grml development blog

Lots of development took place in the last weeks, finally we have a new develrelease. Quoting the main changelog for the new develreleases:

  * featuring new stable kernel 2.6.22
    See http://bts.grml.org/grml/issue216 for details regarding
    development and progress.

  * *no* further speakup patch inside the kernel, see
    http://braille.uwo.ca/pipermail/speakup/2007-June/043478.html
    for the reason

  * update to libc 2.6; packages from Debian pool by 2007-07-13

  * grml-x with multihead support using Xinerama ->

      % grml-x -xinerama ...

    Notice: this is limited to two monitors currently and I can test
    it only on my intel based Samsung X20 laptop. Please report
    feedback if you give it a try! Patches are welcome as well. :)

  * some small improvements in bootsequence when running inside
    VirtualBox

  * grml2hd supports installation on LVM devices through
    'LVM=/dev/mapper/target grml2hd'

  * added bootoption startup=$script to startup the provided
    $script/application instead of grml-quickconfig

  * support LVM (logical volumes) in boot sequence:
    - bootoption 'lvm' activates them
    - no special bootoption just runs 'lvdisplay' and if something
      can be found the user gets a hint to execute 'Start lvm2' to
      set it up
    - bootoption 'nolvm' completely disables the lvm code/checks

  * Due to the emacs21 to emacs22 migration the following packages are not
    yet available:

      auctex:      http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=432206
      python-mode: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=424973

    Whereas the other removed packages "gnus gnus-bonus-el w3-el-e21
    w3-url-e21" shouldn't be necessary with the new emacs version
    AFAICS.

  * the fluxbox theme (~/.fluxbox/styles/Sn33z) is broken with the
    current version. Just delete it manually or choose another theme
    from the fluxbox menu. Would be great if someone could take a
    closer look at fixing this issue!

  * the windows/ directory on the ISO has been renamed (currently
    only for now) due to space problems....

  * several bugfixes, updated configuration files,...

The first version of 2.6.22-grml is available for download (the debs are available via the grml-testing repository as well). Follow progress via issue 216 in our BTS or via the according mercurial repository.

% uname -a
Linux meilenschwein 2.6.22-grml #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Jul 10 00:35:57 CEST 2007 i686 GNU/Linux

A new develrelease (1.0-1) providing this kernel build will be available very soon.

I continued work on shortening our bugreports, wish- and todolist in the last few weeks. New features include:

• bootoption startup for starting a script when booting finished, usage example: 'grml startup=netcardconfig'
• LVM (logical volumes) support in the booting process, providing bootoption 'lvm' now
• grml2hd supports installation on LVM devices also in interactive mode, all you have to do is set up LVM is you want it to and then invoke 'LVM=/dev/mapper/$target grml2hd'
• support dvorak keyboard layout via bootoption lang=dvorak and lang=dvorak-iso as well as keyboard=dvorak and xkeyboard=dvorak

More to come in the next few days... going back to development now...

My submission of contribution regarding a talk about grml for the Call for Papers has been accepted for FrOSCon 2007! FrOSCon 2007 takes place on 25th and 26th August at the University of Applied Sciences Bonn-Rhein-Sieg, in St. Augustin near Bonn, Germany. This means we will have grml hackdays at FrOSCon 2007!

Oh and on 28th of august 2007 I'll held another grml-talk at Linux User Group Moenchengladbach (thanks for the invitation, Spida!). On 29th of August I'm flying back to austria then...