1 CHEATCODES AND HINTS FOR GRML
2 ==============================================================================
4 *IMPORTANT NOTICE*: Some bootoptions may not work as expected (and documented) yet
5 because grml is based on a new framework named grml-live now - see
6 http://grml.org/grml-live/ for details. Please report all bootoptions
7 that do not work as expected. Thank you! http://grml.org/bugs/
9 These options (can be combined) work from the (isolinux/grub) bootprompt:
11 grml Use default settings (same as just pressing return)
12 grml2ram Copy grml's squashfs file to RAM and
13 run from there (compare with 'grml toram')
14 memtest Run Memtest86+ instead of Linux
15 fb1280x1024 Use fixed framebuffer graphics (1)
16 fb1024x768 Use fixed framebuffer graphics (2) [notice: grml's default]
17 fb800x600 Use fixed framebuffer graphics (3)
18 nofb Disable framebuffer
19 floppy Boot from floppydisk
20 hd / hd1 / hd2 / hd3 Boot from (local) primary / secondary /... harddisk
21 failsafe Boot with (almost) no HW-detection
22 debug Get shells during process of booting for debugging
23 bootchart Create chart of booting sequence in /var/log/bootchart.tgz
24 forensic Do not touch any harddisks during hardware recognition
25 serial Activate ttyS0 and start mgetty
27 grub Boot into the Grub bootloader
28 qemu Boot with special options for use in Qemu
29 vmware Boot with special options for use in VMware
31 Important: if you notice any problems with one of the
32 following options please report it to the grml-team:
35 Notice: not all of the following cheatcodes are available on all the grml flavours.
36 For example the X window system is not part of grml-small.
40 grml lang=at|de|cn|da|es|fr|it Specify language ($LANG, $LC_ALL, $LANGUAGE - utf8) + keyboard
41 grml lang=nl|pl|ru|sk|tr|tw|us Specify language ($LANG, $LC_ALL, $LANGUAGE - utf8) + keyboard
42 grml lang=$LANG-iso Activate $LANG (use like in lines above) with iso-mode instead of utf8
43 grml gmt Use GMT-based time
44 grml tz=Europe/Vienna Use this timezone for TZ
45 grml keyboard=us xkeyboard=us Use different keyboard layout (text-console/X)
46 grml setkeycodes Set some special function keys for MS/HP keyboards
48 Configuration settings:
49 -----------------------
50 grml myconfig=/dev/fd0 Execute "grml.sh" and extract config.tbz from a partition:
51 /dev/fd0 for floppy disk
52 /dev/sda1 for USB-stick/first SCSI-device
53 grml netconfig=server/config.tbz Download file and extract configuration archive
54 grml partconf=/dev/hda2 Copy files specified in /etc/grml/partconf from /dev/hda2
55 to booting grml system
56 grml file=foobar.tbz Use specified file as name for configuration archive
57 instead of the default one (config.tbz)
58 grml extract=/etc Extract only /etc from configuration archive,
59 use it in combination with myconfig or netconfig
60 grml home=/dev/hda2 Mount specified partition as grml homedir
61 grml home=/dev/sda1/grml.img Mount loopback file as /home/grml
62 grml home=scan Automatic search for grml homedir (using file grml.img)
63 grml hostname=... Set hostname
64 grml debnet Search through local partitions for file /etc/network/interfaces,
65 copy /etc/network to local system and restart networking then
66 grml distri=... Set distribution name to given argument. If a jpg file named like the
67 given distri name can be found in directory desktop on the ISO
68 (/cdrom/desktop/"$DISTRI") it will be taken as wallpaper for grml
69 grml unionfs Use unionfs instead of aufs as overlay filesystem
71 Notice: Take a look at http://grml.org/config/ and
72 /usr/share/doc/grml-saveconfig/grml-config.html
73 for more information regarding the configuration
76 Booting related options:
77 ------------------------
78 grml toram Copy the whole CD/medium to RAM and run
79 from there (compare with 'grml2ram')
80 grml tohd=/dev/hda1 Copy CD to HD partition and run from there
81 grml fromhd Skip checking for grml on CD-ROM
82 grml fromhd=/dev/hda1 Boot from previously copied CD-Image
83 grml bootfrom=/dev/hda1 Access Image then boot from previously
85 grml bootfrom=/dev/hda1/GRML.iso Access image, boot from ISO-Image
86 grml grml_dir=GRML Directory to search for on the CD
87 grml grml_name=GRML SquashFS-File to search for on the CD
89 Debugging related settings:
90 ---------------------------
91 debug Get shells during process of booting
92 grml nocolor Disable colorized output while booting
93 grml log Log error messages while booting and
94 grml testcd Check CD data integrity and md5sums
96 Service related settings:
97 -------------------------
98 grml ssh=password Set password for user grml and start ssh-server
99 grml startup=script Start $script instead of grml-quickconfig on startup
100 grml nosyslog Do not start syslog-ng
101 grml nogpm Disable GPM daemon
102 grml noconsolefont Disable setting of console font (using consolechars)
103 grml noblank Disable console blanking
104 grml tsplash Text based bootsplash
105 grml small Do not start that many consoles
106 grml wondershaper=eth0,1000,500 Set up basic traffic shaping
107 grml services={postfix,mysql,...} Start service(s) which have an init-script (/etc/init.d/)
108 grml welcome Welcome message via soundoutput
109 grml noeject Do NOT eject CD after halt/reboot
110 grml noprompt Do NOT prompt to remove the CD when halting/rebooting the system
111 grml distcc=$NETWORK,$INTERFACE Activate distcc-daemon to listen on specified network
112 and interface, usage example:
113 distcc=192.168.0.1/24,eth0
114 grml gcc=3.4 gpp=3.4 Link /usr/bin/gcc, /usr/bin/cpp and /usr/bin/c++ to specified version
115 grml startx{=windowmanager} Start X window system automatically
116 Default window manager (if not provided): wm-ng (wrapper around fluxbox)
118 Accessibility related settings:
119 -------------------------------
120 grml blind Start Braille-Terminal (no X)
121 grml swspeak Prepare system for use with software synthesizer through speakup
122 Run 'swspeak' after booting up to activate sound output
123 grml brltty=type,port,table Parameters for Braille device (e.g.: brltty=al,/dev/ttyS0,text.de.tbl)
124 grml speakup_synth=... Use speakup kernel module with given hardware type
126 Hardware related settings:
127 --------------------------
128 grml swap Activate present/detected swap partitions
129 grml noswraid Disable scanning for software raid arrays (creates /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf)
130 grml swraid Enable automatic assembling of software raid arrays
131 grml nolvm Disable scanning for Logical Volumes (LVM)
132 grml lvm Automatically activate Logival Volumes (LVM) during boot
133 grml scandelay[=seconds] Delay accessing ISO-device (useful for booting via usb/firewire)
134 grml cdrom=/dev/... Use specifed device as CD-ROM device (used for mounting the grml-ISO)
135 grml xmodule=ati|fbdev|i810|mga Use specified X.org-Module (1)
136 grml xmodule=nv|radeon|savage|s3 Use specified X.org-Module (2)
137 grml xmodule=radeon|svga|i810 Use specified X.org-Module (3)
138 grml no{acpi,agp,apm,cpu,dhcp} Skip parts of HW-detection (1)
139 grml no{dma,fstab,modem} Skip parts of HW-detection (2)
140 grml no{pcmcia,scsi,swap,usb} Skip parts of HW-detection (3)
141 grml 915resolution=... Start resolution modify tool for Intel graphic chipset
142 usage: $MODE,$XRESO,$YRESO
143 grml blacklist=modulename Completely disable loading of specified module via
144 blacklisting through /etc/modprobe.d/grml
145 grml fwtimeout=50 Set firmware timeout via /sys/class/firmware/timeout to specified value
146 grml nosound Mute sound devices (notice: this does not deactivate loading of sound drivers!)
147 grml vol=number Set mixer volumes to level $number
148 grml micvol=number Set mixer volume of microphone to level $number (default: 0)
149 grml pnpbios=off No PnP Bios initialization
150 grml acpi=off Disable ACPI Bios completely
151 grml nousb2 Disable initialization of USB 2.x controller(s)
152 grml nousb Disable initialization of USB in booting sequence
153 grml nofirewire Disable initialization of firewire devices in booting sequence
154 grml pci=irqmask=0x0e98 Try this, if PS/2 mouse doesn't work *)
155 grml pci=bios Workaround for bad PCI controllers
156 grml ide2=0x180 nopcmcia Boot from PCMCIA-CD-ROM (some notebooks)
157 grml mem=128M Specify Memory size in MByte
158 grml dma Enable DMA accelleration for ALL IDE-Drives
159 grml nodma ide=nodma Disable DMA accelleration for ALL IDE-Drives
160 grml vga=normal [video=ofonly] No-framebuffer mode (does not influence X)
161 grml vga=ask [video=ofonly] Display menu for framebuffer mode
163 Installation related settings:
164 ------------------------------
166 Caution: do *not* use the grml2hd and/or debian2hd bootoption if you do not know what you are doing!
168 Install plain Debian via debian2hd bootoption (which runs grml-debootstrap in non-interactive mode):
170 debian2hd <options> ... whereas valid options for debian2hd are:
172 target= target partition/directory of the new Debian system, e.g.: target=/dev/hda1
173 grub= where to install grub to? Use grub syntax for specifying, e.g.: grub=hd0
174 groot= specify root device for usage in grub (use grub syntax), e.g.: groot=hd0,0
175 release= specify release of new Debian system (default is stable), e.g.: release=sid
176 mirror= specify mirror for apt-get/aptitude, e,g.: mirror=ftp://ftp.tugraz.at/mirror/debian
177 password= set passwort of user root without prompting for it, e.g.: password=AiTh5ahn
179 Usage example for automatic installation:
180 debian2hd target=/dev/hda1 grub=hd0 groot=hd0,0 mirror=ftp://ftp.tugraz.at/mirror/debian password=foobar
182 See http://grml.org/grml-debootstrap/ for more information.
184 Install grml via grml2hd bootoption (which runs grml2hd in non-interactive mode):
186 grml2hd <options> ... whereas valid options for grml2hd are:
188 user= user name for user which should be used at hd-install
189 filesystem={ext2|ext3|reiserfs|reiser4|jfs|xfs} filesystem to be used
190 mbr=/dev/... partition where MBR should be installed (default:=partition)
191 partition=/dev/... partition where grml should be installed
193 Usage example for booting:
194 grml2hd partition=/dev/hda4 mbr=/dev/hda filesystem=ext3 user=mika
196 Passwords of user root and user are "grml" - please adjust after hd-install!
198 See http://grml.org/grml2hd/ for more information.
203 *) Try "grml pci=irqmask=0x0e98" if (you have a notebook and) your
204 PS/2 mouse doesn't work. (Possibly caused by a BIOS-flaw on your board,
205 BIOS updates can help.) Sometimes, switching to the text console with
206 Control-Alt-F1 and back to the X-screen with Control-Alt-F7 solves the
207 problem without rebooting, since the X server reinitializes the mouse
208 driver during that procedure.
210 *) Bootfrom needs access to a running grml-System with the same Kernel
211 as the Bootkernel, before it is able to mount the partition / ISO-Image.
212 This should allow a poor mans install from NTFS-Partitions and makes it
213 also possible to boot an ISO-Image directly. You can also use wildcards
214 in the ISO-Filename, but it must be unique. So: If you have just one
215 grml.iso on /dev/hda1 you can access it as: bootfrom=/dev/hda1/G*.iso,
216 but if there are several, you need to make clear, which one you want.
217 (Feature added by Fabian Franz.)
219 *) If your grml-CD makes strange noises during boot, or you see frequent
220 errors like "squashfs: read error", or programs are crashing randomly,
221 then your CD image is probably defective or incomplete, or your CD-burner
222 created a defective CD due to wrong writing speed or bad media. This is
223 the most common error reported. Please boot with "grml testcd" to check
224 if the CD is OK, and/or even better, verify the MD5 checksums that are
225 present on the mirrors before writing the CD. Check your CD low-level
226 via running 'readcd -c2scan dev=/dev/cdrom'. In some cases, defective
227 IDE controllers cause this error if you have DMA enabled. Also, please
230 *) In case of a failing hardware autodetection, try booting with any of
231 the "no-" options as shown in the table above, like in
232 grml noagp noapm noapic acpi=off nodma
233 to skip some critical parts of the autodetection system.
235 *) Some boards apparently don't pass the proper memory size to the
236 linux-kernel. It may cause the message "Panic: cannot mount root file
237 system" and the system hangs. Use "grml mem=128M" to solve that
238 problem if your system has 128MByte memory for example (caution:
239 you MUST use a capital "M" here).
241 *) The "myconfig=/dev/partition" option allows you to reconfigure the
242 system after autoconfiguration by running a bourne shell script called
243 "grml.sh" and/or extracting configuration files from a file named
244 config.tbz from the root directory on the given device (or floppy).
245 Take a look at http://grml.org/config/ for more information regarding
246 the configuration framework of grml.
248 *) If you wish to remaster the CD, please don't forget to specify
250 -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table \
251 -b boot/isolinux/isolinux.bin -c boot/isolinux/boot.cat
253 as option to mkisofs. Otherwise your CD won't be bootable. The
254 directory GRML, containig the compressed filesystem file "GRML",
255 must be located in the top level directory of the CD.
257 *) Caution: screensavers: Don't start xlock/vlock or any other screensaver
258 that requires a password. There are no default passwords on grml,
259 i.e. all accounts are LOCKED unless you explicitly set a password.
260 See also README_Security.txt about this issue.
261 Hint: If you accidentially started a screensaver switch to one of the
262 textconsoles by Control-Alt-F1 and kill the screensaver (or just set a
263 password for the grml user). Take a look at the script grml-lock.