FAQ for grml 0.4

Index:

General:

  1. What is grml?
  2. What does grml mean?
  3. How to pronounce grml?
  4. Requirements for running grml
  5. Why another Linux distribution?
  6. What's the license of grml?
  7. What's the difference between grml and $OTHER-DISTRIBUTION? What are your main goals?
  8. What's the difference between grml and Knoppix?
  9. What does accessibility at grml mean?
  10. Is it possible to run grml with $EMULATOR?

System:

  1. What are the passwords of users on grml?
  2. How to find out the version of grml
  3. Is it possible to run LiveCD and eject CD-ROM?
  4. KDE, Gnome, $FOO and $BAR
  5. Which window managers can I use?
  6. Can I boot grml without CD-ROM? What's the grml-terminalserver?
  7. Bugreport
  8. Is it possible to install grml to harddisk?
  9. I have problems with my hardware!
  10. grml does not boot on my computer!

Kernel:

  1. Where can I find the configuration for the kernel used on grml?
  2. Are there any special components/patches in the kernel used on grml?
  3. Which platforms is the grml kernel optimized for?

Software:

  1. General
  2. Init-System
  3. Why is zsh the default shell (/bin/sh)?
  4. Is a bash available?
  5. setuid/SUID
  6. aide
  7. bitchx
  8. ispell
  9. LaTeX
  10. slapd
  11. tripwire

X-Server

  1. How do I start the X server?
  2. X does not start on my box?!
  3. I don't like the resolution of X!

Framebuffer

  1. The boot option vga does not work as expected?
  2. I don't see anything when booting grml?!

Further questions

General

What is grml?

grml is a bootable CD (Live-CD) based on Knoppix and Debian. grml includes a collection of GNU/Linux software especially for users of texttools and system administrators. grml provides automatic hardware detection. You can use grml as a rescue system, for analyzing systems/networks or as a working environment. It is not necessary to install anything to a harddisk. Due to on-the-fly decompression grml includes about 2.1 GiB of software and documentation on the CD.

What does grml mean?

grml is short for 'grummel' and comes close to 'argl' or 'grrr' in english. People use this when they want to express their dissatisfaction/discontentedness with software (amongst other things):

$ grep -ch grml .centericq/**/history | xargs echo | \
  sed 's/[0-9]*/& + /g' | sed 's/+ $//g' | bc -l
3746

How to pronounce grml?

echo 'ghroummel' | festival --tts
flite -o play -t gremel

Requirements for running grml

Why another Linux distribution?

There already exist "some" distributions. We decided to base our work on the existing infrastructure of Debian and Knoppix because we don't want to reinvent the wheel. Some admins already use their own rescue-CD and Knoppix works but does not bring that many important tools for admins out of the box so we decided to share our work with others.

What's the license of grml?

Anything written by the grml team is published under the GPL (GNU General Public License). You don't have to pay anything for running grml. Donations and feedback are welcome of course. If you want to get a special grml version or need support take a lookt at the support-webpage.

What's the difference between grml and $OTHER-DISTRIBUTION? What are your main goals?

The main goal of grml is to be a distribution well suited for users of texttools and sysadmins. grml includes many important texttools (of course awk, sed, grep,... but also zsh, mutt[ng], slrn, vim and many other stuff we like) and useful programs for admin's daily work too. grml uses the existing infrastructure of Debian and Knoppix and merges useful things also from other distributions/live-cds.

What's the difference between grml and Knoppix?

grml comes with a vastly different set of software. Missing KDE and OpenOffice provides the possibility of shipping more than 800 packages which Knoppix does not provide. grml starts a 2.6.x kernel but no X for faster startup. Knoppix is based on Debian/testing-experimental (using apt-pinning) - but grml is based on Debian/unstable.

What does accessibility at grml mean?

The grml kernel includes support for speakup and provides software like brltty (using bootoption 'grml blind brltty=type,port,tbl'), emacspeak and flite. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions, suggestions or feedback regarding accessibility!

Is it possible to run grml with $EMULATOR?

VMWare should work without any problems. It's also possible to run grml with QEMU, an emulator for various CPUs which works on Linux, Windows, FreeBSD and Mac OS X. Running grml with QEMU has been tested successful on Windows and Linux, take a look at the QEMU-grml-webpage.

System

What are the passwords of users on grml?

There are no default passwords. All accounts are locked by default. Even local logins are not possible (unless you set a password or create new user accounts as root). You can create valid passwords using "sudo passwd [username]" from the shell, individually.

How to find out the version of grml

Run 'grml-version' or use the following command:

$ cat /etc/grml_version

Is it possible to run LiveCD and eject CD-ROM?

$ sudo umount -l /cdrom
$ sudo eject /dev/cdrom # now don't run any new programs ;)
$ mount /dev/cdrom      # mount it again if needed ;)

KDE, Gnome, $FOO and $BAR

Why isn't KDE, Gnome, $FOO or $BAR part of grml? grml is a distribution for users of texttools and sysadmins. If you would like to run KDE with Debian use e.g. Knoppix, Munjoy-Linux, Kanotix, Kalyxo or Kubuntu. Gnome users might find Gnoppix useful. If you would like to see a special (software) package inside grml please report it to us!

Which window managers can I use?

grml is shipped only with window managers which are lightweight and fast - so well suited for a live-cd. At the moment grml provides the window managers: fluxbox, ion2 and ion3, pekwm, ratpoison, twm, wmi and wmii.

Can I boot grml without CD-ROM? What's the grml-terminalserver?

grml-terminalserver let you boot from network. For more information refer to the grml-terminalserver-webpage.

Bugreport

Report bugs via the tool reportbug which is part of the package grml-reportbug and provided with the grml system. If you don't know how to handle reportbug you can send us your bug report via the bugs-webpage.

Is it possible to install grml to harddisk?

Yes. grml provides a tool called grml2hd (see 'man grml2hd'). grml itself is developed on such an installation.

In general we recommend using a non-live-CD distribution for installing on harddisk because it might fit better. Especially if you would like to build a server system you don't want to use a live-cd system. Use d-i of Sarge (Debian Installer), Ubuntu Linux or if you have a lot of computers you might consider FAI (Fully Automatic Installation) for Debian GNU/Linux by Thomas Lange useful. But if you want to get a working Linux to your workstation consider using grml2hd. grml is developed on a box running the grml-system itself and we - the grml-developers - especially like grml2hd because it gives us a working Linux box within 10 to 30 minutes!

I have problems with my hardware!

Take a look at the script grml-hwinfo. This scripts generates a file namend info.tar.bz2 which contains important information of your hardware. If you think we might help you please follow the instructions of grml-hwinfo and send us the file.

grml does not boot on my computer!

Please take a look at the available bootparamters and cheatcodes. Especially booting with 'acpi=off noapm noapic nosmp' might help. Bootparameter 'failsafe' provides a minimal hardware recognition. You still have problems? Please contact us!

Kernel

Where can I find the configuration for the kernel used on grml?

See /boot/config-`uname -r` and on the kernel-webpage.

Are there any special components/patches in the kernel used on grml?

grml uses the currentmost stable vanilla Linux kernel from www.kernel.org with some patches. A all-in-one patch is available on the kernel-page.

Which platforms is the grml kernel optimized for?

Plain i486 compatibility-mode with SMP enabled.

Software

General

Want to run a program as root? Just use 'sudo $PROGRAM'. To get a root-shell run 'sudo su'.

Problems with a specific package? Please try 'dpkg-reconfigure $foo'. Still encountering difficulties? Please send us a bugreport!

Getting a core dump with a specific software and strace can't provide useful information? Look at this example:

$ program
zsh: segmentation fault (core dumped)  program
$ file =program
/usr/bin/program: Bourne shell script text executable

This might be a bug in "/usr/bin/program" because it uses /bin/sh but isn't shell compatible. Or it even might be a bug in the zsh. Please send us a bugreport!

Init-System

Why is grml using runlevel 2 as default? Because runlevel 2 is 'the textonly one' and it's debian's default.

What is /etc/rc.unused.#? We do not delete any init-scripts not used by default in some runlevels but move them to /etc/rc.unused.#

Why is zsh the default shell (/bin/sh)?

Short answer: because zsh rocks.

Longer answer taken from ZSH FAQ: 1.2: What is it?:

Zsh is a UNIX command interpreter (shell) which of the standard shells most resembles the Korn shell (ksh); its compatibility with the 1988 Korn shell has been gradually increasing. It includes enhancements of many types, notably in the command-line editor, options for customising its behaviour, filename globbing, features to make C-shell (csh) users feel more at home and extra features drawn from tcsh (another `custom' shell).

If you don't know zsh take a look at ZSH FAQ: How does zsh differ from...?, 'man zsh | less -p COMPATIBILITY' and 'man zsh-lovers'.

If you are a bash-user and don't know the zsh yet don't be afraid. bash is largely a subset of zsh and you don't have to throw away your knowledge about shell-stuff.

Is a bash available?

grml uses the zsh as the default shell but of course a current version of the bash is provided by grml anyway.

setuid/SUID

If you set a programm SUID (setuid/mode 4755) unprivileged users on your system will be able to run it. This could be a potentially security hole so by default the packages are configured not to install binaries with setuid. If you want to use the binaries with setuid please run 'dpkg-reconfigure $packagename' or 'chmod 4755 =programm'. The following packages are well known to have a programm with not-set setuid:

aide

Before AIDE can be used, you will have to initialize a database. In order to do this, simply run the following commands:

sudo grml-bind /var/lib/aide
/usr/sbin/aideinit

bitchx

Why isn't bitchx part of grml? bitchx sucks. Please use the much better alternative irssi which is part of grml.

ispell

You don't want to use the preselected default for ispell? Run 'select-default-ispell' for changing it.

LaTeX

auctex and preview-latex are loaded by default in emacs. If you want to load auctex based on your personal settings put the string "(require 'tex-site)" in your ~/.emacs, for preview-latex use the string '(load "preview-latex")'.
To change this run 'dpkg-reconfigure auctex' and/or 'dpkg-reconfigure preview-latex'.

slapd

The password for the admin entry in the LDAP directory is 'grml'.

tripwire

The site-key pass-phrase and the local key pass-phrase for tripwire are 'grml'.

X-Server

How do I start the X server?

Please use 'grml-x' for starting X. It generates the config file /etc/X11/xorg.conf and lets you start commands on startup (see ~/.xinitrc). Use e.g. via:

grml-x wmi

X does not start on my box?!

grml-x supports several options. If you want to set some special options please take a look at the grml-x manpage (man grml-x)! Some usage examples:

grml-x -display 8 wmi          # start wmi on display 8
grml-x -force -nostart         # force creation of xcnfig file and don't start X server
grml-x -hsync 60 wmi           # set horizontal frequency and start wmi
grml-x -hsync 60 -vsync 40 wmi # set horizontal and vertical sync frequencies and start wmi
grml-x -mode '800x600' ion3    # set resolution to 800x600 and start ion3
grml-x -module vesa fluxbox    # start fluxbox and use vesa module

I don't like the resolution of X!

Just run xrandr to switch the resolution. For example: 'xrandr -s 1024x768'.

Framebuffer

The boot option vga does not work as expected?

grml 0.4 uses vesafb-tng instead of vesafb. This means you have to set the bootopion via video= instead of vga=. See bootsplash F6 for more details.

I don't see anything when booting grml?!

Probably this is a problem with vesafb-tng. Try to boot via bootoption nofb. Often it's possible to switch resolution after booting grml:

modprobe -l | grep fb.ko # try to find out which module fits for your system
modprobe atyfb           # load the appropriate module
fbset 1024x768-60        # now try to switch the resolution on current console

Further questions

Do you have a question which is not answered in the FAQ or in the provided documentation (run 'grml-info')? Take a look at the grml-website. Please don't hesitate to contact us, a good place to start is the grml mailinglist.