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28 <h1 align="center">FAQ for grml</h1>
30 <p><strong>Up2date:</strong> 20081201 - applies to grml releases version 2008.11</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="#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 your 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="#emulation">Is it possible to run grml with $EMULATOR?</a></li>
48 <li><a href="#usbboot">How do I boot grml from a USB stick?</a></li>
49 <li><a href="#store">Is it possible to store my settings?</a></li>
52 <p class="toc"><a href="#grml64">grml64</a></p>
54 <li><a href="#whatisgrml64">What is grml64?</a></li>
55 <li><a href="#grml64vsnormal">What is the difference between 32 bit grml and 64 bit grml?</a></li>
58 <p class="toc"><a href="#grmlmedium">grml-medium</a></p>
60 <li><a href="#whatismedium">What is grml-medium?</a></li>
61 <li><a href="#whatismedium64">What is grml64-medium?</a></li>
64 <p class="toc"><a href="#grmlsmall">grml-small:</a></p>
66 <li><a href="#whatissmall">What is grml-small?</a></li>
67 <li><a href="#whatissmall64">What is grml64-small?</a></li>
68 <li><a href="#smallvsnormal">What is the difference between 'normal' grml and grml-small?</a></li>
69 <li><a href="#grmlvsdsl">What is the difference between grml-small and DSL?</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="#lvm">Where are my LVM devices?</a></li>
83 <li><a href="#swraid">Where are my Software-RAID devices?</a></li>
84 <li><a href="#nodma">Why does grml not use DMA mode?</a></li>
85 <li><a href="#booting">Which ways exist to boot grml?</a></li>
86 <li><a href="#timezone">How do I configure timezone on my grml system?</a></li>
87 <li><a href="#utf8">I have problems with UTF-8 / Unicode</a></li>
88 <li><a href="#missingfiles">I noticed some files are missing on grml</a></li>
89 <li><a href="#bugreport">Bugreport</a></li>
90 <li><a href="#hdinstall">Is it possible to install grml to harddisk?</a></li>
91 <li><a href="#grml2hdhang">grml2hd seems to hang?!</a></li>
92 <li><a href="#hardware">I have problems with my hardware!</a></li>
93 <li><a href="#boot">grml does not boot on my computer!</a></li>
96 <p class="toc"><a href="#kernel">Kernel</a>:</p>
98 <li><a href="#kernelconfig">Where can I find the configuration for the kernel used on grml?</a></li>
99 <li><a href="#kernelpatches">Are there any special components/patches in the kernel used on grml?</a></li>
100 <li><a href="#platform">For which platforms is the grml kernel optimized?</a></li>
103 <p class="toc"><a href="#software">Software:</a></p>
105 <li><a href="#sw_general">General</a></li>
106 <li><a href="#sw_version">What version of $PACKAGE is available?</a></li>
107 <li><a href="#init">Init-System</a></li>
108 <li><a href="#zsh">Why is zsh the default shell?</a></li>
109 <li><a href="#zsh_binsh">Wasn't zsh the /bin/sh interpreter?</a></li>
110 <li><a href="#bash">Is a bash available?</a></li>
111 <li><a href="#configuration">Where can I find the configuration of zsh, GNU screen,...?</a></li>
112 <li><a href="#truecrypt">Why isn't Truecrypt available within grml?</a></li>
113 <li><a href="#fdisk">fdisk/parted/... complains with something like 'unable to open /dev/sda - unrecognised disk label'?!</a></li>
114 <li><a href="#setuid">setuid/SUID</a></li>
115 <li><a href="#bitchx">bitchx</a></li>
116 <li><a href="#ispell">ispell</a></li>
117 <li><a href="#latex">LaTeX</a></li>
118 <li><a href="#slapd">slapd</a></li>
121 <p class="toc"><a href="#release">Release related issues</a>:</p>
123 <li><a href="#known_issues">Are there any known issues with this release?</a></li>
124 <li><a href="#proc_usb">Why isn't /proc/bus/usb mounted anymore?</a></li>
127 <p class="toc"><a href="#xserver">X-Server</a></p>
129 <li><a href="#xstart">How do I start the X server?</a></li>
130 <li><a href="#xproblem">X does not start on my box?!</a></li>
131 <li><a href="#xresolution">I don't like the resolution of X!</a></li>
134 <p class="toc"><a href="#framebuffer">Framebuffer</a></p>
136 <li><a href="#video">The boot option video does not work as expected anymore</a></li>
137 <li><a href="#fbprobs">I don't see anything when booting grml?!</a></li>
140 <p class="toc"><a href="#stuff">Unanswered stuff</a></p>
142 <li><a href="#questions">Further questions?</a></li>
143 <li><a href="#donate">You like grml? Make a donation to support our work!</a></li>
146 <h2><a name="general"></a><a href="#toc">General</a></h2>
148 <h3><a name="whatis"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml?</a></h3>
150 <p>grml is a bootable CD (Live-CD) once based on <a
151 href="http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/">Knoppix</a> and nowadays based on <a
152 href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>. grml includes a collection of
153 GNU/Linux software especially for users of texttools and system
154 administrators. grml provides automatic hardware detection. You can use grml
155 as a rescue system, for analyzing systems/networks, or as a working
156 environment. It is not necessary to install anything to a harddisk. Due to
157 on-the-fly decompression grml includes about 2.1 GB of software and
158 documentation on the CD.</p>
160 <h3><a name="get"></a><a href="#toc">Where do I get grml?</a></h3>
162 <p>You can download grml of course: take a look at <a
163 href="/download">grml.org/download/</a>. If you want
164 to get an original grml-CD including <a
165 href="/files/#covers">the grml-cover</a>, need a
166 special amount of CDs or want your own special grml-CD (including
167 your logo, your software and/or special settings) <a
168 href="/contact/">please don't hesitate to contact
169 us</a>! Take a look at <a
170 href="http://solutions.grml.org/">grml-solutions</a> for more
171 information regarding our offers.</p>
173 <h3><a name="whatmeans"></a><a href="#toc">What does grml mean?</a></h3>
175 <p>grml is short for 'grummel' and comes close to 'argl' or 'grrr' in English. People
176 use this when they want to express their dissatisfaction/discontentedness with software
177 (amongst other things):</p>
180 $ grep -ch grml .centericq/**/history | xargs echo | \
181 sed 's/[0-9]*/& + /g' | sed 's/+ $//g' | bc -l
184 <h3><a name="pronounce"></a><a href="#toc">How do you pronounce grml?</a></h3>
187 % flite -o play -t gremel</pre>
190 $ echo 'ghroummel' | festival \-\-tts
193 <h3><a name="releasename"></a><a href="#toc">What about the release name?</a></h3>
195 <p>Codename of grml 2008.11 is Schluchtenscheisser (thanks to <a
196 href="http://marcbrockschmidt.de/">HE</a>). People from germany
197 (especially from the southern part) call Austrian people
198 Schluchtenscheisser. Hey, in austria we have the Alps!</p>
200 <h3><a name="requirements"></a><a href="#toc">Requirements for running grml</a></h3>
204 <li>Intel-compatible CPU (i586 or later, preferably Pentium class or higher)</li>
206 <li>at least 64MB of RAM (for stable use with ramdisks for unionfs and udev
207 and running X window system we recommend at least 128MB)</li>
209 <li>grml-small: at least 32MB RAM should be available</li>
211 <li>bootable CD-ROM drive (or <a
212 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=tips">a boot floppy</a> and standard
213 CD-ROM [IDE/ATAPI or SCSI]) [or network - see <a
214 href="#terminalserver">grml-terminalserver</a>]</li>
218 <h3><a name="why"></a><a href="#toc">Why another Linux distribution?</a></h3>
220 <p>There already exist "<a
221 href="http://www.distrowatch.com/">some</a>" distributions. We decided
222 to base our work on the existing infrastructure of <a
223 href="http://debian.org/">Debian</a> and <a
224 href="http://www.knoppix.net/">Knoppix</a> because we don't want to reinvent
225 the wheel. Some admins already use their own rescue-CD and Knoppix works but
226 does not bring that many important tools for admins and users of texttools
227 out of the box, so we decided to share our work with others.</p>
229 <h3><a name="license"></a><a href="#toc">What's the license of grml?</a></h3>
231 <p>Anything written by the grml team is published under the GPL (<a
232 href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU General Public License</a>).
233 You don't have to pay anything for running grml. <a
234 href="/donations/">Donations</a> and <a href="/contact/">feedback</a> are
235 welcome of course. If you want a special LiveCD or need support, take a
236 look at <a href="http://solutions.grml.org/">grml-solutions</a>.</p>
238 <h3><a name="difference"></a><a href="#toc">What's the difference between grml and
239 $OTHER-DISTRIBUTION? What are your main goals?</a></h3>
241 <p>The main goal of grml is to be a distribution well suited for
242 users of texttools and sysadmins. grml includes many important
243 texttools (of course awk, sed, grep, ... but also zsh, mutt[ng],
244 slrn, vim and many others) and useful programs for admin's
245 daily work. grml uses the existing infrastructure of <a
246 href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>. grml was once based on <a
247 href="http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/">Knoppix</a> (see '<a
248 href="#knoppix">What's the difference between grml and
249 Knoppix?</a>' for more details). We are also merging
250 useful things from other distributions/live-cds to provide a
251 perfect environment.</p>
253 <h3><a name="knoppix"></a><a href="#toc">What's the difference between grml and Knoppix?</a></h3>
255 <p>grml comes with a vastly different set of software. Missing KDE
256 and OpenOffice provides the opportunity of shipping more than 800
257 packages which Knoppix does not provide on its CD version. grml
258 boots a 2.6.x kernel but no X for faster startup. Knoppix is based
259 on Debian/testing-experimental (using apt-pinning), but grml is
260 basically based on plain Debian/unstable providing more current
261 versions of software and less painfull upgrades. grml was once
262 based on Knoppix but nowadays (except for a similar initial
263 ramdisk) has nothing in common with Knoppix:</p>
267 # find / -iname \*knoppix\*
270 <p>We consider Knoppix as a brand name for live-cds nowadays and
271 provide most of Knoppix' features as well. grml uses (mostly) the
272 same cheatcodes for booting as Knoppix and even provides some extra
273 ones. So if you are used to the basic Knoppix features you might
274 find them on the grml-system as well. Ripping out the Knoppix
275 stuff makes it possible to create a grml system out of a
276 Debian system and vice versa. Running 'apt-get install grml' on a
277 Debian box will be officially supported in an upcoming version of
280 <h3><a name="accessibility"></a><a href="#toc">What does accessibility at grml mean?</a></h3>
282 <p>The grml kernel includes <a href="/kernel/#speakup">support for
283 speakup</a> and provides software like brltty (using bootoption 'grml blind
284 brltty=type,port,tbl'), emacspeak and flite.</p>
286 <h3><a name="emulation"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to run grml with $EMULATOR?</a></h3>
288 <p><a href="http://www.vmware.com/">VMware</a> should work without any
289 problems. It's also possible to run grml with <a
290 href="http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/">QEMU</a>, an emulator for various
291 CPUs which works on Linux, Windows, FreeBSD and Mac OS X. Running grml with
292 QEMU has been tested successfully on Windows and Linux. Take a look at <a
293 href="/qemu/">the QEMU-grml-webpage</a>.</p>
295 <h3><a name="usbboot"></a><a href="#toc">How do I boot grml from a USB stick?</a></h3>
297 <p>Take a look at the script <a
298 href="/scripts/grml2usb">grml2usb</a>. For more
299 details, take a look at the <a
300 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb">usb-webpage in the
303 <h3><a name="store"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to store my settings?</a></h3>
305 <p>Yes. grml provides a powerful config framework. See <a
306 href="/config/">grml.org/config/</a>, <a
307 href="file:///usr/share/doc/grml-saveconfig/grml-config.html">/usr/share/doc/grml-saveconfig/grml-config.html</a>
308 and 'man save-config restore-config mkpersistenthome' for more
311 <h2><a name="grml64"></a><a href="#toc">grml64?</a></h2>
313 <h3><a name="whatisgrml64"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml64?</a></h3>
315 <p>grml64 is a 64bit-version of grml, based on <a
316 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/amd64/">the amd64 port of
319 <h3><a name="grml64vsnormal"></a><a href="#toc">What is the difference between 32 bit grml and 64 bit grml?</a></h3>
321 <p>The main difference of course is that grml64 is a 64bit-version
322 whereas (normal) grml is 32bit-only. grml64 provides a 64bit kernel
323 which supports 32bit userspace applications. grml64 also provides
324 libc6-i386, libc6-dev-i386, several lib32* packages and ia32-libs. Due
325 to space reasons and because some packages aren't available for amd64
326 yet some packages are missing on grml64 compared to (normal, 32bit)
327 grml. For more details please take a look at <a
328 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml64">the grml64 webpage in the
331 <h2><a name="grmlmedium"></a><a href="#toc">grml-medium?</a></h2>
333 <h3><a name="whatismedium"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml-medium?</a></h3>
335 <p>grml-medium is a grml-flavour which tries to close the gap between <a
336 href="#whatissmall">grml-small</a> and <a href="#whatis">normal/large/full
337 version of grml</a>. grml-medium is an ISO with a maximum size of ~200MB
338 providing the most important packages a sysadmin usually needs. It
339 provides the same <a href="/kernel/">kernel version</a> as normal grml
340 does so you can easily integrate and use some further existing external
341 modules as well. The X.org server is shipped as well as the window
343 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=accessibility">accessibility
344 features</a> are <strong>not</strong> available/supported (currently) on
345 grml-medium though.</p>
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 <h2><a name="grmlsmall"></a><a href="#toc">grml-small?</a></h2>
353 <h3><a name="whatissmall"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml-small?</a></h3>
355 <p>Whereas grml provides about 2.1 GB of software on a 700 MB ISO, grml-small
356 is a flavor with online ~58 MB ISO-size (~200 MB uncompressed). It does not
357 provide a lot of software but the essential stuff for being a rescue system
358 on a business card CD-ROM or a small USB device. You can use the Debian
359 package management system to install software on the fly (assuming you have
360 network access to a Debian mirror). Take a look at the <a
361 href="/files/">'Debian-Information'-section</a> if you are
362 searching for the package list.</p>
364 <h3><a name="whatissmall64">What is grml64-small?</a></h3>
366 <p>grml64-small is the 64bit version of <a href="#whatissmall">grml-small</a>.</p>
368 <h3><a name="smallvsnormal"></a><a href="#toc">What is the
369 difference between 'normal' grml and grml-small?</a></h3>
371 <p>The 700 MB-grml brings more than 2500 packages of software and a <a
372 href="/kernel/">full-featured kernel</a>. grml-small
373 includes about 215 software packages, lacks documentation and manpages
374 on the ISO and has a stripped-down <a
375 href="/kernel/">kernel</a> (but still provides hardware
376 detection of course). <a href="#terminalserver">grml-terminalserver</a>
378 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=accessibility">accessibility
379 features</a> are <strong>not</strong> available/supported on
382 <h3><a name="grmlvsdsl"></a><a href="#toc">What is the
383 difference between grml-small and DSL?</a></h3>
385 <p>DSL and grml-small have different target audiences. <a
386 href="http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/">Damn Small Linux</a> (DSL) uses
387 kernel version 2.4 whereas grml-small provides a recent version of
388 kernel version 2.6. DSL provides the X window system which grml-small
389 does not. grml-small on the other hand provides the most important
390 packages for sysadmins and ships the original Debian package management
391 which allows you to install packages of the Debian pool with no
394 <h2><a name="system"></a><a href="#toc">System</a></h2>
396 <h3><a name="configure"></a><a href="#toc">Which tools exist to configure grml?</a></h3>
398 <p>grml provides several scripts and tools which should make life
399 easier. See 'dpkg -L grml-scripts' to get an overview of some main
400 scripts. Run 'grml-config' to get a dialog interface for the most
401 important scripts and tasks. Or just type 'grml-' and press tab-key to
402 get a completion menu.</p>
404 <h3><a name="password"></a><a href="#toc">What are the passwords of users on grml?</a></h3>
406 <p>There are no default passwords. All accounts are locked by
407 default. Even local logins are not possible (unless you set a
408 password or create new user accounts as root). You can create
409 valid passwords using "sudo passwd [username]" from the shell
412 <h3><a name="version"></a><a href="#toc">How do I find out the version of grml</a></h3>
414 <p>Run 'grml-version' or use the following command:</p>
417 $ cat /etc/grml_version</pre>
419 <h3><a name="remove_cd"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to run LiveCD and eject CD-ROM?</a></h3>
422 $ sudo umount -l /cdrom
423 $ sudo eject /dev/cdrom # now don't run any new programs ;)
424 $ mount /dev/cdrom # mount it again if needed ;)
427 <h3><a name="language"></a><a href="#toc">How do I change the language/keyboard settings?</a></h3>
429 <p>By default grml uses English settings. But it is possible to
430 change the settings via using either the bootparam(s) lang,
431 keyboard and xkeyboard or via running grml-lang when grml is
432 already running. Usage examples:</p>
435 grml lang=de # enter this at the bootprompt and you will get
436 # German keyboard layout and German $LANG, $LC_ALL,
438 grml keyboard=de xkeyboard=de lang=at # enter this at the bootprompt
439 # and you will get German keyboard and Austrian
441 % grml-lang de # enter this in the shell to switch keyboard layout
442 # and $LANG settings in a running grml-system
445 <p>If you are running grml from harddisk (using <a
446 href="#hdinstall">grml2hd</a>) you have several options how to set
447 language options:</p>
451 <li>adjust /etc/default/locale to configure global language and
452 environment settings</li>
454 <li>set environment variables like $LC_ALL, $LANG, $LANGUAGE in your
455 personal configuration files (like ~/.zshrc.local, see <a
456 href="/zsh/">grml zsh reference card</a> for details)
457 if you do not want to use them system wide/global</li>
459 <li>adjust /etc/sysconfig/keyboard to configure keyboard layout
460 on console, or run 'loadkeys $KEYTABLE' manually</li>
462 <li>add "setxkbmap $LANGUAGE" to the keybindings section in
463 your ~/.xinitrc to configure keyboard setup for the X window system
464 (deactivate the xmodmap lines if necessary)</li>
468 <p>Notice: run grml-setlang to get a dialog based frontend for
469 /etc/default/locale and grml-setkeyboard to get a dialog based frontend
470 for /etc/sysconfig/keyboard.</p>
472 <h3><a name="kde_and_foo"></a><a href="#toc">KDE, Gnome, $FOO and $BAR</a></h3>
474 <p>Why isn't KDE, Gnome, $FOO or $BAR part of grml? grml is a
475 distribution for users of texttools and sysadmins. If you would like to
476 run KDE with Debian use e.g. <a href="http://sidux.com/">Sidux</a>, <a
477 href="http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/">Knoppix</a> or <a
478 href="http://www.kubuntu.org/">Kubuntu</a>. Gnome users might find <a
479 href="http://www.ubuntulinux.org/">Ubuntu</a> useful. If you would like
480 to see a specific (software) package added to grml please <a
481 href="/report/">report it to us</a>!</p>
483 <h3><a name="wms"></a><a href="#toc">Which window managers can I use?</a></h3>
485 <p>grml is shipped only with window managers which are lightweight and
486 fast - so well suited for a live-CD. At the moment, grml provides the
487 following window managers:
488 <a href="http://wmii.de/dwm/">dwm</a>,
489 <a href="http://www.6809.org.uk/evilwm/">evilwm</a>,
490 <a href="http://www.fluxbox.org/">fluxbox</a>,
491 <a href="http://www.fvwm.org/">fvwm</a>,
492 <a href="http://fvwm-crystal.org/">fvwm-crystal</a>,
493 <a href="http://modeemi.cs.tut.fi/~tuomov/ion/">ion3</a>,
494 <a href="http://joewing.net/programs/jwm/index.shtml">jwm</a>,
495 <a href="http://pekwm.org/">pekwm</a>,
496 <a href="http://www.nongnu.org/ratpoison/">ratpoison</a>,
497 <a href="http://www.plig.org/xwinman/vtwm.html">twm</a>,
498 <a href="http://www.grassouille.org/code/w9wm/README">w9wm</a>,
499 <a href="http://www.nickgravgaard.com/windowlab/">windowlab</a> and
500 <a href="http://www.suckless.org/wiki/wmii">wmii</a>.</p>
502 <p>If you are new to grml and/or prefer an easy-to-use-desktop run 'grml-x
503 wm-ng' for starting fluxbox with idesk and gkrellm.</p>
505 <h3><a name="usbmount"></a><a href="#toc">How do I mount a USB device / USB stick?</a></h3>
507 <p>Run 'mount /mnt/usb-sda1' for example if you want to mount /dev/sda1.
508 udev on grml does multiplexing for USB block devices, so /dev/usb-sda1
509 (device for mountpoint /mnt/usb-sda1) is a symlink to /dev/sda1.</p>
511 <h3><a name="lvm"></a><a href="#toc">Where are my LVM devices?</a></h3>
513 <p>LVM (Logival Volumes) is <strong>not</strong> started by default to
514 avoid any possible damage to your data. To get access to present LVM
515 devices just execute:</p>
518 # /etc/init.d/lvm2 start
520 or use the shorter version:
525 <p>If you want to enable LVM by default just boot using the 'lvm'
526 bootoption which automatically activates LVM.</p>
528 <h3><a name="swraid"></a><a href="#toc">Where are my Software-RAID devices?</a></h3>
530 <p>Software-RAID (usually known as the mdadm stuff) is
531 <strong>not</strong> started by default to avoid any possible damage to
532 your data. To get access to present SW-RAID devices just execute:</p>
535 # /etc/init.d/mdadm-raid start
537 or use the shorter version:
542 <p>If you want to enable SW-RAID by default just boot using the 'swraid'
543 bootoption which enables automatic assembling of software raid arrays.</p>
545 <h3><a name="nodma"></a><a href="#toc">Why does grml not use DMA mode?</a></h3>
547 <p>The harddisk is very slow and not using DMA mode? Check out whether
548 your S-ATA drive is detected as /dev/hda (this is a common problem with
549 ICH7 chipsets for example) and you can't set DMA mode:</p>
552 # hdparm -d1 /dev/hda
555 setting using_dma to 1 (on)
556 HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Operation not permitted
560 <p>Workaround: boot with the bootoptions 'hda=noprobe hda=none'. The
561 drive should be handled by the libata driver then (ata_piix for ICH7 for
562 example) and should show up as /dev/sda. (grml supports the old IDE
563 drivers as well as libata currently; this issue should be fixed with an
564 upcoming version of grml where libata is used more exclusively.)</p>
566 <a name="terminalserver"></a>
567 <h3><a name="booting"></a><a href="#toc">Which ways exist to boot grml?</a></h3>
569 <p>The most common way to boot grml is, of course, running from
570 CD-ROM, but grml provides many more ways to boot grml:</p>
572 <p>It is possible to boot grml via USB (e.g. USB stick or harddisk),
573 firewire, or running from a Compact Flash disk. It works out of the
574 box; you don't need to modify anything. If accessing the device
575 fails, use the 'scandelay' cheatcode on bootprompt. So, boot with
576 'grml scandelay'. If the timeout is still not long enough add the
577 time to wait in seconds as parameter: 'grml scandelay=15'. See <a
578 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb">usb-webpage in the
579 grml-wiki</a> for more details.</p>
581 <p>Your computer can not boot from CD-ROM but provides a floppy
582 disk? Take a look at <a
583 href="http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/">btmgr</a>, <a
584 href="http://ubcd4win.com/faq.htm#floppy">ubcd4win</a> or <a
585 href="http://linux.simple.be/tools/sbm">sbm</a>. They provide
586 support for booting from CD-ROM via a special floppy disk.</p>
588 <p>grml-terminalserver makes it possible to boot your system via
589 network. If you have a floppy drive, you can even boot your system over
590 network when your network card does not provide PXE-support! For more
591 information, refer to the <a
592 href="/terminalserver/">grml-terminalserver-webpage</a>.</p>
594 <h3><a name="timezone"></a><a href="#toc">How do I configure
595 timezone on my grml system?</a></h3>
597 <h4>Available bootoptions relevant in live-cd mode:</h4>
600 <li>utc: set UTC, if your system clock is set to UTC (GMT)
601 <li>gmt: set UTC, if your system clock is set to UTC (GMT) [like bootoption utc]
602 <li>tz=$option: set timezone to corresponding $option, usage example:
606 <h4>Configuration options relevant on harddisk installation:</h4>
611 # dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
614 <p>to adjust /etc/timezone and /etc/localtime according to the
615 provided information.</p>
617 <p><strong>/etc/default/rcS:</strong> set variable UTC according
618 to your needs, whether your system clock is set to UTC
619 (UTC='yes') or not (UTC='no')</p>
621 <p><strong>/etc/localtime:</strong> adjust zoneinfo according to
625 # ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/$WHATEVER_YOU_WANT /etc/localtime
628 <p>The zoneinfo directory contains the time zone files that were
629 compiled by zic. The files contain information such as rules
630 about DST. They allow the kernel to convert UTC UNIX time into
631 appropriate local dates and times. Use the zdump utility to
632 print current time and date (in the specified time zone).</p>
634 <p><strong>/etc/adjtime:</strong> This file is used e.g. by the
635 adjtimex function, which can smoothly adjust system time while
638 <p>If you change the time (using 'date --set ...', ntpdate,...)
639 it is worth setting also the hardware clock to the correct
643 # hwclock --systohc [--utc]
646 <p>Remember to add the --utc -option if the hardware clock is set to
649 <h4>Still problems?</h4>
651 <p>Check your current settings via:</p>
658 grep hwclock /etc/runlevel.conf
659 grep '^UTC' /etc/default/rc
662 <h4>Further information:</h4>
664 <p>Manpages: hwclock(8) tzselect(1) tzconfig(8); <a
665 href="http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/system-administrator/ch-sysadmin-time.html">Debian
666 GNU/Linux System Administrator's Manual Chapter 16 - Time</a> and <a
667 href="http://wiki.debian.org/TimeZoneChanges">TimeZoneChanges in the
670 <h3><a name="utf8"></a><a href="#toc">I have problems with UTF-8 / Unicode</a></h3>
673 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=utf8">UTF8-webpage in the
676 <h3><a name="missingfiles"></a><a href="#toc">I noticed some files are missing on grml</a></h3>
678 <p>Yes, output of 'debsums -a 1>/dev/null' might output some
679 failures. The reason is pretty simple: some modification have been done
680 because of space limitiations on the ISO. The failures are nothing to
681 really care about, but as we don't hide anything we document them of
684 <p>On <strong>grml</strong> the following modifications have been done:
688 <li>linux-headers-2.6.20-grml: include files
689 (/usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.20-grml/include/) of foreign (!x86)
690 architectures have been removed
692 <li>texlive-base-bin: documentation directory
693 /usr/share/doc/texlive-base-bin/pdftex/thanh/ has been removed
695 <li>texlive-latex-base: documentation directories
696 /usr/share/doc/texlive-latex-base/latex/base/,
697 /usr/share/doc/texlive-latex-base/latex/hyperref/ and
698 /usr/share/doc/texlive-latex-base/generic/babel/ have been removed
700 <li>texlive-latex-recommended: documentation directory
701 /usr/share/doc/texlive-latex-recommended/latex/koma-script/ has been
706 <p>On <strong>grml64</strong> the following modifications have been done:</p>
710 <li>some files of valgrind (/usr/lib/valgrind/x86-linux/*) have been stripped
712 <li>.so files of ion3 (/usr/lib/ion3/*.so) have been stripped
717 <p>On <strong>grml-small</strong> nearly all the documentation has been
718 removed to be able to provide a ~60MB iso with kernel 2.6 and all the
719 provided software.</p>
721 <p>Please notice that grml ships a script named
722 <strong>grml2hd-fix</strong> as part of package grml2hd-utils which
723 should fix the relevant of the above errors if you <a
724 href="#hdinstall">use grml as a harddisk installation</a>.</p>
726 <h3><a name="bugreport"></a><a href="#toc">Bugreport</a></h3>
728 <p>Take a look at the <a href="/bugs/">bugs-webpage</a>.</p>
730 <h3><a name="hdinstall"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to install grml to harddisk?</a></h3>
732 <p>Yes. grml provides a tool called grml2hd (see '<a
733 href="/grml2hd/grml2hd.html">man grml2hd</a>'). grml is
734 developed on a box running the grml-system itself, and we - the
735 grml-developers - especially like grml2hd because it gives us a working
736 Linux box within 10 to 30 minutes. grml2hd is perfect for prototyping:
737 test hardware support of Linux, test a specific setup, ... You can even
738 use grml2hd in a fully automatic mode without any further interaction.
739 More information is available on <a
740 href="/grml2hd/">grml.org/grml2hd/</a> and <a
741 href="/grml2hd/grml2hd.html">man grml2hd</a>. Notice: If
742 you are using grml in a production environment and/or use a grml2hd
743 installation, we strongly recommend you subscribe to <a
744 href="/mailinglist/">the grml user mailinglist</a>! Note
745 that grml is based on Debian unstable, so you should be familiar with
746 Debian unstable if you plan to use grml as a harddisk system. If you
747 want to get a plain Debian system take a look at <a
748 href="/grml-debootstrap/">grml-debootstrap</a>.</p>
750 <h3><a name="grml2hdhang"></a><a href="#toc">grml2hd seems to hang?!</a></h3>
752 <p>grml2hd seems to hang? Switch to tty12 and take a look at the syslog output.
753 If you see something like:</p>
756 SQUASHFS error: zlib_fs returned unexpected result 0x........
757 SQUASHFS error: Unable to read cache block [.....]
758 SQUASHFS error: Unable to read inode [.....]</pre>
760 <p>your ISO/CD-ROM very probably is not ok. Verify it via booting with
761 grml testcd. Check your CD low-level via running:</p>
764 # readcd -c2scan dev=/dev/cdrom</pre>
766 <p>If the medium really is ok and it still fails try to boot with
767 DMA deactivated via 'grml nodma ide=nodma' at the bootprompt.</p>
769 <h3><a name="hardware"></a><a href="#toc">I have problems with my hardware!</a></h3>
771 <p>Take a look at the script grml-hwinfo. This script generates a
772 file named info.tar.bz2 which contains important information about
773 your hardware. If you think we might help, please run
774 grml-hwinfo and send us the file with additional, relevant
775 information regarding your problem.</p>
777 <h3><a name="boot"></a><a href="#toc">grml does not boot on my computer!</a></h3>
779 <p>Please take a look at <a
780 href="http://git.grml.org/?p=grml-live.git;a=blob_plain;f=templates/GRML/grml-cheatcodes.txt;hb=HEAD">the
781 available bootparamters and cheatcodes</a> and '<a href="#booting">Which
782 ways exist to boot grml?</a>'. Especially booting with 'acpi=off noapm
783 noapic' might help. Bootparameter 'failsafe' provides minimal hardware
784 detection using some special bootoptions. If booting hangs during stage
785 "Waiting for /dev to be fully populated" please try booting
786 with 'grml noudev'. If you don't even see the bootsplash of the grml-ISO
787 your BIOS seems to be broken (pretty common especially on old hardware).
788 Please consider using <a href="http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/">btmgr</a>
789 then for booting your system. Also check out the <a
790 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=problems">problems webpage</a> in
791 <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the grml-wiki</a>. You still have
792 problems? Please <a href="/contact/">contact us</a>!</p>
794 <h2><a name="kernel"></a><a href="#toc">Kernel</a></h2>
796 <h3><a name="kernelconfig"></a><a href="#toc">Where can I find the configuration for the kernel used on
799 <p>See /boot/config-`uname -r` and on <a href="/kernel/">the kernel-webpage</a>.</p>
801 <h3><a name="kernelpatches"></a><a href="#toc">Are there any special components/patches in the kernel
802 used on grml?</a></h3>
804 <p>grml uses the most current stable vanilla Linux kernel from <a
805 href="http://www.kernel.org/">www.kernel.org</a> with some
806 additional patches. More information and an all-in-one patch is
808 href="/kernel/">kernel-page</a>.</p>
810 <h3><a name="platform"></a><a href="#toc">For which platforms is the grml kernel optimized?</a></h3>
812 <p>Plain i586 compatibility-mode with SMP enabled. (Notice: this works
813 for uniprocessor systems as well, thanks to <a
814 href="http://lwn.net/Articles/164121/">SMP alternatives</a>.)</p>
816 <h2><a name="software"></a><a href="#toc">Software</a></h2>
818 <h3><a name="sw_general"></a><a href="#toc">General</a></h3>
820 <p>Want to run a program as root? Just use "sudo $PROGRAM". To get a
821 root-shell run "sudo su".</p>
823 <p>Problems with a specific package? Please try "dpkg-reconfigure $foo".
824 Still encountering difficulties? Please send us a <a
825 href="/bugs/">bugreport</a>!</p>
827 <h3><a name="sw_version"></a><a href="#toc">What version of $PACKAGE is
830 <p>Take a look at the dpkg_... files in the <a
831 href="/files/#debian">Debian-Information section on
832 grml.org/files/</a>. </p>
834 <h3><a name="init"></a><a href="#toc">Init-System</a></h3>
836 <p>Why is grml using runlevel 2 as default? Because runlevel 2 is 'the
837 textonly one' and it's debian's default.</p>
839 <p>Where are all the /etc/rc#.d-directories? grml doesn't use
840 sysv-rc but file-rc. This means you can configure the init system
841 in one single file named /etc/runlevel.conf with your favourite
842 editor. No symlink-hell anymore.</p>
844 <h3><a name="zsh"></a><a href="#toc">Why is zsh the default shell (/bin/sh)?</a></h3>
846 <p>Short answer: because zsh rocks.</p>
848 <p>Longer answer taken from <a href="http://zsh.sunsite.dk/FAQ/zshfaq01.html#l3">ZSH
849 FAQ: 1.2: What is it?</a>:</p>
851 <cite> Zsh is a UNIX command interpreter (shell) which of the standard shells most
852 resembles the Korn shell (ksh); its compatibility with the 1988 Korn shell has been
853 gradually increasing. It includes enhancements of many types, notably in the
854 command-line editor, options for customising its behaviour, filename globbing, features
855 to make C-shell (csh) users feel more at home and extra features drawn from tcsh
856 (another `custom' shell).</cite>
858 <p>If you don't know zsh take a look at <a
859 href="http://zsh.sunsite.dk/FAQ/zshfaq02.html#l9">ZSH FAQ: How does zsh
860 differ from ...?</a>, 'man zsh | less -p COMPATIBILITY', the <a
861 href="/zsh/">grml zsh reference card</a> and '<a
862 href="/zsh/">man zsh-lovers</a>'.</p>
864 <p>If you are a bash user and don't know zsh yet, don't be afraid. bash is largely a
865 subset of zsh and you don't have to throw away your knowledge about shell stuff.</p>
867 <h3><a name="zsh_binsh"></a><a href="#toc">Wasn't zsh the /bin/sh interpreter?</a></h3>
869 <p>Yes, until grml 0.6 zsh was the intepreter for /bin/sh. Starting
870 with release 0.7 grml uses /bin/bash as /bin/sh. The reason?
871 Debian does not support zsh as /bin/sh. Take a look at <a
872 href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=329288">#329288</a>
874 href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=340058">#340058</a>
877 <h3><a name="bash"></a><a href="#toc">Is a bash available?</a></h3>
879 <p>grml uses <a href="#zsh">zsh</a> as the default interactive shell
880 but, of course, a current version of bash (and many other shells as
881 well) is provided by grml.</p>
883 <h3><a name="configuration"></a><a href="#toc">Where can I find the configuration of zsh, GNU screen,...?</a></h3>
886 href="http://michael-prokop.at/blog/2007/12/22/make-console-work-comfortable/">'Make
887 console work comfortable'</a>.</p>
889 <h3><a name="truecrypt">Why isn't Truecrypt available within grml?</a></h3>
891 <p>Because Truecrypt is licensed under a specific license named
892 'TrueCrypt License 2.6' which doesn't permit us to distribute
894 href="http://www.truecrypt.org/legal/license">section VI/4 of the
895 license</a> for details.</p>
897 <h3><a name="fdisk"></a><a href="#toc">fdisk/parted/... complains with
898 something like 'unable to open /dev/sda - unrecognised disk
901 <p>The 'disk label' is libparted's word for 'partition table'. It looks
902 like you installed gnu-fdisk on your system. To work around this problem
903 you might want to try one the following options:</p>
906 <li>use /sbin/fdisk.distrib from util-linux</li>
907 <li>switch to sfdisk, cfdisk,...</li>
908 <li>use parted's mklabel command (but please read the <a
909 href="http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/manual/">parted manual</a>
910 before executing this command)</li>
913 <h3><a name="setuid"></a><a href="#toc">setuid/SUID</a></h3>
915 <p>If you set a programm SUID (setuid/mode 4755), unprivileged users on your system will
916 be able to run it. This <em>could</em> be a potentially security hole, so by default the
917 packages are configured not to install binaries with setuid. If you want to use the
918 binaries with setuid please run 'dpkg-reconfigure $packagename' or 'chmod 4755
919 =programm'. The following packages are well known to have a programm with not set
932 <h3><a name="bitchx"></a><a href="#toc">bitchx</a></h3>
934 <p>Why isn't bitchx part of grml? <a
935 href="http://www.google.com/search?q=bitchx+sucks">bitchx
936 sucks</a>. Please use a better alternative like <a
937 href="http://irssi.org/">irssi</a> or <a
938 href="http://weechat.flashtux.org/index.php?lang=en">weechat</a>
939 which are part of grml.</p>
941 <h3><a name="ispell"></a><a href="#toc">ispell</a></h3>
943 <p>You don't want to use the preselected default for ispell? Run
944 'select-default-ispell' for changing it.</p>
946 <h3><a name="latex"></a><a href="#toc">LaTeX</a></h3>
948 <p>auctex and preview-latex are loaded by default in emacs. If you want to load
949 auctex based on your personal settings put the string "(require 'tex-site)" in your
950 ~/.emacs, for preview-latex use the string '(load "preview-latex")'.<br />
951 To change this run 'dpkg-reconfigure auctex' and/or 'dpkg-reconfigure
954 <h3><a name="slapd"></a><a href="#toc">slapd</a></h3>
956 <p>The password for the admin entry in the LDAP directory is 'grml'.</p>
958 <h2><a name="release"></a><a href="#toc">Release related issues</a></h2>
960 <h3><a name="known_issues"></a><a href="#toc">Are there any known issues with this release?</a></h3>
962 <p>We won't hide anything. Therefore, we do provide all known
963 issues/bugs publicly available:</p>
967 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml_1.1">issues regarding
968 grml 1.1</a> in <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the grml-wiki</a></li>
970 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml64_0.2">issues
971 regarding grml64 0.2</a> in <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
974 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml-medium_0.1">issues
975 regarding grml-medium 0.1</a> in <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
978 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml64-medium_0.1">issues
979 regarding grml64-medium 0.1</a> in <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
982 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml-small_0.4">issues
983 regarding grml-small 0.4</a> in <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
988 <p>If you find another bug, or consider something a problem not yet
989 mentioned <a href="#bugreport">please report it to us</a>!</p>
991 <h3><a name="proc_usb"></a><a href="#toc">Why isn't /proc/bus/usb mounted anymore?</a></h3>
993 <p>Starting with kernel 2.6.14, /dev/bus/usb replaces usbfs.
994 Current versions of libusb check for /dev/bus/usb's existence and
995 /proc/bus/usb is not necessary anymore (see <a
996 href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=336596">#336596</a>).
997 Of course 'mount /proc/bus/usb' still works; it is just not mounted
998 by default anymore. If you see any problems please <a
999 href="#bugreport">report them</a>.</p>
1001 <h2><a name="xserver"></a><a href="#toc">X-Server</a></h2>
1003 <h3><a name="xstart"></a><a href="#toc">How do I start the X server?</a></h3>
1005 <p>Please use 'grml-x' as user grml for starting X on the live-cd. It
1006 generates the config file /etc/X11/xorg.conf and lets you start commands on
1007 startup (see ~/.xinitrc). Use it, for example, via switching to TTY4 (press
1008 Alt+F4) and run the following command to start wm-ng (window manager fluxbox
1009 with idesk and gkrellm):</p>
1011 <pre class="rahmen">
1014 <p>If you have /etc/X11/xorg.conf already you can use 'startx' instead of
1015 grml-x of course. Adjust ~/.xinitrc to your needs.</p>
1017 <h3><a name="xproblem"></a><a href="#toc">X does not start on my box?!</a></h3>
1019 <p>grml-x supports several options. If you want to set some special options
1020 please take a look at the grml-x manpage (man grml-x)! Some usage examples:</p>
1022 <pre class="rahmen">
1023 grml-x -display 8 fluxbox # start fluxbox on display 8
1024 grml-x -force -nostart fluxbox # force creation of xconfig file and don't start X server
1025 grml-x -hsync 60 fluxbox # set horizontal frequency and start fluxbox
1026 grml-x -hsync 60 -vsync 40 fluxbox # set horizontal and vertical sync frequencies and start fluxbox
1027 grml-x -mode '800x600' fluxbox # set resolution to 800x600 and start fluxbox
1028 grml-x -module vesa fluxbox # start fluxbox and use vesa module
1031 <h3><a name="xresolution"></a><a href="#toc">I don't like the resolution of X!</a></h3>
1033 <p>Just run xrandr to switch the resolution during runtime of X. For
1034 example: 'xrandr -s 1024x768'.</p>
1036 <h2><a name="framebuffer"></a><a href="#toc">Framebuffer</a></h2>
1038 <h3><a name="video"></a><a href="#toc">The boot option video does not work as
1039 expected anymore</a></h3>
1041 <p>grml versions 0.4 and 0.5 provided <a
1042 href="/kernel/#vesafbtng">vesafb-tng</a> instead of
1043 normal vesafb. Starting with grml 0.6 and grml-small 0.2 vesafb-tng
1044 is not part of the grml-kernel anymore because it caused too many
1045 problems. Therefore, you can use the 'normal' vga=... option
1048 <h3><a name="fbprobs"></a><a href="#toc">I don't see anything when booting grml?!</a></h3>
1050 <p>Likely, this is a problem with vesafb framebuffer. Try to boot
1051 with bootoption 'nofb' or 'grml vga=normal'.</p>
1053 <h2><a name="question"></a><a href="#toc">Further questions</a></h2>
1055 <p>Do you have a question which is not answered in the FAQ or in the
1056 provided <a href="/docs/">documentation</a> (also run
1057 "grml-info" on your grml-system)? Run 'grml-tips $KEYWORD' on
1058 your grml-system. Take a look at <a href="/">the
1059 grml-website</a> and <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
1060 grml-wiki</a>. Please don't hesitate to <a
1061 href="/contact/">contact us</a>, a good place to start
1062 is the <a href="/mailinglist/">grml mailinglist</a>.</p>
1064 <h3><a name="donate"></a><a href="#toc">You like grml? Make a donation
1065 to support our work!</a></h3>
1067 <p>grml is, as every other Open-Source project, driven by the many
1068 contributions made by many developers. The grml-team spends a great
1069 deal of their time and money toward this project.</p>
1071 <p>If you have been using grml you will come to remember how much money you
1072 or your company saves by using it and how you have been supported via
1073 the project mailing list, personal mail or irc.</p>
1075 <p>Now you can contribute by donating to grml. Your donation could either
1076 be money or hardware that one of the developers or the project as a whole
1077 needs. A donation would enable us to either support a specific
1078 hardware/software either at all or simply better.</p>
1080 <p>See <a href="/donations/">grml.org/donations/</a> for
1081 details. Thank you for helping us to work on grml!</p>
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