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29 <h1 align="center">FAQ for grml</h1>
31 <p><strong>Up2date:</strong> 20090727 - applies to grml releases version 2009.05</p>
33 <p><a name="toc"></a><strong>Index:</strong></p>
35 <p class="toc"><a href="#general">General:</a></p>
37 <li><a href="#whatis">What is grml?</a></li>
38 <li><a href="#get">Where do I get grml?</a></li>
39 <li><a href="#whatmeans">What does grml mean?</a></li>
40 <li><a href="#pronounce">How do you pronounce grml?</a></li>
41 <li><a href="#releasename">What about the release name?</a></li>
42 <li><a href="#requirements">Requirements for running grml</a></li>
43 <li><a href="#why">Why another Linux distribution?</a></li>
44 <li><a href="#license">What's the license of grml?</a></li>
45 <li><a href="#difference">What's the difference between grml and
46 $OTHER-DISTRIBUTION? What are the 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="#bootoptions">Which bootoptions does grml support?</a></li>
50 <li><a href="#emulation">Is it possible to run grml with $EMULATOR?</a></li>
51 <li><a href="#usbboot">How do I boot grml from a USB stick?</a></li>
52 <li><a href="#store">Is it possible to store my settings?</a></li>
53 <li><a href="#persistency">Is a persistency feature available?</a></li>
56 <p class="toc"><a href="#grmlmedium">grml-medium</a> / <a
57 href="#grmlsmall">grml-small</a> / <a
58 href="#grml64">grml64</a>:</p>
60 <li><a href="#whatismedium">What is grml-medium?</a></li>
61 <li><a href="#whatissmall">What is grml-small?</a></li>
62 <li><a href="#whatisgrml64">What is grml64?</a></li>
63 <li><a href="#whatismedium64">What is grml64-medium?</a></li>
64 <li><a href="#whatissmall64">What is grml64-small?</a></li>
65 <li><a href="#grml64vsnormal">What is the difference between 32 bit grml and 64 bit grml?</a></li>
66 <li><a href="#smallvsnormal">What is the difference between 'normal' grml and grml-small?</a></li>
67 <li><a href="#grmlvsdsl">What is the difference between grml-small and DSL?</a></li>
70 <p class="toc"><a href="#problems">Problems</a>:</p>
72 <li><a href="#known_issues">Are there any known issues with this release?</a></li>
73 <li><a href="#hardware">I have problems with my hardware!</a></li>
74 <li><a href="#boot">grml does not boot on my computer!</a></li>
75 <li><a href="#fbprobs">I don't see anything when booting grml?!</a></li>
76 <li><a href="#utf8">I have problems with UTF-8 / Unicode</a></li>
77 <li><a href="#grml2hdhang">grml2hd seems to hang?!</a></li>
78 <li><a href="#missingfiles">I noticed some files are missing on grml</a></li>
79 <li><a href="#bugreport">Bugreport</a></li>
82 <p class="toc"><a href="#system">System</a>:</p>
84 <li><a href="#configure">Which tools exist to configure grml?</a></li>
85 <li><a href="#password">What are the passwords of users on grml?</a></li>
86 <li><a href="#version">How do I find out the version of grml</a></li>
87 <li><a href="#remove_cd">Is it possible to run LiveCD and eject CD-ROM?</a></li>
88 <li><a href="#language">How do I change the language/keyboard settings?</a></li>
89 <li><a href="#kde_and_foo">KDE, Gnome, $FOO and $BAR</a></li>
90 <li><a href="#wms">Which window managers can I use?</a></li>
91 <li><a href="#usbmount">How do I mount a USB device / USB stick?</a></li>
92 <li><a href="#lvm">Where are my LVM devices?</a></li>
93 <li><a href="#swraid">Where are my Software-RAID devices?</a></li>
94 <li><a href="libata">Why doesn't grml find my disks / doesn't boot?</a></li>
95 <li><a href="#booting">Which ways exist to boot grml?</a></li>
96 <li><a href="#timezone">How do I configure timezone on my grml system?</a></li>
97 <li><a href="#hdinstall">Is it possible to install grml to harddisk?</a></li>
100 <p class="toc"><a href="#kernel">Kernel</a>:</p>
102 <li><a href="#kernelconfig">Where can I find the configuration for the kernel used on grml?</a></li>
103 <li><a href="#kernelpatches">Are there any special components/patches in the kernel used on grml?</a></li>
104 <li><a href="#platform">For which platforms is the grml kernel optimized?</a></li>
107 <p class="toc"><a href="#software">Software:</a></p>
109 <li><a href="#sw_general">General</a></li>
110 <li><a href="#sw_version">Which package(s) and which version is available?</a></li>
111 <li><a href="#init">Init-System</a></li>
112 <li><a href="#zsh">Why is zsh the default shell?</a></li>
113 <li><a href="#zsh_binsh">Wasn't zsh the /bin/sh interpreter?</a></li>
114 <li><a href="#bash">Is a bash available?</a></li>
115 <li><a href="#configuration">Where can I find the configuration of zsh, GNU screen,...?</a></li>
116 <li><a href="#truecrypt">Why isn't Truecrypt available within grml?</a></li>
117 <li><a href="#grub">grub does not work on my system?!</a></li>
118 <li><a href="#fdisk">fdisk/parted/... complains with something like 'unable to open /dev/sda - unrecognised disk label'?!</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="#stuff">Support / Unanswered stuff</a></p>
130 <li><a href="#questions">Further questions?</a></li>
131 <li><a href="#support">Commercial Support</a></li>
134 <h2><a name="general"></a><a href="#toc">General</a></h2>
136 <h3><a name="whatis"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml?</a></h3>
138 <p>grml is a bootable CD (Live-CD) based on <a
139 href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>. grml includes a collection of
140 GNU/Linux software especially for system administrators and users of
141 texttools. grml provides automatic hardware detection. You can use grml
142 as a rescue system, for analyzing systems/networks, or as a working
143 environment. It is not necessary to install anything to a harddisk. Due
144 to on-the-fly decompression grml includes more than 2GB of software and
145 documentation on the CD.</p>
147 <h3><a name="get"></a><a href="#toc">Where do I get grml?</a></h3>
149 <p>grml is open source, you can download it from the mirrors listed at
150 <a href="/download">grml.org/download/</a>. If you want to get an
151 original grml-CD including <a href="/files/#covers">the grml-cover</a>,
152 need a special amount of CDs or want your own special grml-CD (including
153 your logo, your software and/or special settings) <a
154 href="/contact/">please don't hesitate to contact us</a>. Take a look at
155 <a href="http://grml-solutions.com/">Grml Solutions</a> for commercial
158 <h3><a name="whatmeans"></a><a href="#toc">What does grml mean?</a></h3>
160 <p>grml is short for 'grummel' and comes close to 'argl' or 'grrr' in
161 English. People use this when they want to express their
162 dissatisfaction/discontentedness with software (amongst other
166 $ grep -ch grml .centericq/**/history | xargs echo | \
167 sed 's/[0-9]*/& + /g' | sed 's/+ $//g' | bc -l
170 <h3><a name="pronounce"></a><a href="#toc">How do you pronounce grml?</a></h3>
173 % flite -o play -t gremel</pre>
175 $ echo 'ghroummel' | festival \-\-tts
178 <h3><a name="releasename"></a><a href="#toc">What about the release name?</a></h3>
180 <p>Codename of grml 2009.05 is Lackdose-Allergie. Lackdose is a
181 homophonous wordplay for the german words 'lackdose' (meaning a can of
182 paint) and 'allergie' (allergy). Check out the release wallpaper
185 <h3><a name="requirements"></a><a href="#toc">Requirements for running grml</a></h3>
189 <li>Intel-compatible CPU (i586 or later, preferably Pentium class or higher)</li>
191 <li>grml/grml-medium: at least 64MB of RAM (for stable use with
192 ramdisks for aufs and udev and when running X window system we
193 recommend at least 128MB)</li>
195 <li>grml-small: at least 32MB RAM should be available</li>
197 <li>either a bootable CD-ROM drive or <a href="#usbboot">USB-boot
198 capabable system</a> (for booting via network/PXE check out <a
199 href="#terminalserver">grml-terminalserver</a>)</li>
203 <h3><a name="why"></a><a href="#toc">Why another Linux distribution?</a></h3>
205 <p>There already exist "<a
206 href="http://www.distrowatch.com/">some</a>" distributions. We
207 decided to base our work on the existing infrastructure of <a
208 href="http://debian.org/">Debian</a> because we don't want to reinvent
209 the wheel. Some admins already use their own rescue CD, Knoppix works
210 but does not bring that many important tools for admins and users of
211 texttools out of the box. Therefor we decided to share our work with
212 others and provide the swiss army knife for sysadmins and texttool
215 <h3><a name="license"></a><a href="#toc">What's the license of grml?</a></h3>
217 <p>Anything written by the grml team is published under the GPL (<a
218 href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU General Public
219 License</a>). You don't have to pay anything for using grml. If you want
220 a special Live-CD or need commercial support, take a look at <a
221 href="http://grml-solutions.com/">Grml Solutions</a>.</p>
223 <h3><a name="difference"></a><a href="#toc">What's the difference between grml and
224 $OTHER-DISTRIBUTION? What are the main goals?</a></h3>
226 <p>The main goal of grml is to be a distribution well suited for
227 sysadmins and users of texttools. grml includes all the tools for
228 admin's daily work (lvm, mdadm, dd/ddrescue,...) as well as many
229 important texttools (of course awk, sed, grep, ... but also zsh,
230 mutt[ng], slrn, vim and many others). grml uses the existing
231 infrastructure of <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>. grml was
232 once based on <a href="http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/">Knoppix</a> (see
233 '<a href="#knoppix">What's the difference between grml and Knoppix?</a>'
234 for more details). We are also merging useful things from other
235 distributions/live-cds to provide a perfect environment.</p>
237 <h3><a name="knoppix"></a><a href="#toc">What's the difference between grml and Knoppix?</a></h3>
239 <p>grml comes with a vastly different set of software. Missing KDE and
240 OpenOffice provides the opportunity of shipping more than 800 packages
241 which Knoppix does not provide on its CD version. grml boots a 2.6.x
242 kernel but no X by default for faster startup. Knoppix is based on
243 Debian/testing-experimental (using apt-pinning), but grml is basically
244 based on plain Debian/unstable providing more current versions of
245 software. grml was once based on Knoppix but nowadays has nothing in
246 common with Knoppix:</p>
250 # find / -iname \*knoppix\*
253 <p>We consider Knoppix as a brand name for live-cds nowadays and provide
254 most of Knoppix' features as well. grml uses (mostly) the same <a
255 href="http://git.grml.org/?p=grml-live.git;a=blob_plain;f=templates/GRML/grml-cheatcodes.txt;hb=HEAD">cheatcodes</a>
256 for booting as Knoppix and even provides some extra ones. So if you are
257 used to the basic Knoppix features you usually find them on the
258 grml system as well.</p>
260 <h3><a name="accessibility"></a><a href="#toc">What does accessibility at grml mean?</a></h3>
262 <p>The grml kernel includes <a href="/kernel/#speakup">support for
263 speakup</a> and provides software like brltty (using bootoption 'grml
264 blind brltty=type,port,tbl') and flite.</p>
266 <h3><a name="bootoptions"></a><a href="#toc#">Which bootoptions does grml support?</a></h3>
269 href="http://git.grml.org/?p=grml-live.git;a=blob_plain;f=templates/GRML/grml-cheatcodes.txt;hb=HEAD">grml-cheatcodes
270 file</a> (available through the link titled 'grml-cheatcodes.txt' in the
271 <a href="/files/#debian">Debian section on the files webpage</a>). Of
273 href="http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt">kernel-parameters.txt</a>
274 of the Linux kernel applies to grml as well.</p>
276 <h3><a name="emulation"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to run grml with $EMULATOR?</a></h3>
278 <p>Syre, grml works with <a href="http://www.vmware.com/">VMware</a>, <a
279 href="http://www.virtualbox.org/">Virtualbox</a>, <a
280 href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/">MS Virtual
281 PC</a>,... It's also possible to run grml with <a
282 href="http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/">QEMU</a>, an emulator for
283 various CPUs which works on Linux, Windows, FreeBSD and Mac OS X. Take a
284 look at <a href="/qemu/">grml's QEMU webpage</a>.</p>
286 <h3><a name="usbboot"></a><a href="#toc">How do I boot grml from a USB stick?</a></h3>
289 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb#grml2usb">grml2usb</a> at the
290 <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb">usb webpage in the
293 <h3><a name="store"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to store my settings?</a></h3>
295 <p>Yes. grml provides a config framework, check out <a
296 href="/config/">grml.org/config/</a>, <a
297 href="file:///usr/share/doc/grml-saveconfig/grml-config.html">/usr/share/doc/grml-saveconfig/grml-config.html</a>
298 and 'man save-config restore-config mkpersistenthome' for more
299 details. Starting with release 2009.05 a <a
300 href="#persistency">persistency option</a> is
303 <h3><a name="persistency"></a><a href="#doc">Is a persistency feature available?</a></h3>
305 <p>Starting with release 2009.05 a persistency feature is available. Use
307 href="http://grml.org/online-docs/live-snapshot.en.1.html">live-snapshot</a>
308 (man live-snapshot) and the bootoption 'persistent' for enabling
311 <a name="grmlmedium"></a><a name="grmlsmall"></a><a name="grml64"></a>
312 <h2></a><a href="#toc">grml-medium / grml-small / grml64?</a></h2>
314 <h3><a name="whatismedium"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml-medium?</a></h3>
316 <p>grml-medium is a grml-flavour which tries to close the gap between <a
317 href="#whatissmall">grml-small</a> and <a
318 href="#whatis">normal/large/full version of grml</a>. grml-medium is an
319 ISO with a size of ~200MB providing the most important packages a
320 sysadmin usually needs. It provides the same <a href="/kernel/">kernel
321 version</a> as normal grml does so you can easily integrate and use some
322 further existing external modules as well. The X.org server is shipped
323 as well as the window manager fluxbox. Take a look at the <a
324 href="/files/">'Debian-Information'-section</a> if you are searching for
326 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=accessibility">accessibility
327 features</a> are <strong>NOT</strong> available/supported on grml-medium
330 <h3><a name="whatissmall"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml-small?</a></h3>
332 <p>Whereas grml provides about 2.3GB of software on a 700 MB ISO,
333 grml-small is a flavor with about 100 MB ISO-size (~275 MB
334 uncompressed). It does not provide a lot of software (for example no
335 X.org and no man pages) but the essential stuff for being a rescue
336 system on a business card CD-ROM or a small USB device. You can use the
337 Debian package management system to install software on the fly
338 (assuming you have network access to a Debian mirror). It provides the
339 same <a href="/kernel/">kernel version</a> as normal grml does so you
340 can easily integrate and use some further existing external modules as
341 well. Take a look at the <a
342 href="/files/">'Debian-Information'-section</a> if you are searching for
343 the package list.</p>
345 <h3><a name="whatisgrml64"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml64?</a></h3>
347 <p>grml64 is a 64bit-version of grml, based on <a
348 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/amd64/">the amd64 port of
351 <h3><a name="whatismedium64"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml64-medium?</a></h3>
353 <p>grml64-medium is the 64bit version of <a href="#whatismedium">grml-medium</a>.</p>
355 <h3><a name="whatissmall64">What is grml64-small?</a></h3>
357 <p>grml64-small is the 64bit version of <a href="#whatissmall">grml-small</a>.</p>
359 <h3><a name="grml64vsnormal"></a><a href="#toc">What is the difference between 32 bit grml and 64 bit grml?</a></h3>
361 <p>The main difference of course is that grml64 is a 64bit-version
362 whereas (normal) grml is 32bit-only. grml64 provides a 64bit kernel
363 which supports 32bit userspace applications. grml64 also provides
364 libc6-i386 and libc6-dev-i386. Due to space reasons and because some
365 packages aren't available for amd64 yet some packages are missing on
366 grml64 compared to (normal, 32bit) grml. For more details please take a
367 look at <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml64">the grml64
368 webpage in the grml-wiki</a>.</p>
370 <h3><a name="smallvsnormal"></a><a href="#toc">What is the
371 difference between 'normal' grml and grml-small?</a></h3>
373 <p>The 700MB-grml brings more than 2500 software packages. grml-small
374 includes about 300 software packages, lacks documentation and manpages
375 on the ISO. <a href="#terminalserver">grml-terminalserver</a> and <a
376 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=accessibility">accessibility
377 features</a> are <strong>not</strong> available/supported on
380 <h3><a name="grmlvsdsl"></a><a href="#toc">What is the
381 difference between grml-small and DSL?</a></h3>
383 <p>DSL (Damns Small Linux) and grml-small have different target
384 audiences. <a href="http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/">Damn Small Linux</a>
385 (DSL) uses kernel version 2.4 whereas grml-small provides a recent
386 version of kernel version 2.6. DSL provides the X window system which
387 grml-small does not. grml-small on the other hand provides the most
388 important packages for sysadmins and ships the original Debian package
389 management which allows you to install packages of the Debian pool with
390 no modifications.</p>
392 <h2><a name="problems"></a><a href="#toc">Problems</a></h2>
394 <a name="release"></a> <!-- old anchor -->
395 <h3><a name="known_issues"></a><a href="#toc">Are there any known issues with this release?</a></h3>
397 <p>We won't hide anything. Therefore, we do provide all known
398 issues/bugs publicly available:</p>
402 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml_2009.05">issues regarding
403 grml 2009.05</a> in <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the grml-wiki</a></li>
405 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml64_2009.05">issues
406 regarding grml64 2009.05</a> in <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
409 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml-medium_2009.05">issues
410 regarding grml-medium 2009.05</a> in <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
413 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml64-medium_2009.05">issues
414 regarding grml64-medium 2009.05</a> in <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
417 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml-small_2009.05">issues
418 regarding grml-small 2009.05</a> in <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
421 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml64-small_2009.05">issues
422 regarding grml64-small 2009.05</a> in <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
427 <p>If you find another bug, or consider something a problem not yet
428 mentioned <a href="#bugreport">please it</a>.</p>
430 <h3><a name="hardware"></a><a href="#toc">I have problems with my hardware!</a></h3>
432 <p>Take a look at the script grml-hwinfo. This script generates a file
433 named info.tar.bz2 which contains important information about your
434 hardware. If you think we might help, please run grml-hwinfo and <a
435 href="/contact/">send us the file</a> with additional, relevant
436 information regarding your problem.</p>
438 <h3><a name="boot"></a><a href="#toc">grml does not boot on my computer!</a></h3>
440 <p>Please take a look at <a
441 href="http://git.grml.org/?p=grml-live.git;a=blob_plain;f=templates/GRML/grml-cheatcodes.txt;hb=HEAD">the
442 available bootparamters and cheatcodes</a> and '<a href="#booting">Which
443 ways exist to boot grml?</a>'. Especially booting with 'acpi=off noapm
444 noapic' might help. The bootparameter 'failsafe' provides minimal
445 hardware detection using some special bootoptions (please do NOT boot
446 with 'grml failsafe' but with 'failsafe' as first word of the boot
447 commandline) . If booting hangs during stage "Waiting for /dev to
448 be fully populated" please try booting with 'grml noudev'. If you
449 don't even see the bootsplash of the grml-ISO your BIOS might be broken
450 (pretty common especially on old hardware). Please consider using <a
451 href="http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/">btmgr</a> then for booting your
452 system. Also check out the <a
453 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=problems">problems webpage</a> in
454 <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the grml-wiki</a>. You still have
455 problems? Feel free to <a href="/contact/">contact us</a>.</p>
457 <h3><a name="fbprobs"></a><a href="#toc">I don't see anything when booting grml?!</a></h3>
459 <p>Likely, this is a problem with vesafb framebuffer. Try to boot
460 with bootoption 'nofb' or 'grml vga=normal'.</p>
462 <h3><a name="utf8"></a><a href="#toc">I have problems with UTF-8 / Unicode</a></h3>
465 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=utf8">UTF8-webpage in the
468 <h3><a name="grml2hdhang"></a><a href="#toc">grml2hd seems to hang?!</a></h3>
470 <p>grml2hd seems to hang? Switch to tty12 and take a look at the syslog output.
471 If you see something like:</p>
474 SQUASHFS error: zlib_fs returned unexpected result 0x........
475 SQUASHFS error: Unable to read cache block [.....]
476 SQUASHFS error: Unable to read inode [.....]</pre>
478 <p>your ISO/CD-ROM <em>very</em> probably is NOT ok. Verify it via
479 booting with grml testcd if that works, or even better check your CD
480 low-level via running:</p>
483 # readcd -c2scan dev=/dev/cdrom</pre>
485 <p>If the medium really is ok and it still fails try to boot with
486 DMA deactivated via 'grml nodma ide=nodma libata.dma=0' at the bootprompt.</p>
489 <h3><a name="missingfiles"></a><a href="#toc">I noticed some files are missing on grml</a></h3>
491 <p>Yes, output of 'debsums -a 1>/dev/null' might output some
492 failures. The reason is pretty simple: some few modification have been
493 done either because they are required for the provided environment or
494 because of space limitiations on the ISO. The failures are nothing to
495 really care about, but as we don't hide anything we thought it might be
496 worth mentioning.</p>
498 <h3><a name="bugreport"></a><a href="#toc">Bugreport</a></h3>
500 <p>Searching for a bug? Want to report a bug? Take a look at the <a
501 href="/bugs/">bugs webpage</a>.</p>
503 <h2><a name="system"></a><a href="#toc">System</a></h2>
505 <h3><a name="configure"></a><a href="#toc">Which tools exist to configure grml?</a></h3>
507 <p>grml provides several scripts and tools which should make life
508 easier. See 'dpkg -L grml-scripts' to get an overview of some main
509 scripts. Run 'grml-config' to get a dialog interface for the most
510 important scripts and tasks. Or just type 'grml-' and press tab-key to
511 get a completion menu in the shell.</p>
513 <h3><a name="password"></a><a href="#toc">What are the passwords of users on grml?</a></h3>
515 <p>There are no default passwords - all accounts are locked by default
516 for security reasons. Even local logins are not possible (unless you set
517 a password or create new user accounts as root). You can create valid
518 passwords using "sudo passwd [username]" from the shell
521 <h3><a name="version"></a><a href="#toc">How do I find out the version of grml</a></h3>
523 <p>Run 'grml-version' or use the following command:</p>
526 $ cat /etc/grml_version</pre>
528 <h3><a name="remove_cd"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to run LiveCD and eject CD-ROM?</a></h3>
531 % sudo umount -l /live/image
532 % sudo eject /dev/cdrom # now don't run any new programs unless you booted using 'toram'
533 % mount /dev/cdrom # mount it again if needed
536 <h3><a name="language"></a><a href="#toc">How do I change the language/keyboard settings?</a></h3>
538 <p>By default grml uses english settings. But it is possible to
539 change the settings via using either the bootparam(s) lang,
540 keyboard and xkeyboard or via executing grml-lang when grml is
541 already running. Usage examples:</p>
544 grml lang=de # enter this at the bootprompt and you will get
545 # german keyboard layout and german $LANG, $LC_ALL,
547 grml keyboard=de xkeyboard=de lang=at # enter this at the bootprompt
548 # and you will get german keyboard and austrian
550 % grml-lang de # enter this in the shell to switch keyboard layout
551 # and $LANG settings in a running grml-system
554 <p>If you are running grml from harddisk (using <a
555 href="#hdinstall">grml2hd</a>) you have several options how to set
556 language options:</p>
560 <li>adjust /etc/default/locale to configure global language and
561 environment settings</li>
563 <li>set environment variables like $LC_ALL, $LANG, $LANGUAGE in your
564 personal configuration files (like ~/.zshrc.local, see <a
565 href="/zsh/">grml zsh reference card</a> for details)
566 if you do not want to use them system wide/global</li>
568 <li>adjust /etc/sysconfig/keyboard to configure keyboard layout
569 on console, or run 'loadkeys $KEYTABLE' manually</li>
571 <li>add "setxkbmap $LANGUAGE" to the keybindings section in
572 your ~/.xinitrc to configure keyboard setup for the X window system
573 (deactivate the xmodmap lines if necessary)</li>
577 <p>Note: run grml-setlang to get a dialog based frontend for
578 /etc/default/locale. Run grml-setkeyboard to get a dialog based frontend
579 for /etc/sysconfig/keyboard.</p>
581 <h3><a name="kde_and_foo"></a><a href="#toc">KDE, Gnome, $FOO and $BAR</a></h3>
583 <p>Why isn't KDE, Gnome, $FOO or $BAR part of grml? grml is a
584 distribution for users of texttools and sysadmins. If you would like to
585 run KDE with Debian use e.g. <a href="http://sidux.com/">Sidux</a> or <a
586 href="http://www.kubuntu.org/">Kubuntu</a>. Gnome users might find <a
587 href="http://www.ubuntulinux.org/">Ubuntu</a> useful. If you would like
588 to see a specific (software) package added to grml please <a
589 href="/report/">report it to us</a>!</p>
591 <h3><a name="wms"></a><a href="#toc">Which window managers can I use?</a></h3>
593 <p>grml is shipped only with window managers which are lightweight and
594 fast - so well suited for a live system. At the moment, grml provides the
595 following window managers:</p>
597 <li><a href="http://awesome.naquadah.org/">awesome</a>
598 <li><a href="http://wmii.de/dwm/">dwm</a>
599 <li><a href="http://www.6809.org.uk/evilwm/">evilwm</a>
600 <li><a href="http://www.fluxbox.org/">fluxbox</a>
601 <li><a href="http://www.fvwm.org/">fvwm</a>
602 <li><a href="http://fvwm-crystal.org/">fvwm-crystal</a>
603 <li><a href="http://joewing.net/programs/jwm/index.shtml">jwm</a>
604 <li><a href="http://icculus.org/openbox/index.php/Main_Page">openbox</a>
605 <li><a href="http://pekwm.org/">pekwm</a>
606 <li><a href="http://www.nongnu.org/ratpoison/">ratpoison</a>
607 <li><a href="http://www.plig.org/xwinman/vtwm.html">twm</a>
608 <li><a href="http://www.grassouille.org/code/w9wm/README">w9wm</a>
609 <li><a href="http://www.nickgravgaard.com/windowlab/">windowlab</a>
610 <li><a href="http://www.suckless.org/wiki/wmii">wmii</a>
613 <p>Tip: If you are new to grml and/or prefer an easy-to-use-desktop run 'grml-x
614 wm-ng' for starting fluxbox with idesk and gkrellm.</p>
616 <h3><a name="usbmount"></a><a href="#toc">How do I mount a USB device / USB stick?</a></h3>
618 <p>Run 'mount /mnt/usb-sda1' for example if you want to mount /dev/sda1.
619 udev on grml does multiplexing for USB block devices, so /dev/usb-sda1
620 (device for mountpoint /mnt/usb-sda1) is a symlink to /dev/sda1.</p>
622 <h3><a name="lvm"></a><a href="#toc">Where are my LVM devices?</a></h3>
624 <p>LVM (Logival Volumes) is <strong>not</strong> started by default to
625 avoid any possible damage to your data. To get access to present LVM
626 devices just execute:</p>
629 # /etc/init.d/lvm2 start
631 or use the shorter version:
636 <p>If you want to enable LVM by default just boot using the 'lvm'
637 bootoption which automatically enables LVM.</p>
639 <h3><a name="swraid"></a><a href="#toc">Where are my Software-RAID devices?</a></h3>
641 <p>Software-RAID (usually known as the mdadm stuff) is
642 <strong>not</strong> started by default to avoid any possible damage to
643 your data. To get access to present SW-RAID devices just execute:</p>
646 # /etc/init.d/mdadm-raid start
648 or use the shorter version:
653 <p>If you want to enable SW-RAID by default just boot using the 'swraid'
654 bootoption which enables automatic assembling of software raid arrays.</p>
656 <h3><a name="libata"></a><a href="#toc">Why doesn't grml find my disks / doesn't boot?</a></h3>
658 <p>Since release 2008.11 grml uses <a
659 href="http://linux-ata.org/faq.html">libata</a> exclusively (so no
660 longer any old IDE code). Sadly some few (usually pretty old) systems
661 don't boot with libata-only kernels anymore. If you think you've such a
662 system please provide output of 'lspci' <a href="/contact/">to
665 <a name="terminalserver"></a>
666 <h3><a name="booting"></a><a href="#toc">Which ways exist to boot grml?</a></h3>
668 <p>The most common way to boot grml is, of course, running from
669 CD-ROM, but grml provides many more ways to boot grml:</p>
671 <p>It is possible to boot grml via USB (e.g. USB stick or harddisk),
672 firewire, or running from a Compact Flash disk. It works out of the box;
673 you don't need to modify anything. Check out <a
674 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb">the usb webpage in the
675 grml-wiki</a> for more details.</p>
677 <p>Your computer can not boot from CD-ROM but provides a floppy
678 disk? Take a look at <a
679 href="http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/">btmgr</a>, <a
680 href="http://ubcd4win.com/faq.htm#floppy">ubcd4win</a> or <a
681 href="http://linux.simple.be/tools/sbm">sbm</a>. They provide
682 support for booting from CD-ROM via a special floppy disk.</p>
684 <p>grml-terminalserver makes it possible to boot your system via network
686 href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preboot_Execution_Environment">PXE</a>
687 (Preboot Execution Environment). If your network card does not provide
688 support for booting via PXE you can still boot it either using the
689 provided grub image by grml-terminalserver (for example via floppy
690 drive) or using <a href="http://etherboot.org/wiki/index.php">gPXE</a>.
691 For more information, refer to the <a
692 href="/terminalserver/">grml-terminalserver webpage</a>.</p>
694 <h3><a name="timezone"></a><a href="#toc">How do I configure
695 timezone on my grml system?</a></h3>
697 <h4>Available bootoptions relevant in live-cd mode:</h4>
700 <li>utc: set UTC, if your system clock is set to UTC (GMT)
701 <li>gmt: set UTC, if your system clock is set to UTC (GMT) [like bootoption utc]
702 <li>tz=$option: set timezone to corresponding $option, usage example:
706 <h4>Configuration options relevant on harddisk installation:</h4>
711 # dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
714 <p>to adjust /etc/timezone and /etc/localtime according to the
715 provided information.</p>
717 <p><strong>/etc/default/rcS:</strong> set variable UTC according
718 to your needs, whether your system clock is set to UTC
719 (UTC='yes') or not (UTC='no')</p>
721 <p><strong>/etc/localtime:</strong> adjust zoneinfo according to
725 # ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/$WHATEVER_YOU_WANT /etc/localtime
728 <p>The zoneinfo directory contains the time zone files that were
729 compiled by zic. The files contain information such as rules
730 about DST. They allow the kernel to convert UTC UNIX time into
731 appropriate local dates and times. Use the zdump utility to
732 print current time and date (in the specified time zone).</p>
734 <p><strong>/etc/adjtime:</strong> This file is used e.g. by the
735 adjtimex function, which can smoothly adjust system time while
738 <p>If you change the time (using 'date --set ...', ntpdate,...)
739 it is worth setting also the hardware clock to the correct
743 # hwclock --systohc [--utc]
746 <p>Remember to add the --utc -option if the hardware clock is set to
749 <h4>Still problems?</h4>
751 <p>Check your current settings via:</p>
758 grep hwclock /etc/runlevel.conf
759 grep '^UTC' /etc/default/rc
762 <h4>Further information:</h4>
764 <p>Manpages: hwclock(8) tzselect(1) tzconfig(8); <a
765 href="http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/system-administrator/ch-sysadmin-time.html">Debian
766 GNU/Linux System Administrator's Manual Chapter 16 - Time</a> and <a
767 href="http://wiki.debian.org/TimeZoneChanges">TimeZoneChanges in the
770 <h3><a name="hdinstall"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to install grml to harddisk?</a></h3>
772 <p>Yes. grml provides a tool called <a href="/grml2hd/">grml2hd</a> (see
773 '<a href="/grml2hd/grml2hd.html">man grml2hd</a>'). grml is developed
774 on a box running the grml-system itself, and we - the grml-developers -
775 especially like grml2hd because it gives us a working Linux box within
776 10 to 30 minutes. grml2hd is perfect for prototyping: test hardware
777 support of Linux, test a specific setup, ... You can even use grml2hd in
778 a fully automatic mode without any further interaction.</p>
780 <p>But <strong>please note</strong>: grml2hd does <strong>NOT</strong>
781 provide a Linux distribution for newbies and should be installed to hard
782 disk only if really know what you are doing (or don't care about
783 maintainability, seriously). Please install grml using grml2hd only if
784 can answer all of the following questions with 'sure, YES':</p>
787 <li>Are you used to work with Debian/unstable?
788 <li>Do you know how to report bugs to Debian?
789 <li>Are you aware of the differences between plain Debian and grml?
792 <p><strong>Tip</strong>: If you want to get a plain Debian system take
793 a look at <a href="/grml-debootstrap/">grml-debootstrap</a>.</p>
795 <p><strong>Note:</strong> If you are using grml in a production
796 environment and/or use a grml2hd installation, we strongly recommend you
797 subscribe to <a href="/mailinglist/">the grml user mailinglist</a>!</p>
799 <h2><a name="kernel"></a><a href="#toc">Kernel</a></h2>
801 <h3><a name="kernelconfig"></a><a href="#toc">Where can I find the configuration for the kernel used on
804 <p>See /boot/config-`uname -r` and on <a href="/kernel/">the kernel-webpage</a>.</p>
806 <h3><a name="kernelpatches"></a><a href="#toc">Are there any special components/patches in the kernel
807 used on grml?</a></h3>
809 <p>grml uses the most current stable vanilla Linux kernel from <a
810 href="http://www.kernel.org/">www.kernel.org</a> with some
811 additional patches. More information and an all-in-one patch is
813 href="/kernel/">kernel-page</a>.</p>
815 <h3><a name="platform"></a><a href="#toc">For which platforms is the grml kernel optimized?</a></h3>
817 <p>Plain i586 compatibility-mode with SMP enabled. (Note: of course it
818 works for uniprocessor systems as well)</p>
820 <h2><a name="software"></a><a href="#toc">Software</a></h2>
822 <h3><a name="sw_general"></a><a href="#toc">General</a></h3>
824 <p>Want to run a program as root? Just use "sudo $PROGRAM". To get a
825 root-shell run "sudo -i".</p>
827 <p>Problems with a specific package? Please try "dpkg-reconfigure $foo".
828 Still encountering difficulties? Please send us a <a
829 href="/bugs/">bugreport</a>.</p>
831 <h3><a name="sw_version"></a><a href="#toc">Which package(s) and which
832 version is available?</a></h3>
834 <p>If you want to get details about the provided packages and the
835 package versions without booting the grml ISO check out the dpkg_...
836 files in the <a href="/files/#debian">Debian-Information section on
837 grml.org/files/</a>.</p>
839 <h3><a name="init"></a><a href="#toc">Init-System</a></h3>
841 <p>Why is grml using runlevel 2 as default? Because runlevel 2 is 'the
842 textonly one' and it is Debian's default.</p>
844 <p>Where are all the /etc/rc#.d-directories? grml doesn't use sysv-rc
845 but <a href="http://packages.debian.org/sid/file-rc">file-rc</a>. This
846 means you can configure the init system in one single file named
847 /etc/runlevel.conf with your favourite editor. No symlink-hell
850 <h3><a name="zsh"></a><a href="#toc">Why is zsh the default shell (/bin/sh)?</a></h3>
852 <p>Short answer: because <a href="/zsh/">Zsh rocks</a>, really!</p>
854 <p>Longer answer taken from <a
855 href="http://zsh.sunsite.dk/FAQ/zshfaq01.html#l3">ZSH FAQ: 1.2: What is
858 <cite> Zsh is a UNIX command interpreter (shell) which of the standard shells most
859 resembles the Korn shell (ksh); its compatibility with the 1988 Korn shell has been
860 gradually increasing. It includes enhancements of many types, notably in the
861 command-line editor, options for customising its behaviour, filename globbing, features
862 to make C-shell (csh) users feel more at home and extra features drawn from tcsh
863 (another `custom' shell).</cite>
865 <p>If you don't know zsh take a look at <a
866 href="http://zsh.sunsite.dk/FAQ/zshfaq02.html#l9">ZSH FAQ: How does zsh
867 differ from ...?</a>, 'man zsh | less -p COMPATIBILITY', the <a
868 href="/zsh/">grml zsh reference card</a> and '<a
869 href="/zsh/">man zsh-lovers</a>'.</p>
871 <p>If you are a bash user and don't know zsh yet, don't be afraid. bash
872 is largely a subset of zsh and you don't have to throw away your
873 knowledge about shell stuff.</p>
875 <h3><a name="zsh_binsh"></a><a href="#toc">Wasn't zsh the /bin/sh interpreter?</a></h3>
877 <p>Yes, until grml 0.6 zsh was the interpreter for /bin/sh. Starting
878 with release 0.7 grml uses /bin/bash as /bin/sh. The reason? Using zsh
879 as default /bin/sh interpreter leads to some problems, especially since
880 Debian does not care to support zsh as /bin/sh overall. Take a look at
882 href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=329288">#329288</a>
884 href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=340058">#340058</a>
887 <h3><a name="bash"></a><a href="#toc">Is a bash available?</a></h3>
889 <p>grml uses <a href="#zsh">zsh</a> as the default interactive shell
890 but, of course, a current version of bash (and many other shells as
891 well) is provided by grml.</p>
893 <h3><a name="configuration"></a><a href="#toc">Where can I find the configuration of zsh, GNU screen,...?</a></h3>
896 href="http://michael-prokop.at/blog/2007/12/22/make-console-work-comfortable/">'Make
897 console work comfortable'</a>.</p>
899 <h3><a name="truecrypt">Why isn't Truecrypt available within grml?</a></h3>
901 <p>Because Truecrypt is licensed under a specific license named
902 'TrueCrypt License 2.6' which doesn't permit us to distribute Truecrypt.
903 See <a href="http://www.truecrypt.org/legal/license">section VI/4 of the
904 license</a> for details. The Ubuntu version from <a
905 href="http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads">truecrypt.org/downloads</a> is
906 known to work under grml.</p>
908 <h3><a name="grub"></a><a href="#toc">grub does not work on my system?!</a></h3>
910 <p>Looks like you used mkfs.ext3 from grml but are using an old grub
911 version. Notice that older versions of grub do not support 256 byte
912 inodes on ext3, being the default in recent versions of mkfs/e2fsprogs.
913 More information is available at <a
914 href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=463236">#463236</a>
915 in the Debian bug tracking system.</p>
917 <h3><a name="fdisk"></a><a href="#toc">fdisk/parted/... complains with
918 something like 'unable to open /dev/sda - unrecognised disk
921 <p>The 'disk label' is libparted's word for 'partition table'. It looks
922 like you installed gnu-fdisk on your system. To work around this problem
923 you might want to try one the following options:</p>
926 <li>use /sbin/fdisk.distrib from util-linux</li>
927 <li>switch to sfdisk, cfdisk,...</li>
928 <li>use parted's mklabel command (but please read the <a
929 href="http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/manual/">parted manual</a>
930 before executing this command)</li>
933 <h2><a name="xserver"></a><a href="#toc">X-Server</a></h2>
935 <h3><a name="xstart"></a><a href="#toc">How do I start the X server?</a></h3>
937 <p>Please use 'grml-x' as user grml for starting X on the live-cd. It
938 generates the config file /etc/X11/xorg.conf and lets you start commands on
939 startup (see ~/.xinitrc). Use it, for example, via switching to TTY4 (press
940 Alt+F4) and run the following command to start wm-ng (window manager fluxbox
941 with idesk and gkrellm):</p>
946 <p>If you have /etc/X11/xorg.conf already you can use 'startx' instead of
947 grml-x of course. Adjust ~/.xinitrc to your needs.</p>
949 <h3><a name="xproblem"></a><a href="#toc">X does not start on my box?!</a></h3>
951 <p>grml-x supports several options. If you want to set some special options
952 please take a look at the grml-x manpage (man grml-x). Some usage examples:</p>
955 grml-x -module vesa fluxbox # start fluxbox and use vesa module
956 grml-x -mode '800x600' fluxbox # set resolution to 800x600 and start fluxbox
957 grml-x -display 8 fluxbox # start fluxbox on display 8
958 grml-x -force -nostart fluxbox # force creation of xconfig file and don't start X server
959 grml-x -hsync 60 fluxbox # set horizontal frequency and start fluxbox
960 grml-x -hsync 60 -vsync 40 fluxbox # set horizontal and vertical sync frequencies and start fluxbox
963 <h3><a name="xresolution"></a><a href="#toc">I don't like the resolution of X!</a></h3>
965 <p>Just run xrandr to switch the resolution during runtime of X. For
966 example: 'xrandr -s 1024x768'.</p>
968 <h2><a name="stuff"></a><a href="#toc">Support / Unanswered stuff</a></h2>
970 <h3><a name="questions"></a><a href="#toc">Further questions</a></h3>
972 <p>Do you have a question which is not answered in the FAQ or in the
973 provided <a href="/docs/">documentation</a> (execute
974 "grml-info" on your grml-system for offline documentation)?
975 Also check out 'grml-tips $KEYWORD' on your grml-system. Take a look at
976 <a href="/">the grml website</a> and <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
977 grml-wiki</a>. A good place to become part of the community is the <a
978 href="/mailinglist/">grml mailinglist</a>. Please don't hesitate to <a
979 href="/contact/">contact us</a>.</p>
981 <h3><a name="support"></a><a href="#toc">Commercial Support</a></h3>
983 <p>You want to deploy grml in your data center, use it as part of your
984 business or have an emergency case? You're happy with grml but would
985 like to get your very own live cd (providing your favourite software
986 selection, special configuration, setup and your bootsplash)? As part of
987 our business we do provide commercial support, feel free to <a
988 href="http://grml-solutions.com/">contact us at Grml
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