1 CHEATCODES AND HINTS FOR GRML V0.3
2 ==============================================================================
4 These options (can be combined) work from the isolinux bootprompt:
6 grml acpi=off Disable ACPI configuration in Kernel 2.6
7 memtest Run memtest86 instead of Linux
8 expert [options...] Interactive setup for experts
10 Important: if you notice any problems with one of the
11 following options please report it to the grml-team ->
14 grml lang=at|de|cn|da|es|fr|it specify language/keyboard
15 grml lang=nl|pl|ru|sk|tr|tw|us specify language/keyboard
16 grml gmt Use GMT-based time
17 grml home=/dev/sda1/grml.img Mount loopback file as /home/grml
18 grml home=scan Automatic search for grml homedir
19 grml floppyconfig Run "grml.sh" from a floppy
20 grml tz=Europe/Vienna Use this timezone for TZ
21 grml screen=1280x1024 Use specified Screen resolution for X
22 grml xvrefresh=60 (or vsync=60) Use 60 Hz vertical refresh rate for X
23 grml xhrefresh=80 (or hsync=80) Use 80 kHz horizontal refresh rate for X
24 grml xserver=XFree86|XF86_SVGA Use specified X-Server
25 grml xmodule=ati|fbdev|i810|mga Use specified XFree4-Module (1)
26 grml xmodule=nv|radeon|savage|s3 Use specified XFree4-Module (2)
27 grml xmodule=radeon|svga|i810 Use specified XFree4-Module (3)
28 grml no{acpi,agp,apm,cpu,dhcp} Skip parts of HW-detection (1)
29 grml no{disc,dma,fstab,hotplug} Skip parts of HW-detection (2)
30 grml no{hwsetup,modem,pcmcia} Skip parts of HW-detection (3)
31 grml no{scsi,swap,usb} Skip parts of HW-detection (4)
32 grml noagent={input,isapnp,net} Disable specific hotplug agent
33 grml noagent={pci,usb} Disable specific hotplug agent
34 grml black=modulename Add module to blacklist of hotplug
35 grml nogpm Disable GPM daemon
36 grml nosyslog Do not start syslog-ng
37 grml nosound Mute sound devices
38 grml pnpbios=off No PnP Bios initialization
39 grml acpi=off Disable ACPI Bios completely
40 grml usb2 Try to initialize USB 2.x controller(s)
41 failsafe Boot with (almost) no HW-detection
42 grml pci=irqmask=0x0e98 Try this, if PS/2 mouse doesn't work *)
43 grml pci=bios Workaround for bad PCI controllers
44 grml ide2=0x180 nopcmcia Boot from PCMCIA-CD-ROM (some notebooks)
45 grml mem=128M Specify Memory size in MByte
46 grml dma Enable DMA accelleration for ALL IDE-Drives
47 grml vga=normal No-framebuffer mode, but X
48 grml blind Start Braille-Terminal (no X)
49 grml brltty=type,port,table Parameters for Braille device
50 grml wheelmouse Enable IMPS/2 protocol for wheelmice
51 grml nowheelmouse Force plain PS/2 protocol for PS/2-mouse
52 fb1280x1024 Use fixed framebuffer graphics (1)
53 fb1024x768 Use fixed framebuffer graphics (2)
54 fb800x600 Use fixed framebuffer graphics (3)
55 grml keyboard=us xkeyboard=us Use different keyboard (text/X)
56 grml toram Copy CD to RAM and run from there
57 grml tohd=/dev/hda1 Copy CD to HD partition and run from there
58 grml fromhd Skip checking for grml on CD-ROM
59 grml fromhd=/dev/hda1 Boot from previously copied CD-Image
60 grml bootfrom=/dev/hda1 Access Image then boot from previously
61 copied CD-Image (enables booting from
63 grml bootfrom=/dev/hda1/GRML.iso Access image, boot from ISO-Image. ***)
64 grml grml_dir=GRML Directory to search for on the CD.
65 grml grml_name=GRML Cloop-File to search for on the CD.
66 grml testcd Check CD data integrity and md5sums
67 grml noeject Do NOT eject CD after halt
68 grml noprompt Do NOT prompt to remove the CD
69 grml wondershaper=eth0,1000,500 set up basic traffic shaping
70 grml services=postfix,mysql start service(s) which have an init-script
71 grml welcome welcome message via soundoutput
72 grml nocolor disable colorized output while booting
73 grml log log error messages while booting and
74 to /tmp/grml.log.* and start bootlogd
75 grml debug get shell(s) during process of booting
76 grml myconf=/dev/sda1 Run "grml.sh" from a partition:
77 /dev/fd0 for floppy disk
78 /dev/sda1 for USB-stick/first SCSI-device
80 The following option is probably broken:
81 grml myconf=scan (or config=scan) Try to find "grml.sh" automatically
83 *) Try "grml pci=irqmask=0x0e98" if (you have a notebook and) your
84 PS/2 mouse doesn't work. (Possibly caused by a BIOS-flaw on your board,
85 BIOS updates can help.) Sometimes, switching to the text console with
86 Control-Alt-F1 and back to the X-screen with Control-Alt-F7 solves the
87 problem without rebooting, since the X server reinitializes the mouse
88 driver during that procedure.
90 *) Bootfrom needs access to a running grml-System with the same Kernel
91 as the Bootkernel, before it is able to mount the partition / ISO-Image.
92 This should allow a poor mans install from NTFS-Partitions and makes it
93 also possible to boot an ISO-Image directly. You can also use wildcards
94 in the ISO-Filename, but it must be unique. So: If you have just one
95 GRML.iso on /dev/hda1 you can access it as: bootfrom=/dev/hda1/G*.iso,
96 but if there are several, you need to make clear, which one you want.
97 (Feature added by Fabian Franz.)
99 If your GRML CD makes strange noises during boot, or you see frequent
100 errors like "squashfs: read error", or programs are crashing randomly,
101 then your CD image is probably defective or incomplete, or your CD-burner
102 created a defective CD due to wrong writing speed or bad media. This is
103 the most common error reported. Please boot with "grml testcd" to check
104 if the CD is OK, and/or even better, verify the MD5 checksums that are
105 present on the mirrors before writing the CD. In some cases, defective
106 IDE controllers cause this error if you have DMA enabled. Also, please
109 In case of a failing hardware autodetection, try booting with any of
110 the "no-" options as shown in the table above, like in
111 grml nodiscover nohotplug noagp noapm noapic acpi=off nodma nopcmcia
112 to skip some critical parts of the autodetection system.
114 The "noswap" option is useful for a forensic analysis without touching
115 existing swap partitions.
117 Some Boards apparently don't pass the proper memory size to the
118 linux-kernel. It may cause the message "Panic: cannot mount root file
119 system" and the system hangs. Use "grml mem=128M" to solve that
120 problem if your system has 128MByte memory for example (caution:
121 you MUST use a capital "M" here).
123 The "expert" mode provides a very simple interface to loading additional
124 Kernel modules from floppy disks (ext2 or vfat), plus interactive
125 configuration of mouse/keyboard/xserver. "expert" mode supports
126 the same boot options as "grml".
128 The "floppyconfig" or "(my)config=/dev/partition" options allow you to
129 reconfigure the system after autoconfiguration by running a bourne shell
130 script called "grml.sh" from the root directory on the given device (or
131 floppy). The shell script will also be executed at startup.
133 If you wish to remaster the CD, please don't forget to specify
134 -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table \
135 -b boot/isolinux/isolinux.bin -c boot/isolinux/boot.cat
136 as option to mkisofs. Otherwise your CD won't be bootable. The
137 directory GRML, containig the compressed filesystem file "GRML",
138 must be located in the top level directory of the CD.
140 Caution: X-Screensaver: Don't start xlock or any screensaver that
141 requires a password. There are no default passwords on GRML,
142 i.e. all accounts are LOCKED unless you explicitly set a password.
143 See also README_Security.txt about this issue.
144 If you accidentially started a screensaver switch to one of the
145 textconsoles by Control-Alt-F1 and kill the screensaver (or just set a
146 password for the grml user).