Release Notes: grml 0.7 Bootenschnitzl (20060410)

About

grml is a Debian-based Live-CD. It includes a collection of GNU/Linux software especially for users of texttools and system administrators. grml provides automatic hardware detection. You can use grml for example as a rescue system, for analyzing systems/networks or as a working environment. It is not necessary to install anything to a harddisk, you don't even need a harddisk to run it. Due to on-the-fly decompression grml includes about 2.1 GiB of software and documentation on the CD.

We do need your help!

Bugfixes

Fixed several bugs, including:

• #19 grml-0.6: gkrellmd and battery status [wishlist]
• #20 grml-0.6: GRMLCFG does not work with floppy disk
• #21 hgrep: hgrep returns always success

and issues reported on grml_0.6 @ grml-wiki.

New features

Several improved, updated and extended configuration files.

New grml-scripts (some selected ones):

• bt-audio: script to connect bluetooth headset to computer
• get_tw_cli: get 3ware RAID controller command line interface tool (tw_cli)
• event-viewer: program to see all fork/exec/exit/uid/gid events on a running system using the new netlink/fork connector interface from linux >=2.6.15

New bootparameters/cheatcodes (some selected ones):

• vmware: disable usb/firewire detection during bootprocess, load some SCSI-modules instead

grml2hd (install grml to harddisk):

• check for given mbr option and prompt for activating it if not set
• changed initrd/initramfs generator from yaird to initramfs: now booting via firewire is also possible
• added resume, brltty, speakup_synth and swspeak to list of grml2hd-bootparams so it's easier to use out of the box
• changed logic in grml2hd dialog for package removal: now select packages which should be kept

See grml.org/grml2hd/ for more details.

grml2usb (install grml to usb stick):

• improved error handling and its output
• activate bootoption usb by default in syslinux.cfg
• added uninstall option

Special new features:

• /bin/sh now points to /bin/bash; reason: Debian does not support zsh as /bin/sh, zsh is used as interactive shell anyway of course
• reworked zsh completion (no error correction on rm and mv commands)
• grub can be called from bootmenu (in isolinux) through running 'grub' now; thanks a lot to Rafael Steiner!
• reworked 'swspeak' bootoption: sound output during startup, start software synthesizer when booting finished via running 'swspeak'
• rebuildfstab (generate /etc/fstab): partitions have new mount-options: 'noauto,nouser,dev,suid,exec'; improved partition detection (e.g. reiser4 is detected now)

Kernel

Based on vanilla kernel 2.6.16.1 including several patches (Reiser4, Speakup, Squashfs,...) and additional modules:

acerhk, acx100, at76c503a, bcm5700, cowloop, dazuko, drbd0.7, eagle-usb,
et131x, exmap, ivtv, kqemu, linux-wlan-ng, lufs, madwifi, madwifi-ng,
ndiswrapper, nozomi, openafs, pcan, pwc, qc-usb, realtime-lsm, rt2400, rt2500,
sdhci, sl-modem, snd-bt-sco, spca5xx, sysprof, thinkpad, tidev, truecrypt,
vaiostat, zd1211

Notice: madwifi-ng is available in /usr/src as debian package but not pre-installed because of conflicts with madwifi. Some more modules (for example fglrx and nvidia) are not pre-installed but available through the grml-repository.

See grml.org/kernel/ for more details regarding the grml-kernel.

Updates

Updated all packages to Debian Unstable branch by 20060407 plus some minor updates until 20060409.

Removed 34 packages [please notice that some of them are available under different names/in different packages]:

*2.6.15-grml* lib*

bzrtools cryptsetup-luks fam fonts-ttf-decoratives gkrellm-common grml-fixes
ivtv0.4-utils jikes jikes-kaffe ldaptor-common mirror mozilla-firefox-adblock
multiseat munin mysql-server mysql-server-4.1 pdns-backend-mysql pgpool php5
php5-mysql php5-pgsql php5-sqlite pmx postfix-mysql postfix-pgsql postfix-policyd
postgresql-8.1 postgresql-contrib-8.1 preview-latex python2.3-subversion schroot
sqlrelay-mysql tpb wacom-tools

Added 48 new packages (exluding lib* and *2.6.16-grml*):

3270-common apt-index-watcher array-util arrayprobe bar bcrelay brltty-flite btsco
bwm-ng c3270 cryptsetup cvsconnect cw cwcp dbconfig-common devio ecj-bootstrap
fontconfig-config gamin gcc-4.1-base gcj-4.1-base gcom gij-4.0 glimpse i855crt
ivtv-utils lanmap latex-mk linux-wlan-ng-firmware lomoco moreutils mpt-status
nbsmtp o3read openipmi p7zip pfqueue postgresql-client-common python-subversion
python2.4-selinux python2.4-semanage qpxtool rkhunter tcptraceroute tct truecrypt
unixcw user-setup

Upgrade notes

As usual you can upgrade your grml harddisk system to the latest grml version running 'apt-get update; apt-get install grml'. Notice: If you are using grml in a productive environment and/or use a grml2hd installation we strongly recommend to subscribe to the grml-user mailinglist!

Download grml 0.7

grml 0.7 can be downloaded from mirrors listed on grml.org/download/.

Known issues

None reported so far. Take a look at grml_0.7 @ grml-wiki and the grml bug tracking system.

Your comments, bug reports, patches, and suggestions will help fix bugs and improve future releases. If you find a problem with the release please check grml_0.7 @ grml-wiki and report problems using information on grml.org/bugs/.

Changes since release 0.6 (20060122)

• grml user mailinglist available on gmane

Feedback

Please send your feedback, feature requests and bug reports to the grml-team!

• grml.org/contact/
• #grml on irc.freenode.org

Thanks

Many thanks in this release go to Rafael Steiner for the grub-in-isolinux feature and to all those who have sent feedback since the last release!

More Information

You can find out more about grml on our website, IRC channel, and wiki.

To sign up for future grml announcements, please subscribe to grml's announcement list.

Further Questions?

Contact us.