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