+ +

Release Notes for Grml 2020.06 - codename Ausgehfuahangl

+ +

About

+ +

Grml is a Debian based live system focusing on the needs of system administrators. + This Grml release provides fresh software packages from Debian testing (AKA bullseye). + As usual it also incorporates up to date hardware support and fixes known bugs from previous Grml releases.

+ +

Important Changes

+ +

The default mount point for the live system was changed from /lib/live/mount/medium to /run/live/medium. + This works around a regression which appears on-again-off-again, and follows upstream changes for Debian/bullseye. + If you don't have any custom tools which rely on /lib/live/mount/medium (or its ancestor /live/image), + then this change is irrelevant for you. + +
Tools like grml2usb, grml-paste and grml-x have been ported from Python2 to Python3 (AKA py3k), we no longer support Python2 in our tools. + +
The live system no longer uses a custom Grml kernel, instead we switched to the linux-image packages provided by Debian. + +

+ +

New features

+ +

Highlighting the most relevant changes only:

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Misc:

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cloud-init support (grml-full only): cloud-init is a standard multi-distribution method for cross-platform cloud instance initialization. + Cloud-init identifies the cloud it is running on and reads any provided metadata from the cloud and initializes the system accordingly. + This is useful for e.g. setting network configuration, SSH access key and hostname. + To enable it on Grml, boot with boot option `services=cloud-init`. + If you configured a SSH public, logging in as user `grml` works. + For static network configuration you need to boot with boot options `nonetworking services=cloud-init,networking`. + +
qemu-guest-agent support: when running in appropriate environments (like Proxmox VE) this daemon exchanges information between the host and guest system (VM) (also see Proxmox wiki for further information). + When booting Grml as a VM in such an environment, the network information is visible in the VM summary then, like:

network information in grml-quickconfig: hostname, cloud-init, IP addresses and zeroconf/avahi information:

+ +

grml-live (build system for creating Grml (based) Linux live systems):

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Support for cloud-init (via GRML_FULL) +
sudoers: set Defaults secure_path to have sane default settings +
initramfs xz-compress: use default xz compression level +
GRMLBASE/98-clean-chroot: fix resolvconf symlink handling + get rid of resolvconf workarounds +
Rebuild /var/lib/dpkg/available to install not-yet-installed packages in update runs +
Sources list setup for security: switch from testing/updates to testing-security +
Switch default mount point from /lib/live/mount/medium to /run/live/medium +
Provide boot menu for Predictable Network Interface Names +

+ +

grml2usb (tool to install Grml ISO to usb device):

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Support more syslinux module locations and support setting custom ones via option --syslinux-libs=... +
No longer explicitly list addon files, instead copy all files from /boot/addons/ +
Provide git-describe based version information when running from within git +
Fix path to syslinux *.c32 files +
Add smoke autopkgtests to Debian packaging +
Abort if required logo.16 file is missing +
Avoid custom boot options getting duplicated when used with multiple ISOs +
grml2iso supports TODO +

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grml-hwinfo (tool to collect hardware information):

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Store output of `lscpu -e` in file `lscpu_extended` +
Store cpuid output in file `cpuid`, add cpuid to Recommends +
Record uptime (/proc/uptime in `proc_uptime` and uptime(1) in file `uptime`) +
Report SecureBoot state via mokutil +
Store "$HOME"/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log (if available) as user_Xorg.0.log +
Log output of verbose lsusb run in file lsusb_verbose +
Provide output of verbose lspci run in file lspci_verbose +
Recommend acpica-tools package and provide acpidump output (as root) +

+ +

grml-zshrc (Zsh configuration):

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Add zstd support to simple-extract() +
Reset $REPLY parameter before calling prompt token functions +
Disable bracketed paste mode for dumb terminals +
Fix urxvt multi-line issue +
commit-to-history: keep escaped character +
Support PAGER='less -Mr' usage and fall back to vi if LESSOPEN is unset +

+ +

grml-debootstrap (wrapper around debootstrap for installing pure Debian):

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Add support for .ssh/authorized_keys via cmdline option --sshcopyauth +
Support BOOT_APPEND usage outside of VMs +
Support mmdebstrap via DEBOOTSTRAP=mmdebstrap +
Use new security.debian.org repository layout for bullseye and newer +
Fix detection of predictable network interface names +
Add option --sshcopyid to authorise root login +
Provide workaround for Debian bug #918590 with LVM + udev in VM installations +
/etc/fstab: provide header comment, pointing to man pages and systemctl daemon-reload +
Add DHCP setting for Predictable Network Interface Names +

+ +

Bits & bolts

+ +

Linux kernel 5.6.
Fixed several bugs from the issue tracking system.

+ +

Packages

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Details about shipped packages and their versions in Grml are + available in the Debian section. Visit + dpkg_list for a + detailed list of packages shipped with Grml 2020.06.

+ +

Updates

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Packages are taken from Debian testing as of 24th of June 2020. + 22 packages have been removed, and these 30 new packages + have been added (excluding lib*, *-common, python3-* and kernel image):

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avahi-utils (Avahi browsing, publishing and discovery utilities) +
bind9-dnsutils (Clients provided with BIND 9) +
bind9-libs (dependency of avahi-daemon, bind9-dnsutils, bind9host + libnss-mdns) +
borgbackup (deduplicating and compressing backup program) +
cloud-init (initialization system for infrastructure cloud instances) +
cpp-9 (replacement for cpp-8) +
dnsutils (Clients provided with BIND) +
fuse3 (dependency of borgbackup, exfat-fuse, ntfs-3g, sshfs + testdisk) +
gcc-10-base (replacement for gcc-8) +
gcc-9-base (replacement for gcc-8) +
iperf3 (Internet Protocol bandwidth measuring tool) +
logsave (dependency of e2fsprogs) +
lua-lpeg (dependency of nmap) +
ncdu (ncurses disk usage viewer) +
pci.ids (dependency of sysfsutils) +
perl-modules-5.30 (related package for new perl version) +
python3.8-minimal (replacement for python3.7-minimal) +
python3.8 (replacement for python3.7) +
qemu-system-gui (QEMU full system emulation binaries (user interface and audio support)) +
qrencode (QR Code encoder into PNG image) +
radvd (Router Advertisement Daemon) +
ruby2.7 (replacement for ruby2.5) +
runit-helper (dependency of acpi-support, acpid, irqbalance + openssh-server) +
sound-theme-freedesktop (dependency of vim-gtk3) +
tmate (terminal multiplexer with instant terminal sharing) +
tree (displays an indented directory tree, in color) +
usb.ids (dependency of usbutils) +
vim-gtk3 (Vi IMproved - enhanced vi editor - with GTK3 GUI, replacement for vim-gtk/GTK2) +
wireguard (fast, modern, secure kernel VPN tunnel) +
zstd (fast lossless compression algorithm -- CLI tool) + +

+ +

These Debian packages have been removed/replaced (excluding lib*, *-data, *-common, python-* and kernel image):

+ +

ash (replaced with dash) +
cpp-8 (replaced with cpp-9) +
cryptsetup-run (transitional package for cryptsetup) +
fuse (replaced with fuse3) +
gcc-8-base (replaced with gcc-9-base + gcc-10-base) +
gdbm-l10n (reverse dependency only) +
hfsprogs (not DFSG-Free) +
ipsec-tools (dead upstream, consider using wireguard instead) +
lilo (should no longer be relevant nowadays) +
linux-libc-dev (reverse dependency only) +
pm-utils (reverse dependency only) +
powermgmt-base (reverse dependency only) +
python3-prettytable (reverse dependency only) +
python3.7 (replaced with python3.8) +
python3.7-minimal (replaced with python3.8-minimal) +
racoon (dead upstream, consider using wireguard instead) +
rng-tools (unavailable in Debian/testing, see #951663) +
ruby-did-you-mean (reverse dependency only) +
ruby-json (reverse dependency only) +
ruby2.5 (replaced with ruby2.7) +
tasksel (became priority=optional in Debian) +
vim-gtk (replaced with vim-gtk3) + +

+ +

Known issues

+ +

Please visit the known bugs web page.

+ +

Download Grml 2020.06

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Grml 2020.06 can be downloaded from + grml.org/download/.

+ +

Feedback

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Your comments, bug reports, patches, and suggestions will help + fixing bugs and improving future releases. If you find a problem with + the release please check the known bugs list and report problems using information on grml.org/bugs/. Please send your feedback and + feature requests to the Grml team!

+ + +

Thanks

+ +

Many thanks in this release go to (alphabetically) + Albert Dengg, + AndrÃ¡s Korn, + Antoine BeauprÃ©, + Axel Beckert, + Chris Hofstaedtler, + Florian Apolloner, + Garrett Holmstrom, + Iru Cai, + Joel WirÄmu Pauling, + Jordan Uggla, + Lukas Prokop, + Marc Haber, + Michael Stone, + Moviuro, + Patrick Schleizer, + Ralf Moll and + ur4t + for their contributions.

+ +

More Information

+ +

You can find out more about Grml on our website, IRC channel, and wiki. + +

To sign up for future Grml announcements, please subscribe to Grml's + announcement list.

+ +