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Kernel

The kernel 2.6 provided by the grml system is based on the latest stable(!) vanilla kernel (taken from kernel.org) we consider as 'useful and working'. The grml-kernel includes several patches and modules. If you experience any problems please don't hesitate to contact us!

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grml 0.7

Release 0.7 provides kernel 2.6.16:

grml@grml ~ % uname -a
Linux grml 2.6.16-grml #1 PREEMPT Tue Mar 28 11:47:55 CET 2006 i686 GNU/Linux

The kernel configuration of 2.6.16-grml is available online. If you want to patch a vanilla kernel without applying all the single patches take a look at the all-in-one kernel patch (807KB). Also take a look at the list of applied patches.

grml-small 0.2

grml-small is a very small flavor of the grml-system. It includes a kernel based on 2.6.15 with additional patches (all-in-one kernel patch applied), with SMP enabled but less features than the full grml system:

grml@grml ~ % uname -a
Linux grml 2.6.15-grml-small #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon Jan 16 22:29:19 CET 2006 i686 GNU/Linux

The kernel configuration of 2.6.15-grml-small is available online.

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Kernel Patches

Small Patches

Greg Kroah-Hartman

Fixes/Updates for 2.6.16:

ITEraid

Driver for IT82xx ATA133 RAID Controller.

mmc-secure-digital

Driver for the Secure Digital Host Controller Interface specification.

Reiser4

Reiser4 is a computer file system, a new "from scratch" version of the ReiserFS file system, developed by Namesys. See Reiser4 at Wikipedia for some more details.

Speakup

Speakup is a screen reader/speech access system for the GNU/Linux Operating System, used by people who are blind.

Squashfs

Squashfs is a compressed read-only filesystem for Linux. Squashfs is intended for general read-only filesystem use, for archival use (i.e. in cases where a .tar.gz file may be used), and in constrained block device/memory systems (e.g. embedded systems) where low overhead is needed.
Via using the module loop it is possible to mount a filesystem file. squashfs is a "loop" with (de)compression (Compressed Loopback Device) and it is possible to mount a compressed filesystem like a block device and seamlessly decompress its data while accessing it.
Whereas Knoppix uses the cloop mechanism, grml is based on the newer mechanism squashfs. The filesystem has been compressed into the file "/GRML/GRML" and is mounted by the initial init process using squashfs.

Modules

Additionally to the patched kernel you'll find some extra modules on your grml-system.

Package grml-kerneladdons

This package contains release specific kernel modules where no extra debian package exists yet. The following drivers are included:

acx100

Drivers for Texas Instruments' ACX100/ACX111 wireless network chips. This includes DWL-[G]520+ PCI, DWL-[G]650+ CardBus, GL-2422MP mini-PCI, DWL-120+ USB, etc.

at76c503a

Alternative driver for the Atmel AT76C503A based USB WLAN adapters. Currently, the driver has no promiscous, monitor or station mode and no support for libpcap, i.e. it does not work with Kismet or Airsnort and it cannot act as an WLAN access point. This is a restriction imposed by the current firmware.

bcm5700

Linux driver for the Broadcom BCM5700 series Ethernet Network Controllers.

drbd0.7

RAID 1 over TCP/IP for Linux. Drbd is a block device which is designed to build high availability clusters by providing a virtual shared device which keeps disks in nodes synchronised using TCP/IP. This simulates RAID 1 but avoiding the use of uncommon hardware (shared SCSI buses or Fibre Channel). It is currently limited to fail-over HA clusters.

eagle-usb

Aims to provide GPL driver for xDSL modems equipped with the Eagle chipset (from Analog Devices) as for example Sagem F@st 800/840/908.

exmap

Exmap is a memory analysis tool which allows you to accurately determine how much physical memory and swap is used by individual processes and shared libraries on a running system. In particular, it accounts for the sharing of memory and swap between different processes.

Notice: exmap isn't shipped by the grml 0.7 Live-CD because it requires too much space. Run 'apt-get update; apt-get install exmap' to install it.

ivtv

The primary goal of the IvyTV Project is to create a kernel driver for the iTVC15 familiy of MPEG codecs. The iTVC15 family includes the iTVC15 (CX24315) and iTVC16 (CX24316). These chips are commonly found on Hauppauge's WinTV PVR-250 and PVR-350 TV capture cards. (Take a look at 'Hauppauge PVR250' in the grml-wiki.)

linux-wlan-ng

linux-wlan-ng is a set of drivers and utilities that is intended to provide the full range of IEEE 802.11 MAC management capabilities for use in user-mode utilities and scripts. The package currently supports the Intersil 802.11b Prism2, Prism2.5, and Prism3 reference designs for PCMCIA, PCI, and USB. Additionally, the package includes support for the PLX9052 based PCI to PCMCIA adapter with a few different PCMCIA cards.

Notice: prism2_cs won't work as pcmcia-cs is deprecated and replaced with pcmciautils. The other modules should work though.

loop-aes

Using loop-aes with >=2.6.13 fails with 'register_blkdev: cannot get major 7 for loop'. grml requires a stable loopback device interface (CONFIG_BLK_DEV_LOOP=y) but loop-aes has different requirements. So loop-aes is not part of grml.

lufs

Linux Userland Filesystem - kernel module source LUFS is a hybrid userspace filesystem framework supporting an indefinite number of filesystems (localfs, sshfs, ftpfs, httpfs, socketfs, freenetfs, and nutellafs) transparently for any application. It consists of a kernel module which interacts with the VFS while the main part of the implementation is done in the userspace.

madwifi

Driver for Atheros-based Wireless LAN devices - the Multiband Atheros Driver for WiFi (madwifi).

madwifi-ng

Next generation of the madwifi driverf for Atheros-based Wireless LAN devices - the Multiband Atheros Driver for WiFi (madwifi).

ndiswrapper

Some vendors do not release specifications of the hardware or provide a linux driver for their wireless network cards. ndiswrapper provides a linux kernel module that loads and runs Ndis (Windows network driver API) drivers supplied by the vendors.

nozomi

kernel driver for the GlobeTrotter 3G EDGE PC Card (HSDPA-prepared). Serial Numbers can be used to identify this model. Look for SNR: NZ. Driver and PC Card are provided by Option Wireless Technology.

openafs

The AFS distributed filesystem. AFS is a distributed filesystem allowing cross-platform sharing of files among multiple computers. Facilities are provided for access control, authentication, backup and administrative management.

Notice: the module is named libafs.ko on grml 0.7. Running 'modprobe openafs' works because of a symlink, but the loaded module is named libafs anyway so run 'rmmod libafs' to remove it.

pwc

Drivers for the Philips Webcams.

qc-usb-modules

The qc-usb-modules package contains a kernel module to drive Logitech's USB-based QuickCam Express webcam and other cameras with similar chipsets.

realtime-lsm

Scripts for handling the realtime Linux security module. It sets up the system to grant realtime permissions to applications in the realtime group.

rt2x00

Linux driver for wireless 802.11b and 802.11g cards that are based on the Ralink rt2400 and rt2500 chipsets.

sl-modem

Low-level drivers for the software modems produced by Smart Link Ltd. It supports PCI and USB models.

spca5xx

Kernel modules for the spca5xx video for linux (v4l) driver (SPCA5XX USB Camera).

sysprof

Sysprof is a sampling CPU profiler that uses a Linux kernel module to profile the entire system, not just a single application. Sysprof handles shared libraries and applications do not need to be recompiled. In fact they don't even have to be restarted.

thinkpad

Loadable driver modules used by the tpctl utility for configuring IBM ThinkPad laptop computers. Included are drivers of the Super I/O and RT/CMOS RAM chips, for an interface to the IBM ThinkPad SMAPI BIOS, and for an interface to the ThinkPad APM subsystem.

tidev

This driver will be useful to you if you own a Texas Instruments calculator and want to use one of the following link cables:

Notice: You'll also need a linking software such as TiLP to communicate with your calculator (not part of the live-cd, run 'apt-get install tilp').

truecrypt

TrueCrypt manages encrypted TrueCrypt volumes, which can be mapped as virtual block devices and used as any other standard block device. All data being read from a mapped TrueCrypt volume is transparently decrypted and all data being written to it is transparently encrpyted.

unionfs

Unionfs is a stackable unification file system, which can appear to merge the contents of several directories (branches), while keeping their physical content separate. Unionfs is useful for unified source tree management, merged contents of split CD-ROM, merged separate software package directories, data grids, and more. Unionfs allows any mix of read-only and read-write branches, as well as insertion and deletion of branches anywhere in the fan-out. To maintain unix semantics, Unionfs handles elimination of duplicates, partial-error conditions, and more.

vaiostat

Sony Vaio status and control kernel module. This module creates some entries in /proc/vaio concerning battery and power usage information, and LCD brightness levels on Sony Vaio laptops. Although on newer laptops some of this information is handled by ACPI as well, this module is required for some older ones, and still works on the newer ones. Recent kernel sources include a SONYPI module that provides similar functionality to this one, but it cannot change LCD brightness on some laptops where this module works.

zd1211

Driver for the USB wireless dongles that are based on the ZyDAS ZD1211 802.11b/g USB WLAN chipset.

Any further wishes, feedback, bug reports? Please contact us!