href="#version">How do I find out the version of grml</a></li>
77 <li><a href="#remove_cd">Is it possible to run LiveCD and eject CD-ROM?</a></li>
78 <li><a href="#language">How do I change the language/keyboard settings?</a></li>
79 <li><a href="#kde_and_foo">KDE, Gnome, $FOO and $BAR</a></li>
80 <li><a href="#wms">Which window managers can I use?</a></li>
81 <li><a href="#usbmount">How do I mount a USB device / USB stick?</a></li>
82 <li><a href="#booting">Which ways exist to boot grml?</a></li>
83 <li><a href="#timezone">How do I configure timezone on my grml system?</a></li>
84 <li><a href="#utf8">I have problems with UTF-8 / Unicode</a></li>
85 <li><a href="#missingfiles">I noticed some files are missing on grml</a></li>
86 <li><a href="#bugreport">Bugreport</a></li>
87 <li><a href="#hdinstall">Is it possible to install grml to harddisk?</a></li>
88 <li><a href="#grml2hdhang">grml2hd seems to hang?!</a></li>
89 <li><a href="#hardware">I have problems with my hardware!</a></li>
90 <li><a href="#boot">grml does not boot on my computer!</a></li>
93 <p class="toc"><a href="#kernel">Kernel</a>:</p>
95 <li><a href="#kernelconfig">Where can I find the configuration for the kernel used on grml?</a></li>
96 <li><a href="#kernelpatches">Are there any special components/patches in the kernel used on grml?</a></li>
97 <li><a href="#platform">For which platforms is the grml kernel optimized?</a></li>
100 <p class="toc"><a href="#software">Software:</a></p>
102 <li><a href="#sw_general">General</a></li>
103 <li><a href="#sw_version">What version of $PACKAGE is available?</a></li>
104 <li><a href="#init">Init-System</a></li>
105 <li><a href="#zsh">Why is zsh the default shell?</a></li>
106 <li><a href="#zsh_binsh">Wasn't zsh the /bin/sh interpreter?</a></li>
107 <li><a href="#bash">Is a bash available?</a></li>
108 <li><a href="#setuid">setuid/SUID</a></li>
109 <li><a href="#bitchx">bitchx</a></li>
110 <li><a href="#ispell">ispell</a></li>
111 <li><a href="#latex">LaTeX</a></li>
112 <li><a href="#slapd">slapd</a></li>
115 <p class="toc"><a href="#release">Release related issues</a>:</p>
117 <li><a href="#known_issues">Are there any known issues with this release?</a></li>
118 <li><a href="#proc_usb">Why isn't /proc/bus/usb mounted anymore?</a></li>
121 <p class="toc"><a href="#xserver">X-Server</a></p>
123 <li><a href="#xstart">How do I start the X server?</a></li>
124 <li><a href="#xproblem">X does not start on my box?!</a></li>
125 <li><a href="#xresolution">I don't like the resolution of X!</a></li>
128 <p class="toc"><a href="#framebuffer">Framebuffer</a></p>
130 <li><a href="#video">The boot option video does not work as expected anymore</a></li>
131 <li><a href="#fbprobs">I don't see anything when booting grml?!</a></li>
134 <p class="toc"><a href="#stuff">Unanswered stuff</a></p>
136 <li><a href="#questions">Further questions?</a></li>
137 <li><a href="#donate">You like grml? Make a donation to support our work!</a></li>
140 <h2><a name="general"></a><a href="#toc">General</a></h2>
142 <h3><a name="whatis"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml?</a></h3>
144 <p>grml is a bootable CD (Live-CD) once based on <a
145 href="http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/">Knoppix</a> and nowadays based on <a
146 href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>. grml includes a collection of
147 GNU/Linux software especially for users of texttools and system
148 administrators. grml provides automatic hardware detection. You can use grml
149 as a rescue system, for analyzing systems/networks, or as a working
150 environment. It is not necessary to install anything to a harddisk. Due to
151 on-the-fly decompression grml includes about 2.1 GB of software and
152 documentation on the CD.</p>
154 <h3><a name="get"></a><a href="#toc">Where do I get grml?</a></h3>
156 <p>You can download grml of course: take a look at <a
157 href="/download/">grml.org/download/</a>. If you want
158 to get an original grml-CD including <a
159 href="/files/#covers">the grml-cover</a>, need a
160 special amount of CDs or want your own special grml-CD (including
161 your logo, your software and/or special settings) <a
162 href="/contact/">please don't hesitate to contact
163 us</a>! Take a look at <a
164 href="http://solutions.grml.org/">grml-solutions</a> for more
165 information regarding our offers.</p>
167 <h3><a name="whatmeans"></a><a href="#toc">What does grml mean?</a></h3>
169 <p>grml is short for 'grummel' and comes close to 'argl' or 'grrr' in English. People
170 use this when they want to express their dissatisfaction/discontentedness with software
171 (amongst other things):</p>
174 $ grep -ch grml .centericq/**/history | xargs echo | \
175 sed 's/[0-9]*/& + /g' | sed 's/+ $//g' | bc -l
178 <h3><a name="pronounce"></a><a href="#toc">How do you pronounce grml?</a></h3>
181 % flite -o play -t gremel</pre>
184 $ echo 'ghroummel' | festival \-\-tts
187 <h3><a name="releasename"></a><a href="#toc">What about the release name?</a></h3>
189 <p>Codename of grml 1.0 is Meilenschwein. 'Meilenstein' is german for
190 milestone. Schwein is german word for pig/pork. (Thanks for the idea
191 to Frank '<a href="/team/#ft">ft</a>' Terbeck.)</p>
193 <p>Codename of grml-small 0.4 is Springinkerl. Springinkerl as
194 austrian word for an uneasy child.</p>
196 <p>Codename of grml64 0.1 is LiveShell. grml64 is the 'shell of life'
197 and can be used in Live mode.</p>
199 <h3><a name="requirements"></a><a href="#toc">Requirements for running grml</a></h3>
203 <li>Intel-compatible CPU (i586 or later, preferably Pentium class or higher)</li>
205 <li>at least 64MB of RAM (for stable use with ramdisks for unionfs and udev
206 and running X window system we recommend at least 128MB)</li>
208 <li>grml-small: at least 32MB RAM should be available</li>
210 <li>bootable CD-ROM drive (or <a
211 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=tips">a boot floppy</a> and standard
212 CD-ROM [IDE/ATAPI or SCSI]) [or network - see <a
213 href="#terminalserver">grml-terminalserver</a>]</li>
217 <h3><a name="why"></a><a href="#toc">Why another Linux distribution?</a></h3>
219 <p>There already exist "<a
220 href="http://www.distrowatch.com/">some</a>" distributions. We decided
221 to base our work on the existing infrastructure of <a
222 href="http://debian.org/">Debian</a> and <a
223 href="http://www.knoppix.net/">Knoppix</a> because we don't want to reinvent
224 the wheel. Some admins already use their own rescue-CD and Knoppix works but
225 does not bring that many important tools for admins and users of texttools
226 out of the box, so we decided to share our work with others.</p>
228 <h3><a name="license"></a><a href="#toc">What's the license of grml?</a></h3>
230 <p>Anything written by the grml team is published under the GPL (<a
231 href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU General Public License</a>).
232 You don't have to pay anything for running grml. <a
233 href="/donations/">Donations</a> and <a href="/contact/">feedback</a> are
234 welcome of course. If you want a special LiveCD or need support, take a
235 look at <a href="http://solutions.grml.org/">grml-solutions</a>.</p>
237 <h3><a name="difference"></a><a href="#toc">What's the difference between grml and
238 $OTHER-DISTRIBUTION? What are your main goals?</a></h3>
240 <p>The main goal of grml is to be a distribution well suited for
241 users of texttools and sysadmins. grml includes many important
242 texttools (of course awk, sed, grep, ... but also zsh, mutt[ng],
243 slrn, vim and many others) and useful programs for admin's
244 daily work. grml uses the existing infrastructure of <a
245 href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>. grml was once based on <a
246 href="http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/">Knoppix</a> (see '<a
247 href="#knoppix">What's the difference between grml and
248 Knoppix?</a>' for more details). We are also merging
249 useful things from other distributions/live-cds to provide a
250 perfect environment.</p>
252 <h3><a name="knoppix"></a><a href="#toc">What's the difference between grml and Knoppix?</a></h3>
254 <p>grml comes with a vastly different set of software. Missing KDE
255 and OpenOffice provides the opportunity of shipping more than 800
256 packages which Knoppix does not provide on its CD version. grml
257 boots a 2.6.x kernel but no X for faster startup. Knoppix is based
258 on Debian/testing-experimental (using apt-pinning), but grml is
259 basically based on plain Debian/unstable providing more current
260 versions of software and less painfull upgrades. grml was once
261 based on Knoppix but nowadays (except for a similar initial
262 ramdisk) has nothing in common with Knoppix:</p>
266 # find / -iname \*knoppix\*
269 <p>We consider Knoppix as a brand name for live-cds nowadays and
270 provide most of Knoppix' features as well. grml uses (mostly) the
271 same cheatcodes for booting as Knoppix and even provides some extra
272 ones. So if you are used to the basic Knoppix features you might
273 find them on the grml-system as well. Ripping out the Knoppix
274 stuff makes it possible to create a grml system out of a
275 Debian system and vice versa. Running 'apt-get install grml' on a
276 Debian box will be officially supported in an upcoming version of
279 <h3><a name="accessibility"></a><a href="#toc">What does accessibility at grml mean?</a></h3>
281 <p>The grml kernel includes <a href="/kernel/#speakup">support for
282 speakup</a> and provides software like brltty (using bootoption 'grml blind
283 brltty=type,port,tbl'), emacspeak and flite.</p>
285 <h3><a name="emulation"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to run grml with $EMULATOR?</a></h3>
287 <p><a href="http://www.vmware.com/">VMware</a> should work without any
288 problems. It's also possible to run grml with <a
289 href="http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/">QEMU</a>, an emulator for various
290 CPUs which works on Linux, Windows, FreeBSD and Mac OS X. Running grml with
291 QEMU has been tested successfully on Windows and Linux. Take a look at <a
292 href="/qemu/">the QEMU-grml-webpage</a>.</p>
294 <h3><a name="usbboot"></a><a href="#toc">How do I boot grml from a USB stick?</a></h3>
296 <p>Take a look at the script <a
297 href="/scripts/grml2usb">grml2usb</a>. For more
298 details, take a look at the <a
299 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb">usb-webpage in the
302 <h3><a name="store"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to store my settings?</a></h3>
304 <p>Yes. grml provides a powerful config framework. See <a
305 href="/config/">grml.org/config/</a>, <a
306 href="file:///usr/share/doc/grml-saveconfig/grml-config.html">/usr/share/doc/grml-saveconfig/grml-config.html</a>
307 and 'man save-config restore-config mkpersistenthome' for more
310 <h2><a name="grml64"></a><a href="#toc">grml64?</a></h2>
312 <h3><a name="whatisgrml64"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml64?</a></h3>
314 <p>grml64 is a 64bit-version of grml, based on <a
315 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/amd64/">the amd64 port of
318 <h3><a name="grml64vsnormal"></a><a href="#toc">What is the difference between 32 bit grml and 64 bit grml?</a></h3>
320 <p>The main difference of course is that grml64 is a 64bit-version
321 whereas (normal) grml is 32bit-only. grml64 provides a 64bit kernel
322 which supports 32bit userspace applications. grml64 also provides
323 libc6-i386, libc6-dev-i386, several lib32* packages and ia32-libs. Due
324 to space reasons and because some packages aren't available for amd64
325 yet some packages are missing on grml64 compared to (normal, 32bit)
326 grml. For more details please take a look at <a
327 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml64">the grml64 webpage in the
330 <h2><a name="grmlsmall"></a><a href="#toc">grml-small?</a></h2>
332 <h3><a name="whatissmall"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml-small?</a></h3>
334 <p>Whereas grml provides about 2.1 GB of software on a 700 MB ISO, grml-small
335 is a flavor with online ~58 MB ISO-size (~200 MB uncompressed). It does not
336 provide a lot of software but the essential stuff for being a rescue system
337 on a business card CD-ROM or a small USB device. You can use the Debian
338 package management system to install software on the fly (assuming you have
339 network access to a Debian mirror). Take a look at the <a
340 href="/files/">'Debian-Information'-section</a> if you are
341 searching for the package list.</p>
343 <h3><a name="smallvsnormal"></a><a href="#toc">What is the
344 difference between 'normal' grml and grml-small?</a></h3>
346 <p>The 700 MB-grml brings more than 2500 packages of software and a <a
347 href="/kernel/">full-featured kernel</a>. grml-small includes
348 about 215 software packages, lacks documentation and manpages on the ISO,
349 has a stripped-down <a href="/kernel/">kernel</a> (but still
350 provides hardware detection of course) and does not provide a X server. <a
351 href="#terminalserver">grml-terminalserver</a> is <strong>not</strong>
352 available/supported on grml-small.</p>
354 <h3><a name="grmlvsdsl"></a><a href="#toc">What is the
355 difference between grml-small and DSL?</a></h3>
357 <p>DSL and grml-small have different target audiences. <a
358 href="http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/">Damn Small Linux</a> (DSL) uses kernel
359 version 2.4 whereas grml-small provides a recent version of kernel version
360 2.6. DSL provides the X window system which grml-small does not. grml-small
361 provides the most important packages for sysadmins and ships the original
362 Debian package management which allows you to install packages of the Debian
363 pool with no modifications.</p>
365 <h2><a name="grmlmedium"></a><a href="#toc">grml-medium?</a></h2>
367 <h3><a name="whatismedium"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml-medium?</a></h3>
369 <p>grml-medium is an upcoming grml-flavour currently being worked
370 on. Its target is to close the gap between grml-small and
371 normal/large/full version of grml. grml-medium will be an ISO with
372 a maximum ISO size of 200MB. Stay tuned for more details...</p>
374 <h2><a name="system"></a><a href="#toc">System</a></h2>
376 <h3><a name="configure"></a><a href="#toc">Which tools exist to configure grml?</a></h3>
378 <p>grml provides several scripts and tools which should make life
379 easier. See 'dpkg -L grml-scripts' to get an overview of some main
380 scripts. Run 'grml-config' to get a dialog interface for the most
381 important scripts and tasks. Or just type 'grml-' and press tab-key to
382 get a completion menu.</p>
384 <h3><a name="password"></a><a href="#toc">What are the passwords of users on grml?</a></h3>
386 <p>There are no default passwords. All accounts are locked by
387 default. Even local logins are not possible (unless you set a
388 password or create new user accounts as root). You can create
389 valid passwords using "sudo passwd [username]" from the shell
392 <h3><a name="version"></a><a href="#toc">How do I find out the version of grml</a></h3>
394 <p>Run 'grml-version' or use the following command:</p>
397 $ cat /etc/grml_version</pre>
399 <h3><a name="remove_cd"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to run LiveCD and eject CD-ROM?</a></h3>
402 $ sudo umount -l /cdrom
403 $ sudo eject /dev/cdrom # now don't run any new programs ;)
404 $ mount /dev/cdrom # mount it again if needed ;)
407 <h3><a name="language"></a><a href="#toc">How do I change the language/keyboard settings?</a></h3>
409 <p>By default grml uses English settings. But it is possible to
410 change the settings via using either the bootparam(s) lang,
411 keyboard and xkeyboard or via running grml-lang when grml is
412 already running. Usage examples:</p>
415 grml lang=de # enter this at the bootprompt and you will get
416 # German keyboard layout and German $LANG, $LC_ALL,
418 grml keyboard=de xkeyboard=de lang=at # enter this at the bootprompt
419 # and you will get German keyboard and Austrian
421 % grml-lang de # enter this in the shell to switch keyboard layout
422 # and $LANG settings in a running grml-system
425 <p>If you are running grml from harddisk (using <a
426 href="#hdinstall">grml2hd</a>) you have several options how to set
427 language options:</p>
431 <li>adjust /etc/default/locale to configure global language and
432 environment settings</li>
434 <li>set environment variables like $LC_ALL, $LANG, $LANGUAGE in your
435 personal configuration files (like ~/.zshrc.local, see <a
436 href="/zsh/">grml zsh reference card</a> for details)
437 if you do not want to use them system wide/global</li>
439 <li>adjust /etc/sysconfig/keyboard to configure keyboard layout
440 on console, or run 'loadkeys $KEYTABLE' manually</li>
442 <li>add "setxkbmap $LANGUAGE" to the keybindings section in
443 your ~/.xinitrc to configure keyboard setup for the X window system
444 (deactivate the xmodmap lines if necessary)</li>
448 <p>Notice: run grml-setlang to get a dialog based frontend for
449 /etc/default/locale and grml-setkeyboard to get a dialog based frontend
450 for /etc/sysconfig/keyboard.</p>
452 <h3><a name="kde_and_foo"></a><a href="#toc">KDE, Gnome, $FOO and $BAR</a></h3>
454 <p>Why isn't KDE, Gnome, $FOO or $BAR part of grml? grml is a
455 distribution for users of texttools and sysadmins. If you would like to
456 run KDE with Debian use e.g. <a href="http://sidux.com/">Sidux</a>, <a
457 href="http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/">Knoppix</a> or <a
458 href="http://www.kubuntu.org/">Kubuntu</a>. Gnome users might find <a
459 href="http://www.ubuntulinux.org/">Ubuntu</a> useful. If you would like
460 to see a specific (software) package added to grml please <a
461 href="/report/">report it to us</a>!</p>
463 <h3><a name="wms"></a><a href="#toc">Which window managers can I use?</a></h3>
465 <p>grml is shipped only with window managers which are lightweight and
466 fast - so well suited for a live-CD. At the moment, grml provides the
467 following window managers:
468 <a href="http://www.suckless.org/wiki/dwm">dwm</a>,
469 <a href="http://www.6809.org.uk/evilwm/">evilwm</a>,
470 <a href="http://www.fluxbox.org/">fluxbox</a>,
471 <a href="http://www.fvwm.org/">fvwm</a>,
472 <a href="http://fvwm-crystal.org/">fvwm-crystal</a>,
473 <a href="http://modeemi.cs.tut.fi/~tuomov/ion/">ion3</a>,
474 <a href="http://joewing.net/programs/jwm/index.shtml">jwm</a>,
475 <a href="http://pekwm.org/">pekwm</a>,
476 <a href="http://www.nongnu.org/ratpoison/">ratpoison</a>,
477 <a href="http://www.plig.org/xwinman/vtwm.html">twm</a>,
478 <a href="http://www.grassouille.org/code/w9wm/README">w9wm</a>,
479 <a href="http://www.nickgravgaard.com/windowlab/">windowlab</a> and
480 <a href="http://www.suckless.org/wiki/wmii">wmii</a>.</p>
482 <p>If you are new to grml and/or prefer an easy-to-use-desktop run 'grml-x
483 wm-ng' for starting fluxbox with idesk and gkrellm.</p>
485 <h3><a name="usbmount"></a><a href="#toc">How do I mount a USB device / USB stick?</a></h3>
487 <p>Run 'mount /mnt/usb-sda1' for example if you want to mount /dev/sda1.
488 udev on grml does multiplexing for USB block devices, so /dev/usb-sda1
489 (device for mountpoint /mnt/usb-sda1) is a symlink to /dev/sda1.</p>
491 <a name="terminalserver"></a>
492 <h3><a name="booting"></a><a href="#toc">Which ways exist to boot grml?</a></h3>
494 <p>The most common way to boot grml is, of course, running from
495 CD-ROM, but grml provides many more ways to boot grml:</p>
497 <p>It is possible to boot grml via USB (e.g. USB stick or harddisk),
498 firewire, or running from a Compact Flash disk. It works out of the
499 box; you don't need to modify anything. If accessing the device
500 fails, use the 'scandelay' cheatcode on bootprompt. So, boot with
501 'grml scandelay'. If the timeout is still not long enough add the
502 time to wait in seconds as parameter: 'grml scandelay=15'. See <a
503 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb">usb-webpage in the
504 grml-wiki</a> for more details.</p>
506 <p>Your computer can not boot from CD-ROM but provides a floppy
507 disk? Take a look at <a
508 href="http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/">btmgr</a>, <a
509 href="http://ubcd4win.com/faq.htm#floppy">ubcd4win</a> or <a
510 href="http://linux.simple.be/tools/sbm">sbm</a>. They provide
511 support for booting from CD-ROM via a special floppy disk.</p>
513 <p>grml-terminalserver makes it possible to boot your system via
514 network. If you have a floppy drive, you can even boot your system over
515 network when your network card does not provide PXE-support! For more
516 information, refer to the <a
517 href="/terminalserver/">grml-terminalserver-webpage</a>.</p>
519 <h3><a name="timezone"></a><a href="#toc">How do I configure
520 timezone on my grml system?</a></h3>
522 <h4>Available bootoptions relevant in live-cd mode:</h4>
525 <li>utc: set UTC, if your system clock is set to UTC (GMT)
526 <li>gmt: set UTC, if your system clock is set to UTC (GMT) [like bootoption utc]
527 <li>tz=$option: set timezone to corresponding $option, usage example:
531 <h4>Configuration options relevant on harddisk installation:</h4>
536 # dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
539 <p>to adjust /etc/timezone and /etc/localtime according to the
540 provided information.</p>
542 <p><strong>/etc/default/rcS:</strong> set variable UTC according
543 to your needs, whether your system clock is set to UTC
544 (UTC='yes') or not (UTC='no')</p>
546 <p><strong>/etc/localtime:</strong> adjust zoneinfo according to
550 # ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/$WHATEVER_YOU_WANT /etc/localtime
553 <p>The zoneinfo directory contains the time zone files that were
554 compiled by zic. The files contain information such as rules
555 about DST. They allow the kernel to convert UTC UNIX time into
556 appropriate local dates and times. Use the zdump utility to
557 print current time and date (in the specified time zone).</p>
559 <p><strong>/etc/adjtime:</strong> This file is used e.g. by the
560 adjtimex function, which can smoothly adjust system time while
563 <p>If you change the time (using 'date --set ...', ntpdate,...)
564 it is worth setting also the hardware clock to the correct
568 # hwclock --systohc [--utc]
571 <p>Remember to add the --utc -option if the hardware clock is set to
574 <h4>Still problems?</h4>
576 <p>Check your current settings via:</p>
583 grep hwclock /etc/runlevel.conf
584 grep '^UTC' /etc/default/rc
587 <h4>Further information:</h4>
589 <p>Manpages: hwclock(8) tzselect(1) tzconfig(8); <a
590 href="http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/system-administrator/ch-sysadmin-time.html">Debian
591 GNU/Linux System Administrator's Manual Chapter 16 - Time</a> and <a
592 href="http://wiki.debian.org/TimeZoneChanges">TimeZoneChanges in the
595 <h3><a name="utf8"></a><a href="#toc">I have problems with UTF-8 / Unicode</a></h3>
598 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=utf8">UTF8-webpage in the
601 <h3><a name="missingfiles"></a><a href="#toc">I noticed some files are missing on grml</a></h3>
603 <p>Yes, output of 'debsums -a 1>/dev/null' might output some
604 failures. The reason is pretty simple: some modification have been done
605 because of space limitiations on the ISO. The failures are nothing to
606 really care about, but as we don't hide anything we document them of
609 <p>On <strong>grml</strong> the following modifications have been done:
613 <li>linux-headers-2.6.20-grml: include files
614 (/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.20-grml/include/) of foreign (!x86)
615 architectures have been removed
617 <li>texlive-base-bin: documentation directory
618 /usr/share/doc/texlive-base-bin/pdftex/thanh/ has been removed
620 <li>texlive-latex-base: documentation directories
621 /usr/share/doc/texlive-latex-base/latex/base/,
622 /usr/share/doc/texlive-latex-base/latex/hyperref/ and
623 /usr/share/doc/texlive-latex-base/generic/babel/ have been removed
625 <li>texlive-latex-recommended: documentation directory
626 /usr/share/doc/texlive-latex-recommended/latex/koma-script/ has been
631 <p>On <strong>grml64</strong> the following modifications have been done:</p>
635 <li>some files of valgrind (/usr/lib/valgrind/x86-linux/*) have been stripped
637 <li>.so files of ion3 (/usr/lib/ion3/*.so) have been stripped
642 <p>On <strong>grml-small</strong> nearly all the documentation has been
643 removed to be able to provide a ~60MB iso with kernel 2.6 and all the
644 provided software.</p>
646 <p>Please notice that grml ships a script named
647 <strong>grml2hd-fix</strong> as part of package grml2hd-utils which
648 should fix the relevant of the above errors if you <a
649 href="#hdinstall">use grml as a harddisk installation</a>.</p>
651 <h3><a name="bugreport"></a><a href="#toc">Bugreport</a></h3>
653 <p>Take a look at the <a href="/bugs/">bugs-webpage</a>.</p>
655 <h3><a name="hdinstall"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to install grml to harddisk?</a></h3>
657 <p>Yes. grml provides a tool called grml2hd (see '<a
658 href="/grml2hd/grml2hd.html">man grml2hd</a>'). grml is
659 developed on a box running the grml-system itself, and we - the
660 grml-developers - especially like grml2hd because it gives us a working
661 Linux box within 10 to 30 minutes. grml2hd is perfect for prototyping:
662 test hardware support of Linux, test a specific setup, ... You can even
663 use grml2hd in a fully automatic mode without any further interaction.
664 More information is available on <a
665 href="/grml2hd/">grml.org/grml2hd/</a> and <a
666 href="/grml2hd/grml2hd.html">man grml2hd</a>. Notice: If
667 you are using grml in a production environment and/or use a grml2hd
668 installation, we strongly recommend you subscribe to <a
669 href="/mailinglist/">the grml user mailinglist</a>! Note
670 that grml is based on Debian unstable, so you should be familiar with
671 Debian unstable if you plan to use grml as a harddisk system. If you
672 want to get a plain Debian system take a look at <a
673 href="/grml-debootstrap/">grml-debootstrap</a>.</p>
675 <h3><a name="grml2hdhang"></a><a href="#toc">grml2hd seems to hang?!</a></h3>
677 <p>grml2hd seems to hang? Switch to tty12 and take a look at the syslog output.
678 If you see something like:</p>
681 SQUASHFS error: zlib_fs returned unexpected result 0x........
682 SQUASHFS error: Unable to read cache block [.....]
683 SQUASHFS error: Unable to read inode [.....]</pre>
685 <p>your ISO/CD-ROM very probably is not ok. Verify it via booting with
686 grml testcd. Check your CD low-level via running:</p>
689 # readcd -c2scan dev=/dev/cdrom</pre>
691 <p>If the medium really is ok and it still fails try to boot with
692 DMA deactivated via 'grml nodma ide=nodma' at the bootprompt.</p>
694 <h3><a name="hardware"></a><a href="#toc">I have problems with my hardware!</a></h3>
696 <p>Take a look at the script grml-hwinfo. This script generates a
697 file named info.tar.bz2 which contains important information about
698 your hardware. If you think we might help, please run
699 grml-hwinfo and send us the file with additional, relevant
700 information regarding your problem.</p>
702 <h3><a name="boot"></a><a href="#toc">grml does not boot on my computer!</a></h3>
704 <p>Please take a look at <a
705 href="/files/grml-cheatcodes.txt">the available
706 bootparamters and cheatcodes</a> and '<a href="#booting">Which ways
707 exist to boot grml?</a>'. Especially booting with 'acpi=off noapm
708 noapic' might help. Bootparameter 'failsafe' provides minimal
709 hardware detection. You still have problems? Please <a
710 href="/contact/">contact us</a>!</p>
712 <h2><a name="kernel"></a><a href="#toc">Kernel</a></h2>
714 <h3><a name="kernelconfig"></a><a href="#toc">Where can I find the configuration for the kernel used on
717 <p>See /boot/config-`uname -r` and on <a href="/kernel/">the kernel-webpage</a>.</p>
719 <h3><a name="kernelpatches"></a><a href="#toc">Are there any special components/patches in the kernel
720 used on grml?</a></h3>
722 <p>grml uses the most current stable vanilla Linux kernel from <a
723 href="http://www.kernel.org/">www.kernel.org</a> with some
724 additional patches. More information and an all-in-one patch is
726 href="/kernel/">kernel-page</a>.</p>
728 <h3><a name="platform"></a><a href="#toc">For which platforms is the grml kernel optimized?</a></h3>
730 <p>Plain i586 compatibility-mode with SMP enabled. (Notice: this works
731 for uniprocessor systems as well, thanks to <a
732 href="http://lwn.net/Articles/164121/">SMP alternatives</a>.)</p>
734 <h2><a name="software"></a><a href="#toc">Software</a></h2>
736 <h3><a name="sw_general"></a><a href="#toc">General</a></h3>
738 <p>Want to run a program as root? Just use "sudo $PROGRAM". To get a
739 root-shell run "sudo su".</p>
741 <p>Problems with a specific package? Please try "dpkg-reconfigure $foo".
742 Still encountering difficulties? Please send us a <a
743 href="/bugs/">bugreport</a>!</p>
745 <h3><a name="sw_version"></a><a href="#toc">What version of $PACKAGE is
748 <p>Take a look at the dpkg_... files in the <a
749 href="/files/#debian">Debian-Information section on
750 grml.org/files/</a>. </p>
752 <h3><a name="init"></a><a href="#toc">Init-System</a></h3>
754 <p>Why is grml using runlevel 2 as default? Because runlevel 2 is 'the
755 textonly one' and it's debian's default.</p>
757 <p>Where are all the /etc/rc#.d-directories? grml doesn't use
758 sysv-rc but file-rc. This means you can configure the init system
759 in one single file named /etc/runlevel.conf with your favourite
760 editor. No symlink-hell anymore.</p>
762 <h3><a name="zsh"></a><a href="#toc">Why is zsh the default shell (/bin/sh)?</a></h3>
764 <p>Short answer: because zsh rocks.</p>
766 <p>Longer answer taken from <a href="http://zsh.sunsite.dk/FAQ/zshfaq01.html#l3">ZSH
767 FAQ: 1.2: What is it?</a>:</p>
769 <cite> Zsh is a UNIX command interpreter (shell) which of the standard shells most
770 resembles the Korn shell (ksh); its compatibility with the 1988 Korn shell has been
771 gradually increasing. It includes enhancements of many types, notably in the
772 command-line editor, options for customising its behaviour, filename globbing, features
773 to make C-shell (csh) users feel more at home and extra features drawn from tcsh
774 (another `custom' shell).</cite>
776 <p>If you don't know zsh take a look at <a
777 href="http://zsh.sunsite.dk/FAQ/zshfaq02.html#l9">ZSH FAQ: How does zsh
778 differ from ...?</a>, 'man zsh | less -p COMPATIBILITY', the <a
779 href="/zsh/">grml zsh reference card</a> and '<a
780 href="/zsh/">man zsh-lovers</a>'.</p>
782 <p>If you are a bash user and don't know zsh yet, don't be afraid. bash is largely a
783 subset of zsh and you don't have to throw away your knowledge about shell stuff.</p>
785 <h3><a name="zsh_binsh"></a><a href="#toc">Wasn't zsh the /bin/sh interpreter?</a></h3>
787 <p>Yes, until grml 0.6 zsh was the intepreter for /bin/sh. Starting
788 with release 0.7 grml uses /bin/bash as /bin/sh. The reason?
789 Debian does not support zsh as /bin/sh. Take a look at <a
790 href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=329288">#329288</a>
792 href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=340058">#340058</a>
795 <h3><a name="bash"></a><a href="#toc">Is a bash available?</a></h3>
797 <p>grml uses <a href="#zsh">zsh</a> as the default interactive shell
798 but, of course, a current version of bash (and many other shells as
799 well) is provided by grml.</p>
801 <h3><a name="setuid"></a><a href="#toc">setuid/SUID</a></h3>
803 <p>If you set a programm SUID (setuid/mode 4755), unprivileged users on your system will
804 be able to run it. This <em>could</em> be a potentially security hole, so by default the
805 packages are configured not to install binaries with setuid. If you want to use the
806 binaries with setuid please run 'dpkg-reconfigure $packagename' or 'chmod 4755
807 =programm'. The following packages are well known to have a programm with not set
820 <h3><a name="bitchx"></a><a href="#toc">bitchx</a></h3>
822 <p>Why isn't bitchx part of grml? <a
823 href="http://www.google.com/search?q=bitchx+sucks">bitchx
824 sucks</a>. Please use a better alternative like <a
825 href="http://irssi.org/">irssi</a> or <a
826 href="http://weechat.flashtux.org/index.php?lang=en">weechat</a>
827 which are part of grml.</p>
829 <h3><a name="ispell"></a><a href="#toc">ispell</a></h3>
831 <p>You don't want to use the preselected default for ispell? Run
832 'select-default-ispell' for changing it.</p>
834 <h3><a name="latex"></a><a href="#toc">LaTeX</a></h3>
836 <p>auctex and preview-latex are loaded by default in emacs. If you want to load
837 auctex based on your personal settings put the string "(require 'tex-site)" in your
838 ~/.emacs, for preview-latex use the string '(load "preview-latex")'.<br />
839 To change this run 'dpkg-reconfigure auctex' and/or 'dpkg-reconfigure
842 <h3><a name="slapd"></a><a href="#toc">slapd</a></h3>
844 <p>The password for the admin entry in the LDAP directory is 'grml'.</p>
846 <h2><a name="release"></a><a href="#toc">Release related issues</a></h2>
848 <h3><a name="known_issues"></a><a href="#toc">Are there any known issues with this release?</a></h3>
850 <p>We won't hide anything. Therefore, we do provide all known
851 issues/bugs publicly available:</p>
855 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml_1.0">issues regarding
856 grml 1.0</a> and</li>
858 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml64_0.1">issues
859 regarding grml64 0.1</a> in <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
862 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml-small_0.4">issues
863 regarding grml-small 0.4</a> in <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
868 <p>If you find another bug, or consider something a problem not yet
869 mentioned <a href="#bugreport">please report it to us</a>!</p>
871 <h3><a name="proc_usb"></a><a href="#toc">Why isn't /proc/bus/usb mounted anymore?</a></h3>
873 <p>Starting with kernel 2.6.14, /dev/bus/usb replaces usbfs.
874 Current versions of libusb check for /dev/bus/usb's existence and
875 /proc/bus/usb is not necessary anymore (see <a
876 href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=336596">#336596</a>).
877 Of course 'mount /proc/bus/usb' still works; it is just not mounted
878 by default anymore. If you see any problems please <a
879 href="#bugreport">report them</a>.</p>
881 <h2><a name="xserver"></a><a href="#toc">X-Server</a></h2>
883 <h3><a name="xstart"></a><a href="#toc">How do I start the X server?</a></h3>
885 <p>Please use 'grml-x' as user grml for starting X on the live-cd. It
886 generates the config file /etc/X11/xorg.conf and lets you start commands on
887 startup (see ~/.xinitrc). Use it, for example, via switching to TTY4 (press
888 Alt+F4) and run the following command to start wm-ng (window manager fluxbox
889 with idesk and gkrellm):</p>
894 <p>If you have /etc/X11/xorg.conf already you can use 'startx' instead of
895 grml-x of course. Adjust ~/.xinitrc to your needs.</p>
897 <h3><a name="xproblem"></a><a href="#toc">X does not start on my box?!</a></h3>
899 <p>grml-x supports several options. If you want to set some special options
900 please take a look at the grml-x manpage (man grml-x)! Some usage examples:</p>
903 grml-x -display 8 fluxbox # start fluxbox on display 8
904 grml-x -force -nostart fluxbox # force creation of xconfig file and don't start X server
905 grml-x -hsync 60 fluxbox # set horizontal frequency and start fluxbox
906 grml-x -hsync 60 -vsync 40 fluxbox # set horizontal and vertical sync frequencies and start fluxbox
907 grml-x -mode '800x600' fluxbox # set resolution to 800x600 and start fluxbox
908 grml-x -module vesa fluxbox # start fluxbox and use vesa module
911 <h3><a name="xresolution"></a><a href="#toc">I don't like the resolution of X!</a></h3>
913 <p>Just run xrandr to switch the resolution during runtime of X. For
914 example: 'xrandr -s 1024x768'.</p>
916 <h2><a name="framebuffer"></a><a href="#toc">Framebuffer</a></h2>
918 <h3><a name="video"></a><a href="#toc">The boot option video does not work as
919 expected anymore</a></h3>
921 <p>grml versions 0.4 and 0.5 provided <a
922 href="/kernel/#vesafbtng">vesafb-tng</a> instead of
923 normal vesafb. Starting with grml 0.6 and grml-small 0.2 vesafb-tng
924 is not part of the grml-kernel anymore because it caused too many
925 problems. Therefore, you can use the 'normal' vga=... option
928 <h3><a name="fbprobs"></a><a href="#toc">I don't see anything when booting grml?!</a></h3>
930 <p>Likely, this is a problem with vesafb framebuffer. Try to boot
931 with bootoption 'nofb' or 'grml vga=normal'.</p>
933 <h2><a name="question"></a><a href="#toc">Further questions</a></h2>
935 <p>Do you have a question which is not answered in the FAQ or in the
936 provided <a href="/docs/">documentation</a> (also run
937 "grml-info" on your grml-system)? Run 'grml-tips $KEYWORD' on
938 your grml-system. Take a look at <a href="/">the
939 grml-website</a> and <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
940 grml-wiki</a>. Please don't hesitate to <a
941 href="/contact/">contact us</a>, a good place to start
942 is the <a href="/mailinglist/">grml mailinglist</a>.</p>
944 <h3><a name="donate"></a><a href="#toc">You like grml? Make a donation
945 to support our work!</a></h3>
947 <p>grml is, as every other Open-Source project, driven by the many
948 contributions made by many developers. The grml-team spends a great
949 deal of their time and money toward this project.</p>
951 <p>If you have been using grml you will come to remember how much money you
952 or your company saves by using it and how you have been supported via
953 the project mailing list, personal mail or irc.</p>
955 <p>Now you can contribute by donating to grml. Your donation could either
956 be money or hardware that one of the developers or the project as a whole
957 needs. A donation would enable us to either support a specific
958 hardware/software either at all or simply better.</p>
960 <p>See <a href="/donations/">grml.org/donations/</a> for
961 details. Thank you for helping us to work on grml!</p>
964 <?php include '../static_bottom.inc'; ?>