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28 <h1 align="center">FAQ for grml</h1>
30 <p><strong>Up2date:</strong> 2010-12-31 - applies to Grml releases version 2010.12</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 the 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="#bootoptions">Which bootoptions does grml support?</a></li>
48 <li><a href="#emulation">Is it possible to run grml with $EMULATOR?</a></li>
49 <li><a href="#usbboot">How do I boot grml from a USB stick?</a></li>
50 <li><a href="#store">Is it possible to store my settings?</a></li>
51 <li><a href="#persistency">Is a persistency feature available?</a></li>
54 <p class="toc"><a href="#grmlmedium">grml-medium</a> / <a
55 href="#grmlsmall">grml-small</a> / <a
56 href="#grml64">grml64</a>:</p>
58 <li><a href="#whatismedium">What is grml-medium?</a></li>
59 <li><a href="#whatissmall">What is grml-small?</a></li>
60 <li><a href="#whatisgrml64">What is grml64?</a></li>
61 <li><a href="#whatismedium64">What is grml64-medium?</a></li>
62 <li><a href="#whatissmall64">What is grml64-small?</a></li>
63 <li><a href="#grml64vsnormal">What is the difference between 32 bit grml and 64 bit grml?</a></li>
64 <li><a href="#smallvsnormal">What is the difference between 'normal' grml and grml-small?</a></li>
65 <li><a href="#grmlvsdsl">What is the difference between grml-small and DSL?</a></li>
68 <p class="toc"><a href="#problems">Problems</a>:</p>
70 <li><a href="#known_issues">Are there any known issues with this release?</a></li>
71 <li><a href="#hardware">I have problems with my hardware!</a></li>
72 <li><a href="#boot">grml does not boot on my computer!</a></li>
73 <li><a href="#fbprobs">I don't see anything when booting grml?!</a></li>
74 <li><a href="#utf8">I have problems with UTF-8 / Unicode</a></li>
75 <li><a href="#grml2hdhang">grml2hd seems to hang?!</a></li>
76 <li><a href="#cifsshare">Booting grml-small via PXE using a CIFS share fails</a></li>
77 <li><a href="#missingfiles">I noticed some files are missing on grml</a></li>
78 <li><a href="#bugreport">Bugreport</a></li>
81 <p class="toc"><a href="#system">System</a>:</p>
83 <li><a href="#isolinux">Where's the old bootsplash?</a></li>
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>
120 <p class="toc"><a href="#xserver">X-Server</a></p>
122 <li><a href="#xstart">How do I start the X server?</a></li>
123 <li><a href="#xproblem">X does not start on my box?!</a></li>
124 <li><a href="#xresolution">I don't like the resolution of X!</a></li>
127 <p class="toc"><a href="#stuff">Support / Unanswered stuff</a></p>
129 <li><a href="#questions">Further questions?</a></li>
130 <li><a href="#support">Commercial Support</a></li>
133 <h2><a name="general"></a><a href="#toc">General</a></h2>
135 <h3><a name="whatis"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml?</a></h3>
137 <p>Grml is a bootable CD (Live-CD) based on <a
138 href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>. Grml includes a collection of
139 GNU/Linux software especially for system administrators and users of
140 texttools. Grml provides automatic hardware detection. You can use grml
141 as a rescue system, for analyzing systems/networks, or as a working
142 environment. It is not necessary to install anything to a harddisk. Due
143 to on-the-fly decompression grml includes more than 2GB of software and
144 documentation on the CD.</p>
146 <h3><a name="get"></a><a href="#toc">Where do I get grml?</a></h3>
148 <p>Grml is open source, you can download it from the mirrors listed at
149 <a href="/download">grml.org/download/</a>. If you want to get an
150 original grml-CD including <a href="/files/#covers">the grml-cover</a>,
151 need a special amount of CDs or want your own special grml-CD (including
152 your logo, your software and/or special settings) <a
153 href="/contact/">please don't hesitate to contact us</a>. Take a look at
154 <a href="http://grml-solutions.com/">Grml Solutions</a> if you're
155 interested in commercial support.</p>
157 <h3><a name="whatmeans"></a><a href="#toc">What does grml mean?</a></h3>
159 <p>Grml comes close to 'argl' or 'grrr' in English. People use this when
160 they want to express their dissatisfaction/discontentedness with
161 software (amongst other things):</p>
164 $ grep -ch grml .centericq/**/history | xargs echo | \
165 sed 's/[0-9]*/& + /g' | sed 's/+ $//g' | bc -l
168 <h3><a name="pronounce"></a><a href="#toc">How do you pronounce grml?</a></h3>
171 % flite -o play -t gremel</pre>
173 $ echo 'ghroummel' | festival \-\-tts
176 <h3><a name="releasename"></a><a href="#toc">What about the release name?</a></h3>
178 <p>Codename of Grml 2010.12 is Gebrüder Grml. It's a german wordplay
179 on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_Grimm">Brothers Grimm</a>.</p>
181 <h3><a name="requirements"></a><a href="#toc">Requirements for running grml</a></h3>
185 <li>Intel-compatible CPU (i586 or later, preferably Pentium class or higher)</li>
187 <li>grml/grml-medium: at least 64MB of RAM (for stable use with
188 ramdisks for aufs and udev and when running X window system we
189 recommend at least 128MB)</li>
191 <li>grml-small: at least 32MB RAM should be available</li>
193 <li>either a bootable CD-ROM drive or <a href="#usbboot">USB-boot
194 capable system</a> (for booting via network/PXE check out <a
195 href="#terminalserver">grml-terminalserver</a>)</li>
199 <h3><a name="why"></a><a href="#toc">Why another Linux distribution?</a></h3>
201 <p>There already exist "<a
202 href="http://www.distrowatch.com/">some</a>" distributions. We
203 decided to base our work on the existing infrastructure of <a
204 href="http://debian.org/">Debian</a> because we don't want to reinvent
205 the wheel. Some admins already use their own rescue CD, Knoppix works
206 but does not bring that many important tools for admins and users of
207 texttools out of the box. Therefor we decided to share our work with
208 others and provide the swiss army knife for sysadmins and texttool
211 <h3><a name="license"></a><a href="#toc">What's the license of grml?</a></h3>
213 <p>Anything written by the grml team is published under the GPL (<a
214 href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU General Public
215 License</a>). You don't have to pay anything for using grml. If you want
216 a special Live-CD or need commercial support, take a look at <a
217 href="http://grml-solutions.com/">Grml Solutions</a>.</p>
219 <h3><a name="difference"></a><a href="#toc">What's the difference between grml and
220 $OTHER-DISTRIBUTION? What are the main goals?</a></h3>
222 <p>The main goal of grml is to be a distribution well suited for
223 sysadmins and users of texttools. Grml includes all the tools for
224 admin's daily work (lvm, mdadm, dd/ddrescue,...) as well as many
225 important texttools (of course awk, sed, grep, ... but also zsh,
226 mutt[ng], slrn, vim and many others). Grml uses the existing
227 infrastructure of <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>. Grml was
228 once based on <a href="http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/">Knoppix</a> (see
229 '<a href="#knoppix">What's the difference between grml and Knoppix?</a>'
230 for more details). We are also merging useful things from other
231 distributions/live-cds to provide a perfect environment.</p>
233 <h3><a name="knoppix"></a><a href="#toc">What's the difference between grml and Knoppix?</a></h3>
235 <p>Grml comes with a vastly different set of software. Missing KDE and
236 OpenOffice provides the opportunity of shipping more than 800 packages
237 which Knoppix does not provide on its CD version. Grml boots a recent
238 2.6 kernel but no X by default for faster startup. Knoppix is based on
239 Debian/testing-experimental (using apt-pinning), but grml is basically
240 based on plain Debian/unstable providing more current versions of
241 software. Grml was once based on Knoppix but nowadays has nothing in
242 common with Knoppix:</p>
246 # find / -iname \*knoppix\*
249 <p>We consider Knoppix as a brand name for live-cds nowadays and provide
250 most of Knoppix' features as well. Grml uses (mostly) the same <a
251 href="http://git.grml.org/?p=grml-live.git;a=blob_plain;f=templates/GRML/grml-cheatcodes.txt;hb=HEAD">cheatcodes</a>
252 for booting as Knoppix and even provides some extra ones. So if you are
253 used to the basic Knoppix features you usually find them on the
254 grml system as well.</p>
256 <h3><a name="accessibility"></a><a href="#toc">What does accessibility at grml mean?</a></h3>
258 <p>The Grml kernel includes <a href="/kernel/#speakup">support for
259 speakup</a> and provides software like brltty (using bootoption 'grml
260 blind brltty=type,port,tbl') and flite.</p>
262 <h3><a name="bootoptions"></a><a href="#toc">Which bootoptions does Grml support?</a></h3>
265 href="http://git.grml.org/?p=grml-live.git;a=blob_plain;f=templates/GRML/grml-cheatcodes.txt;hb=HEAD">grml-cheatcodes
266 file</a> (also available via <a href="http://grml.org/cheatcodes/">grml.org/cheatcodes/</a>). Of
268 href="http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt">kernel-parameters.txt</a>
269 of the Linux kernel applies to Grml as well.</p>
271 <h3><a name="emulation"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to run Grml with $EMULATOR?</a></h3>
273 <p>Sure, Grml works with(in) several emulators and virtual environments,
275 <a href="http://www.linux-kvm.org/">KVM</a>,
276 <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/">MS Virtual PC</a>,
277 <a href="http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/">QEMU</a>
278 <a href="http://www.virtualbox.org/">Virtualbox</a> and
279 <a href="http://www.vmware.com/">VMware</a>.
282 <h3><a name="usbboot"></a><a href="#toc">How do I boot Grml from a USB stick?</a></h3>
285 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb#grml2usb">grml2usb</a> at the
286 <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb">usb webpage in the
289 <h3><a name="store"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to store my settings?</a></h3>
291 <p>Yes. Grml provides a config framework, check out <a
292 href="/config/">grml.org/config/</a>, <a
293 href="file:///usr/share/doc/grml-saveconfig/grml-config.html">/usr/share/doc/grml-saveconfig/grml-config.html</a>
294 and 'man grml-autoconfig save-config restore-config mkpersistenthome' for more
295 details. Starting with release 2009.05 a <a
296 href="#persistency">persistency option</a> is
299 <h3><a name="persistency"></a><a href="#doc">Is a persistency feature available?</a></h3>
301 <p>Starting with release 2009.05 a persistency feature is available. Use
303 href="http://grml.org/online-docs/live-snapshot.en.1.html">live-snapshot</a>
304 (man live-snapshot) and the bootoption 'persistent' for enabling
307 <a name="grmlmedium"></a><a name="grmlsmall"></a><a name="grml64"></a>
308 <h2></a><a href="#toc">grml-medium / grml-small / grml64?</a></h2>
310 <h3><a name="whatismedium"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml-medium?</a></h3>
312 <p>grml-medium is a grml-flavour which tries to close the gap between <a
313 href="#whatissmall">grml-small</a> and <a
314 href="#whatis">normal/large/full version of grml</a>. grml-medium is an
315 ISO with a size of ~200MB providing the most important packages a
316 sysadmin usually needs. It provides the same <a href="/kernel/">kernel
317 version</a> as normal grml does so you can easily integrate and use some
318 further existing external modules as well. The X.org server is shipped
319 as well as the window manager fluxbox. Take a look at the <a
320 href="/files/">'Debian-Information'-section</a> if you are searching for
322 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=accessibility">accessibility
323 features</a> are <strong>NOT</strong> available/supported on grml-medium
326 <h3><a name="whatissmall"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml-small?</a></h3>
328 <p>Whereas grml provides about 2.3GB of software on a 700 MB ISO,
329 grml-small is a flavor with about 100 MB ISO-size (~275 MB
330 uncompressed). It does not provide a lot of software (for example no
331 X.org and no man pages) but the essential stuff for being a rescue
332 system on a business card CD-ROM or a small USB device. You can use the
333 Debian package management system to install software on the fly
334 (assuming you have network access to a Debian mirror). It provides the
335 same <a href="/kernel/">kernel version</a> as normal grml does so you
336 can easily integrate and use some further existing external modules as
337 well. Take a look at the <a
338 href="/files/">'Debian-Information'-section</a> if you are searching for
339 the package list.</p>
341 <h3><a name="whatisgrml64"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml64?</a></h3>
343 <p>grml64 is a 64bit-version of grml, based on <a
344 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/amd64/">the amd64 port of
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 <h3><a name="whatissmall64">What is grml64-small?</a></h3>
353 <p>grml64-small is the 64bit version of <a href="#whatissmall">grml-small</a>.</p>
355 <h3><a name="grml64vsnormal"></a><a href="#toc">What is the difference between 32 bit grml and 64 bit grml?</a></h3>
357 <p>The main difference of course is that grml64 is a 64bit-version
358 whereas (normal) grml is 32bit-only. grml64 provides a 64bit kernel
359 which supports 32bit userspace applications. grml64 also provides
360 libc6-i386 and libc6-dev-i386. Due to space reasons and because some
361 packages aren't available for amd64 (yet) some few packages are missing on
362 grml64 compared to (normal, 32bit) grml.</p>
364 <h3><a name="smallvsnormal"></a><a href="#toc">What is the
365 difference between 'normal' grml and grml-small?</a></h3>
367 <p>The 700MB-grml brings more than 2500 software packages. grml-small
368 includes about 300 software packages, lacks documentation and manpages
369 on the ISO. <a href="#terminalserver">grml-terminalserver</a> and <a
370 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=accessibility">accessibility
371 features</a> are <strong>not</strong> available/supported on
374 <h3><a name="grmlvsdsl"></a><a href="#toc">What is the
375 difference between grml-small and DSL?</a></h3>
377 <p>DSL (Damns Small Linux) and grml-small have different target
378 audiences. <a href="http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/">Damn Small Linux</a>
379 (DSL) uses kernel version 2.4 whereas grml-small provides a recent
380 version of kernel version 2.6. DSL provides the X window system which
381 grml-small does not. grml-small on the other hand provides the most
382 important packages for sysadmins and ships the original Debian package
383 management which allows you to install packages of the Debian pool with
384 no modifications.</p>
386 <h2><a name="problems"></a><a href="#toc">Problems</a></h2>
388 <a name="release"></a> <!-- old anchor -->
389 <h3><a name="known_issues"></a><a href="#toc">Are there any known issues with this release?</a></h3>
391 <p>We won't hide anything. Therefore, we do provide all known
392 issues/bugs publicly available: <a
393 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml_2010.12">issues regarding
394 grml 2010.12</a> in <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
397 <p>If you find another bug, or consider something a problem not yet
398 mentioned <a href="#bugreport">please it</a>.</p>
400 <h3><a name="hardware"></a><a href="#toc">I have problems with my hardware!</a></h3>
402 <p>Take a look at the script grml-hwinfo. This script generates a file
403 named info.tar.bz2 which contains important information about your
404 hardware. If you think we might help, please run grml-hwinfo and <a
405 href="/contact/">send us the file</a> with additional, relevant
406 information regarding your problem.</p>
408 <h3><a name="boot"></a><a href="#toc">grml does not boot on my computer!</a></h3>
410 <p>Please take a look at <a
411 href="http://git.grml.org/?p=grml-live.git;a=blob_plain;f=templates/GRML/grml-cheatcodes.txt;hb=HEAD">the
412 available bootparamters and cheatcodes</a> and '<a href="#booting">Which
413 ways exist to boot grml?</a>'. Especially booting with 'acpi=off noapm
414 noapic' might help. The bootparameter 'failsafe' provides minimal
415 hardware detection using some special bootoptions (please do NOT boot
416 with 'grml failsafe' but with 'failsafe' as first word of the boot
417 commandline) . If booting hangs during stage "Waiting for /dev to
418 be fully populated" please try booting with 'grml noudev'. If you
419 don't even see the bootsplash of the grml-ISO your BIOS might be broken
420 (pretty common especially on old hardware). Please consider using <a
421 href="http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/">btmgr</a> then for booting your
422 system. Also check out the <a
423 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=problems">problems webpage</a> in
424 <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the grml-wiki</a>. You still have
425 problems? Feel free to <a href="/contact/">contact us</a>.</p>
427 <h3><a name="fbprobs"></a><a href="#toc">I don't see anything when booting grml?!</a></h3>
429 <p>Likely, this is a problem with the vesafb framebuffer. Try to boot
430 with the 'Disable Framebuffer' menuentry (available behind the submenu
431 'Boot options for ...') or manually ad 'vga=normal' to the kernel
432 command line (press TAB to edit a menu entry and add 'vga=normal'
435 <h3><a name="utf8"></a><a href="#toc">I have problems with UTF-8 / Unicode</a></h3>
438 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=utf8">UTF8-webpage in the
441 <h3><a name="grml2hdhang"></a><a href="#toc">grml2hd seems to hang?!</a></h3>
443 <p>grml2hd seems to hang? Switch to tty12 and take a look at the syslog output.
444 If you see something like:</p>
447 SQUASHFS error: zlib_fs returned unexpected result 0x........
448 SQUASHFS error: Unable to read cache block [.....]
449 SQUASHFS error: Unable to read inode [.....]</pre>
451 <p>your ISO/CD-ROM <em>very</em> probably is NOT ok. Verify it via
452 booting with grml testcd if that works, or even better check your CD
453 low-level via running:</p>
456 # readcd -c2scan dev=/dev/cdrom</pre>
458 <p>If the medium really is ok and it still fails try to boot with
459 DMA deactivated via 'grml nodma ide=nodma libata.dma=0' at the bootprompt.</p>
461 <h3><a name="cifsshare"></a><a href="#toc">Booting grml-small via PXE using a CIFS share fails</a></h3>
463 <p>When trying to boot grml-small[64] via PXE (network boot) using a
464 CIFS share this will fail because grml-small[64] lacks cifs-utils.
465 cifs-utils would consume >14MB of additional disk space - that's why
466 it isn't part of the release. But there's a simple workaround: you can
467 take the initrd and kernel from the regular grml flavour and use just
468 the squashfs from grml-small[64].</p>
470 <h3><a name="missingfiles"></a><a href="#toc">I noticed some files are missing on grml</a></h3>
472 <p>Yes, output of 'debsums -a 1>/dev/null' might output some
473 failures. The reason is pretty simple: some few modification have been
474 done either because they are required for the provided environment or
475 because of space limitiations on the ISO. The failures are nothing to
476 really care about, but as we don't hide anything we thought it might be
477 worth mentioning.</p>
479 <h3><a name="bugreport"></a><a href="#toc">Bugreport</a></h3>
481 <p>Searching for a bug? Want to report a bug? Take a look at the <a
482 href="/bugs/">bugs webpage</a>.</p>
484 <h2><a name="system"></a><a href="#toc">System</a></h2>
486 <h3><a name="isolinux"></a><a href="#toc">Where's the old bootsplash?</a></h3>
488 <p>Starting with release 2009.10 Grml provides a menu based bootsplash.
489 To adjust boot options just press the TAB-key. To directly switch to the
490 old-style isolinux cmdline just press the escape key within 30 seconds. If you
491 still need access to the old bootsplash layout (including the f2, f3,...
492 pages with further information regarding available bootoptions)
493 select the entry 'Isolinux prompt' in the menu based bootsplash (just
494 press 'i' and ENTER for direct access to it). The timeout until either
495 the selected entry is booted (if specified) or until the system will
496 restore from the cmdline to the menu based bootsplash is 30 seconds.</p>
498 <h3><a name="configure"></a><a href="#toc">Which tools exist to configure grml?</a></h3>
500 <p>Grml provides several scripts and tools which should make life
501 easier. See 'dpkg -L grml-scripts' to get an overview of some main
502 scripts. Run 'grml-config' to get a dialog interface for the most
503 important scripts and tasks. Or just type 'grml-' and press tab-key to
504 get a completion menu in the shell.</p>
506 <h3><a name="password"></a><a href="#toc">What are the passwords of users on grml?</a></h3>
508 <p>There are no default passwords - all accounts are locked by default
509 for security reasons. Even local logins are not possible (unless you set
510 a password or create new user accounts as root). You can create valid
511 passwords using "sudo passwd [username]" from the shell
514 <h3><a name="version"></a><a href="#toc">How do I find out the version of grml</a></h3>
516 <p>Run 'grml-version' or use the following command:</p>
519 $ cat /etc/grml_version</pre>
521 <h3><a name="remove_cd"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to run LiveCD and eject CD-ROM?</a></h3>
524 % sudo umount -l /live/image
525 % sudo eject /dev/cdrom # now don't run any new programs unless you booted using 'toram'
526 % mount /dev/cdrom # mount it again if needed
529 <h3><a name="language"></a><a href="#toc">How do I change the language/keyboard settings?</a></h3>
531 <p>By default grml uses english settings. But it is possible to
532 change the settings via using either the bootparam(s) lang,
533 keyboard and xkeyboard or via executing grml-lang when grml is
534 already running. Usage examples:</p>
537 grml lang=de # enter this at the bootprompt and you will get
538 # german keyboard layout and german $LANG, $LC_ALL,
540 grml keyboard=de xkeyboard=de lang=at # enter this at the bootprompt
541 # and you will get german keyboard and austrian
543 % grml-lang de # enter this in the shell to switch keyboard layout
544 # and $LANG settings in a running grml-system
547 <p>If you are running grml from harddisk (using <a
548 href="#hdinstall">grml2hd</a>) you have several options how to set
549 language options:</p>
553 <li>adjust /etc/default/locale to configure global language and
554 environment settings</li>
556 <li>set environment variables like $LC_ALL, $LANG, $LANGUAGE in your
557 personal configuration files (like ~/.zshrc.local, see <a
558 href="/zsh/">grml zsh reference card</a> for details)
559 if you do not want to use them system wide/global</li>
561 <li>adjust /etc/sysconfig/keyboard to configure keyboard layout
562 on console, or run 'loadkeys $KEYTABLE' manually</li>
564 <li>add "setxkbmap $LANGUAGE" to the keybindings section in
565 your ~/.xinitrc to configure keyboard setup for the X window system
566 (deactivate the xmodmap lines if necessary)</li>
570 <p>Note: run grml-setlang to get a dialog based frontend for
571 /etc/default/locale. Run grml-setkeyboard to get a dialog based frontend
572 for /etc/sysconfig/keyboard.</p>
574 <h3><a name="kde_and_foo"></a><a href="#toc">KDE, Gnome, $FOO and $BAR</a></h3>
576 <p>Why isn't KDE, Gnome, $FOO or $BAR part of grml? grml is a
577 distribution for users of texttools and sysadmins. If you would like to
578 run KDE with Debian use e.g. <a href="http://sidux.com/">Sidux</a> or <a
579 href="http://www.kubuntu.org/">Kubuntu</a>. Gnome users might find <a
580 href="http://www.ubuntulinux.org/">Ubuntu</a> useful. If you would like
581 to see a specific (software) package added to grml please <a
582 href="/report/">report it to us</a>!</p>
584 <h3><a name="wms"></a><a href="#toc">Which window managers can I use?</a></h3>
586 <p>Grml is shipped with a few selected window managers which are
587 lightweight and fast - so well suited for a live system. At the moment,
588 Grml provides the following window managers:</p>
591 <li><a href="http://awesome.naquadah.org/">awesome</a>
592 <li><a href="http://www.fluxbox.org/">fluxbox</a>
593 <li><a href="http://i3.zekjur.net/">i3</a>
594 <li><a href="http://icculus.org/openbox/index.php/Main_Page">openbox</a>
595 <li><a href="http://www.suckless.org/wiki/wmii">wmii</a>
600 <li><a href="http://awesome.naquadah.org/">awesome</a>
601 <li><a href="http://wmii.de/dwm/">dwm</a>
602 <li><a href="http://www.6809.org.uk/evilwm/">evilwm</a>
603 <li><a href="http://www.fluxbox.org/">fluxbox</a>
604 <li><a href="http://www.fvwm.org/">fvwm</a>
605 <li><a href="http://fvwm-crystal.org/">fvwm-crystal</a>
606 <li><a href="http://joewing.net/programs/jwm/index.shtml">jwm</a>
607 <li><a href="http://icculus.org/openbox/index.php/Main_Page">openbox</a>
608 <li><a href="http://pekwm.org/">pekwm</a>
609 <li><a href="http://www.nongnu.org/ratpoison/">ratpoison</a>
610 <li><a href="http://www.plig.org/xwinman/vtwm.html">twm</a>
611 <li><a href="http://www.grassouille.org/code/w9wm/README">w9wm</a>
612 <li><a href="http://www.nickgravgaard.com/windowlab/">windowlab</a>
613 <li><a href="http://www.suckless.org/wiki/wmii">wmii</a>
617 <p>Tip: If you are new to grml and/or prefer an easy-to-use-desktop run 'grml-x
618 wm-ng' for starting fluxbox with idesk and gkrellm.</p>
620 <h3><a name="usbmount"></a><a href="#toc">How do I mount a USB device / USB stick?</a></h3>
622 <p>Run 'mount /mnt/usb-sda1' for example if you want to mount /dev/sda1.
623 Udev on Grml does multiplexing for USB block devices, so /dev/usb-sda1
624 (device for mountpoint /mnt/usb-sda1) is a symlink to /dev/sda1.</p>
626 <h3><a name="lvm"></a><a href="#toc">Where are my LVM devices?</a></h3>
628 <p>LVM (Logival Volumes) is <strong>not</strong> started by default to
629 avoid any possible damage to your data. To get access to present LVM
630 devices just execute:</p>
633 # /etc/init.d/lvm2 start
635 or use the shorter version:
640 <p>If you want to enable LVM by default just boot using the 'lvm'
641 bootoption which automatically enables LVM.</p>
643 <h3><a name="swraid"></a><a href="#toc">Where are my Software-RAID devices?</a></h3>
645 <p>Software-RAID (usually known as the mdadm stuff) is
646 <strong>not</strong> started by default to avoid any possible damage to
647 your data. To get access to present SW-RAID devices just execute:</p>
650 # /etc/init.d/mdadm-raid start
652 or use the shorter version:
657 <p>If you want to enable SW-RAID by default just boot using the 'swraid'
658 bootoption which enables automatic assembling of software raid arrays.</p>
660 <h3><a name="libata"></a><a href="#toc">Why doesn't grml find my disks / doesn't boot?</a></h3>
662 <p>Since release 2008.11 grml uses <a
663 href="http://linux-ata.org/faq.html">libata</a> exclusively (so no
664 longer any old IDE code). Sadly some few (usually pretty old) systems
665 don't boot with libata-only kernels anymore. If you think you've such a
666 system please provide output of 'lspci' <a href="/contact/">to
669 <a name="terminalserver"></a>
670 <h3><a name="booting"></a><a href="#toc">Which ways exist to boot grml?</a></h3>
672 <p>The most common way to boot grml is, of course, running from
673 CD-ROM, but grml provides many more ways to boot grml:</p>
675 <p>It is possible to boot grml via USB (e.g. USB stick or harddisk),
676 firewire, or running from a Compact Flash disk. It works out of the box;
677 you don't need to modify anything. Check out <a
678 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb">the usb webpage in the
679 grml-wiki</a> for more details.</p>
681 <p>Your computer can not boot from CD-ROM but provides a floppy
682 disk? Take a look at <a
683 href="http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/">btmgr</a>, <a
684 href="http://ubcd4win.com/faq.htm#floppy">ubcd4win</a> or <a
685 href="http://linux.simple.be/tools/sbm">sbm</a>. They provide
686 support for booting from CD-ROM via a special floppy disk.</p>
688 <p>grml-terminalserver makes it possible to boot your system via network
690 href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preboot_Execution_Environment">PXE</a>
691 (Preboot Execution Environment). If your network card does not provide
692 support for booting via PXE you can still boot it either using the
693 provided grub image by grml-terminalserver (for example via floppy
694 drive) or using <a href="http://etherboot.org/wiki/index.php">gPXE</a>.
695 For more information, refer to the <a
696 href="/terminalserver/">grml-terminalserver webpage</a>.</p>
698 <h3><a name="timezone"></a><a href="#toc">How do I configure
699 timezone on my grml system?</a></h3>
701 <h4>Available bootoptions relevant in live-cd mode:</h4>
704 <li>utc: set UTC, if your system clock is set to UTC (GMT)
705 <li>gmt: set UTC, if your system clock is set to UTC (GMT) [like bootoption utc]
706 <li>tz=$option: set timezone to corresponding $option, usage example:
710 <h4>Configuration options relevant on harddisk installation:</h4>
715 # dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
718 <p>to adjust /etc/timezone and /etc/localtime according to the
719 provided information.</p>
721 <p><strong>/etc/default/rcS:</strong> set variable UTC according
722 to your needs, whether your system clock is set to UTC
723 (UTC='yes') or not (UTC='no')</p>
725 <p><strong>/etc/localtime:</strong> adjust zoneinfo according to
729 # ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/$WHATEVER_YOU_WANT /etc/localtime
732 <p>The zoneinfo directory contains the time zone files that were
733 compiled by zic. The files contain information such as rules
734 about DST. They allow the kernel to convert UTC UNIX time into
735 appropriate local dates and times. Use the zdump utility to
736 print current time and date (in the specified time zone).</p>
738 <p><strong>/etc/adjtime:</strong> This file is used e.g. by the
739 adjtimex function, which can smoothly adjust system time while
742 <p>If you change the time (using 'date --set ...', ntpdate,...)
743 it is worth setting also the hardware clock to the correct
747 # hwclock --systohc [--utc]
750 <p>Remember to add the --utc -option if the hardware clock is set to
753 <h4>Still problems?</h4>
755 <p>Check your current settings via:</p>
762 grep hwclock /etc/runlevel.conf
763 grep '^UTC' /etc/default/rc
766 <h4>Further information:</h4>
768 <p>Manpages: hwclock(8) tzselect(1) tzconfig(8); <a
769 href="http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/system-administrator/ch-sysadmin-time.html">Debian
770 GNU/Linux System Administrator's Manual Chapter 16 - Time</a> and <a
771 href="http://wiki.debian.org/TimeZoneChanges">TimeZoneChanges in the
774 <h3><a name="hdinstall"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to install grml to harddisk?</a></h3>
776 <p>Yes. Grml provides a tool called <a href="/grml2hd/">grml2hd</a> (see
777 '<a href="/grml2hd/grml2hd.html">man grml2hd</a>'). grml is developed
778 on a box running the grml-system itself, and we - the grml-developers -
779 especially like grml2hd because it gives us a working Linux box within
780 10 to 30 minutes. grml2hd is perfect for prototyping: test hardware
781 support of Linux, test a specific setup, ... You can even use grml2hd in
782 a fully automatic mode without any further interaction.</p>
784 <p>But <strong>please note</strong>: grml2hd does <strong>NOT</strong>
785 provide a Linux distribution for newbies and should be installed to hard
786 disk only if really know what you are doing (or don't care about
787 maintainability, seriously). Please install grml using grml2hd only if
788 can answer all of the following questions with 'sure, YES':</p>
791 <li>Are you used to work with Debian/unstable?
792 <li>Do you know how to report bugs to Debian?
793 <li>Are you aware of the differences between plain Debian and grml?
796 <p><strong>Tip</strong>: If you want to get a plain Debian system take
797 a look at <a href="/grml-debootstrap/">grml-debootstrap</a>.</p>
799 <p><strong>Note:</strong> If you are using grml in a production
800 environment and/or use a grml2hd installation, we strongly recommend you
801 subscribe to <a href="/mailinglist/">the grml user mailinglist</a>!</p>
803 <h2><a name="kernel"></a><a href="#toc">Kernel</a></h2>
805 <h3><a name="kernelconfig"></a><a href="#toc">Where can I find the configuration for the kernel used on
808 <p>See /boot/config-`uname -r` and on <a href="/kernel/">the kernel-webpage</a>.</p>
810 <h3><a name="kernelpatches"></a><a href="#toc">Are there any special components/patches in the kernel
811 used on grml?</a></h3>
813 <p>Grml uses the most current stable vanilla Linux kernel from <a
814 href="http://www.kernel.org/">www.kernel.org</a> with some
815 additional patches. More information and an all-in-one patch is
817 href="/kernel/">kernel-page</a>.</p>
819 <h3><a name="platform"></a><a href="#toc">For which platforms is the grml kernel optimized?</a></h3>
821 <p>Plain i586 compatibility-mode with SMP enabled. (Note: of course it
822 works for uniprocessor systems as well)</p>
824 <h2><a name="software"></a><a href="#toc">Software</a></h2>
826 <h3><a name="sw_general"></a><a href="#toc">General</a></h3>
828 <p>Want to run a program as root? Just use "sudo $PROGRAM". To get a
829 root-shell run "sudo -i".</p>
831 <p>Problems with a specific package? Please try "dpkg-reconfigure $foo".
832 Still encountering difficulties? Please send us a <a
833 href="/bugs/">bugreport</a>.</p>
835 <h3><a name="sw_version"></a><a href="#toc">Which package(s) and which
836 version is available?</a></h3>
838 <p>If you want to get details about the provided packages and the
839 package versions without booting the grml ISO check out the dpkg_...
840 files in the <a href="/files/#debian">Debian-Information section on
841 grml.org/files/</a>.</p>
843 <h3><a name="init"></a><a href="#toc">Init-System</a></h3>
845 <p>Why is grml using runlevel 2 as default? Because runlevel 2 is 'the
846 textonly one' and it is Debian's default.</p>
848 <p>Where are all the /etc/rc#.d-directories? grml doesn't use sysv-rc
849 but <a href="http://packages.debian.org/sid/file-rc">file-rc</a>. This
850 means you can configure the init system in one single file named
851 /etc/runlevel.conf with your favourite editor. No symlink-hell
854 <h3><a name="zsh"></a><a href="#toc">Why is zsh the default shell?</a></h3>
856 <p>Short answer: because <a href="/zsh/">Zsh rocks</a>, really!</p>
858 <p>Longer answer taken from <a
859 href="http://zsh.sunsite.dk/FAQ/zshfaq01.html#l3">ZSH FAQ: 1.2: What is
862 <cite> Zsh is a UNIX command interpreter (shell) which of the standard shells most
863 resembles the Korn shell (ksh); its compatibility with the 1988 Korn shell has been
864 gradually increasing. It includes enhancements of many types, notably in the
865 command-line editor, options for customising its behaviour, filename globbing, features
866 to make C-shell (csh) users feel more at home and extra features drawn from tcsh
867 (another `custom' shell).</cite>
869 <p>If you don't know zsh take a look at <a
870 href="http://zsh.sunsite.dk/FAQ/zshfaq02.html#l9">ZSH FAQ: How does zsh
871 differ from ...?</a>, 'man zsh | less -p COMPATIBILITY', the <a
872 href="/zsh/">grml zsh reference card</a> and '<a
873 href="/zsh/">man zsh-lovers</a>'.</p>
875 <p>If you are a bash user and don't know zsh yet, don't be afraid. bash
876 is largely a subset of zsh and you don't have to throw away your
877 knowledge about shell stuff.</p>
879 <h3><a name="zsh_binsh"></a><a href="#toc">Wasn't zsh the /bin/sh interpreter?</a></h3>
881 <p>Yes, until Grml 0.6 zsh was the interpreter for /bin/sh. Starting
882 with release 0.7 Grml used /bin/bash as /bin/sh and nowadays /bin/dash
883 is used for /bin/sh (that's what Debian does as well). The reason?
884 Using zsh as default /bin/sh interpreter leads to some problems,
885 especially since Debian does not care to support zsh as /bin/sh overall.
887 href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=329288">#329288</a>
889 href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=340058">#340058</a>
892 <h3><a name="bash"></a><a href="#toc">Is a bash available?</a></h3>
894 <p>Grml uses <a href="#zsh">zsh</a> as the default interactive shell
895 but, of course, a current version of bash (and many other shells as
896 well) is provided by grml.</p>
898 <h3><a name="configuration"></a><a href="#toc">Where can I find the configuration of zsh, GNU screen,...?</a></h3>
901 href="http://michael-prokop.at/blog/2007/12/22/make-console-work-comfortable/">'Make
902 console work comfortable'</a>.</p>
904 <h3><a name="truecrypt">Why isn't Truecrypt available within grml?</a></h3>
906 <p>Because Truecrypt is licensed under a specific license named
907 'TrueCrypt License' which doesn't permit us to distribute Truecrypt (since at least
908 license version 2.6).
909 See <a href="http://www.truecrypt.org/legal/license">section VI/4 of the
910 license</a> for details. The Ubuntu version from <a
911 href="http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads">truecrypt.org/downloads</a> is
912 known to work under Grml.</p>
914 <h3><a name="grub"></a><a href="#toc">grub does not work on my system?!</a></h3>
916 <p>Looks like you used mkfs.ext3 from grml but are using an old grub
917 version. Notice that older versions of grub do not support 256 byte
918 inodes on ext3, being the default in recent versions of mkfs/e2fsprogs.
919 More information is available at <a
920 href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=463236">#463236</a>
921 in the Debian bug tracking system.</p>
923 <h2><a name="xserver"></a><a href="#toc">X-Server</a></h2>
925 <h3><a name="xstart"></a><a href="#toc">How do I start the X server?</a></h3>
927 <p>Please use 'grml-x' as user grml for starting X on the live-cd. It
928 generates the config file /etc/X11/xorg.conf and lets you start commands on
929 startup (see ~/.xinitrc). Use it, for example, via switching to TTY4 (press
930 Alt+F4) and run the following command to start wm-ng (window manager fluxbox
931 with idesk and gkrellm):</p>
936 <p>If you have /etc/X11/xorg.conf already you can use 'startx' instead of
937 grml-x of course. Adjust ~/.xinitrc to your needs.</p>
939 <h3><a name="xproblem"></a><a href="#toc">X does not start on my box?!</a></h3>
941 <p>grml-x supports several options. If you want to set some special options
942 please take a look at the grml-x manpage (man grml-x). Some usage examples:</p>
945 grml-x --module vesa fluxbox # start fluxbox and use vesa module
946 grml-x --mode '800x600' fluxbox # set resolution to 800x600 and start fluxbox
947 grml-x --display 8 fluxbox # start fluxbox on display 8
948 grml-x --force --nostart fluxbox # force creation of xconfig file and don't start X server
949 grml-x --hsync 60 fluxbox # set horizontal frequency and start fluxbox
950 grml-x --hsync 60 --vsync 40 fluxbox # set horizontal and vertical sync frequencies and start fluxbox
953 <h3><a name="xresolution"></a><a href="#toc">I don't like the resolution of X!</a></h3>
955 <p>Just run xrandr to switch the resolution during runtime of X. For
956 example: 'xrandr -s 1024x768'.</p>
958 <h2><a name="stuff"></a><a href="#toc">Support / Unanswered stuff</a></h2>
960 <h3><a name="questions"></a><a href="#toc">Further questions</a></h3>
962 <p>Do you have a question which is not answered in the FAQ or in the
963 provided <a href="/docs/">documentation</a> (execute
964 "grml-info" on your grml-system for offline documentation)?
965 Also check out 'grml-tips $KEYWORD' on your grml-system. Take a look at
966 <a href="/">the grml website</a> and <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
967 grml-wiki</a>. A good place to become part of the community is the <a
968 href="/mailinglist/">grml mailinglist</a>. Please don't hesitate to <a
969 href="/contact/">contact us</a>.</p>
971 <h3><a name="support"></a><a href="#toc">Commercial Support</a></h3>
973 <p>You want to deploy Grml in your data center, use it as part of your
974 business or have an emergency case? You're happy with Grml but would
975 like to get your very own live cd (providing your favourite software
976 selection, special configuration, setup and your bootsplash)? As part of
977 our business we do provide commercial support, feel free to <a
978 href="http://grml-solutions.com/">contact us at Grml
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