DRACUT.CMDLINE(7) dracut DRACUT.CMDLINE(7)
dracut.cmdline - dracut kernel command line options
The root device used by the kernel is specified in the boot
configuration file on the kernel command line, as always.
The traditional root=/dev/sda1 style device specification is allowed,
but not encouraged. The root device should better be identified by
LABEL or UUID. If a label is used, as in root=LABEL=<label_of_root>
the initramfs will search all available devices for a filesystem with
the appropriate label, and mount that device as the root filesystem.
root=UUID=<uuidnumber> will mount the partition with that UUID as the
root filesystem.
In the following all kernel command line parameters, which are
processed by dracut, are described.
"rd.*" parameters mentioned without "=" are boolean parameters. They
can be turned on/off by setting them to {0|1}. If the assignment with
"=" is missing "=1" is implied. For example rd.info can be turned off
with rd.info=0 or turned on with rd.info=1 or rd.info. The last value
in the kernel command line is the value, which is honored.
Standard
init=<path to real init>
specify the path to the init program to be started after the
initramfs has finished
root=<path to blockdevice>
specify the block device to use as the root filesystem.
Example.
root=/dev/sda1
root=/dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:1f.1-scsi-0:0:1:0-part1
root=/dev/disk/by-label/Root
root=LABEL=Root
root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/3f5ad593-4546-4a94-a374-bcfb68aa11f7
root=UUID=3f5ad593-4546-4a94-a374-bcfb68aa11f7
root=PARTUUID=3f5ad593-4546-4a94-a374-bcfb68aa11f7
rootfstype=<filesystem type>
"auto" if not specified.
Example.
rootfstype=ext3
rootflags=<mount options>
specify additional mount options for the root filesystem. If not
set, /etc/fstab of the real root will be parsed for special mount
options and mounted accordingly.
ro
force mounting / and /usr (if it is a separate device) read-only.
If none of ro and rw is present, both are mounted according to
/etc/fstab.
rw
force mounting / and /usr (if it is a separate device)
read-write. See also ro option.
rootfallback=<path to blockdevice>
specify the block device to use as the root filesystem, if the
normal root cannot be found. This can only be a simple block
device with a simple file system, for which the filesystem driver
is either compiled in, or added manually to the initramfs. This
parameter can be specified multiple times.
rd.auto rd.auto=1
enable autoassembly of special devices like cryptoLUKS, dmraid,
mdraid or lvm. Default is off as of dracut version >= 024.
rd.hostonly=0
removes all compiled in configuration of the host system the
initramfs image was built on. This helps booting, if any disk
layout changed, especially in combination with rd.auto or other
parameters specifying the layout.
rd.cmdline=ask
prompts the user for additional kernel command line parameters
rd.fstab=0
do not honor special mount options for the root filesystem found
in /etc/fstab of the real root.
resume=<path to resume partition>
resume from a swap partition
Example.
resume=/dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:1f.1-scsi-0:0:1:0-part1
resume=/dev/disk/by-uuid/3f5ad593-4546-4a94-a374-bcfb68aa11f7
resume=UUID=3f5ad593-4546-4a94-a374-bcfb68aa11f7
rd.skipfsck
skip fsck for rootfs and /usr. If you’re mounting /usr read-only
and the init system performs fsck before remount, you might want
to use this option to avoid duplication.
iso-scan/filename
Using iso-scan/filename with a Fedora/Red Hat/CentOS Live iso should
just work by copying the original kernel cmdline parameters.
Example.
menuentry 'Live Fedora 20' --class fedora --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
set isolabel=Fedora-Live-LXDE-x86_64-20-1
set isofile="/boot/iso/Fedora-Live-LXDE-x86_64-20-1.iso"
loopback loop $isofile
linux (loop)/isolinux/vmlinuz0 boot=isolinux iso-scan/filename=$isofile root=live:LABEL=$isolabel ro rd.live.image quiet rhgb
initrd (loop)/isolinux/initrd0.img
}
Misc
rd.emergency=[reboot|poweroff|halt]
specify, what action to execute in case of a critical failure.
rd.shell=0 also be specified.
rd.driver.blacklist=<drivername>[,<drivername>,...]
do not load kernel module <drivername>. This parameter can be
specified multiple times.
rd.driver.pre=<drivername>[,<drivername>,...]
force loading kernel module <drivername>. This parameter can be
specified multiple times.
rd.driver.post=<drivername>[,<drivername>,...]
force loading kernel module <drivername> after all automatic
loading modules have been loaded. This parameter can be specified
multiple times.
rd.retry=<seconds>
specify how long dracut should retry the initqueue to configure
devices. The default is 30 seconds. After 2/3 of the time,
degraded raids are force started. If you have hardware, which
takes a very long time to announce its drives, you might want to
extend this value.
rd.timeout=<seconds>
specify how long dracut should wait for devices to appear. The
default is 0, which means forever. Note that this timeout should
be longer than rd.retry to allow for proper configuration.
rd.noverifyssl
accept self-signed certificates for ssl downloads.
rd.ctty=<terminal device>
specify the controlling terminal for the console. This is useful,
if you have multiple "console=" arguments.
Debug
If you are dropped to an emergency shell, the file
/run/initramfs/rdsosreport.txt is created, which can be saved to a
(to be mounted by hand) partition (usually /boot) or a USB stick.
Additional debugging info can be produced by adding rd.debug to the
kernel command line. /run/initramfs/rdsosreport.txt contains all logs
and the output of some tools. It should be attached to any report
about dracut problems.
rd.info
print informational output though "quiet" is set
rd.shell
allow dropping to a shell, if root mounting fails
rd.debug
set -x for the dracut shell. If systemd is active in the
initramfs, all output is logged to the systemd journal, which you
can inspect with "journalctl -ab". If systemd is not active, the
logs are written to dmesg and /run/initramfs/init.log. If "quiet"
is set, it also logs to the console.
rd.memdebug=[0-4]
Print memory usage info at various points, set the verbose level
from 0 to 4.
Higher level means more debugging output:
0 - no output
1 - partial /proc/meminfo
2 - /proc/meminfo
3 - /proc/meminfo + /proc/slabinfo
4 - /proc/meminfo + /proc/slabinfo + tracekomem
NOTE: tracekomem is a shell script utilizing kernel trace to track
the rough total memory consumption of kernel modules during
loading. It may override other trace configurations.
rd.break
drop to a shell at the end
rd.break={cmdline|pre-udev|pre-trigger|initqueue|pre-mount|mount|pre-pivot|cleanup}
drop to a shell on defined breakpoint
rd.udev.info
set udev to loglevel info
rd.udev.debug
set udev to loglevel debug
I18N
rd.vconsole.keymap=<keymap base file name>
keyboard translation table loaded by loadkeys; taken from keymaps
directory; will be written as KEYMAP to /etc/vconsole.conf in the
initramfs.
Example.
rd.vconsole.keymap=de-latin1-nodeadkeys
rd.vconsole.keymap.ext=<list of keymap base file names>
list of extra keymaps to bo loaded (sep. by space); will be
written as EXT_KEYMAP to /etc/vconsole.conf in the initramfs
rd.vconsole.unicode
boolean, indicating UTF-8 mode; will be written as UNICODE to
/etc/vconsole.conf in the initramfs
rd.vconsole.font=<font base file name>
console font; taken from consolefonts directory; will be written
as FONT to /etc/vconsole.conf in the initramfs.
Example.
rd.vconsole.font=eurlatgr
rd.vconsole.font.map=<console map base file name>
see description of -m parameter in setfont manual; taken from
consoletrans directory; will be written as FONT_MAP to
/etc/vconsole.conf in the initramfs
rd.vconsole.font.unimap=<unicode table base file name>
see description of -u parameter in setfont manual; taken from
unimaps directory; will be written as FONT_UNIMAP to
/etc/vconsole.conf in the initramfs
rd.locale.LANG=<locale>
taken from the environment; if no UNICODE is defined we set its
value in basis of LANG value (whether it ends with ".utf8" (or
similar) or not); will be written as LANG to /etc/locale.conf in
the initramfs.
Example.
rd.locale.LANG=pl_PL.utf8
rd.locale.LC_ALL=<locale>
taken from the environment; will be written as LC_ALL to
/etc/locale.conf in the initramfs
LVM
rd.lvm=0
disable LVM detection
rd.lvm.vg=<volume group name>
only activate the volume groups with the given name. rd.lvm.vg
can be specified multiple times on the kernel command line.
rd.lvm.lv=<logical volume name>
only activate the logical volumes with the given name. rd.lvm.lv
can be specified multiple times on the kernel command line.
rd.lvm.conf=0
remove any /etc/lvm/lvm.conf, which may exist in the initramfs
crypto LUKS
rd.luks=0
disable crypto LUKS detection
rd.luks.uuid=<luks uuid>
only activate the LUKS partitions with the given UUID. Any
"luks-" of the LUKS UUID is removed before comparing to <luks
uuid>. The comparisons also matches, if <luks uuid> is only the
beginning of the LUKS UUID, so you don’t have to specify the full
UUID. This parameter can be specified multiple times.
rd.luks.allow-discards=<luks uuid>
Allow using of discards (TRIM) requests for LUKS partitions with
the given UUID. Any "luks-" of the LUKS UUID is removed before
comparing to <luks uuid>. The comparisons also matches, if <luks
uuid> is only the beginning of the LUKS UUID, so you don’t have
to specify the full UUID. This parameter can be specified
multiple times.
rd.luks.allow-discards
Allow using of discards (TRIM) requests on all LUKS partitions.
rd.luks.crypttab=0
do not check, if LUKS partition is in /etc/crypttab
rd.luks.timeout=<seconds>
specify how long dracut should wait when waiting for the user to
enter the password. This avoid blocking the boot if no password
is entered. It does not apply to luks key. The default is 0,
which means forever.
crypto LUKS - key on removable device support
NB: If systemd is included in the dracut initrd, dracut’s built in
removable device keying support won’t work. systemd will prompt for a
password from the console even if you’ve supplied rd.luks.key. You
may be able to use standard systemd fstab(5) syntax to get the same
effect. If you do need rd.luks.key to work, you will have to exclude
the "systemd" dracut module and any modules that depend on it. See
dracut.conf(5) and https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=905683
for more information.
rd.luks.key=<keypath>[:<keydev>[:<luksdev>]]
<keypath> is the pathname of a key file, relative to the root of
the filesystem on some device. It’s REQUIRED. When <keypath> ends
with .gpg it’s considered to be key encrypted symmetrically with
GPG. You will be prompted for the GPG password on boot. GPG
support comes with the crypt-gpg module, which needs to be added
explicitly.
<keydev> identifies the device on which the key file resides. It
may be the kernel name of the device (should start with "/dev/"),
a UUID (prefixed with "UUID=") or a label (prefix with "LABEL=").
You don’t have to specify a full UUID. Just its beginning will
suffice, even if its ambiguous. All matching devices will be
probed. This parameter is recommended, but not required. If it’s
not present, all block devices will be probed, which may
significantly increase boot time.
If <luksdev> is given, the specified key will only be used for
the specified LUKS device. Possible values are the same as for
<keydev>. Unless you have several LUKS devices, you don’t have to
specify this parameter. The simplest usage is:
Example.
rd.luks.key=/foo/bar.key
As you see, you can skip colons in such a case.
Note
Your LUKS partition must match your key file.
dracut provides keys to cryptsetup with -d (an older alias for
--key-file). This uses the entire binary content of the key file
as part of the secret. If you pipe a password into cryptsetup
without -d or --key-file, it will be treated as text user input,
and only characters before the first newline will be used.
Therefore, when you’re creating an encrypted partition for dracut
to mount, and you pipe a key into cryptsetup luksFormat,you must
use -d -.
Here is an example for a key encrypted with GPG (warning:
--batch-mode will overwrite the device without asking for
confirmation):
gpg --quiet --decrypt rootkey.gpg | \
cryptsetup --batch-mode --key-file - \
luksFormat /dev/sda47
If you use unencrypted key files, just use the key file pathname
instead of the standard input. For a random key with 256 bits of
entropy, you might use:
head -32c /dev/urandom > rootkey.key
cryptsetup --batch-mode --key-file rootkey.key \
luksFormat /dev/sda47
MD RAID
rd.md=0
disable MD RAID detection
rd.md.imsm=0
disable MD RAID for imsm/isw raids, use DM RAID instead
rd.md.ddf=0
disable MD RAID for SNIA ddf raids, use DM RAID instead
rd.md.conf=0
ignore mdadm.conf included in initramfs
rd.md.waitclean=1
wait for any resync, recovery, or reshape activity to finish
before continuing
rd.md.uuid=<md raid uuid>
only activate the raid sets with the given UUID. This parameter
can be specified multiple times.
DM RAID
rd.dm=0
disable DM RAID detection
rd.dm.uuid=<dm raid uuid>
only activate the raid sets with the given UUID. This parameter
can be specified multiple times.
MULTIPATH
rd.multipath=0
disable multipath detection
FIPS
rd.fips
enable FIPS
boot=<boot device>
specify the device, where /boot is located.
Example.
boot=/dev/sda1
boot=/dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:1f.1-scsi-0:0:1:0-part1
boot=UUID=<uuid>
boot=LABEL=<label>
rd.fips.skipkernel
skip checksum check of the kernel image. Useful, if the kernel
image is not in a separate boot partition.
Network
Important
It is recommended to either bind an interface to a MAC with the
ifname argument, or to use the systemd-udevd predictable network
interface names.
Predictable network interface device names based on:
· firmware/bios-provided index numbers for on-board devices
· firmware-provided pci-express hotplug slot index number
· physical/geographical location of the hardware
· the interface’s MAC address
See:
http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/PredictableNetworkInterfaceNames
Two character prefixes based on the type of interface:
en
ethernet
wl
wlan
ww
wwan
Type of names:
o<index>
on-board device index number
s<slot>[f<function>][d<dev_id>]
hotplug slot index number
x<MAC>
MAC address
[P<domain>]p<bus>s<slot>[f<function>][d<dev_id>]
PCI geographical location
[P<domain>]p<bus>s<slot>[f<function>][u<port>][..][c<config>][i<interface>]
USB port number chain
All multi-function PCI devices will carry the [f<function>]
number in the device name, including the function 0 device.
When using PCI geography, The PCI domain is only prepended when
it is not 0.
For USB devices the full chain of port numbers of hubs is
composed. If the name gets longer than the maximum number of 15
characters, the name is not exported. The usual USB configuration
== 1 and interface == 0 values are suppressed.
PCI ethernet card with firmware index "1"
· eno1
PCI ethernet card in hotplug slot with firmware index number
· ens1
PCI ethernet multi-function card with 2 ports
· enp2s0f0
· enp2s0f1
PCI wlan card
· wlp3s0
USB built-in 3G modem
· wwp0s29u1u4i6
USB Android phone
· enp0s29u1u2
ip={dhcp|on|any|dhcp6|auto6|either6}
dhcp|on|any
get ip from dhcp server from all interfaces. If root=dhcp,
loop sequentially through all interfaces (eth0, eth1, ...)
and use the first with a valid DHCP root-path.
auto6
IPv6 autoconfiguration
dhcp6
IPv6 DHCP
either6
if auto6 fails, then dhcp6
ip=<interface>:{dhcp|on|any|dhcp6|auto6}[:[<mtu>][:<macaddr>]]
This parameter can be specified multiple times.
dhcp|on|any|dhcp6
get ip from dhcp server on a specific interface
auto6
do IPv6 autoconfiguration
<macaddr>
optionally set <macaddr> on the <interface>. This cannot be
used in conjunction with the ifname argument for the same
<interface>.
ip=<client-IP>:[<peer>]:<gateway-IP>:<netmask>:<client_hostname>:<interface>:{none|off|dhcp|on|any|dhcp6|auto6|ibft}[:[<mtu>][:<macaddr>]]
explicit network configuration. If you want do define a IPv6
address, put it in brackets (e.g. [2001:DB8::1]). This parameter
can be specified multiple times. <peer> is optional and is the
address of the remote endpoint for pointopoint interfaces and it
may be followed by a slash and a decimal number, encoding the
network prefix length.
<macaddr>
optionally set <macaddr> on the <interface>. This cannot be
used in conjunction with the ifname argument for the same
<interface>.
ip=<client-IP>:[<peer>]:<gateway-IP>:<netmask>:<client_hostname>:<interface>:{none|off|dhcp|on|any|dhcp6|auto6|ibft}[:[<dns1>][:<dns2>]]
explicit network configuration. If you want do define a IPv6
address, put it in brackets (e.g. [2001:DB8::1]). This parameter
can be specified multiple times. <peer> is optional and is the
address of the remote endpoint for pointopoint interfaces and it
may be followed by a slash and a decimal number, encoding the
network prefix length.
ifname=<interface>:<MAC>
Assign network device name <interface> (i.e. "bootnet") to the
NIC with MAC <MAC>.
Warning
Do not use the default kernel naming scheme for the interface
name, as it can conflict with the kernel names. So, don’t use
"eth[0-9]+" for the interface name. Better name it "bootnet"
or "bluesocket".
rd.route=<net>/<netmask>:<gateway>[:<interface>]
Add a static route with route options, which are separated by a
colon. IPv6 addresses have to be put in brackets.
Example.
rd.route=192.168.200.0/24:192.168.100.222:ens10
rd.route=192.168.200.0/24:192.168.100.222
rd.route=192.168.200.0/24::ens10
rd.route=[2001:DB8:3::/8]:[2001:DB8:2::1]:ens10
bootdev=<interface>
specify network interface to use routing and netroot information
from. Required if multiple ip= lines are used.
BOOTIF=<MAC>
specify network interface to use routing and netroot information
from.
rd.bootif=0
Disable BOOTIF parsing, which is provided by PXE
nameserver=<IP> [nameserver=<IP> ...]
specify nameserver(s) to use
rd.peerdns=0
Disable DNS setting of DHCP parameters.
biosdevname=0
boolean, turn off biosdevname network interface renaming
rd.neednet=1
boolean, bring up network even without netroot set
vlan=<vlanname>:<phydevice>
Setup vlan device named <vlanname> on <phydeivce>. We support the
four styles of vlan names: VLAN_PLUS_VID (vlan0005),
VLAN_PLUS_VID_NO_PAD (vlan5), DEV_PLUS_VID (eth0.0005),
DEV_PLUS_VID_NO_PAD (eth0.5)
bond=<bondname>[:<bondslaves>:[:<options>[:<mtu>]]]
Setup bonding device <bondname> on top of <bondslaves>.
<bondslaves> is a comma-separated list of physical (ethernet)
interfaces. <options> is a comma-separated list on bonding
options (modinfo bonding for details) in format compatible with
initscripts. If <options> includes multi-valued arp_ip_target
option, then its values should be separated by semicolon. if the
mtu is specified, it will be set on the bond master. Bond without
parameters assumes bond=bond0:eth0,eth1:mode=balance-rr
team=<teammaster>:<teamslaves>
Setup team device <teammaster> on top of <teamslaves>.
<teamslaves> is a comma-separated list of physical (ethernet)
interfaces.
bridge=<bridgename>:<ethnames>
Setup bridge <bridgename> with <ethnames>. <ethnames> is a
comma-separated list of physical (ethernet) interfaces. Bridge
without parameters assumes bridge=br0:eth0
NFS
root=[<server-ip>:]<root-dir>[:<nfs-options>]
mount nfs share from <server-ip>:/<root-dir>, if no server-ip is
given, use dhcp next_server. If server-ip is an IPv6 address it
has to be put in brackets, e.g. [2001:DB8::1]. NFS options can be
appended with the prefix ":" or "," and are separated by ",".
root=nfs:[<server-ip>:]<root-dir>[:<nfs-options>],
root=nfs4:[<server-ip>:]<root-dir>[:<nfs-options>], root={dhcp|dhcp6}
root=dhcp alone directs initrd to look at the DHCP root-path
where NFS options can be specified.
Example.
root-path=<server-ip>:<root-dir>[,<nfs-options>]
root-path=nfs:<server-ip>:<root-dir>[,<nfs-options>]
root-path=nfs4:<server-ip>:<root-dir>[,<nfs-options>]
root=/dev/nfs nfsroot=[<server-ip>:]<root-dir>[:<nfs-options>]
Deprecated! kernel Documentation_/filesystems/nfsroot.txt_
defines this method. This is supported by dracut, but not
recommended.
rd.nfs.domain=<NFSv4 domain name>
Set the NFSv4 domain name. Will override the settings in
/etc/idmap.conf.
rd.net.dhcp.retry=<cnt>
If this option is set, dracut will try to connect via dhcp <cnt>
times before failing. Default is 1.
rd.net.timeout.dhcp=<arg>
If this option is set, dhclient is called with "-timeout <arg>".
rd.net.timeout.iflink=<seconds>
Wait <seconds> until link shows up. Default is 60 seconds.
rd.net.timeout.ifup=<seconds>
Wait <seconds> until link has state "UP". Default is 20 seconds.
rd.net.timeout.route=<seconds>
Wait <seconds> until route shows up. Default is 20 seconds.
rd.net.timeout.ipv6dad=<seconds>
Wait <seconds> until IPv6 DAD is finished. Default is 50 seconds.
rd.net.timeout.ipv6auto=<seconds>
Wait <seconds> until IPv6 automatic addresses are assigned.
Default is 40 seconds.
rd.net.timeout.carrier=<seconds>
Wait <seconds> until carrier is recognized. Default is 10
seconds.
CIFS
root=cifs://[<username>[:<password>]@]<server-ip>:<root-dir>
mount cifs share from <server-ip>:/<root-dir>, if no server-ip is
given, use dhcp next_server. if server-ip is an IPv6 address it
has to be put in brackets, e.g. [2001:DB8::1]. If a username or
password are not specified as part of the root, then they must be
passed on the command line through cifsuser/cifspass.
Warning
Passwords specified on the kernel command line are visible
for all users via the file /proc/cmdline and via dmesg or can
be sniffed on the network, when using DHCP with DHCP
root-path.
cifsuser=<username>
Set the cifs username, if not specified as part of the root.
cifspass=<password>
Set the cifs password, if not specified as part of the root.
Warning
Passwords specified on the kernel command line are visible
for all users via the file /proc/cmdline and via dmesg or can
be sniffed on the network, when using DHCP with DHCP
root-path.
iSCSI
root=iscsi:[<username>:<password>[:<reverse>:<password>]@][<servername>]:[<protocol>]:[<port>][:[<iscsi_iface_name>]:[<netdev_name>]]:[<LUN>]:<targetname>
protocol defaults to "6", LUN defaults to "0". If the
"servername" field is provided by BOOTP or DHCP, then that field
is used in conjunction with other associated fields to contact
the boot server in the Boot stage. However, if the "servername"
field is not provided, then the "targetname" field is then used
in the Discovery Service stage in conjunction with other
associated fields. See rfc4173[1].
Warning
Passwords specified on the kernel command line are visible
for all users via the file /proc/cmdline and via dmesg or can
be sniffed on the network, when using DHCP with DHCP
root-path.
Example.
root=iscsi:192.168.50.1::::iqn.2009-06.dracut:target0
If servername is an IPv6 address, it has to be put in brackets:
Example.
root=iscsi:[2001:DB8::1]::::iqn.2009-06.dracut:target0
root=???
netroot=iscsi:[<username>:<password>[:<reverse>:<password>]@][<servername>]:[<protocol>]:[<port>][:[<iscsi_iface_name>]:[<netdev_name>]]:[<LUN>]:<targetname>
...
multiple netroot options allow setting up multiple iscsi disks:
Example.
root=UUID=12424547
netroot=iscsi:192.168.50.1::::iqn.2009-06.dracut:target0
netroot=iscsi:192.168.50.1::::iqn.2009-06.dracut:target1
If servername is an IPv6 address, it has to be put in brackets:
Example.
netroot=iscsi:[2001:DB8::1]::::iqn.2009-06.dracut:target0
Warning
Passwords specified on the kernel command line are visible
for all users via the file /proc/cmdline and via dmesg or can
be sniffed on the network, when using DHCP with DHCP
root-path. You may want to use rd.iscsi.firmware.
root=??? rd.iscsi.initiator=<initiator> rd.iscsi.target.name=<target
name> rd.iscsi.target.ip=<target ip> rd.iscsi.target.port=<target
port> rd.iscsi.target.group=<target group>
rd.iscsi.username=<username> rd.iscsi.password=<password>
rd.iscsi.in.username=<in username> rd.iscsi.in.password=<in password>
manually specify all iscsistart parameter (see iscsistart --help)
Warning
Passwords specified on the kernel command line are visible
for all users via the file /proc/cmdline and via dmesg or can
be sniffed on the network, when using DHCP with DHCP
root-path. You may want to use rd.iscsi.firmware.
root=??? netroot=iscsi rd.iscsi.firmware=1
will read the iscsi parameter from the BIOS firmware
rd.iscsi.login_retry_max=<num>
maximum number of login retries
rd.iscsi.param=<param>
<param> will be passed as "--param <param>" to iscsistart. This
parameter can be specified multiple times.
Example.
"netroot=iscsi rd.iscsi.firmware=1 rd.iscsi.param=node.session.timeo.replacement_timeout=30"
will result in
iscsistart -b --param node.session.timeo.replacement_timeout=30
rd.iscsi.ibft rd.iscsi.ibft=1: Turn on iBFT autoconfiguration for the
interfaces
rd.iscsi.mp rd.iscsi.mp=1: Configure all iBFT interfaces, not only
used for booting (multipath)
rd.iscsi.waitnet=0: Turn off waiting for all interfaces to be up
before trying to login to the iSCSI targets.
rd.iscsi.testroute=0: Turn off checking, if the route to the iSCSI
target IP is possible before trying to login.
FCoE
rd.nofcoe=0
disable FCoE and lldpad
fcoe=<edd|interface|MAC>:{dcb|nodcb}:{fabric|vn2vn}
Try to connect to a FCoE SAN through the NIC specified by
<interface> or <MAC> or EDD settings. The second argument
specifies if DCB should be used. The optional third argument
specifies whether fabric or VN2VN mode should be used. This
parameter can be specified multiple times.
Note
letters in the MAC-address must be lowercase!
NBD
root=???
netroot=nbd:<server>:<port/exportname>[:<fstype>[:<mountopts>[:<nbdopts>]]]
mount nbd share from <server>.
NOTE: If "exportname" instead of "port" is given the standard
port is used. Newer versions of nbd are only supported with
"exportname".
root=dhcp with dhcp
root-path=nbd:<server>:<port/exportname>[:<fstype>[:<mountopts>[:<nbdopts>]]]
root=dhcp alone directs initrd to look at the DHCP root-path
where NBD options can be specified. This syntax is only usable in
cases where you are directly mounting the volume as the rootfs.
NOTE: If "exportname" instead of "port" is given the standard
port is used. Newer versions of nbd are only supported with
"exportname".
DASD
rd.dasd=....
same syntax as the kernel module parameter (s390 only)
ZFCP
rd.zfcp=<zfcp adaptor device bus ID>,<WWPN>,<FCPLUN>
rd.zfcp can be specified multiple times on the kernel command
line.
rd.zfcp=<zfcp adaptor device bus ID>
If NPIV is enabled and the allow_lun_scan parameter to the zfcp
module is set to Y then the zfcp adaptor will be initiating a
scan internally and the <WWPN> and <FCPLUN> parameters can be
omitted.
Example.
rd.zfcp=0.0.4000,0x5005076300C213e9,0x5022000000000000
rd.zfcp=0.0.4000
rd.zfcp.conf=0
ignore zfcp.conf included in the initramfs
ZNET
rd.znet=<nettype>,<subchannels>,<options>
The whole parameter is appended to /etc/ccw.conf, which is used
on RHEL/Fedora with ccw_init, which is called from udev for
certain devices on z-series. rd.znet can be specified multiple
times on the kernel command line.
Example.
rd.znet=qeth,0.0.0600,0.0.0601,0.0.0602,layer2=1,portname=foo
rd.znet=ctc,0.0.0600,0.0.0601,protocol=bar
Booting live images
Dracut offers multiple options for live booted images:
SquashFS with read-only filesystem image
The system will boot with a read-only filesystem from the
SquashFS and apply a writable Device-mapper snapshot or an
OverlayFS overlay mount for the read-only base filesystem. This
method ensures a relatively fast boot and lower RAM usage. Users
must be careful to avoid writing too many blocks to a snapshot
volume. Once the blocks of the snapshot overlay are exhausted,
the root filesystem becomes read-only and may cause application
failures. The snapshot overlay file is marked Overflow, and a
difficult recovery is required to repair and enlarge the overlay
offline. Non-persistent overlays are sparse files in RAM that
only consume content space as required blocks are allocated. They
default to an apparent size of 32 GiB in RAM. The size can be
adjusted with the rd.live.overlay.size= kernel command line
option.
The filesystem structure is traditionally expected to be:
squashfs.img | SquashFS from LiveCD .iso
!(mount)
/LiveOS
|- rootfs.img | Filesystem image to mount read-only
!(mount)
/bin | Live filesystem
/boot |
/dev |
... |
For OverlayFS mount overlays, the filesystem structure may also
be a direct compression of the root filesystem:
squashfs.img | SquashFS from LiveCD .iso
!(mount)
/bin | Live filesystem
/boot |
/dev |
... |
Dracut uses one of the overlay methods of live booting by
default. No additional command line options are required other
than root=live:<URL> to specify the location of your squashed
filesystem.
· The compressed SquashFS image can be copied during boot to
RAM at /run/initramfs/squashed.img by using the rd.live.ram=1
option.
· A device with a persistent overlay can be booted read-only by
using the rd.live.overlay.readonly option on the kernel
command line. This will either cause a temporary, writable
overlay to be stacked over a read-only snapshot of the root
filesystem or the OverlayFS mount will use an additional
lower layer with the root filesystem.
Uncompressed live filesystem image
When the live system was installed with the --skipcompress option
of the livecd-iso-to-disk installation script for Live USB
devices, the root filesystem image, rootfs.img, is expanded on
installation and no SquashFS is involved during boot.
· If rd.live.ram=1 is used in this situation, the full,
uncompressed root filesystem is copied during boot to
/run/initramfs/rootfs.img in the /run tmpfs.
· If rd.live.overlay=none is provided as a kernel command line
option, a writable, linear Device-mapper target is created on
boot with no overlay.
Writable filesystem image
The system will retrieve a compressed filesystem image, extract
it to /run/initramfs/fsimg/rootfs.img, connect it to a loop
device, create a writable, linear Device-mapper target at
/dev/mapper/live-rw, and mount that as a writable volume at /.
More RAM is required during boot but the live filesystem is
easier to manage if it becomes full. Users can make a filesystem
image of any size and that size will be maintained when the
system boots. There is no persistence of root filesystem changes
between boots with this option.
The filesystem structure is expected to be:
rootfs.tgz | Compressed tarball containing filesystem image
!(unpack)
/rootfs.img | Filesystem image at /run/initramfs/fsimg/
!(mount)
/bin | Live filesystem
/boot |
/dev |
... |
To use this boot option, ensure that rd.writable.fsimg=1 is in
your kernel command line and add the root=live:<URL> to specify
the location of your compressed filesystem image tarball or
SquashFS image.
rd.writable.fsimg=1
Enables writable filesystem support. The system will boot with a
fully writable (but non-persistent) filesystem without snapshots
(see notes above about available live boot options). You can use
the rootflags option to set mount options for the live filesystem
as well (see documentation about rootflags in the Standard
section above). This implies that the whole image is copied to
RAM before the boot continues.
Note
There must be enough free RAM available to hold the complete
image.
This method is very suitable for diskless boots.
root=live:<url>
Boots a live image retrieved from <url>. Requires the dracut
livenet module. Valid handlers: http, https, ftp, torrent, tftp.
Examples.
root=live:http://example.com/liveboot.img
root=live:ftp://ftp.example.com/liveboot.img
root=live:torrent://example.com/liveboot.img.torrent
rd.live.debug=1
Enables debug output from the live boot process.
rd.live.dir=<path>
Specifies the directory within the boot device where the
squashfs.img or rootfs.img can be found. By default, this is
/LiveOS.
rd.live.squashimg=<filename of SquashFS image>
Specifies the filename for a SquashFS image of the root
filesystem. By default, this is squashfs.img.
rd.live.ram=1
Copy the complete image to RAM and use this for booting. This is
useful when the image resides on, e.g., a DVD which needs to be
ejected later on.
rd.live.overlay={<devspec>[:{<pathspec>|auto}]|none}
Manage the usage of a permanent overlay.
· <devspec> specifies the path to a device with a mountable
filesystem.
· <pathspec> is the path to a file within that filesystem,
which shall be used to persist the changes made to the device
specified by the root=live:<url> option.
The default pathspec, when auto or no :<pathspec> is given,
is /<<b>rd.live.dir</b>>/overlay-<label>-<uuid>, where
<label> is the device LABEL, and <uuid> is the device UUID. *
none (the word itself) specifies that no overlay will be
used, such as when an uncompressed, writable live root
filesystem is available.
If a persistent overlay is detected at the standard LiveOS
path, the overlay & overlay type detected, whether
Device-mapper or OverlayFS, will be used.
Examples.
rd.live.overlay=/dev/sdb1:persistent-overlay.img
rd.live.overlay=UUID=99440c1f-8daa-41bf-b965-b7240a8996f4
rd.live.overlay.size=<size_MiB>
Specifies a non-persistent Device-mapper overlay size in MiB. The
default is 32768.
rd.live.overlay.readonly=1
This is used to boot with a normally read-write persistent
overlay in a read-only mode. With this option, either an
additional, non-persistent, writable snapshot overlay will be
stacked over a read-only snapshot, /dev/mapper/live-ro, of the
base filesystem with the persistent overlay, or a read-only loop
device, in the case of a writable rootfs.img, or an OverlayFS
mount will use the persistent overlay directory linked at
/run/overlayfs-r as an additional lower layer along with the base
root filesystem and apply a transient, writable upper directory
overlay, in order to complete the booted root filesystem.
rd.live.overlay.reset=1
Specifies that a persistent overlay should be reset on boot. All
previous root filesystem changes are vacated by this action.
rd.live.overlay.thin=1
Enables the usage of thin snapshots instead of classic dm
snapshots. The advantage of thin snapshots is that they support
discards, and will free blocks that are not claimed by the
filesystem. In this use case, this means that memory is given
back to the kernel when the filesystem does not claim it anymore.
rd.live.overlay.overlayfs=1
Enables the use of the OverlayFS kernel module, if available, to
provide a copy-on-write union directory for the root filesystem.
OverlayFS overlays are directories of the files that have changed
on the read-only base (lower) filesystem. The root filesystem is
provided through a special overlay type mount that merges the
lower and upper directories. If an OverlayFS upper directory is
not present on the boot device, a tmpfs directory will be created
at /run/overlayfs to provide temporary storage. Persistent
storage can be provided on vfat or msdos formatted devices by
supplying the OverlayFS upper directory within an embedded
filesystem that supports the creation of trusted.* extended
attributes and provides a valid d_type in readdir responses, such
as with ext4 and xfs. On non-vfat-formatted devices, a persistent
OverlayFS overlay can extend the available root filesystem
storage up to the capacity of the LiveOS disk device.
If a persistent overlay is detected at the standard LiveOS path,
the overlay & overlay type detected, whether OverlayFS or
Device-mapper, will be used.
The rd.live.overlay.readonly option, which allows a persistent
overlayfs to be mounted read-only through a higher level
transient overlay directory, has been implemented through the
multiple lower layers feature of OverlayFS.
ZIPL
rd.zipl=<path to blockdevice>
Update the dracut commandline with the values found in the
dracut-cmdline.conf file on the given device. The values are
merged into the existing commandline values and the udev events
are regenerated.
Example.
rd.zipl=UUID=0fb28157-99e3-4395-adef-da3f7d44835a
CIO_IGNORE
rd.cio_accept=<device-ids>
Remove the devices listed in <device-ids> from the default
cio_ignore kernel command-line settings. <device-ids> is a list
of comma-separated CCW device ids. The default for this value is
taken from the /boot/zipl/active_devices.txt file.
Example.
rd.cio_accept=0.0.0180,0.0.0800,0.0.0801,0.0.0802
Plymouth Boot Splash
plymouth.enable=0
disable the plymouth bootsplash completely.
rd.plymouth=0
disable the plymouth bootsplash only for the initramfs.
Kernel keys
masterkey=<kernel master key path name>
Set the path name of the kernel master key.
Example.
masterkey=/etc/keys/kmk-trusted.blob
masterkeytype=<kernel master key type>
Set the type of the kernel master key.
Example.
masterkeytype=trusted
evmkey=<EVM key path name>
Set the path name of the EVM key.
Example.
evmkey=/etc/keys/evm-trusted.blob
ecryptfskey=<eCryptfs key path name>
Set the path name of the eCryptfs key.
Example.
ecryptfskey=/etc/keys/ecryptfs-trusted.blob
Deprecated, renamed Options
Here is a list of options, which were used in dracut prior to version
008, and their new replacement.
rdbreak
rd.break
rd.ccw
rd.znet
rd_CCW
rd.znet
rd_DASD_MOD
rd.dasd
rd_DASD
rd.dasd
rdinitdebug rdnetdebug
rd.debug
rd_NO_DM
rd.dm=0
rd_DM_UUID
rd.dm.uuid
rdblacklist
rd.driver.blacklist
rdinsmodpost
rd.driver.post
rdloaddriver
rd.driver.pre
rd_NO_FSTAB
rd.fstab=0
rdinfo
rd.info
check
rd.live.check
rdlivedebug
rd.live.debug
live_dir
rd.live.dir
liveimg
rd.live.image
overlay
rd.live.overlay
readonly_overlay
rd.live.overlay.readonly
reset_overlay
rd.live.overlay.reset
live_ram
rd.live.ram
rd_NO_CRYPTTAB
rd.luks.crypttab=0
rd_LUKS_KEYDEV_UUID
rd.luks.keydev.uuid
rd_LUKS_KEYPATH
rd.luks.keypath
rd_NO_LUKS
rd.luks=0
rd_LUKS_UUID
rd.luks.uuid
rd_NO_LVMCONF
rd.lvm.conf
rd_LVM_LV
rd.lvm.lv
rd_NO_LVM
rd.lvm=0
rd_LVM_SNAPSHOT
rd.lvm.snapshot
rd_LVM_SNAPSIZE
rd.lvm.snapsize
rd_LVM_VG
rd.lvm.vg
rd_NO_MDADMCONF
rd.md.conf=0
rd_NO_MDIMSM
rd.md.imsm=0
rd_NO_MD
rd.md=0
rd_MD_UUID
rd.md.uuid
rd_NO_MULTIPATH: rd.multipath=0
rd_NFS_DOMAIN
rd.nfs.domain
iscsi_initiator
rd.iscsi.initiator
iscsi_target_name
rd.iscsi.target.name
iscsi_target_ip
rd.iscsi.target.ip
iscsi_target_port
rd.iscsi.target.port
iscsi_target_group
rd.iscsi.target.group
iscsi_username
rd.iscsi.username
iscsi_password
rd.iscsi.password
iscsi_in_username
rd.iscsi.in.username
iscsi_in_password
rd.iscsi.in.password
iscsi_firmware
rd.iscsi.firmware=0
rd_NO_PLYMOUTH
rd.plymouth=0
rd_retry
rd.retry
rdshell
rd.shell
rd_NO_SPLASH
rd.splash
rdudevdebug
rd.udev.debug
rdudevinfo
rd.udev.info
rd_NO_ZFCPCONF
rd.zfcp.conf=0
rd_ZFCP
rd.zfcp
rd_ZNET
rd.znet
KEYMAP
vconsole.keymap
KEYTABLE
vconsole.keymap
SYSFONT
vconsole.font
CONTRANS
vconsole.font.map
UNIMAP
vconsole.font.unimap
UNICODE
vconsole.unicode
EXT_KEYMAP
vconsole.keymap.ext
Configuration in the Initramfs
/etc/conf.d/
Any files found in /etc/conf.d/ will be sourced in the initramfs
to set initial values. Command line options will override these
values set in the configuration files.
/etc/cmdline
Can contain additional command line options. Deprecated, better
use /etc/cmdline.d/*.conf.
/etc/cmdline.d/*.conf
Can contain additional command line options.
Harald Hoyer
dracut(8) dracut.conf(5)
1. rfc4173
http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4173#section-5
This page is part of the dracut (event driven initramfs
infrastructure) project. Information about the project can be found
at ⟨https://dracut.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page⟩. If you have
a bug report for this manual page, send it to
initramfs@vger.kernel.org. This page was obtained from the project's
upstream Git repository
⟨git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/boot/dracut/dracut.git⟩ on 2020-08-13.
(At that time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in
the repository was 2020-03-04.) If you discover any rendering prob‐
lems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe there is a bet‐
ter or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have corrections
or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON (which is not
part of the original manual page), send a mail to man-pages@man7.org
dracut 050-2-g9e68789d 05/16/2020 DRACUT.CMDLINE(7)
Pages that refer to this page: dracut.conf(5) , kernel-command-line(7) , dracut(8)