grml development blog

We have a new develrelease. grml 0.9-2 is available for beta-testers and grml-developers.

Quoting the main changelog:

  * *no* kernel update, I'm lacking time and 2.6.20 should be
     available soon, I don't want to put further work into 2.6.19 now

  * some updates for "utf8 mode by default", main issues should be
    resolved now (some problems are present inside GNU screen though)
    [notice: handling of unicode_start for hd-installation is on the
    todo-list: http://bts.grml.org/grml/issue75 ]

  * several bugfixes and updates in grml-network's netcardconfig,
    in grml-rebuildfstab and grml-scanpartitions

  * extended zsh configuration

  * big update and rewrite of zsh-lovers, thanks to Christian Schneider:
    http://grml.supersized.org/archives/229-update-of-zsh-lovers-in-asciidoc-format.html

  * added script gsuggest.pl: google suggest - ask google for
    keyword suggestions

  * Packages removed since 0.9 (excluding lib* and 2.6.18-grml):

    ethereal-common linux-wlan-ng linux-wlan-ng-firmware lout
    lout-common olsrd-plugin opie-server unionfs-utils xen-tools
    xen-utils-common

  * Packages added since 0.9 (excluding lib* and 2.6.19-grml):

    advchk cryopid dnsproxy fatresize flashplugin-nonfree funionfs
    gatling gems genisoimage icedax imsniff keyutils keyutils-lib
    kvm mcabber ncc olsrd-plugins pnputils python-urwid
    recordmydesktop scalpel smbnetfs tesseract-ocr-data uncrustify
    urlscan vde2 vinetto xserver-xorg-input-aiptek
    xserver-xorg-input-elo2300 xserver-xorg-input-elographics
    xserver-xorg-input-hyperpen xserver-xorg-input-joystick
    xserver-xorg-input-penmount xserver-xorg-input-void xwatchwin

The first grml user survey is online. The purpose of this is to help grml developers gain a better idea of what the grml user community is really doing and using, and what aspects people would most like to see improved. Please contribute!

It was on my todolist for ages, thanks to Christian 'strcat' Schneider we have the zsh-lovers manpage in asciidoc format now. asciidoc provides much smoother output than my nroff hacks. :-) Adding new tips is much easier now as well, especially since we maintain the manpage within a mercurial repository (hg.grml.org/zsh-lovers). Get the zsh-lovers manpage in manpage format, as HTML or PDF from grml.org/zsh/, a Debian package is available via the grml-testing pool as well of course.

What's my roadmap to grml 1.0?

• kernel 2.6.20-grml (issue96)
• grml-ppc: provide a first version of grml for PowerPC (issue95)
• grml64: provide a first version of grml 64 bit version (issue13)
• use utf8 as default mode (issue43)
• grml2hd: use UUID for root-device (issue93), provide dialog for dis-/enabling services (issue89), support for grub within grml2hd itself (issue81)

Of course resolving the other issues on grml's BTS is on the todo list as well. Features like unionfs-overlays and additional squashfs-files are on the wishlist too of course. My plan is to release grml 1.0 in march 2007. Needs a lot of work of course...

grml will be present at Chemnitzer Linux-Tage 2007 (in germany) which take place on 3rd and 4th of march 2007. Several grml developers will be there and have a develmeeting. We plan to provide a special release available on the event exclusive. You can meet us at the grml-booth, hope to see you there!

As written in my personal blog I'm running Debian on my ppc efika board already. Now I've a first, working grml-kernel for ppc:

# uname -a
Linux grmlppc 2.6.19-grml #2 PREEMPT Sat Jan 20 20:26:15 CET 2007 ppc GNU/Linux

Now I can really start working on grml-ppc on my own. The plan is to have grml64 and grml-ppc available with release of grml 1.0.

Currently I'm crosscompiling the kernel on x86. It works but it would be nice to have a more powerful compile system, especially another (native) ppc system would be fine....

I created a Debian package of advchk, a tool for monitoring the security of installed software. Advisory Check gathers security advisories using RSS / RDF / XML feeds, compares them against a list of known software, and alerts you if you`re vulnerable. As usual the Debian package is available via the grml-testing pool.

grml-small 0.3 is shipped on the DVD of LinuxUser magazine 02/2007

I packaged incron, an inotify cron system. As usual the debian package is available in the grml-testing repository.

Today I finished work on packaging gatling, a high performance web server. Get the Debian package from the grml testing repository.

Frank Terbeck joined the grml-team. Frank did a lot of work in the zsh setup of grml. Welcome in the grml team, Frank!