Release Notes for Grml 2024.02 - codename Glumpad
About
Grml is a Debian based live system focusing on the needs of system administrators. This Grml release provides fresh software packages from Debian trixie. As usual it also incorporates up to date hardware support and fixes known bugs from previous Grml releases.
New features
Highlighting the most relevant changes only:
Misc:
- grml-hwinfo: add inxi output and collect information about network devices via ethtool
grml-live (build system for creating Grml (based) Linux live systems):
- Initial arm64 / aarch64 support
- Add support for Debian/trixie (current Debian/testing)
- Use serial console with a setting of 115200n8 by default
- Update zsh completion + ship it via Debian package
- Unify boot options order between isolinux/syslinux and GRUB
- Improved memtest + chainloader handling
- Remove Grml release name from the boot options
- Misc software related changes in GRMLBASE, GRML_SMALL + GRML_FULL classes
grml-zshrc (Zsh configuration):
- zshrc: fixed outdated url in weather function
- /etc/skel/.zshrc: suggest J as global alias for jq usage
grml-debootstrap (wrapper around debootstrap for installing pure Debian):
- Initial arm64 support
- Add EFI support for VMs
- Don't install busybox any longer by default
- Refactored error handling
- Dropped support for installing releases before jessie
- Use persistent device names under /dev/disk/by-id/ for GRUB's install_devices
Bits & bolts
- Linux kernel 6.6.
- Fixed several bugs from the issue tracking system.
Packages
Details about shipped packages and their versions in Grml are available in the Debian section. Visit dpkg_list for a detailed list of packages shipped with Grml 2024.02.
Updates
Packages are taken from Debian trixie/testing as of 26th of February 2024. The following 9 relevant packages have been added (excluding e.g. lib*, fonts*, *-base/*-bin/*-common/*-core/*-data, gcc-*/cpp-*, perl*, python*, ruby* and kernel image):
- dhcpcd: DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 dual-stack client (replacement for deprecated isc-dhcp-client)
- f3: test real flash memory capacity
- fwupd/fwupd-amd64-signed: Tools to manage UEFI firmware updates
- lolcat: colorful `cat`
- lz4: Fast LZ compression algorithm library - tool
- pixz: (dependency of clonezilla)
- toilet: display large colourful characters in text mode
- udisks2: D-Bus service to access and manipulate storage devices
The following 9 Debian packages have been removed/replaced (excluding lib*, *-base/-bin/*-common/*-core/*-data, gcc-*/cpp-*, perl*, python*, ruby* and kernel image):
- dmraid: obsolete (see #1056944)
- dstat: unmaintained upstream (see #1034856)
- fai-server: irrelevant, no longer a dependency of grml-live
- fakeroot: irrelevant, no longer a dependency of devscripts
- firmware-ath9k-htc: conflicts with/replaced by firmware-atheros
- iso-codes: irrelevant, no longer a dependency of qemu-system-*
- lsb-base: irrelevant, no longer a dependency of uml-utilities
- lua-lpeg: irrelevant, no longer a dependency of nmap
- thin-provisioning-tools: broken in Debian/testing (see #1041089)
Known issues
Please visit the known bugs web page.
Download Grml 2024.02
Grml 2024.02 can be downloaded from grml.org/download/.
Feedback
Your comments, bug reports, patches, and suggestions will help fixing bugs and improving future releases. If you find a problem with the (pre-)release, please check the known bugs list and report problems using information on grml.org/bugs/. We also welcome feature requests and any kind of constructive feedback. If you want to reach out to the Grml team, please visit our contact webpage.
Thanks
Many thanks in this release go to (alphabetically) 2f2a, Alhyene, anarcat, András Korn, Chris Hofstaedtler, Christopher Bock, Csillag Tamas, Daniel Richard G, Daniel Winzen, Felix Egli, flobee, GavinPacini, Giovanni Rosa, János Pásztor, Keith Irwin, Marc Haber, Michael Schierl, Patrick Schleizer, Roland Sommer and willmcginnis for their contributions.
More Information
You can find out more about Grml on our website, IRC channel, and wiki.
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