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Chris Hofstaedtler edited this page Jun 22, 2025 · 5 revisions

Problems with grml?

Problems related to booting

I'm dropped to the busybox shell during booting

If you are being dropped into the busybox shell when booting grml and never get through the whole booting sequence you might want to try bootoptions "debug", and "rootdelay=9" and "break=live-bottom" for further investigations.

break={top,modules,premount,mount,bottom,init} might be interesting as well, especially for grml developers.

[mika]

isolinux fails with 'Could not find kernel image: grml'

Another warning you might get is 'Unknown keyword in config file'.

Your BIOS seems to be broken.

The problem has been reported to isolinux/syslinux upstream. Try to boot with 'linux26'. If this still does not work try to boot via btmgr.

[mika]

Booting fails with 'mount: Mounting /cdrom/GRML/GRML on /GRML failed: Invalid argument'

Make sure that the downloaded ISO is ok: compare md5sum of ISO with the one provided online

Make sure the CD-R/CD-RW is ok: sometimes there are problems with CD-RWs (this does not have to do with grml but hardware), check it via booting with 'grml testcd' and/or burn the ISO to a CD-R.

It still fails? Is it a SCSI-system? Then the appropriate driver could not be loaded. Take a look at the scsi-cheatcodes. Try 'grml scsi=probe' or 'grml scsi=ask' or 'grml scsi=modulename'.

Booting from USB or Firewire fails

See Boot grml/grml-small from usb-stick/firewire-device.

Booting fails with squashfs errors

You get the following output on the console:

SQUASHFS error: zlib_fs returned unexpected result 0x........
SQUASHFS error: Unable to read cache block [.....]
SQUASHFS error: Unable to read inode [.....]

Make sure the medium (ISO and CD-ROM) is ok. Verify it via booting with "grml testcd". Check your CD low-level via running:

# readcd -c2scan dev=/dev/cdrom

If the medium is definitely ok and it still fails try to boot with deactivated DMA via using "grml nodma ide=nodma" at the bootprompt.

Booting hangs at 'Looking for CD-ROM in: /dev/hdc'

Make sure the medium (ISO and CD-ROM) is ok. Verify it via booting with "grml testcd". Check your CD low-level via running:

# readcd -c2scan dev=/dev/cdrom

If the medium is definitely ok and it still fails try to boot with deactivated DMA via using "grml nodma ide=nodma" at the bootprompt.

Monitor is black when booting

Make sure your laptop uses the right output channel. Try pressing the VGA-key on your laptop.

Miscellaneous Problems

Set TimeZone

Try querying a timeserver directly

ntpdate uk.pool.ntp.org

You can add relevant time-servers to '/etc/ntp.conf'

server 0.uk.pool.ntp.org iburst
server 1.uk.pool.ntp.org iburst
server 2.uk.pool.ntp.org iburst
server 3.uk.pool.ntp.org iburst

Set the correct timezone using:

dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

On my system the time as 1 hour off; This was because the timezone wasn't set right, so the DS setting was wrong.

Automatic fstab rebuilding

You can turn off auto-fstab in /etc/grml/autoconfig

As well as other options.

NFS Client

I get the message "NFS common utilities: statd failed!" on startup

restarting 'nfs-common' alone has the same result.

restarting 'nfs-kernel-server' and 'portsmap'/'rpcbind' first makes it work

/etc/init.d/nfs-kernel-server restart
/etc/init.d/portmap restart
/etc/init.d/nfs-common restart

now I can mount NFS partitions.

link

Update (2009-11-27): If "nfs-kernel-server restart" fails and/or is timed out, then try to restart it at last (restart "portmap" and "nfs-common" at first).

Update (2011-07-06): Replace "portmap" service with rpcbind. portmap has been removed in grml 2011.5

etckeeper

Here's a good '/etc/etckeeper/etckeeper.conf'

# The VCS to use.
# VCS="hg"
VCS="git"
# VCS="bzr"

# Options passed to git commit when run by etckeeper.
#GIT_COMMIT_OPTIONS=""

# Options passed to hg commit when run by etckeeper.
#HG_COMMIT_OPTIONS=""

# Options passed to bzr commit when run by etckeeper.
#BZR_COMMIT_OPTIONS=""

# The high-level package manager that's being used.
HIGHLEVEL_PACKAGE_MANAGER=apt

# The low-level package manager that's being used.
LOWLEVEL_PACKAGE_MANAGER=dpkg

After configuring etckeeper, initialise git (or whatever VCS you configured for)

cd /etc
etckeeper init

/etc/resolv.conf not always updated with nameserver

When I start the image with "/usr/bin/qemu -cdrom /mnt/E/download/grml_2011.05.iso -boot d -net nic -net tap,ifname=tap0,script=no,downscript=no -k de -m 512" and configure the network to use 192.168.0.10 as a static ip and 192.168.0.254 as a nameserver, than the later entry is sometimes not written into the file.

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