grml development blog

Today Gebi and me had a developer meeting and concentrated on working with mercurial. We figured out the mq-extension (Mercurial Queues, similar to quilt) for working with Linux kernel and the grml patches, improved ACL system on our repositories, set up push notification via mail and extended our mercurial documentation. Thanks for the interesting day, Gebi.

We have a new develrelease. grml 0.8-4 is available for beta-testers and grml-developers.

Quoting the main changelog:

  * fixed known issues from develrelease 0.8-3

  * updated kernel 2.6.18-grml:
    http://grml.supersized.org/archives/199-updated-kernel-2.6.18-grml.html

  * grml2hd has a new feature: it's possible to customize grml2hd's
    execution via a configuration file named
    /etc/grml2hd/customization. Using this feature you can toggle
    which functions of grml2hd should be executed when running
    grml2hd.

  * switched to mplayer version available in Debian/unstable

  * OOTB support for vmmouse driver if running grml inside vmware

  * many minor updates, lots of cleanups, new shell
    aliases/functions,... [just too many too mention all]

Packages removed since 0.8 (excluding lib* and *2.6.17-grml*;
notice: some of them are available under a differnet name now):

  apache2-common bluez-pin bookmarkbridge camgrab cdw cdw-common
  cthumb divine dnotify drbd0.7-utils gcj-4.1-base gconf2-common
  grml-kerneladdons grml-reportbug ht jaxml lout-doc lpr
  mozilla-mplayer mplayer-nogui ndiswrapper-utils-1.7 netkit-inetd
  ppmtofb python2.3-pymad python2.3-pyopenssl python2.3-pyparsing
  python2.3-twisted-bin python2.4-selinux python2.4-semanage
  scanerrlog stunnel turkey xfonts-100dpi-transcoded
  xfonts-75dpi-transcoded xorg x-window-system-core

Packages added since 0.8 (excluding lib* and *2.6.18-grml*):

  ace-of-penguins afflib apache2.2-common aria2 automake ccontrol
  cdrskin classpath-gtkpeer conntrack cupsys-bsd ddccontrol
  ddccontrol-db diakonos diction drbd8-utils dwm-tools dynafont
  emacs emelfm firmware-qlogic glipper grml-etc-core
  grml-kerneladdons-2.6.18 guessnet ink inotail inotify-tools iwatch
  konwert konwert-filters latex-ucs mathomatic medusa misdn-utils
  mpg123-alsa mplayer ne obexpushd openbsd-inetd pax-utils ptfinder
  python2.5 python2.5-minimal python-jaxml python-pymad
  python-selinux python-semanage python-twisted-bin qtparted rake
  rdoc rdoc1.8 reniced reportbug resolvconf ruby-prof sic smap
  ssdeep stealth stunnel4 synergy sysvinit-utils update-inetd
  vim-python vim-ruby wodim xen-utils-common xmms2 xmms2-client-cli
  xmms2-core xmms2-plugin-alsa xmms2-plugin-id3v2 xmms2-plugin-jack
  xmms2-plugin-mad xmms2-plugin-vorbis xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse
  youtube-dl

An updated version of kernel 2.6.18-grml is available. The patchlist for 2.6.18-grml:

1000_2.6.18.1.patch
2500_via-irq-quirk-revert.patch
4005_sky2-v1.9.patch
4010_r8169-8168.patch
4105_dm-bbr.patch
4110_promise-pdc2037x.patch
4150_iteraid.patch
4300_squashfs-3.0.patch
4400_speakup-20060814.patch
5000_grml-version.patch
5001_grml_logo.patch
5002_linux-2.6.17-commandline.patch

As you might notice reiser4 is not part of the kernel (and unless there's an official patch this won't change for the upcoming grml-release). The external modules lufs, nozomi, thinkpad and vaiostat don't compile against 2.6.18 yet, the rest of the work has been done. I'm already running grml 0.8-3d with this kernel version. A new develrelease will be available within the next few days...

Exactly two years ago (on 22nd of october 2004) the first release of grml (named OS04) was released. Happy birthday. :-)

The grml-team uses Mercurial and we are providing public repositories via hg.grml.org. Documentation regarding our setup and how to work with mercurial can be found at grml.org/mercurial/.

grml2hd has a new feature: starting with version 0.8.12 it's possible to customize grml2hd's execution via a configuration file named /etc/grml2hd/customization. Using this feature you can toggle which functions of grml2hd should be executed when running grml2hd.

Notice that grml.org moved to a new server (more space, RAM, power,...). The new ip address of grml.org is 88.198.6.110, JFYI.

We have a new develrelease. grml 0.8-3 is available for beta-testers and grml-developers.

Quoting the main changelog:

  * added acx100, drbd8, spca5xx and truecrypt (for 2.6.18-grml)

  * new script random-hostname (print random hostname to stdout),
    integrated within grml2hd as well:)

  * grml-setlang: support all languages defined in
    /etc/grml/language-functions. Don't set $LC_ALL and $COUNTRY by
    default anymore.  Support non-interactive use via 'grml-setlang
    '.

  * rebuildfstab/scanpartitions:
    - added support for /dev/md*
    - improved fs-detection
    - support bootoption nolabel (don't generate label based fstab
      entries but plain, old style); use 'NOLABEL=1 grml-rebuildfstab'
      if you want to regenerate fstab without labels; force usage
      of labels via 'LABEL=1 grml-rebuildfstab' if you booted with
      'nolabel' but want to use labels anyway
    - support /etc/fstab.local (will be appended to end of
      /etc/fstab if the file exists)
    Please take a look at /etc/fstab and report any problems you consider!

  * hwinfo: using new release from Debian's pool, if you notice any
    problems with grml-x you didn't have until now, please report
    them!

  * new scripts (under development):
    - grml-bridge: set up your box as bridge
    - grml-router: set up your box as NAT-router
    - grml-ap: set up access point on your box

  * added /etc/skel/.irbrc ($HOME/irbrc), new shell aliases,...

Today I packaged ssdeep (detect similarities between files based on hash values), ptfinder (extract process information from a Windows memory dump) and afflib (utils for the Advanced Forensic Format [aff]).

grml 0.8 is shipped with the german Linux-Magazin Sonderheft 04/06: Netz und System!

grml-small 0.2 is shipped with the german Linux-User magazin, edition 2006/10.

grml is mentioned in the well known and popular german computer magazine c't, edition 21/2006 in an article named "Systemdiagnose und -wartung mit Linux" (page 130++ ). Great. :-)