General boot options

Press <TAB> to add additional options (in SystemRescueCd-1.5 and more recent)

• docache: causes the CD-ROM will be fully loaded into memory. A slower start but once complete, programs start faster and the CD drive will be released allowing normal access to other CDs. This requires 400MB of memory to cache everything (including the bootdisks and isolinux directories). Add lowmem if you have less that 400MB of memory of to prevent these directories to be copied.
• setkmap=kk: which defines the keymap to load where kk (example: setkmap=de for German keyboards). This way you won't be prompted for the keyboard configuration during the boot.
• root=/dev/xdnp: the root=<device> option boots an existing linux system. For example, if you have linux Gentoo installed on /dev/sda6, use rescuecd root=/dev/sda6 to start it. Keep in mind that you must use a 64bit kernel if your system is made of 64bit programs. This option works with LVM volumes. Use rescuecd root=/dev/VolGroup00/LogVol00. Support is also provided for root=auto, which scans all the block devices tfor a linux system. The first linux system found will be started. So with root=auto let you start the system installed from the CD-ROM in case you have problem with your boot loader or kernel. It's also possible to specify a partition using its filesystem label or filesystem uuid. If the label of the partition where linux is installed is mylinux, then boot it using rescuecd root=LABEL=mylinux. Similarly root=UUID=b3d3bec5-997a-413e-8449-0d0ec41ccba7. See more details.
• initscript=service:action: This options allows start/stop a service at boot time. For instance if you need the samba service to be started, you can boot with: initscript=samba:start. This does the same thing as /etc/init.d/samba start. Use this option multiple times for different services. All the actions that are supported by an initscript can be used.
• backstore=xxx: SystemRescueCd comes with support for the backing-stores. A backing-store saves all the changes you can make. so that you keep these changes the next time you boot it. By default, sysresccd automatically scan removable devices (eg: USB sticks) at boot time and uses the first backing-store it finds. A backing-store is not mandatory and it the scan fails it will store the files which change in memory. To disable the disks scan at boot time specify backstore=off on the boot command line. If you want to save your backing-store file on an harddisk, boot with backstore=alldev to scan all devices (not just removable devices). The default location for backing-stores file is any file named sysrcd.bs located at the root of a disk which is often an USB stick. Change the path by using backstore=/sysrcd/mybackstore.bs. See backing-stores.
• isoloop=xxx: Grub2 (currently in development: grub-1.98) provides a new feature to boot from an ISO image which is stored from the hard disk. If you put a copy of systemrescuecd-x86-x.y.z.iso on a partition that Grub2 can read then you can boot SystemRescueCd directly from the ISO image stored on your hard drive. This is very convenient if you frequently update SystemRescueCd and you want to boot it directly from Grub2. Grub2 knows what an ISO image is and it will load the kernel image (rescuecd/rescue64) and the initramfs (initram.igz) from the ISO into memory. It will then do its normal job and execute the kernel. The SystemRescueCd init script must then be aware that its sysrcd.dat file is in an ISO and not directly on the partition. For that reason, this isoloop=xxx boot option is required so you must use it in your grub.cfg. This option is only supported in SystemRescueCd-1.4.0 and more recent. This option specifies the path of the ISO image in the partition that grub considers as its root partition. It's important to understand that the path of the ISO image may be different from the path on your linux system. If you have a separate boot partition mounted on /boot and if you copy this ISO image to /boot/sysrcd/systemrescuecd-x86-x.y.z.iso then the option has to be isoloop=/sysrcd/systemrescuecd-x86-x.y.z.iso. This is because the boot partition is what Grub2 will consider as its root partition during the boot process. Please read the section about isoloop for more details.

Hardware, drivers and troubleshooting options

• dodebug: Enables verbose messages in linuxrc

• doload=xxx: loads needed kernel modules, multiple comma separated occurrences are permitted (example: doload=3c59x,e1000)
• noload=xxx: prevents loading kernel modules, multiple comma separated occurrences are permitted (example: noload=3c59x,e1000). Use this option if you have a problem when the system loads a particular module.
• nonet: this will disable the network auto detection at startup

• scandelay=x: pauses x seconds during the startup to allow slow devices to initialize. This is required when you boot an USB device. A delay of only few seconds should be enough.

• doxdetect: Since version 0.3.5 the auto-configuration is done in X.Org itself, mkxf86config is disabled by default. This option forces the system to run the mkxf86config startup script and to run the hardware auto-detection from this script. Use this option if you have problems with the graphical environment configuration. This option replaces the option noxdetect that was useful in previous versions.
• nodetect: prevents generic hardware auto-detection. Use this option if you have problems with the hardware auto-detection.

• dostartx: load the X.Org graphical environment.
• forcevesa: Forces X.Org to use the safe VESA driver instead of the best video driver detected for your video card. Use this option if you cannot get the graphical environment working with the default options.
• forcevesa=xxx: The startx command will load the Xvesa server instead of Xorg, and use the screen resolution given as parameter (eg: 1024x768, 1280x1024x32).

• all-generic-ide: In case of problems related to your hard disk, try to enable this option (eg rescuecd all-generic-ide)
• nodmraid: Disable dmraid, for some motherboards with built-in RAID controller.
• nomdadm: Disable mdadm, for software RAID.

• acpi-off / noapic / irqpool: use these options if you have problem when the kernel boots: if it hangs on a driver or if it crashes, ...

• lowmem: For systems with smaller memory, some daemons are not started including sshd and nfsd.

• skipmount=/dev/xxx: The system mounts all the storage devices at boot time to find the sysrcd.dat file. If your hard disk is broken it should be mounted. Boot with skipmount=/dev/sda1 skipmount=/dev/sda2 to ignore these two partitions.

Network configuration and remote access

• nonm: to disable the Network-Manager service that conflicts with the standard network command line tools such as ifconfig and ip. You can use this option if you want to configure the network using these commands. This option is not necessary when SystemRescueCd is booting from the network since the service is automatically stopped in that case. This option requires SystemRescueCd-1.5.5 or more recent.
• dodhcp: to request a DHCP server provide network attributes including an IP address, gateway...
• nodhcp: never run the dhcp client in the initramfs boot script. May be useful if you use PXE boot on a computer with several ethernet interfaces. Support for this option is available in SystemRescueCd-1.5.5-beta2 and more recent
• ethx=ipaddr/cidr: Sets the static IP address of all the ethernet interfaces on the system. The /cidr extension is optional. For instance, if you use option ethx=192.168.0.1 on a machine with two ethernet adapters, both eth0 and eth1 will be configured with 192.168.0.1. You can use the format ethx=10.0.0.1/24 (using the cidr notation) if you don't use the default netmask.
• eth0=ipaddr/cidr: This option is similar to ethx=ipaddr/cidr but it configures only one interface at a time. To configure the network on a server that has two interfaces, use: eth0=192.168.10.1/24 eth1=192.168.20.1.
• dns=ipaddr: Sets the static IP address of the DNS nameserver you want to use to resolve the names. For instance dns=192.168.0.254 means that you want to use 192.168.0.254 as the DNS server.
• gateway=ipaddr: Sets the static IP address of the default route on your network. For instance gateway=192.168.0.254 means that the computer can connect to a computer outside of the local network via 192.168.0.254.
• dhcphostname=myhost: Sets the hostname that the DHCP client will send to the DHCP server. This may be required if the default hostname cannot be used with your DHCP configuration. This option has been introduced in SystemRescueCd-1.3.5.
• rootpass=123456: Sets the root password of the system running on the livecd to 1234. That way you can connect from the network and ssh on the livecd and give 123456 password as the root password.
• vncserver=x:123456: The vncserver boot option has been introduced in SystemRescueCd-1.0.2. This options forces the system to configure the VNC-server and to start it automatically at boot time. You have to replace x with the number of displays you want, and 123456 with your password The password must be between 5 and 8 characters, else the boot option will be ignored. In other words the vncserver=2:MyPaSsWd option will give you access to two displays (display=1 on tcp/5901 and display=2 on tcp/5902). Display 0 is reserved for X.Org since SystemRescueCd-1.1.0.
• nameif=xxx: You can can specify what interface name to give to a particular interface using the mac address. You need SystemRescueCd-1.1.0 or newer to do that. Here is how you can specify which interface is using which mac address on a machine with two network interfaces: nameif=eth0!00:0C:29:57:D0:6E,eth1!00:0C:29:57:D0:64. Be careful, you have to respect the separator (comma between the interfaces and exclamation marks between the name and the mac address). You can also use the magic keyword BOOTIF with SystemRescueCd-1.5.4 and more recent when you boot from pxelinux. The pxeboot loader will set BOOTIF to the name of the interface used to boot. You can then use something like nameif=eth0!BOOTIF if you want the boot interface to be called eth0 on a computer with several Ethernet interfaces.

Network boot using PXE

SystemRescueCd provides several options for booting from the network using PXE. These options can be combined with other network boot options such as ethx (cf previous section). See PXE network booting to get a global overview of SystemRescueCd and PXE and Manage remote servers using PXE.

The second stage downloads the kernel + initramfs using DHCP/TFTP.

The third stage of the PXE boot process acquires the root files system.

Several protocols are available.

• netboot=tftp://ip/path/sysrcd.dat: from a TFTP server. The filesystem is loaded into memory. As a consequence computers with less than 400MB of memory won't be able to boot this way. The system will continue to work if the network is disconnected after the boot process.
• netboot=http://ip:port/path/sysrcd.dat: from a Web server. The file system is loaded into memory. Computers with smaller memory won't be able to boot this way. The the system continues to work if the network is disconnected after the boot process.
• netboot=nfs://ip:/path: mount an NFSv3 directory. The NFS url must be the path of the directory that contains sysrcd.dat. Only NFSv3 can be used, NFSv4 is not supported. NFS it allows computers with smaller memory to boot SystemRescueCd from the network. After the boot process, the connection is required or you will loose the access to the root file system.
• netboot=nbd://ip:port: connect to an NBD server configured with sysrcd.dat on ip:port. NBD is easier to configure than NFS (only one TCP port involved) and it allows computers with smaller memort to boot SystemRescueCd from the network. After the boot process, the connection is required the access to the root system.

For information on activating speakup, see the speakup info page.

Options provided for autorun

• ar_source=xxx: place where the autorun are stored. It may be the root directory of a partition (/dev/sda1), an nfs share (nfs://192.168.1.1:/path/to/scripts), a samba share (smb://192.168.1.1/path/to/scripts), or an http directory (http://192.168.1.1/path/to/scripts).
• autoruns=[0-9]: comma separated list of the autorun scrip to be run. For example autoruns=0,2,7 the autorun sc autorun0, autorun2, autorun7 are run. Use autoruns=no to disable all the autorun scripts with a number.
• ar_ignorefail: continue to execute the scripts chain even if a script failed (returned a non-zero status)
• ar_nodel: do not delete the temporary copy of the autorun scripts located in /var/autorun/tmp after execution
• ar_disable: completely disable autorun, the simple autorun script will not be executed
• ar_nowait: do not wait for a keypress after the autorun script have been executed.

Clonezilla live is based on Debian live with clonezilla installed. Therefore there are 2 kinds of boot parameters:

1. Boot parameters from live-initramfs. You can refer to this manual of live-initramfs.
2. Boot parameters specially for Clonezilla. All of them are named as "ocs_*", e.g. ocs_live_run, ocs_live_extra_param, ocs_live_batch, ocs_lang.
   • ocs_live_run is the main program to run in Clonezilla live to save or restore. or other command. Available program: ocs-live-general, ocs-live-restore or any command you write. Use the Absolute path in Clonezilla live.
     e.g. ocs_live_run="ocs-live-general"
     //NOTE// You might have to use "sudo" command inside your own script, or you can assign it like: ocs_live_run="sudo bash /my-clonezilla"
     
   • ocs_live_extra_param will be used only when ocs_live_run=ocs-live-restore (not for ocs-live-general or any other), then it will be passed to ocs-sr. Therefore these parameters are actually those of ocs-sr.
     e.g. ocs_live_extra_param="-b -c restoredisk sarge-r5 hda"
   • ocs_live_keymap is for keymap used in Clonezilla live. Man install-keymap for more details.
     e.g. ocs_live_keymap="NONE" (won't change the default layout)
     ocs_live_keymap="/usr/share/keymaps/i386/azerty/fr-latin9.kmap.gz" (French keyboard)
   • batch mode or not (yes/no), if no, will run interactively.
     e.g. ocs_live_batch="no"
   • ocs_lang is the language used in Clonezilla live. Available value: en_US.UTF-8, zh_TW.UTF-8... (see $DRBL_SCRIPT_PATH/lang/bash/) e.g. ocs_lang="en_US.UTF-8"
   • ocs_debug (or ocs-debug) is for you to enter command line prompt before any clonezilla-related action is run. This is easier for you to debug.
   • ocs_daemonon, ocs_daemonoff, ocs_numlk, ocs_capslk.
     Ex. for the first 2 parameters, ocs_daemonon="ssh", then ssh service will be turned on when booting. For the last 2 parameters, use "on" or "off", e.g. ocs_numlk=on to turn on numberlock when booting.
   • ocs_prerun, ocs_prerun1, ocs_prerun2... is for you to run a shell script before Clonezilla is started. E.g. ocs_prerun="/live/image/myscript.sh". If you have more commands to run, you can assign them in the order: ocs_prerun=..., ocs_prerun1=..., ocs_prerun2=.... If more than 10 parameters, remember to use ocs_prerun01, ocs_prerun02..., ocs_prerun11 to make it in order.
   • ocs_live_run_tty. This option allows you to specify the tty where $ocs_live_run is run. By default $ocs_live_run is run on /dev/tty1 only. (It was also on /dev/ttyS0 before, but since Clonezilla live >= 1.2.3-22 no more this due to a problem). If you want to use ttyS0, for example, add live-getty and console=ttyS0,38400n81 in the boot parameter.
     //NOTE//
     
     • This parameter was added in Clonezilla live 1.2.3-22 or later.
     • If "live-getty console=$tty,38400n81" are assigned in the boot parameters, ocs_live_run_tty will honor $tty, even other value is assigned to ocs_live_run_tty in boot parameter.
     • It's recommended to assign ocs_lang and ocs_live_keymap in the boot parameters too.
   • ip, this option allows you to specify the network parameters for network card. In Clonezilla live a patched live-initramfs is used, which is different from the original live-initramfs so that you can assign DNS server, too. Its format is: ip=ethernet port,IP address, netmask, gateway, DNS. E.g. If you want to assing eth0 with IP address 10.0.100.1, netmask 255.255.255.0, gateway 10.0.100.254, DNS server 8.8.8.8, you can assign the following in the boot parameter:
     ip=eth0,10.0.100.1,255.255.255.0,10.0.100.254,8.8.8.8
     If more than one network card, you can use ":" to separate them, e.g.:
     ip=eth0,10.0.100.1,255.255.255.0,10.0.100.254,8.8.8.8:eth1,192.168.120.1,255.255.255.0,192.168.120.254,,
     
   • Besides, "live-netdev" (yes, not ocs_live_netdev) can be used when using PXE booting, you can force to assign the network device to get filesystem.squashfs. This is useful when there are two or more NICs are linked. E.g. live-netdev="eth1" allows you to force the live-initramfs to use eth1 to fetch the root file system filesystem.squashfs.

---

With the above options, we have the following examples:

1. A PXE config example for you to boot Clonezilla live via PXE, and ssh service is on, the password of account "user" is assigned:
   ----------------------------------------
   label Clonezilla Live
   MENU LABEL Clonezilla Live
   MENU DEFAULT
   kernel vmlinuz1
   append initrd=initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs noswap noprompt vga=788 fetch=tftp://192.168.120.254/filesystem.squashfs usercrypted=bkuQxLqLRuDW6 ocs_numlk="on" ocs_daemonon="ssh"
   ----------------------------------------
   The usercrypted password is created by:
   echo YOUR_PASSWORD | mkpasswd -s
   ("mkpasswd" is from package "whois" in Debian or Ubuntu. Check your GNU/Linux to see which package provides this command if you are not using Debian or Ubuntu. Replace YOUR_PASSWORD with your plain text password, and remember do not put any " in the boot parameters of live-initramfs (while it's ok for those ocs_* boot parameters), i.e. do NOT use something like usercrypted="bkuQxLqLRuDW6").
   //NOTE// If you do not assign salt to mkpasswd, the encrypted password will not be the same every time you create it.
   For more about usercrypted discussion, please check the here.
   
   
2. How to put your own binary driver in Clonezilla live without modifying /live/filesystem.squashfs:
   • Boot clonezilla live
   • Become root by running "sudo su -"
   • Copy the dir lsi, which contains a precompiled kernel module matching the running kernel in Clonezilla live and a script to run it, to a working dir, e.g.:
     cp -r /live/image/lsi /home/partimag
   • cd /home/partimag
   • /opt/drbl/sbin/ocs-live-dev -c -s -i lsi -u lsi -x "ocs_prerun=/live/image/lsi/prep-lsi.sh"
   • /opt/drbl/sbin/ocs-iso -s -i lsi -u lsi -x "ocs_prerun=/live/image/lsi/prep-lsi.sh"
   • ///NOTE/// In this example, the 2 files in dir lsi are: megasr.ko (the binary driver) and prep-lsi.sh. The contents of prep-lsi.sh:

     ------------------------
     #!/bin/bash
     cp -f /live/image/lsi/megasr.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/block/
     chown root.root /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/block/megasr.ko
     depmod -a modprobe megasr
     sleep 1
     ------------------------
     

3. To put your customized script with a PXE version of Clonezilla live (You have to use Clonezilla live version 1.2.2-2 or later):
   In this example, we assume (1) The IP address of your PXE server is 192.168.120.254, (2) the customized script (custom-ocs-2) is put on your PXE server's tftpd root dir (E.g. On DRBL server, the path is /tftpboot/nbi_img/. It might be different in your case if you are not use DRBL server as a PXE server).
   Therefor your pxelinux.cfg/default file is like:

   ------------------------
   label Clonezilla Live
   MENU DEFAULT
   # MENU HIDE
   MENU LABEL Clonezilla Live
   # MENU PASSWD
   kernel vmlinuz1
   append initrd=initrd1.img boot=live union=aufs noswap noprompt vga=788 ip=frommedia fetch=tftp://192.168.120.254/filesystem.squashfs ocs_prerun="busybox tftp -g -b 10240 -r custom-ocs-2 -l /tmp/custom-ocs-2 192.168.120.254" ocs_live_run="bash /tmp/custom-ocs-2" ocs_live_keymap="NONE" ocs_live_batch="no" ocs_lang="en_US.UTF-8" nolocales
   TEXT HELP
   Boot Clonezilla live via network
   ENDTEXT
   

   ------------------------
   The content of custom-ocs-2 can be like:

   ------------------------
   #!/bin/bash
   . /opt/drbl/sbin/drbl-conf-functions
   . /opt/drbl/sbin/ocs-functions
   . /etc/ocs/ocs-live.conf
   
   # Load language file
   ask_and_load_lang_set en_US.UTF-8
   
   # 1. Mount the clonezilla image home.
   # Types: local_dev, ssh_server, samba_server, nfs_server
   prep-ocsroot -t nfs_server
   
   # 2. Restore the image
   if mountpoint /home/partimag/ &>/dev/null; then
     ocs-sr -l en_US.UTF-8 -c -p choose restoredisk ask_user ask_user
   else
     [ "$BOOTUP" = "color" ] && $SETCOLOR_FAILURE
     echo "Fail to find the Clonezilla image home /home/partimag!"
     echo "Program terminated!"
     [ "$BOOTUP" = "color" ] && $SETCOLOR_NORMAL
   fi
   ------------------------
   

live-initramfs(7)
=================

Name
----
live-initramfs - Debian Live initramfs hook

Synopsis
--------
BOOT=live

as kernel parameter at boot prompt.

Description
-----------

live-initramfs is a hook for the initramfs-tools, used to generate a initramfs
capable to boot live systems, such as those created by *live-helper*(7).
This includes the Debian Live isos, netboot tarballs, and usb stick images.

At boot time it will look for a (read-only) media containing a "/live"
directory where a root filesystems (often a compressed filesystem image like
squashfs) is stored. If found, it will create a writable environment, using
aufs, for Debian like systems to boot from.

You probably do not want to install this package onto a non-live system,
although it will do no harm.

live-initramfs is a fork of casper.
casper was originally written by Tollef Fog Heen <tfheen@canonical.com>
and Matt Zimmerman <mdz@canonical.com>.

Boot options
------------

Here is the complete list of recognized boot parameters by live-initramfs.

  access=*ACCESS*::

Set the accessibility level for physically or visually impared users. ACCESS
must be one of v1, v2, v3, m1, or m2. v1=lesser visual impairment, v2=moderate
visual impairment, v3=blindness, m1=minor motor difficulties, m2=moderate motor
difficulties.

  console=*TTY,SPEED*::

Set the default console to be used with the "live-getty" option. Example:
"console=ttyS0,115200"

  debug::

Makes initramfs boot process more verbose.

  fetch=*URL*::

Another form of netboot by downloading a squashfs image from a given url,
copying to ram and booting it.

  hostname=*HOSTNAME*, username=*USER*, userfullname=*USERFULLNAME*::

Those parameters lets you override values read from the config file.

  ignore_uuid

Do not check that any UUID embedded in the initramfs matches the discovered
medium. live-initramfs may be told to generate a UUID by setting
LIVE_GENERATE_UUID=1 when building the initramfs.

  integrity-check::

If specified, an MD5 sum is calculated on the live media during boot and
compared to the value found in md5sum.txt found in the root directory of the
live media.

  ip=**[CLIENT_IP]:[SERVER_IP]:[GATEWAY_IP]:[NETMASK]:[HOSTNAME]:
     [DEVICE]:[AUTOCONF] [,[CLIENT_IP]:[SERVER_IP]:[GATEWAY_IP]:[NETMASK]:[HOSTNAME]:
     [DEVICE]:[AUTOCONF]]***::

Let you specify the name(s) and the options of the interface(s) that should be
configured at boot time. Do not specify this if you want to use dhcp (default).
It will be changed in a future release to mimick official kernel boot param
specification (e.g. ip=10.0.0.1::10.0.0.254:255.255.255.0::eth0,:::::eth1:dhcp).

  ip[=**frommedia**]::

If this variable is set, dhcp and static configuration are just skipped and the
system will use the (must be) media-preconfigured /etc/network/interfaces
instead.

  {keyb|kbd-chooser/method}=**KEYBOARD**, {klayout|console-setup/layoutcode}=**LAYOUT**,
    {kvariant|console-setup/variantcode}=**VARIANT**, {kmodel|console-setup/modelcode}=
    **CODE**, koptions=**OPTIONS**::

Configure the running keyboard as specified, if this one misses live-initramfs
behaves as if "keyb=us" was specified. It will be interfered from "locale=" if
locale is only 2 lowecase letters as a special case. You could also specify
console layout, variant, code, and options (no defaults).

  live-getty::

This changes the auto-login on virtual terminals to use the (experimental)
live-getty code. With this option set the standard kernel argument "console=" is
parsed and if a serial console is specified then live-getty is used to autologin
on the serial console.

  {live-media|bootfrom}=**DEVICE**::

If you specify one of this two equivalent forms, live-initramfs will first try
to find this device for the "/live" directory where the read-only root
filesystem should reside. If it did not find something usable, the normal scan
for block devices is performed.

  {live-media-encryption|encryption}=**TYPE**::

live-initramfs will mount the encrypted rootfs TYPE, asking the passphrase,
useful to build paranoid live systems :-). TYPE supported so far are "aes" for
loop-aes encryption type.

  live-media-offset=**BYTES**::

This way you could tell live-initramfs that your image starts at offset BYTES in
the above specified or autodiscovered device, this could be useful to hide the
Debian Live iso or image inside another iso or image, to create "clean" images.

  live-media-path=**PATH**::

Sets the path to the live filesystem on the medium. By default, it is set to
'/live' and you should not change that unless you have customized your media
accordingly.

  live-media-timeout=**SECONDS**::

Set the timeout in seconds for the device specified by "live-media=" to become
ready before giving up.

  {locale|debian-installer/locale}=**LOCALE**::

Configure the running locale as specified, if not present the live-media rootfs
configured locale will be used and if also this one misses live-initramfs behave
as "locale=en_US.UTF-8" was specified. If only 2 lowercase letter are specified
(like "it"), the "maybe wanted" locale is generated (like en:EN.UTF-8), in this
case if also "keyb=" is unspecified is set with those 2 lowercase letters
(keyb=us). Beside that facility, only UTF8 locales are supported by
live-initramfs.

  module=**NAME**::

Instead of using the default optional file "filesystem.module" (see below)
another file could be specified without the extension ".module"; it should be
placed on "/live" directory of the live medium.

  netboot[=**nfs**|**cifs**]::

This tells live-initramfs to perform a network mount. The parameter "nfsroot="
(with optional "nfsopts="), should specify where is the location of the root
filesystem.  With no args, will try cifs first, and if it fails nfs.

  nfsopts=::

This lets you specify custom nfs options.

  noautologin::

This parameter disables the automatic terminal login only, not touching gdk/kdm.

  noxautologin::

This parameter disables the automatic login of gdm/kdm only, not touching
terminals.

  nofastboot::

This parameter disables the default disabling of filesystem checks in
/etc/fstab. If you have static filesystems on your harddisk and you want them to
be checked at boot time, use this parameter, otherwise they are skipped.

  nopersistent::

disables the "persistent" feature, useful if the bootloader (like syslinux) has
been installed with persistent enabled.

  noprompt

Do not prompt to eject the CD on reboot.

  nosudo::

This parameter disables the automatic configuration of sudo.

  swapon::

This parameter enables usage of local swap partitions.

  nouser::

This parameter disables the creation of the default user completely.

  noxautoconfig::

This parameter disables Xorg auto-reconfiguration at boot time. This is valuable
if you either do the detection on your own, or, if you want to ship a custom,
premade xorg.conf in your live system.

  persistent[=nofiles]::

live-initramfs will look for persistent and snapshot partitions or files labeled
"live-rw", "home-rw", and files called "live-sn*", "home-sn*" and will try to,
in order: mount as /cow the first, mount the second in /home, and just copy the
contents of the latter in appropriate locations (snapshots). Snapshots will be
tried to be updated on reboot/shutdown. Look at live-snapshot(1) for more
informations. If "nofiles" is specified, only filesystems with matching labels
will be searched; no filesystems will be traversed looking for archives or image
files. This results in shorter boot times.

  {preseed/file|file}=**FILE**::

A path to a file present on the rootfs could be used to preseed debconf
database.

  package/question=**VALUE**::

All debian installed packages could be preseeded from command-line that way,
beware of blanks spaces, they will interfere with parsing, use a preseed file in
this case.

  quickreboot::

This option causes live-initramfs to reboot without attempting to eject the
media and without asking the user to remove the boot media.

  showmounts::

This parameter will make live-initramfs to show on "/" the ro filesystems
(mostly compressed) on "/live". This is not enabled by default because could
lead to problems by applications like "mono" which store binary paths on
installation.

  textonly

Start up to text-mode shell prompts, disabling the graphical user interface.

  timezone=**TIMEZONE**::

By default, timezone is set to UTC. Using the timezone parameter, you can set it
to your local zone, e.g. Europe/Zurich.

  todisk=**DEVICE**::

Adding this parameter, live-initramfs will try to copy the entire read-only
media to the specified device before mounting the root filesystem. It probably
needs a lot of free space. Subsequent boots should then skip this step and just
specify the "live-media=DEVICE" boot parameter with the same DEVICE used this
time.

  toram::

Adding this parameter, live-initramfs will try to copy the whole read-only media
to the computer's RAM before mounting the root filesystem. This could need a lot
of ram, according to the space used by the read-only media.

  union=**aufs**|**unionfs**::

By default, live-initramfs uses aufs. With this parameter, you can switch to
unionfs.

  utc=**yes**|**no**::

By default, Debian systems do assume that the hardware clock is set to UTC. You
can change or explicitly set it with this parameter.

  xdebconf::

Uses xdebconfigurator, if present on the rootfs, to configure X instead of the
standard procedure (experimental).

  xvideomode=**RESOLUTION**::

Doesn't do xorg autodetection, but enforces a given resolution.

Files
-----

  /etc/live.conf

Some variables can be configured via this config file (inside the live system).

   /live/filesystem.module

This optional file (inside the live media) contains a list of white-space or
carriage-return-separated file names corresponding to disk images in the "/live"
directory. If this file exists, only images listed here will be merged into the
root aufs, and they will be loaded in the order listed here. The first entry
in this file will be the "lowest" point in the aufs, and the last file in
this list will be on the "top" of the aufs, directly below /cow.  Without
this file, any images in the "/live" directory are loaded in alphanumeric order.

 /etc/live-persistence.binds

This optional file (which resides in the rootfs system, not in the live media)
is used as a list of directories which not need be persistent: ie. their
content does not need to survive reboots when using the persistence features.

This saves expensive writes and speeds up operations on volatile data such as
web caches and temporary files (like e.g. /tmp and .mozilla) which are
regenerated each time. This is achieved by bind mounting each listed directory
with a tmpfs on the original path.


See also
--------

live-snapshot(1), initramfs-tools(8), live-helper(7), live-initscripts(7),
live-webhelper(7)

Bugs
----

Report bugs against live-initramfs
http://packages.qa.debian.org/live-initramfs.

Homepage
--------

More information about the Debian Live project can be found at
http://debian-live.alioth.debian.org/ and
http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLive/.

Authors
-------

live-initramfs is maintained by Daniel Baumann <daniel@debian.org>
for the Debian project.

live-initramfs is a fork of casper.
casper was originally written by Tollef Fog Heen <tfheen@canonical.com>
and Matt Zimmerman <mdz@canonical.com>.