grml development blog

Marc 'Zugschlus' Haber wrote a very nice article named 'using grml to prepare LVM surgery' where he describes how he is using grml as rescue system in the datacenter of the well known german ISP named Strato. It's definitely worth reading the article. Thanks for the nice article, Marc!

After uploading grml64 I also uploaded a new develrelease of grml (the 32bit version ;-)) for beta-testers and developers. So, what's new? Read yourself:

This release is a very special one for me. There are many updates,
fixes, addons - I could remove most of the release-stoppers
(http://bts.grml.org/release-stoppers). From my POV we are pretty
close to grml 1.0-rc1 now. But due to several updates it needs heavy
testing of course. So if you want to help us please test this
release and report *anything* you find and think should be fixed for
grml 1.0!

Main changelog:
===============

  * update of kernel 2.6.20-grml, now based on 2.6.20.3
    You're missing a feature/module/...? Report!

  * grml-terminalserver: big improvements like better module loading
    and switch to atftpd (thanks gebi) - give it a try!

  * grml2hd: added grml-setservices (interface for basic
    configuration of system startup/shutdown via
    /etc/runlevel.conf), improved grub code, some minor stuff...

  * added bootoption 'qemu', currently it does nothing else than
    copying /etc/X11/xorg.conf.example to /etc/X11/xorg.conf (if you
    have further ideas please inform me)

  * grml-autoconfig: dropped userspace/powernowd stuff in
    cpufrequeny scaling in favour of the ondemand-governor. If you
    notice any problems with powermanagement on your laptop please
    let me know.

  * news from grml-scripts:

    - added dirvish-setup: a simple script for setting up a basic
      configuration for backup software dirvish.

    - grml-setlang: do not set $TZ anymore, we want to handle it via
      /etc/timezone instead of /etc/default/locale; notice: the
      timezone configuration has been documented detailed at
      http://grml.org/faq/#timezone and within 'grml-tips timezone'
      Questions? Problems? Report!

    - integrated grml-quickconfig within zsh-login. grml-quickconfig
      has been contributed by Michael Schierl - thanks! [Needs some
      more tweaking though...]

    - added iso-term (wrapper script to run x-terminal-emulator in
      iso885915 mode).

    - added alignmargins (adjust the margins and the position of the
      printed contents on the paper)

  * /etc/zsh/zshrc: added aliases for better iso<->utf handling
    (term2iso, term2utf, utf2iso, iso2utf), big update of swspeak
    alias, added function ytdl (download video from youtube), and
    tons of other fixes, updates, additions...

Yes - that's correct: grml64 - a 64 bit version of grml - is on its way. I'll upload the first official develrelease today so beta-testers and developers can grab it. If you want to test the 64bit version of grml too just join #grml.

Chemnitz Linuxdays 2007 were great. Several grml developers (including myself) have been there, we even had our own grml booth:

We had two Efika boards at the grml booth (one from formorer and the other one from myself). Formorer and me did some further work on the ppc-port of grml:

The grml-team had the chance to test one server of the Linux cluster in chemnitz [Chemnitzer Hochleistungs-Linux-Cluster (CHIC)] with grml. The server is a IBM System x3455 featuring Dual-Core AMD Opteron Processor, DDR2-RAM and AMD's virtualization technology 'Secure Virtual Machine' (SVM). The cluster machine running grml:

Output of /proc/cpuinfo running grml:

The server at the grml booth:

Oh, and as you can see in the last picture we had CDs of a special grml release (0.9-5) at the grml-booth!

A short article about grml is available in the tecchannel compact magazine, edition 'april/mai/juni 2007', the grml-ISO is part of the CD shipped with the magazine as well. Thanks a lot especially to Moritz Jäger for the voucher copy!