grml development blog

A screenshot gallery showing details of the grml2hd process is available online. (Notice: you'll see the features of the current grml2hd version which supports grub already.)

I worked on a new version of 2.6.20-grml. The kernel features 2.6.20.1, plus iteraid and unionfs now. Several external modules are available as well, some few are missing though (due to API changes in 2.6.20). I just uploaded all the debian packages of 2.6.20-grml to the grml-testing pool.

I just wrote a small script named dirvish-setup which sets up basic configuration for use with the rsync based backup software named dirvish. Testers welcome, please report feedback.

We have a new develrelease. grml 0.9-3 is available for beta-testers and grml-developers.

Quoting the main changelog:

  * kernel 2.6.20-grml
    Notice: not all *extra*, external modules are available yet but
    I think the most important ones are there, see
    http://dufo.tugraz.at/~prokop/grml-kernel/2.6.20-grml/ for details

  * several updates regarding utf8 handling: all known issues should
    be resolved now - if you notice any further problems regarding
    utf8/language/... please report them!

  * grml2hd: support for grub and use of UUID by default
    http://grml.supersized.org/archives/233-grml2hd-supports-grub-and-rootUUID.html
    Notice: the grub code is new, there *might* be bugs present
    even though I tested it carefully, so don't use it on your
    productive environment unless you really want to. :)

  * fixed issues known from previous develreleases

  * several updates of configuration files

  * Does anyone of you suffer from the "timezone problem" with grml?
    http://bts.grml.org/grml/issue82
    If so please contact me! Thanks to Jan-Pieter Jacobs we might
    have a fix for the problem but I need your feedback.

I just finished main work of supporting grub directly within grml2hd and uploaded grml2hd_0.9.3_all.deb to the grml-testing pool in those minutes. Now there's a new dialog in grml2hd which lets you choose between lilo and grub as bootloader:

Notice:

• using grub on SW-RAID devices is not yet supported
• grub configuration does not provide artwork currently. I'd be happy if someone could contribute a nice bootsplash for grub at grml!
• please do not use the testing version of grml2hd on your productive environment yet! It needs some further heavy testing before entering stable... any feedback is welcome of course.

Oh, and another nifty feature within grml2hd: installation now uses root=UUID by default. This feature requires an initrd/initramfs so we use initramfs by default now (a dialog less within grml2hd) but you can make sure booting your grml system always choses the right partition, no matter how you are booting your system (like via external usb device):

A first version of kernel 2.6.20-grml is available:

Linux grml 2.6.20-grml #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Feb 8 00:15:11 CET 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

Some external, extra modules are missing currently (compare with grml.org/kernel/) due to API changes. Anyway, I'd like to base grml 1.0 on kernel 2.6.20-grml so expect several updates in the next few weeks.