Grml - a distro for fans of Debian and text tools

[Telengard]

http://grml.org/

Grml is a bootable live system (Live-CD) based on Debian. Grml includes a collection of GNU/Linux software especially for system administrators and users of texttools. 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 GB of software and documentation on the CD. You don't have to pay anything to use Grml - it is available for free!

Grml should find a similar audience to Knoppix and SystemRescueCD. It boots to a text mode menu with easy access to administrative programs and documentation. The default shell is zsh, which is a bit different from the bash we're used to. Under the hood it is mostly pure Debian with lots of convenience scripts.

I recently used Grml to help me recover a corrupted filesystem.

If are a desktop user who loves Kubuntu's KDE, then Grml may not be for you. If you are a technically oriented user who loves Debian and command line tools, then Grml may be for you.

[de_koraco]

Re: Grml - a distro for fans of Debian and text tools

grml is the best thing in the whole universe!

hThe default shell is zsh, which is a bit different from the bash we're used to.

It's better. I mean, it has more functions and stuff. The real kicker is the grml zsh configs, which I pull on any distro. Marvelous.

If are a desktop user who loves Kubuntu's KDE, then Grml may not be for you. If you are a technically oriented user who loves Debian and command line tools, then Grml may be for you.

The full grml iso has both X, as well as five or six WMs. It just boots to tty, for speed mainly. I wouldn't equate it with Knoppix at this point, rather with System Rescue and Parted Magic. It doesn't have all the graphical tools these distros use, but it does have every conceivable text tool out there.

It also has the best installer I've ever seen.

[Telengard]

Re: Grml - a distro for fans of Debian and text tools

grml is the best thing in the whole universe!

I don't know about that, but it does seem worth having around

It's better. I mean, it has more functions and stuff. The real kicker is the grml zsh configs, which I pull on any distro. Marvelous.

So I've read. I didn't take the time to explore the shell much, but the difference in tab-completion is one example that really wow-ed me.

The full grml iso has both X, as well as five or six WMs.

Right, but it doesn't include KDE or GNOME. In this community that's something worth mentioning. Well ... maybe I should have stated it more clearly in the OP :P

[de_koraco]

Re: Grml - a distro for fans of Debian and text tools

Nah, I was just adding the X thing. Type in a few commands in zsh, something long like

less /etc/fstab
less /usr/share/doc/something
less Downloads/foo

Then type in less and hit the up arrow. Awesome. There's the built in ftp client, foregounding and backgrounding jobs...

[Telengard]

Re: Grml - a distro for fans of Debian and text tools

less /etc/fstab
less /usr/share/doc/something
less Downloads/foo

Then type in less and hit the up arrow. Awesome.

BASH complete command arguments in the same manner.

There's the built in ftp client

So there is. zsh does indeed have a builltin FTP client. Well ... how unique :P

foregounding and backgrounding jobs...

I'm pretty sure every shell since sh (the Bourne shell) can do that.

[de_koraco]

Re: Grml - a distro for fans of Debian and text tools

Yeah, I didn't mean this to turn into a zsh vs the others thread. If anyone is interested, grml's config is very nice and very easy to import into any given distro.