1 CHEATCODES AND HINTS FOR GRML
2 ==============================================================================
4 These options work from the (isolinux/grub) bootprompt of Grml based (live) systems.
6 The following kernel options are available (do NOT use them as 'grml $OPTION',
7 use them as '$OPTION'!):
9 grml Use default settings (same as just pressing return)
10 grml2ram Copy Grml's squashfs file to RAM and
11 run from there (compare with 'grml toram')
12 memtest Run Memtest86+ instead of Linux
13 fb1280x1024 Use fixed framebuffer graphics (1)
14 fb1024x768 Use fixed framebuffer graphics (2) [notice: Grml's default]
15 fb800x600 Use fixed framebuffer graphics (3)
16 nofb Disable framebuffer
17 floppy Boot from floppydisk
18 hd / hd1 / hd2 / hd3 Boot from (local) primary / secondary /... harddisk
19 failsafe Boot with (almost) no HW-detection
20 debug Get shells during process of booting for debugging
21 bootchart Create chart of booting sequence in /var/log/bootchart.tgz
22 forensic Do not touch any harddisks during hardware recognition
23 serial Activate ttyS0 and start a getty
24 grub Boot Grub bootloader (special all-in-one-image)
27 hdt Boot Hardware Detection Tool (from syslinux project)
29 Further documentation regarding the boot process can be found at:
30 * http://git.grml.org/?p=live-initramfs-grml.git;a=blob_plain;f=manpages/live-initramfs.en.7.txt;hb=HEAD
31 * http://git.grml.org/?p=live-boot-grml.git;a=blob;f=manpages/en/live-boot.7;hb=HEAD
32 * http://git.debian.org/?p=kernel/initramfs-tools.git;a=blob_plain;f=initramfs-tools.8;hb=HEAD
33 * http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt
35 The following boot options can be combined.
36 Notice: not all of them are available on all the Grml flavours.
37 For example the X window system is not part of grml-small.
41 grml lang=at|de|cn|da|es|fr|it Specify language ($LANG, $LC_ALL, $LANGUAGE - utf8) + keyboard
42 grml lang=nl|pl|ru|sk|tr|tw|us Specify language ($LANG, $LC_ALL, $LANGUAGE - utf8) + keyboard
43 grml lang=$LANG-iso Activate $LANG (use like in lines above) with iso-mode instead of utf8
44 grml gmt Use GMT-based time (UTC=yes)
45 grml utc Use Coordinated Universal Time (UTC=yes)
46 grml localtime Use local time (UTC=no)
47 grml tz=Europe/Vienna Use specified timezone for TZ
48 grml keyboard=us xkeyboard=us Use different keyboard layout (text-console/X)
50 Configuration settings:
51 -----------------------
52 grml myconfig=/dev/fd0 Set the DCS dir (debs, config, scripts) to the root of this device
53 DCS dir defaults to the live image or a device labeled GRMLCFG
54 If a file /config.tbz exists, it is extracted from there.
55 /dev/fd0 for floppy disk
56 /dev/sda1 for USB-stick/first SCSI-device
57 grml netconfig=server/config.tbz Download file and extract configuration archive
58 grml netscript=server/file Download and execute file
59 grml partconf=/dev/sda2 Copy files specified in /etc/grml/partconf from /dev/sda2
60 to booting grml system
61 grml file=foobar.tbz Use specified file as name for configuration archive
62 instead of the default one (config.tbz)
63 grml extract=/etc Extract only /etc from configuration archive,
64 use it in combination with myconfig or netconfig
65 grml persistent=nofiles Enable persistency feature, more details available at
66 http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=persistency
67 Notice that the "=nofiles" argument is optional, though recommended
69 grml hostname=... Set hostname to given argument
70 grml hostname Set a random hostname
71 [Note: only available with releases newer than 2010.04]
72 grml nodhcphostname Do not to set the hostname according to the dns information
73 grml nonetworking Do not create/overwrite /etc/network/interface during startup
74 grml distri=... Set distribution name to given argument. If a jpg file named like the
75 given distri name can be found in directory desktop on the ISO
76 (/cdrom/desktop/"$DISTRI") it will be taken as wallpaper for grml
77 grml debnet Search through local partitions for file /etc/network/interfaces,
78 copy /etc/network to local system and restart networking then
79 grml mypath=... Add specified option into $PATH of Zsh
80 For example when using "grml mypath=/foobar" then /foobar
81 will be added to the end of $PATH inside Zsh
82 grml debs Install all Debian packages from the "debs" directory of your DCS
83 directory (see myconfig=, typically the root of your ISO image).
84 grml debs=path-name-wildcard Install Debian packages from DCS directory (see myconfig=,
85 typically the root of your ISO image). If path does not contain a
86 "/" the package(s) will be installed from directory "debs" of the
87 DCS directory instead. The "path-name-wildcard" can contain
88 wildcards (e.g. debs=rat* will install a packages starting with "rat"
89 from directory debs/).
90 grml scripts=path-name Execute script (defaulting to grml.sh) inside DCS dir. Path names
91 allowed. If path-name points to a directory, all scripts found in
92 the directory are executed.
93 grml config=path-name Unpack archive that path-name points to
94 grml noautoconfig Disable searching for device labeled GRMLCFG
96 Notice: Take a look at http://grml.org/config/ and 'man 1 grml-autoconfig'
97 for more information regarding the configuration framework of Grml.
99 Booting related options:
100 ------------------------
101 grml toram Copy the whole CD/medium to RAM and run from there
102 grml toram=filename.squashfs Copy the specified file to RAM and run from there
103 Usage example: grml toram=grml-medium.squashfs
104 Notice: grml2ram is an alias for this option which
105 corresponds with the grml flavour settings by default
106 grml tohd=/dev/sda1 Copy Grml's squashfs file to harddisk partition for later
107 use via "grml bootfrom=/dev/sda1"
108 grml bootfrom=/dev/sda1 Use the squashfs file from directory 'live' of the specified device
109 Setup can be done booting 'grml tohd=/dev/sda1' or
110 running 'rsync -a --progress /live/image/live /mnt/sda1/'
111 grml bootfrom=removable Restrict search for the live media to removable type only.
112 grml bootfrom=removable-usb Restrict search for the live media to usb mass storage only.
113 grml isofrom=/dev/sda1/grml.iso Use specified ISO image for booting
114 Useful when booting as a rescue system from harddisk - just boot
115 the according grml kernel and initrd using the bootoptions
116 "boot=live isofrom=/dev/sda1/grml.iso"
117 Notice: "fromiso" does the same as "isofrom", it's just there
118 to prevent any typing errors
119 grml findiso=/grml_2010.12.iso Look for the specified ISO file on all disks where it usually
120 looks for the .squashfs file (so you don't have to know the device name
122 grml fetch=$IP/filename.squashfs Download a squashfs image from a given url, copying to ram and booting it.
123 Due to current limitations in busyboxs wget and DNS resolution, an URL
124 can not contain a hostname but an IP only.
125 grml live-media-path=live Sets the path to the live filesystem on the medium
126 By default, it is set to /live
127 grml module=grml Instead of using the default "$name.module" another file can
128 be specified without the extension ".module"; it should be placed
129 on "/live" directory of the live medium
130 Useful for Multiboot USB pen, see
131 http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=tips#multiboot_usb_pen
132 grml bootid=mybootid Use specified argument as identifier for the ISO.
133 mybootid is specified in /conf/bootid.txt on the ISO.
134 [Note: only available since release 2010.04]
135 grml ignore_bootid Disable bootid verification.
136 [Note: only available since release 2010.04]
139 Debugging related settings:
140 ---------------------------
141 grml debug Get shells during process of booting, using GNU screen, be verbose
142 grml debug=1 Get shells during process of booting, using GNU screen, be verbose and
143 display shell code being executed in initramfs.
144 grml debug=noscreen Get shells during process of booting, verbose, but without using GNU screen
145 grml nocolor Disable colorized output while booting
146 grml log Log error messages while booting to /tmp/grml.log.`date +%Y%m%d`"
148 grml testcd Check CD data integrity and md5sums
150 Service related settings:
151 -------------------------
152 grml ssh=password Set password for user grml and start ssh-server
153 grml startup=script Start $script instead of grml-quickconfig on startup
154 grml nosyslog Do not start syslog daemon
155 grml nogpm Disable GPM daemon
156 grml noconsolefont Disable setting of console font (using consolechars)
157 grml noblank Disable console blanking
158 grml tsplash Text based bootsplash
159 grml noquick Disable grml-quickconfig startup script
160 grml small Do not start that many consoles
161 grml wondershaper=eth0,1000,500 Set up basic traffic shaping
162 grml services={postfix,mysql,...} Start service(s) which have an init-script (/etc/init.d/)
163 grml welcome Welcome message via soundoutput
164 grml noeject Do NOT eject CD after halt/reboot
165 grml noprompt Do NOT prompt to remove the CD when halting/rebooting the system
166 grml distcc=$NETWORK,$INTERFACE Activate distcc-daemon to listen on specified network
167 and interface, usage example:
168 distcc=192.168.0.1/24,eth0
169 grml gcc=3.4 gpp=3.4 Link /usr/bin/gcc, /usr/bin/cpp and /usr/bin/c++ to specified version
170 grml startx{=windowmanager} Start X window system automatically
171 Default window manager (if not provided): wm-ng (wrapper around fluxbox)
172 grml nostartx If using startx as default bootoption the nostartx *disables* automatic
173 startup of X again. (This bootoption is relevant for grml based derivatives
174 which decide to enable startx by default only, plain grml does not use
175 automatic startup of X by default.)
177 Accessibility related settings:
178 -------------------------------
179 grml blind Start Braille-Terminal (no X)
180 grml hwspeak Probe all available speakup hardware modules
181 grml swspeak Prepare system for use with software synthesizer through speakup
182 Run 'swspeak' after booting up to activate sound output
183 grml swspeak=espeak Use espeakup (if available) as connector to speakup
184 Run 'swspeak' after booting up to activate sound output
185 grml swspeak=speechd Use speech-dispatcher / speechd-up (if available) as connector to speakup
186 Run 'swspeak' after booting up to activate sound output
187 grml brltty=type,port,table Parameters for Braille device (e.g.: brltty=al,/dev/ttyS0,text.de.tbl)
188 grml speakup.synth=... Use speakup kernel module with given hardware type
189 Usage example: speakup.synth=apollo
191 Hardware related settings:
192 --------------------------
193 grml swap Activate present/detected swap partitions
194 grml noswraid Disable scanning for software raid arrays (creates /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf)
195 grml swraid Enable automatic assembling of software raid arrays
196 grml nodmraid Do not enable present dmraid devices.
197 grml dmraid=on Automatically enable any present dmraid devices.
198 grml dmraid=off Actively try to stop any present dmraid devices.
199 grml nolvm Disable scanning for Logical Volumes (LVM)
200 grml lvm Automatically activate Logival Volumes (LVM) during boot
201 grml readonly Make sure all harddisk devices (/dev/hd* /dev/sd*) are forced to read-only mode
202 grml ethdevice=... Use specified network device for network boot instead of default (eth0)
203 grml xmodule=ati|fbdev|i810|mga Use specified X.org-Module (1)
204 grml xmodule=nv|radeon|savage|s3 Use specified X.org-Module (2)
205 grml xmodule=radeon|svga|i810 Use specified X.org-Module (3)
206 grml no{acpi,agp,apm,cpu,dhcp} Skip parts of HW-detection (1)
207 grml no{dma,fstab,modem} Skip parts of HW-detection (2)
208 grml no{pcmcia,scsi,swap,usb} Skip parts of HW-detection (3)
209 grml 915resolution=... Start resolution modify tool for Intel graphic chipset
210 usage: $MODE,$XRESO,$YRESO
211 grml blacklist=modulename[,module2] Completely disable loading of specified module(s) via
212 blacklisting through udev's /etc/modprobe.d/grml
213 grml fwtimeout=50 Set firmware timeout via /sys/class/firmware/timeout to specified value
214 grml nosound Mute sound devices (notice: this does not deactivate loading of sound drivers!)
215 grml vol=number Set mixer volumes to level $number
216 grml micvol=number Set mixer volume of microphone to level $number (default: 0)
217 grml pnpbios=off No PnP Bios initialization
218 grml acpi=off Disable ACPI Bios completely
219 grml nousb2 Disable initialization of USB 2.x controller(s)
220 grml nousb Disable initialization of USB in booting sequence
221 grml nofirewire Disable initialization of firewire devices in booting sequence
222 grml pci=irqmask=0x0e98 Try this, if PS/2 mouse doesn't work *)
223 grml pci=bios Workaround for bad PCI controllers
224 grml ide2=0x180 nopcmcia Boot from PCMCIA-CD-ROM (some notebooks)
225 grml mem=128M Specify Memory size in MByte
226 grml libata.force=[ID:]VAL Force configurations for libata.
227 Usage example: grml libata.force=1:pio4
228 to force pio4 mode on device "ata1:00:"
229 grml libata.dma=0 Disable DMA on PATA and SATA devices
230 grml libata.ignore_hpa=1 Disable host protected area (which should enable the whole disk)
231 grml vga=normal No-framebuffer mode (does not influence X)
232 grml vga=ask Display menu for framebuffer mode
233 grml radeon.modeset=0 nomodeset Disable Kernel Mode Setting (KMS) for Radeon driver.
234 grml i915.modeset=0 nomodeset Disable Kernel Mode Setting (KMS) for Intel driver.
235 grml nouveau.modeset=0 nomodeset Disable Kernel Mode Setting (KMS) for Nouveau driver.
237 Installation related settings:
238 ------------------------------
240 Caution: do *NOT* use the grml2hd and/or debian2hd bootoption if you do not know what you are doing!
242 Install plain Debian via debian2hd bootoption (which runs grml-debootstrap in non-interactive mode):
244 debian2hd <options> ... whereas valid options for debian2hd are:
246 target= target partition/directory of the new Debian system, e.g.: target=/dev/sda1
247 grub= where to install grub to, e.g.: grub=/dev/sda
248 release= specify release of new Debian system (default is stable), e.g.: release=sid
249 mirror= specify mirror for apt-get/aptitude, e,g.: mirror=http://cdn.debian.net/debian
250 password= set passwort of user root without prompting for it, e.g.: password=AiTh5ahn
252 Usage example for automatic installation:
254 debian2hd target=/dev/sda1 grub=/dev/sda mirror=http://cdn.debian.net/debian password=foobar
256 See http://grml.org/grml-debootstrap/ for more information.
258 Install grml via grml2hd bootoption (which runs grml2hd in non-interactive mode):
260 grml2hd <options> ... whereas valid options for grml2hd are:
262 user= user name for user which should be used at hd-install
263 filesystem={ext2|ext3|reiserfs|reiser4|jfs|xfs} filesystem to be used
264 mbr=/dev/... partition where MBR should be installed (default:=partition)
265 partition=/dev/... partition where grml should be installed
267 Usage example for booting:
268 grml2hd partition=/dev/sda4 mbr=/dev/sda filesystem=ext3 user=mika
270 Passwords of user root and user are "grml" - please adjust after hd-install!
272 See http://grml.org/grml2hd/ for more information.
277 *) If your Grml-CD makes strange noises during boot, or you see frequent
278 errors like "squashfs: read error", or programs are crashing randomly,
279 then your CD image is probably defective or incomplete, your CD-burner
280 created a defective CD due to wrong writing speed or bad media or your
281 CD-ROM drive is broken. This is the most common error reported. Please
282 boot with "grml testcd" to check if the CD is OK, and/or even better,
283 verify the MD5 checksums that are present on the mirrors before writing
284 the CD. Check your CD low-level via running 'readcd -c2scan
285 dev=/dev/cdrom'. In some cases, defective IDE controllers cause this
286 error if you have DMA enabled. Also, please read the grml-FAQ.
288 *) In case of a failing hardware autodetection, try booting with any of
289 the "no-" options as shown in the table above, like in
290 grml noagp noapm noapic acpi=off nodma
291 to skip some critical parts of the autodetection system.
293 *) Some boards (especially those with E-ISA slots) apparently don't pass
294 the proper memory size to the linux-kernel. It may cause the message
295 "Panic: cannot mount root file system" and the system hangs. Use "grml
296 mem=128M" to solve that problem if your system has 128MByte memory for
297 example (caution: you MUST use a capital "M" here).
299 *) The "myconfig=/dev/partition" option allows you to reconfigure the
300 system after autoconfiguration by running a bourne shell script called
301 "grml.sh" and/or extracting configuration files from a file named
302 config.tbz from the root directory on the given device (or floppy).
303 Take a look at http://grml.org/config/ for more information regarding
304 the configuration framework of grml.
306 *) If you wish to remaster the CD, please don't forget to specify
308 -no-emul-boot -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table \
309 -b boot/isolinux/isolinux.bin -c boot/isolinux/boot.cat
311 as option to mkisofs. Otherwise your CD won't be bootable. The
312 directory live, containing the squashfs compressed filesystem file,
313 must be located in the top level directory of the CD.
315 *) Caution: screensavers: Don't start vlock or any other screensaver
316 that requires a password manually. There are no default passwords on
317 the live system - all accounts are LOCKED by default for security reasons.
318 Instead just invoke the script grml-lock which prompts for setting a