grml development blog

The first release candidate of grml 0.9 is available. Take a look at the release announcement for details about all the nifty new features. Please test the ISO and all the stuff you usually need so we can provide a rocking stable 0.9 release soon. Download the ISO from the devel directory of the mirrors listed at grml.org/download/.

We don't have artwork for grml 0.9 yet (besides a fallback version from myself) and therefore the release-name for grml 0.9 isn't stable either. So if you want to 'immortalize' yourself in grml and can contribute a nice wallpaper and/or a cd-cover: please let me know!

Update: wallpaper is ready, release-name as well (thanks for ideas - formorer and Martin Piskernig!). The cd-cover is pending but will be done in the next few days...

A new version of 2.6.18-grml is available (take a look at the kernel repository for details). This should become the final version of 2.6.18-grml so it will be available in the grml repository soon. A last few tests will take place, some docs have to be updated and then a first release-candidate of grml 0.9 will be available to the public.

Thanks to formorer we have a new bug tracking system (BTS) at bts.grml.org. It's mainly meant for developers so working together without forgetting any issues is easier. The issues regarding stable releases will be available in the grml wiki as usual. So you don't have to care about the BTS unless you want to work together with grml developers or you are one of them. ;-)

Notice to all grml-developers: please register youself in the BTS so we can assign issues according... Please use the webinterface for the task and use a nickname which is the same as your grml.org mailaddress, thanks.

formorer did an excellent job in the last few days improving infrastructure of grml. One of many tasks was the setup of new mailinglists for grml. What might be interesting for you is the grml repository commits mailinglist which allows tracking of all the commits to our mercurial repositories. Thanks again, formorer!

The grml-zsh-refcard received a big update. It covers the most current zsh configuration which will be shipped with the upcoming grml release. Many thanks go to Frank Terbeck for his work!

You might notice problems with the subdomains (wiki, hg, lists,...) of grml.org. It's a problem at the DNS-provider which has been informed already...

Update: the problem has been solved a few hours ago. Everything should be working again...

Just to keep developers and beta-testers informed (assuming that you don't follow my hg commits [time for a hg-commit mailinglist, yes]): today I spent several hours in reducing the todo list for grml 0.9. So make sure you have recent packages on your brand new develrelease (run 'apt-get update; apt-get install $PACKAGES') when trying out. Quoting some important stuff of the changelogs:

grml2hd: adjust /etc/default/rcS according to bootoption utc/gmt
              and /etc/localtime according to bootoption tz

grml-autoconfig:
              * deprecate CONFIG_KERNEL, CONFIG_LANGUAGE,
                CONFIG_DMA and CONFIG_MIXER as they are not really
                relevant on hd installations.
              * do *not* use swap by default anymore, thanks for feedback
                 goes to Wolfgang Karall!

grml-terminalserver: a maintenance release to fix some outstanding issues:
             * big update of linuxrc - do not use discover anymore (broken)
                but instead try modprobing all available network modules
             * reject tcp/113 via iptables to speed up PXE boot

I consider the current state as pretty stable, in the next few days I'll do some more regression testing so hopefully we'll have a first release-candidate of grml 0.9 soon...

We have a new develrelease. grml 0.8-5 is available for beta-testers and grml-developers.

Quoting the main changelog:

   * Added support for detection and activation of SW-RAIDs in
     live-cd mode. Can be disabled via bootoption noraid (and is
     disabled as well through forensic and raid=noautodetect).

   * Added grml-debootstrap: wrapper around debootstrap for
     installing plain Debian via grml very simple and fast

   * Added script fma: shipped with grml 0.8-4 already but not yet
     mentioned, provides "fast manual access" (take a look at it!)

   * zsh:
     - new alias hidiff (highlight important stuff in diff
       output using histring) [thanks for the idea, T!]
     - added power completion, thanks wuehlmaus!
       See http://zshwiki.org/home/examples/zleiab for details.
       Notice: this deactivates the global aliases by default now,
       just use the global aliases as well but press ',.' afterwards
       to expand the abbreviation! Trust me: you should know and use
       it! :-)

   * Fixed some issues in configuration framework handling, thanks
     for the reports, Marc Haber!

   * language stuff: added support for Norsk environment, thanks to
     Arnt Karlsen! [not yet visible in grml-setlang though]

   * grml-bootsplash: replaced the clear command with
     "echo -ne '\033[H\033[25l'" to avoid flickering at bootoption
     'splash'. Thanks a lot, Michael Schierl!

I wrote a small howto for setting up xen within 20 minutes on Debian/grml.

As written in my private blog (german article only, sorry) I own a amd64 system now. A grml64 kernel is available and I already have a first working grml64 live-cd version. I plan to be able to release a first public version of grml64 together with grml 1.0. Stay tuned.

I updated the kernel 2.6.18-grml once more. Summary: inclusion of 2.6.18.2 and sync with Debian's svn kernel repository. The patch-list in detail:

1000_2.6.18.2.patch
2400_net-netpoll.patch
2500_via-irq-quirk-revert.patch
2510_sym2-dont-claim-raid-devs.patch
4000_net-r8169-1.patch
4001_net-r8169-hotplug_loop.patch
4002_net-r8169-no_mac_adress_change.patch
4003_net-r8169-pci_id-corega.patch
4005_sky2-v1.9.patch
4010_net-forcedeth-swsusp.patch
4100_cciss-support-for-gt-2TB-volumes.patch
4105_dm-bbr.patch
4110_promise-pdc2037x.patch
4115_advansys-pci-id-table.patch
4120_buslogic-pci-id-table.patch
4150_iteraid.patch
4200_drm-i965.patch
4300_squashfs-3.1.patch
4310_fs-asfs.patch
4400_speakup-20060814.patch
4410_scsi-ahci-cleanup-1.patch
4411_scsi-ahci-cleanup-2.patch
4412_scsi-ahci-cleanup-3.patch
4413_scsi-ahci-cleanup-4.patch
4420_scsi-ahci-suspend-1.patch
4421_scsi-ahci-suspend-2.patch
4422_scsi-ahci-suspend-3.patch
4430_scsi-arcmsr-1.patch
4431_scsi-arcmsr-2.patch
4432_scsi-arcmsr-3.patch
4440_fintek-f75375.patch
5000_grml-version.patch
5001_grml_logo.patch
5002_commandlinesize.patch

More details available in the grml-kernel repository.

aamath is a program that reads mathematical expressions in infix notation and renders them as ASCII art. It may be useful to send mathematics through text-only media, such as e-mail or newsgroups.

The Debian package is - as usual - available from the grml repository. Thanks for pointing to aamath on the grml-user mailinglist, Mark!

I assume you already know debootstrap. Quoting the package description "debootstrap is used to create a Debian base system from scratch, without requiring the availability of dpkg or apt. It does this by downloading .deb files from a mirror site, and carefully unpacking them into a directory which can eventually be chrooted into." I already described the procedure for installing Debian sarge and etch via grml in my private blog.

I usually install plain Debian systems via debootstrap, because it's simple, fast and just works. Especially because grml provides recent hardware detection I can often install Debian on systems where the official debian installer might not work at all. But running debootstrap is a boring task, especially if you often do this kind of installation the tasks during installation are boring. Therefore I decided to write a wrapper around debootstrap, and there we are:

% apt-cache show grml-debootstrap
 Description: wrapper around debootstrap for installing plain Debian via grml
  This package provides a wrapper suite around deboostrap and
  cdebootstrap for installing a plain Debian system via grml.
  .
  All you have to do is adjust a few variables in configuration
  file /etc/debootstrap/config and invoke grml-debootstrap then.
  A plain and base Debian system will be installed on the given
  device then. Customization of this process is possible as well.

Installation of a plain and base Debian etch system is pretty fast and easy this way. The first public version of grml-debootstrap is available in the grml repository. Just apt-get it when running the grml live-cd. As usual: feedback is welcome.