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29 <h1 align="center">FAQ for grml</h1>
31 <p><strong>Up2date:</strong> 2011-05-28 - applies to Grml releases version 2011.05</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 $OTHER-DISTRIBUTION? What are the main goals?</a></li>
46 <li><a href="#knoppix">What's the difference between grml and Knoppix?</a></li>
47 <li><a href="#accessibility">What does accessibility at grml mean?</a></li>
48 <li><a href="#bootoptions">Which bootoptions does grml support?</a></li>
49 <li><a href="#emulation">Is it possible to run grml with $EMULATOR?</a></li>
50 <li><a href="#usbboot">How do I boot grml from a USB stick?</a></li>
51 <li><a href="#store">Is it possible to store my settings?</a></li>
52 <li><a href="#persistency">Is a persistency feature available?</a></li>
55 <p class="toc"><a href="#grmlmedium">grml-medium</a> / <a
56 href="#grmlsmall">grml-small</a> / <a
57 href="#grml64">grml64</a>:</p>
59 <li><a href="#whatismedium">What is grml-medium?</a></li>
60 <li><a href="#whatissmall">What is grml-small?</a></li>
61 <li><a href="#whatisgrml64">What is grml64?</a></li>
62 <li><a href="#whatismedium64">What is grml64-medium?</a></li>
63 <li><a href="#whatissmall64">What is grml64-small?</a></li>
64 <li><a href="#grml64vsnormal">What is the difference between 32 bit grml and 64 bit grml?</a></li>
65 <li><a href="#smallvsnormal">What is the difference between 'normal' grml and grml-small?</a></li>
66 <li><a href="#grmlvsdsl">What is the difference between grml-small and DSL?</a></li>
69 <p class="toc"><a href="#problems">Problems</a>:</p>
71 <li><a href="#known_issues">Are there any known issues with this release?</a></li>
72 <li><a href="#hardware">I have problems with my hardware!</a></li>
73 <li><a href="#boot">grml does not boot on my computer!</a></li>
74 <li><a href="#fbprobs">I don't see anything when booting grml?!</a></li>
75 <li><a href="#utf8">I have problems with UTF-8 / Unicode</a></li>
76 <li><a href="#grml2hdhang">grml2hd seems to hang?!</a></li>
77 <li><a href="#cifsshare">Booting grml-small via PXE using a CIFS share fails</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="#isolinux">Where's the old bootsplash?</a></li>
85 <li><a href="#configure">Which tools exist to configure grml?</a></li>
86 <li><a href="#password">What are the passwords of users on grml?</a></li>
87 <li><a href="#version">How do I find out the version of grml</a></li>
88 <li><a href="#remove_cd">Is it possible to run LiveCD and eject CD-ROM?</a></li>
89 <li><a href="#language">How do I change the language/keyboard settings?</a></li>
90 <li><a href="#kde_and_foo">KDE, Gnome, $FOO and $BAR</a></li>
91 <li><a href="#wms">Which window managers can I use?</a></li>
92 <li><a href="#usbmount">How do I mount a USB device / USB stick?</a></li>
93 <li><a href="#lvm">Where are my LVM devices?</a></li>
94 <li><a href="#swraid">Where are my Software-RAID devices?</a></li>
95 <li><a href="libata">Why doesn't grml find my disks / doesn't boot?</a></li>
96 <li><a href="#booting">Which ways exist to boot grml?</a></li>
97 <li><a href="#timezone">How do I configure timezone on my grml system?</a></li>
98 <li><a href="#hdinstall">Is it possible to install grml to harddisk?</a></li>
101 <p class="toc"><a href="#kernel">Kernel</a>:</p>
103 <li><a href="#kernelconfig">Where can I find the configuration for the kernel used on grml?</a></li>
104 <li><a href="#kernelpatches">Are there any special components/patches in the kernel used on grml?</a></li>
105 <li><a href="#platform">For which platforms is the grml kernel optimized?</a></li>
108 <p class="toc"><a href="#software">Software:</a></p>
110 <li><a href="#sw_general">General</a></li>
111 <li><a href="#sw_version">Which package(s) and which version is available?</a></li>
112 <li><a href="#init">Init-System</a></li>
113 <li><a href="#zsh">Why is zsh the default shell?</a></li>
114 <li><a href="#zsh_binsh">Wasn't zsh the /bin/sh interpreter?</a></li>
115 <li><a href="#bash">Is a bash available?</a></li>
116 <li><a href="#configuration">Where can I find the configuration of zsh, GNU screen,...?</a></li>
117 <li><a href="#truecrypt">Why isn't Truecrypt available within grml?</a></li>
118 <li><a href="#grub">grub does not work on my system?!</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> if you're
156 interested in commercial support.</p>
158 <h3><a name="whatmeans"></a><a href="#toc">What does grml mean?</a></h3>
160 <p>Grml comes close to 'argl' or 'grrr' in English. People use this when
161 they want to express their dissatisfaction/discontentedness with
162 software (amongst other things):</p>
165 $ grep -ch grml .centericq/**/history | xargs echo | \
166 sed 's/[0-9]*/& + /g' | sed 's/+ $//g' | bc -l
169 <h3><a name="pronounce"></a><a href="#toc">How do you pronounce grml?</a></h3>
172 % flite -o play -t gremel</pre>
174 $ echo 'ghroummel' | festival \-\-tts
177 <h3><a name="releasename"></a><a href="#toc">What about the release name?</a></h3>
179 <p>Codename of Grml 2011.05 is "Just Mari". It's a dedication to someone special.
182 <h3><a name="requirements"></a><a href="#toc">Requirements for running grml</a></h3>
186 <li>Intel-compatible CPU (i586 or later, preferably Pentium class or higher)</li>
188 <li>grml/grml-medium: at least 64MB of RAM (for stable use with
189 ramdisks for aufs and udev and when running X window system we
190 recommend at least 128MB)</li>
192 <li>grml-small: at least 32MB RAM should be available</li>
194 <li>either a bootable CD-ROM drive or <a href="#usbboot">USB-boot
195 capable system</a> (for booting via network/PXE check out <a
196 href="#terminalserver">grml-terminalserver</a>)</li>
200 <h3><a name="why"></a><a href="#toc">Why another Linux distribution?</a></h3>
202 <p>There already exist "<a
203 href="http://www.distrowatch.com/">some</a>" distributions. We
204 decided to base our work on the existing infrastructure of <a
205 href="http://debian.org/">Debian</a> because we don't want to reinvent
206 the wheel. Some admins already use their own rescue CD, Knoppix works
207 but does not bring that many important tools for admins and users of
208 texttools out of the box. Therefor we decided to share our work with
209 others and provide the swiss army knife for sysadmins and texttool
212 <h3><a name="license"></a><a href="#toc">What's the license of grml?</a></h3>
214 <p>Anything written by the grml team is published under the GPL (<a
215 href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU General Public
216 License</a>). You don't have to pay anything for using grml. If you want
217 a special Live-CD or need commercial support, take a look at <a
218 href="http://grml-solutions.com/">Grml Solutions</a>.</p>
220 <h3><a name="difference"></a><a href="#toc">What's the difference between grml and
221 $OTHER-DISTRIBUTION? What are the main goals?</a></h3>
223 <p>The main goal of grml is to be a distribution well suited for
224 sysadmins and users of texttools. Grml includes all the tools for
225 admin's daily work (lvm, mdadm, dd/ddrescue,...) as well as many
226 important texttools (of course awk, sed, grep, ... but also zsh,
227 mutt[ng], slrn, vim and many others). Grml uses the existing
228 infrastructure of <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>. Grml was
229 once based on <a href="http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/">Knoppix</a> (see
230 '<a href="#knoppix">What's the difference between grml and Knoppix?</a>'
231 for more details). We are also merging useful things from other
232 distributions/live-cds to provide a perfect environment.</p>
234 <h3><a name="knoppix"></a><a href="#toc">What's the difference between grml and Knoppix?</a></h3>
236 <p>Grml comes with a vastly different set of software. Missing KDE and
237 OpenOffice provides the opportunity of shipping more than 800 packages
238 which Knoppix does not provide on its CD version. Grml boots a recent
239 2.6 kernel but no X by default for faster startup. Knoppix is based on
240 Debian/testing-experimental (using apt-pinning), but grml is basically
241 based on plain Debian/unstable providing more current versions of
242 software. Grml was once based on Knoppix but nowadays has nothing in
243 common with Knoppix:</p>
247 # find / -iname \*knoppix\*
250 <p>We consider Knoppix as a brand name for live-cds nowadays and provide
251 most of Knoppix' features as well. Grml uses (mostly) the same <a
252 href="http://git.grml.org/?p=grml-live.git;a=blob_plain;f=templates/GRML/grml-cheatcodes.txt;hb=HEAD">cheatcodes</a>
253 for booting as Knoppix and even provides some extra ones. So if you are
254 used to the basic Knoppix features you usually find them on the
255 grml system as well.</p>
257 <h3><a name="accessibility"></a><a href="#toc">What does accessibility at grml mean?</a></h3>
259 <p>The Grml kernel includes <a href="/kernel/#speakup">support for
260 speakup</a> and provides software like brltty (using bootoption 'grml
261 blind brltty=type,port,tbl') and flite.</p>
263 <h3><a name="bootoptions"></a><a href="#toc">Which bootoptions does Grml support?</a></h3>
266 href="http://git.grml.org/?p=grml-live.git;a=blob_plain;f=templates/GRML/grml-cheatcodes.txt;hb=HEAD">grml-cheatcodes
267 file</a> (also available via <a href="http://grml.org/cheatcodes/">grml.org/cheatcodes/</a>). Of
269 href="http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt">kernel-parameters.txt</a>
270 of the Linux kernel applies to Grml as well.</p>
272 <h3><a name="emulation"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to run Grml with $EMULATOR?</a></h3>
274 <p>Sure, Grml works with(in) several emulators and virtual environments,
276 <a href="http://www.linux-kvm.org/">KVM</a>,
277 <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/">MS Virtual PC</a>,
278 <a href="http://fabrice.bellard.free.fr/qemu/">QEMU</a>
279 <a href="http://www.virtualbox.org/">Virtualbox</a> and
280 <a href="http://www.vmware.com/">VMware</a>.
283 <h3><a name="usbboot"></a><a href="#toc">How do I boot Grml from a USB stick?</a></h3>
286 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb#grml2usb">grml2usb</a> at the
287 <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb">usb webpage in the
290 <h3><a name="store"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to store my settings?</a></h3>
292 <p>Yes. Grml provides a config framework, check out <a
293 href="/config/">grml.org/config/</a>, <a
294 href="file:///usr/share/doc/grml-saveconfig/grml-config.html">/usr/share/doc/grml-saveconfig/grml-config.html</a>
295 and 'man grml-autoconfig save-config restore-config mkpersistenthome' for more
296 details. Starting with release 2009.05 a <a
297 href="#persistency">persistency option</a> is
300 <h3><a name="persistency"></a><a href="#doc">Is a persistency feature available?</a></h3>
302 <p>Starting with release 2009.05 a persistency feature is available. Use
304 href="http://grml.org/online-docs/live-snapshot.en.1.html">live-snapshot</a>
305 (man live-snapshot) and the bootoption 'persistent' for enabling
308 <a name="grmlmedium"></a><a name="grmlsmall"></a><a name="grml64"></a>
309 <h2></a><a href="#toc">grml-medium / grml-small / grml64?</a></h2>
311 <h3><a name="whatismedium"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml-medium?</a></h3>
313 <p>grml-medium is a grml-flavour which tries to close the gap between <a
314 href="#whatissmall">grml-small</a> and <a
315 href="#whatis">normal/large/full version of grml</a>. grml-medium is an
316 ISO with a size of ~200MB providing the most important packages a
317 sysadmin usually needs. It provides the same <a href="/kernel/">kernel
318 version</a> as normal grml does so you can easily integrate and use some
319 further existing external modules as well. The X.org server is shipped
320 as well as the window manager fluxbox. Take a look at the <a
321 href="/files/">'Debian-Information'-section</a> if you are searching for
323 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=accessibility">accessibility
324 features</a> are <strong>NOT</strong> available/supported on grml-medium
327 <h3><a name="whatissmall"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml-small?</a></h3>
329 <p>Whereas grml provides about 2.3GB of software on a 700 MB ISO,
330 grml-small is a flavor with about 100 MB ISO-size (~275 MB
331 uncompressed). It does not provide a lot of software (for example no
332 X.org and no man pages) but the essential stuff for being a rescue
333 system on a business card CD-ROM or a small USB device. You can use the
334 Debian package management system to install software on the fly
335 (assuming you have network access to a Debian mirror). It provides the
336 same <a href="/kernel/">kernel version</a> as normal grml does so you
337 can easily integrate and use some further existing external modules as
338 well. Take a look at the <a
339 href="/files/">'Debian-Information'-section</a> if you are searching for
340 the package list.</p>
342 <h3><a name="whatisgrml64"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml64?</a></h3>
344 <p>grml64 is a 64bit-version of grml, based on <a
345 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/amd64/">the amd64 port of
348 <h3><a name="whatismedium64"></a><a href="#toc">What is grml64-medium?</a></h3>
350 <p>grml64-medium is the 64bit version of <a href="#whatismedium">grml-medium</a>.</p>
352 <h3><a name="whatissmall64">What is grml64-small?</a></h3>
354 <p>grml64-small is the 64bit version of <a href="#whatissmall">grml-small</a>.</p>
356 <h3><a name="grml64vsnormal"></a><a href="#toc">What is the difference between 32 bit grml and 64 bit grml?</a></h3>
358 <p>The main difference of course is that grml64 is a 64bit-version
359 whereas (normal) grml is 32bit-only. grml64 provides a 64bit kernel
360 which supports 32bit userspace applications. grml64 also provides
361 libc6-i386 and libc6-dev-i386. Due to space reasons and because some
362 packages aren't available for amd64 (yet) some few packages are missing on
363 grml64 compared to (normal, 32bit) grml.</p>
365 <h3><a name="smallvsnormal"></a><a href="#toc">What is the
366 difference between 'normal' grml and grml-small?</a></h3>
368 <p>The 700MB-grml brings more than 2500 software packages. grml-small
369 includes about 300 software packages, lacks documentation and manpages
370 on the ISO. <a href="#terminalserver">grml-terminalserver</a> and <a
371 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=accessibility">accessibility
372 features</a> are <strong>not</strong> available/supported on
375 <h3><a name="grmlvsdsl"></a><a href="#toc">What is the
376 difference between grml-small and DSL?</a></h3>
378 <p>DSL (Damns Small Linux) and grml-small have different target
379 audiences. <a href="http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/">Damn Small Linux</a>
380 (DSL) uses kernel version 2.4 whereas grml-small provides a recent
381 version of kernel version 2.6. DSL provides the X window system which
382 grml-small does not. grml-small on the other hand provides the most
383 important packages for sysadmins and ships the original Debian package
384 management which allows you to install packages of the Debian pool with
385 no modifications.</p>
387 <h2><a name="problems"></a><a href="#toc">Problems</a></h2>
389 <a name="release"></a> <!-- old anchor -->
390 <h3><a name="known_issues"></a><a href="#toc">Are there any known issues with this release?</a></h3>
392 <p>We won't hide anything. Therefore, we do provide all known
393 issues/bugs publicly available:</p>
397 <li><a href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=grml_2011.05">issues regarding
398 grml 2011.05</a> in <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the grml-wiki</a></li>
399 <li><a href="http://bts.grml.org/">Grml bug tracking system</a></li>
403 <p>If you find another bug, or consider something a problem not yet
404 mentioned <a href="#bugreport">please report it</a>.</p>
406 <h3><a name="hardware"></a><a href="#toc">I have problems with my hardware!</a></h3>
408 <p>Take a look at the script grml-hwinfo. This script generates a file
409 named info.tar.bz2 which contains important information about your
410 hardware. If you think we might help, please run grml-hwinfo and <a
411 href="/contact/">send us the file</a> with additional, relevant
412 information regarding your problem.</p>
414 <h3><a name="boot"></a><a href="#toc">grml does not boot on my computer!</a></h3>
416 <p>Please take a look at <a
417 href="http://git.grml.org/?p=grml-live.git;a=blob_plain;f=templates/GRML/grml-cheatcodes.txt;hb=HEAD">the
418 available bootparamters and cheatcodes</a> and '<a href="#booting">Which
419 ways exist to boot grml?</a>'. Especially booting with 'acpi=off noapm
420 noapic' might help. The bootparameter 'failsafe' provides minimal
421 hardware detection using some special bootoptions (please do NOT boot
422 with 'grml failsafe' but with 'failsafe' as first word of the boot
423 commandline) . If booting hangs during stage "Waiting for /dev to
424 be fully populated" please try booting with 'grml noudev'. If you
425 don't even see the bootsplash of the grml-ISO your BIOS might be broken
426 (pretty common especially on old hardware). Please consider using <a
427 href="http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/">btmgr</a> then for booting your
428 system. Also check out the <a
429 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=problems">problems webpage</a> in
430 <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the grml-wiki</a>. You still have
431 problems? Feel free to <a href="/contact/">contact us</a>.</p>
433 <h3><a name="fbprobs"></a><a href="#toc">I don't see anything when booting grml?!</a></h3>
435 <p>Likely, this is a problem with the vesafb framebuffer. Try to boot
436 with the 'Disable Framebuffer' menuentry (available behind the submenu
437 'Boot options for ...') or manually ad 'vga=normal' to the kernel
438 command line (press TAB to edit a menu entry and add 'vga=normal'
441 <h3><a name="utf8"></a><a href="#toc">I have problems with UTF-8 / Unicode</a></h3>
444 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=utf8">UTF8-webpage in the
447 <h3><a name="grml2hdhang"></a><a href="#toc">grml2hd seems to hang?!</a></h3>
449 <p>grml2hd seems to hang? Switch to tty12 and take a look at the syslog output.
450 If you see something like:</p>
453 SQUASHFS error: zlib_fs returned unexpected result 0x........
454 SQUASHFS error: Unable to read cache block [.....]
455 SQUASHFS error: Unable to read inode [.....]</pre>
457 <p>your ISO/CD-ROM <em>very</em> probably is NOT ok. Verify it via
458 booting with grml testcd if that works, or even better check your CD
459 low-level via running:</p>
462 # readcd -c2scan dev=/dev/cdrom</pre>
464 <p>If the medium really is ok and it still fails try to boot with
465 DMA deactivated via 'grml nodma ide=nodma libata.dma=0' at the bootprompt.</p>
467 <h3><a name="cifsshare"></a><a href="#toc">Booting grml-small via PXE using a CIFS share fails</a></h3>
469 <p>When trying to boot grml-small[64] via PXE (network boot) using a
470 CIFS share this will fail because grml-small[64] lacks cifs-utils.
471 cifs-utils would consume >14MB of additional disk space - that's why
472 it isn't part of the release. But there's a simple workaround: you can
473 take the initrd and kernel from the regular grml flavour and use just
474 the squashfs from grml-small[64].</p>
476 <h3><a name="missingfiles"></a><a href="#toc">I noticed some files are missing on grml</a></h3>
478 <p>Yes, output of 'debsums -a 1>/dev/null' might output some
479 failures. The reason is pretty simple: some few modification have been
480 done either because they are required for the provided environment or
481 because of space limitiations on the ISO. The failures are nothing to
482 really care about, but as we don't hide anything we thought it might be
483 worth mentioning.</p>
485 <h3><a name="bugreport"></a><a href="#toc">Bugreport</a></h3>
487 <p>Searching for a bug? Want to report a bug? Take a look at the <a
488 href="/bugs/">bugs webpage</a>.</p>
490 <h2><a name="system"></a><a href="#toc">System</a></h2>
492 <h3><a name="isolinux"></a><a href="#toc">Where's the old bootsplash?</a></h3>
494 <p>Starting with release 2009.10 Grml provides a menu based bootsplash.
495 To adjust boot options just press the TAB-key. To directly switch to the
496 old-style isolinux cmdline just press the escape key within 30 seconds. If you
497 still need access to the old bootsplash layout (including the f2, f3,...
498 pages with further information regarding available bootoptions)
499 select the entry 'Isolinux prompt' in the menu based bootsplash (just
500 press 'i' and ENTER for direct access to it). The timeout until either
501 the selected entry is booted (if specified) or until the system will
502 restore from the cmdline to the menu based bootsplash is 30 seconds.</p>
504 <h3><a name="configure"></a><a href="#toc">Which tools exist to configure grml?</a></h3>
506 <p>Grml provides several scripts and tools which should make life
507 easier. See 'dpkg -L grml-scripts' to get an overview of some main
508 scripts. Run 'grml-config' to get a dialog interface for the most
509 important scripts and tasks. Or just type 'grml-' and press tab-key to
510 get a completion menu in the shell.</p>
512 <h3><a name="password"></a><a href="#toc">What are the passwords of users on grml?</a></h3>
514 <p>There are no default passwords - all accounts are locked by default
515 for security reasons. Even local logins are not possible (unless you set
516 a password or create new user accounts as root). You can create valid
517 passwords using "sudo passwd [username]" from the shell
520 <h3><a name="version"></a><a href="#toc">How do I find out the version of grml</a></h3>
522 <p>Run 'grml-version' or use the following command:</p>
525 $ cat /etc/grml_version</pre>
527 <h3><a name="remove_cd"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to run LiveCD and eject CD-ROM?</a></h3>
530 % sudo umount -l /live/image
531 % sudo eject /dev/cdrom # now don't run any new programs unless you booted using 'toram'
532 % mount /dev/cdrom # mount it again if needed
535 <h3><a name="language"></a><a href="#toc">How do I change the language/keyboard settings?</a></h3>
537 <p>By default grml uses english settings. But it is possible to
538 change the settings via using either the bootparam(s) lang,
539 keyboard and xkeyboard or via executing grml-lang when grml is
540 already running. Usage examples:</p>
543 grml lang=de # enter this at the bootprompt and you will get
544 # german keyboard layout and german $LANG, $LC_ALL,
546 grml keyboard=de xkeyboard=de lang=at # enter this at the bootprompt
547 # and you will get german keyboard and austrian
549 % grml-lang de # enter this in the shell to switch keyboard layout
550 # and $LANG settings in a running grml-system
553 <p>If you are running grml from harddisk (using <a
554 href="#hdinstall">grml2hd</a>) you have several options how to set
555 language options:</p>
559 <li>adjust /etc/default/locale to configure global language and
560 environment settings</li>
562 <li>set environment variables like $LC_ALL, $LANG, $LANGUAGE in your
563 personal configuration files (like ~/.zshrc.local, see <a
564 href="/zsh/">grml zsh reference card</a> for details)
565 if you do not want to use them system wide/global</li>
567 <li>adjust /etc/sysconfig/keyboard to configure keyboard layout
568 on console, or run 'loadkeys $KEYTABLE' manually</li>
570 <li>add "setxkbmap $LANGUAGE" to the keybindings section in
571 your ~/.xinitrc to configure keyboard setup for the X window system
572 (deactivate the xmodmap lines if necessary)</li>
576 <p>Note: run grml-setlang to get a dialog based frontend for
577 /etc/default/locale. Run grml-setkeyboard to get a dialog based frontend
578 for /etc/sysconfig/keyboard.</p>
580 <h3><a name="kde_and_foo"></a><a href="#toc">KDE, Gnome, $FOO and $BAR</a></h3>
582 <p>Why isn't KDE, Gnome, $FOO or $BAR part of grml? grml is a
583 distribution for users of texttools and sysadmins. If you would like to
584 run KDE with Debian use e.g. <a href="http://sidux.com/">Sidux</a> or <a
585 href="http://www.kubuntu.org/">Kubuntu</a>. Gnome users might find <a
586 href="http://www.ubuntulinux.org/">Ubuntu</a> useful. If you would like
587 to see a specific (software) package added to grml please <a
588 href="/report/">report it to us</a>!</p>
590 <h3><a name="wms"></a><a href="#toc">Which window managers can I use?</a></h3>
592 <p>Grml is shipped with a few selected window managers which are
593 lightweight and fast - so well suited for a live system. At the moment,
594 Grml provides the following window managers:</p>
597 <li><a href="http://awesome.naquadah.org/">awesome</a>
598 <li><a href="http://www.fluxbox.org/">fluxbox</a>
599 <li><a href="http://i3.zekjur.net/">i3</a>
600 <li><a href="http://icculus.org/openbox/index.php/Main_Page">openbox</a>
601 <li><a href="http://www.nongnu.org/ratpoison/">ratpoison</a>
602 <li><a href="http://www.suckless.org/wiki/wmii">wmii</a>
607 <li><a href="http://awesome.naquadah.org/">awesome</a>
608 <li><a href="http://wmii.de/dwm/">dwm</a>
609 <li><a href="http://www.6809.org.uk/evilwm/">evilwm</a>
610 <li><a href="http://www.fluxbox.org/">fluxbox</a>
611 <li><a href="http://www.fvwm.org/">fvwm</a>
612 <li><a href="http://fvwm-crystal.org/">fvwm-crystal</a>
613 <li><a href="http://joewing.net/programs/jwm/index.shtml">jwm</a>
614 <li><a href="http://icculus.org/openbox/index.php/Main_Page">openbox</a>
615 <li><a href="http://pekwm.org/">pekwm</a>
616 <li><a href="http://www.plig.org/xwinman/vtwm.html">twm</a>
617 <li><a href="http://www.grassouille.org/code/w9wm/README">w9wm</a>
618 <li><a href="http://www.nickgravgaard.com/windowlab/">windowlab</a>
619 <li><a href="http://www.suckless.org/wiki/wmii">wmii</a>
623 <p>Tip: If you are new to grml and/or prefer an easy-to-use-desktop run 'grml-x
624 wm-ng' for starting fluxbox with idesk and gkrellm.</p>
626 <h3><a name="usbmount"></a><a href="#toc">How do I mount a USB device / USB stick?</a></h3>
628 <p>Run 'mount /mnt/usb-sda1' for example if you want to mount /dev/sda1.
629 Udev on Grml does multiplexing for USB block devices, so /dev/usb-sda1
630 (device for mountpoint /mnt/usb-sda1) is a symlink to /dev/sda1.</p>
632 <h3><a name="lvm"></a><a href="#toc">Where are my LVM devices?</a></h3>
634 <p>LVM (Logival Volumes) is <strong>not</strong> started by default to
635 avoid any possible damage to your data. To get access to present LVM
636 devices just execute:</p>
639 # /etc/init.d/lvm2 start
641 or use the shorter version:
646 <p>If you want to enable LVM by default just boot using the 'lvm'
647 bootoption which automatically enables LVM.</p>
649 <h3><a name="swraid"></a><a href="#toc">Where are my Software-RAID devices?</a></h3>
651 <p>Software-RAID (usually known as the mdadm stuff) is
652 <strong>not</strong> started by default to avoid any possible damage to
653 your data. To get access to present SW-RAID devices just execute:</p>
656 # /etc/init.d/mdadm-raid start
658 or use the shorter version:
663 <p>If you want to enable SW-RAID by default just boot using the 'swraid'
664 bootoption which enables automatic assembling of software raid arrays.</p>
666 <h3><a name="libata"></a><a href="#toc">Why doesn't grml find my disks / doesn't boot?</a></h3>
668 <p>Starting with release 2008.11 grml uses <a
669 href="http://linux-ata.org/faq.html">libata</a> exclusively (so no
670 longer any old IDE code). Sadly some few (usually pretty old) systems
671 don't boot with libata-only kernels anymore. If you think you've such a
672 system please provide output of 'lspci' <a href="/contact/">to
675 <a name="terminalserver"></a>
676 <h3><a name="booting"></a><a href="#toc">Which ways exist to boot grml?</a></h3>
678 <p>The most common way to boot grml is, of course, running from
679 CD-ROM, but grml provides many more ways to boot grml:</p>
681 <p>It is possible to boot grml via USB (e.g. USB stick or harddisk),
682 firewire, or running from a Compact Flash disk. It works out of the box;
683 you don't need to modify anything. Check out <a
684 href="http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=usb">the usb webpage in the
685 grml-wiki</a> for more details.</p>
687 <p>Your computer can not boot from CD-ROM but provides a floppy
688 disk? Take a look at <a
689 href="http://btmgr.sourceforge.net/">btmgr</a>, <a
690 href="http://ubcd4win.com/faq.htm#floppy">ubcd4win</a> or <a
691 href="http://linux.simple.be/tools/sbm">sbm</a>. They provide
692 support for booting from CD-ROM via a special floppy disk.</p>
694 <p>grml-terminalserver makes it possible to boot your system via network
696 href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preboot_Execution_Environment">PXE</a>
697 (Preboot Execution Environment). If your network card does not provide
698 support for booting via PXE you can still boot it either using the
699 provided grub image by grml-terminalserver (for example via floppy
700 drive) or using <a href="http://etherboot.org/wiki/index.php">gPXE</a>.
701 For more information, refer to the <a
702 href="/terminalserver/">grml-terminalserver webpage</a>.</p>
704 <h3><a name="timezone"></a><a href="#toc">How do I configure
705 timezone on my grml system?</a></h3>
707 <h4>Available bootoptions relevant in live-cd mode:</h4>
710 <li>utc: set UTC, if your system clock is set to UTC (GMT)
711 <li>gmt: set UTC, if your system clock is set to UTC (GMT) [like bootoption utc]
712 <li>tz=$option: set timezone to corresponding $option, usage example:
716 <h4>Configuration options relevant on harddisk installation:</h4>
721 # dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
724 <p>to adjust /etc/timezone and /etc/localtime according to the
725 provided information.</p>
727 <p><strong>/etc/default/rcS:</strong> set variable UTC according
728 to your needs, whether your system clock is set to UTC
729 (UTC='yes') or not (UTC='no')</p>
731 <p><strong>/etc/localtime:</strong> adjust zoneinfo according to
735 # ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/$WHATEVER_YOU_WANT /etc/localtime
738 <p>The zoneinfo directory contains the time zone files that were
739 compiled by zic. The files contain information such as rules
740 about DST. They allow the kernel to convert UTC UNIX time into
741 appropriate local dates and times. Use the zdump utility to
742 print current time and date (in the specified time zone).</p>
744 <p><strong>/etc/adjtime:</strong> This file is used e.g. by the
745 adjtimex function, which can smoothly adjust system time while
748 <p>If you change the time (using 'date --set ...', ntpdate,...)
749 it is worth setting also the hardware clock to the correct
753 # hwclock --systohc [--utc]
756 <p>Remember to add the --utc -option if the hardware clock is set to
759 <h4>Still problems?</h4>
761 <p>Check your current settings via:</p>
768 grep hwclock /etc/runlevel.conf
769 grep '^UTC' /etc/default/rc
772 <h4>Further information:</h4>
774 <p>Manpages: hwclock(8) tzselect(1) tzconfig(8); <a
775 href="http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/system-administrator/ch-sysadmin-time.html">Debian
776 GNU/Linux System Administrator's Manual Chapter 16 - Time</a> and <a
777 href="http://wiki.debian.org/TimeZoneChanges">TimeZoneChanges in the
780 <h3><a name="hdinstall"></a><a href="#toc">Is it possible to install grml to harddisk?</a></h3>
782 <p>Yes. Grml provides a tool called <a href="/grml2hd/">grml2hd</a> (see
783 '<a href="/grml2hd/grml2hd.html">man grml2hd</a>'). grml is developed
784 on a box running the grml-system itself, and we - the grml-developers -
785 especially like grml2hd because it gives us a working Linux box within
786 10 to 30 minutes. grml2hd is perfect for prototyping: test hardware
787 support of Linux, test a specific setup, ... You can even use grml2hd in
788 a fully automatic mode without any further interaction.</p>
790 <p>But <strong>please note</strong>: grml2hd does <strong>NOT</strong>
791 provide a Linux distribution for newbies and should be installed to hard
792 disk only if really know what you are doing (or don't care about
793 maintainability, seriously). Please install grml using grml2hd only if
794 can answer all of the following questions with 'sure, YES':</p>
797 <li>Are you used to work with Debian/unstable?
798 <li>Do you know how to report bugs to Debian?
799 <li>Are you aware of the differences between plain Debian and grml?
802 <p><strong>Tip</strong>: If you want to get a plain Debian system take
803 a look at <a href="/grml-debootstrap/">grml-debootstrap</a>.</p>
805 <p><strong>Note:</strong> If you are using grml in a production
806 environment and/or use a grml2hd installation, we strongly recommend you
807 subscribe to <a href="/mailinglist/">the grml user mailinglist</a>!</p>
809 <h2><a name="kernel"></a><a href="#toc">Kernel</a></h2>
811 <h3><a name="kernelconfig"></a><a href="#toc">Where can I find the configuration for the kernel used on
814 <p>See /boot/config-`uname -r` and on <a href="/kernel/">the kernel-webpage</a>.</p>
816 <h3><a name="kernelpatches"></a><a href="#toc">Are there any special components/patches in the kernel
817 used on grml?</a></h3>
819 <p>Grml uses the most current stable vanilla Linux kernel from <a
820 href="http://www.kernel.org/">www.kernel.org</a> with some
821 additional patches. More information and an all-in-one patch is
823 href="/kernel/">kernel-page</a>.</p>
825 <h3><a name="platform"></a><a href="#toc">For which platforms is the grml kernel optimized?</a></h3>
827 <p>Plain i586 compatibility-mode with SMP enabled. (Note: of course it
828 works for uniprocessor systems as well)</p>
830 <h2><a name="software"></a><a href="#toc">Software</a></h2>
832 <h3><a name="sw_general"></a><a href="#toc">General</a></h3>
834 <p>Want to run a program as root? Just use "sudo $PROGRAM". To get a
835 root-shell run "sudo -i".</p>
837 <p>Problems with a specific package? Please try "dpkg-reconfigure $foo".
838 Still encountering difficulties? Please send us a <a
839 href="/bugs/">bugreport</a>.</p>
841 <h3><a name="sw_version"></a><a href="#toc">Which package(s) and which
842 version is available?</a></h3>
844 <p>If you want to get details about the provided packages and the
845 package versions without booting the grml ISO check out the dpkg_...
846 files in the <a href="/files/#debian">Debian-Information section on
847 grml.org/files/</a>.</p>
849 <h3><a name="init"></a><a href="#toc">Init-System</a></h3>
851 <p>Why is grml using runlevel 2 as default? Because runlevel 2 is 'the
852 textonly one' and it is Debian's default.</p>
854 <p>Where are all the /etc/rc#.d-directories? grml doesn't use sysv-rc
855 but <a href="http://packages.debian.org/sid/file-rc">file-rc</a>. This
856 means you can configure the init system in one single file named
857 /etc/runlevel.conf with your favourite editor. No symlink-hell
860 <h3><a name="zsh"></a><a href="#toc">Why is zsh the default shell?</a></h3>
862 <p>Short answer: because <a href="/zsh/">Zsh rocks</a>, really!</p>
864 <p>Longer answer taken from <a
865 href="http://zsh.sourceforge.net/FAQ/zshfaq01.html#l3">ZSH FAQ: 1.2: What is
868 <cite> Zsh is a UNIX command interpreter (shell) which of the standard shells most
869 resembles the Korn shell (ksh); its compatibility with the 1988 Korn shell has been
870 gradually increasing. It includes enhancements of many types, notably in the
871 command-line editor, options for customising its behaviour, filename globbing, features
872 to make C-shell (csh) users feel more at home and extra features drawn from tcsh
873 (another `custom' shell).</cite>
875 <p>If you don't know zsh take a look at <a
876 href="http://zsh.sourceforge.net/FAQ/zshfaq02.html#l9">ZSH FAQ: How does zsh
877 differ from ...?</a>, 'man zsh | less -p COMPATIBILITY', the <a
878 href="/zsh/">grml zsh reference card</a> and '<a
879 href="/zsh/">man zsh-lovers</a>'.</p>
881 <p>If you are a bash user and don't know zsh yet, don't be afraid. bash
882 is largely a subset of zsh and you don't have to throw away your
883 knowledge about shell stuff.</p>
885 <h3><a name="zsh_binsh"></a><a href="#toc">Wasn't zsh the /bin/sh interpreter?</a></h3>
887 <p>Yes, until Grml 0.6 zsh was the interpreter for /bin/sh. Starting
888 with release 0.7 Grml used /bin/bash as /bin/sh and nowadays /bin/dash
889 is used for /bin/sh (that's what Debian does as well). The reason?
890 Using zsh as default /bin/sh interpreter leads to some problems,
891 especially since Debian does not care to support zsh as /bin/sh overall.
893 href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=329288">#329288</a>
895 href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=340058">#340058</a>
898 <h3><a name="bash"></a><a href="#toc">Is a bash available?</a></h3>
900 <p>Grml uses <a href="#zsh">zsh</a> as the default interactive shell
901 but, of course, a current version of bash (and many other shells as
902 well) is provided by grml.</p>
904 <h3><a name="configuration"></a><a href="#toc">Where can I find the configuration of zsh, GNU screen,...?</a></h3>
907 href="http://michael-prokop.at/blog/2007/12/22/make-console-work-comfortable/">'Make
908 console work comfortable'</a>.</p>
910 <h3><a name="truecrypt">Why isn't Truecrypt available within grml?</a></h3>
912 <p>Because Truecrypt is licensed under a specific license named
913 'TrueCrypt License' which doesn't permit us to distribute Truecrypt (since at least
914 license version 2.6).
915 See <a href="http://www.truecrypt.org/legal/license">section VI/4 of the
916 license</a> for details. The Ubuntu version from <a
917 href="http://www.truecrypt.org/downloads">truecrypt.org/downloads</a> is
918 known to work under Grml.</p>
920 <h3><a name="grub"></a><a href="#toc">grub does not work on my system?!</a></h3>
922 <p>Looks like you used mkfs.ext3 from grml but are using an old grub
923 version. Notice that older versions of grub do not support 256 byte
924 inodes on ext3, being the default in recent versions of mkfs/e2fsprogs.
925 More information is available at <a
926 href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=463236">#463236</a>
927 in the Debian bug tracking system.</p>
929 <h2><a name="xserver"></a><a href="#toc">X-Server</a></h2>
931 <h3><a name="xstart"></a><a href="#toc">How do I start the X server?</a></h3>
933 <p>Please use 'grml-x' as user grml for starting X on the live-cd. It
934 will, if necessary, generate the config file /etc/X11/xorg.conf and lets you start commands on
935 startup (see ~/.xinitrc). Use it, for example, via switching to TTY4 (press
936 Alt+F4) and run the following command to start wm-ng (window manager fluxbox
937 with idesk and gkrellm):</p>
942 <p>If you have want to start X with the deault options you can use
943 'startx' instead of grml-x. Adjust ~/.xinitrc to your needs.</p>
945 <h3><a name="xproblem"></a><a href="#toc">X does not start on my box?!</a></h3>
947 <p>grml-x supports several options. If you want to set some special options
948 please take a look at the grml-x manpage (man grml-x). Some usage examples:</p>
951 grml-x --module vesa wm-ng # start wm-ng and use vesa module
952 grml-x --mode '800x600' wm-ng # set resolution to 800x600 and start wm-ng
953 grml-x --display 8 wm-ng # start wm-ng on display 8
954 grml-x --force --nostart wm-ng # force creation of xconfig file and don't start X server
955 grml-x --hsync 60 wm-ng # set horizontal frequency and start wm-ng
956 grml-x --hsync 60 --vsync 40 wm-ng # set horizontal and vertical sync frequencies and start wm-ng
959 <h3><a name="xresolution"></a><a href="#toc">I don't like the resolution of X!</a></h3>
961 <p>Just run xrandr to switch the resolution during runtime of X. For
962 example: '<code>xrandr -s 1024x768</code>'.</p>
964 <h2><a name="stuff"></a><a href="#toc">Support / Unanswered stuff</a></h2>
966 <h3><a name="questions"></a><a href="#toc">Further questions</a></h3>
968 <p>Do you have a question which is not answered in the FAQ or in the
969 provided <a href="/docs/">documentation</a> (execute
970 "grml-info" on your grml-system for offline documentation)?
971 Also check out 'grml-tips $KEYWORD' on your grml-system. Take a look at
972 <a href="/">the grml website</a> and <a href="http://wiki.grml.org/">the
973 grml-wiki</a>. A good place to become part of the community is the <a
974 href="/mailinglist/">grml mailinglist</a>. Please don't hesitate to <a
975 href="/contact/">contact us</a>.</p>
977 <h3><a name="support"></a><a href="#toc">Commercial Support</a></h3>
979 <p>You want to deploy Grml in your data center, use it as part of your
980 business or have an emergency case? You're happy with Grml but would
981 like to get your very own live cd (providing your favourite software
982 selection, special configuration, setup and your bootsplash)? As part of
983 our business we do provide commercial support, feel free to <a
984 href="http://grml-solutions.com/">contact us at Grml
989 <?php include '../static_bottom.inc'; ?>
projects / grml.org.git / blob