Boot parameters

Example of specifying boot options in Finnix 102

Finnix includes many startup options that can be specified at the boot menu (x86) or boot: prompt (PowerPC). One boot profile must be selected, and multiple boot options may be appended.

To enter boot options for a boot profile on the x86 CD, move to the desired boot profile in the boot menu, press <Tab>, enter the desired boot options, then press <Enter>.

To enter boot options on the PowerPC CD, type them after the boot profile name, e.g.:

finnix toram

Menu profiles (x86)

Boot Finnix (32-bit)

Boots Finnix with a 32-bit kernel in 1024x768 pixel screen mode. If a 64-bit CPU is not detected, this will be the default highlighted menu option.

Boot Finnix (64-bit)

Boots Finnix with a 64-bit (x86-64) kernel in 1024x768 pixel screen mode. If a 64-bit CPU is detected, this will be the default highlighted menu option. 64-bit CPUs can boot the 32-bit kernel, but will have several disadvantages (4GB memory limit, cannot run 64-bit programs, cannot chroot into 64-bit environments).

Run Memtest86+

Runs Memtest86+, a system memory test utility.

Boot FreeDOS (Balder)

Boots Balder, a DOS utility disk based on FreeDOS.

Run Smart Boot Managed

Runs SBM (Smart Boot Manager), a self-contained boot manager.

Boot hard drive

Boots the first hard drive in the system, according to the BIOS.

Boot floppy drive

Boots the first floppy drive in the system, if present, according to the BIOS.

Boot Finnix (32-bit, text mode)

Boots Finnix with a 32-bit kernel in 80x24 character screen mode.

Boot Finnix (64-bit, text mode)

Boots Finnix with a 64-bit kernel in 80x24 character screen mode.

Boot Finnix (32-bit, debug mode)

Boots Finnix with a 32-bit kernel in 80x24 character screen mode, with debugging options turned on. Kernel boot output will be displayed, and the first-stage Finnix boot process will drop to a shell at several points in the boot process to allow for manual debugging.

Boot Finnix (64-bit, debug mode)

Boots Finnix with a 64-bit kernel in 80x24 character screen mode, with debugging options turned on. Kernel boot output will be displayed, and the first-stage Finnix boot process will drop to a shell at several points in the boot process to allow for manual debugging.

Boot Finnix (failsafe)

Boots Finnix with a 32-bit kernel in 80x24 character screen mode, with many forms of autodetection turned off.

Boot options

To specify additional boot options for a boot profile, press <tab> when the desired boot profile is highlighted. You will then have the option to change or add boot options for that profile. Press <enter> to boot the profile.

debug
umldebug

Activates Finnix-specific debugging options. See the debug boot profiles above for details. umldebug is available as an alias to debug because debug is a reserved keyword for the UML kernel, and is not passed to the operating system.

root=/dev/hdc

Allows you to specify the location of the physical Finnix media. If omitted, autodetection will be attempted. If a compressed root filesystem is not found on the specified device (see "finnixfile" above), autodetection will be performed anyway.

toram

If you have at least 192MiB RAM, you can use this option to copy the entire Finnix CD to RAM, leaving the CDROM drive available for other uses.

noeject

Disables CD auto-ejection after shutdown, or after toram copying during bootup.

testcd

Tests all files on the Finnix CD against known good checksums, to guard against burning defects.

nodma

By default, Finnix enables DMA on hard drives and CDROM drives, but sometimes Linux DMA mode can wreak havoc with older IDE devices. Most bad drives are known and are on a blacklist, and DMA will be disabled accordingly. However, if you find a new incompatible drive (the symptom is the system freezing during CD detection), use this option (and contact Finnix developers via finnix-hwsubmit).

noacpi
noapm

Disables detection of ACPI or APM. By default, ACPI and APM are detected automatically and set up accordingly.

noboothwsetup

Disables probing of PCI devices during the first stage boot, and the automatic loading of appropriate modules that would follow. Note that since almost all storage drives are in module form, this will most likely produce an unbootable environment.

nohwsetup

Disables probing of PCI devices, and the automatic loading of appropriate modules that would follow.

noswap

Disables detection and use of swap partitions.

nofstab

Disables scanning of disk partitions and creating an /etc/fstab file.

nodhcp

Disables DHCP, if network devices are found.

strace

Reloads the autoconfig script in a backgrounded strace process, logging all execs and opens to /tmp/thestrace. This option is used by Finnix developers to determine which files are called during bootup, so they can be placed in the front of the filesystem for faster CD boot times.

sshd

Sets a random root/finnix password, displays it on the screen (along with any configured IP addresses, as DHCP should have been started by this point), and then starts OpenSSH.

sshd sshd_password=YourPassword

If specified along with "sshd", the root/finnix passwords are set to this. If not specified, and if "sshd" is specified, a random password is chosen and displayed to the user. Note that this option is a security risk, as it is available in plain sight (/proc/cmdline).

keyboard=es

Sets a default keyboard mapping.

tz=PST8PDT

Sets the time zone. By default the time zone is set to UTC.

nolvm

Disables autodetection of LVM partitions.

noraid

Disables autodetection of MD RAID sets.

nocrypt

Disables autodetection of LUKS crypted partitions.

nomouse

Disables starting mouse (GPM) services.

rw

Attempts to mount the boot filesystem read/write. By default, the media is mounted read-only, as it is usually a CD-ROM disc. However, for USB thumb drives, you most likely want to also be able to write to the USB media.

bootchart

Utilizes Bootchart, and places the completed boot chart in /var/log/bootchart.tgz.

usbhid

Attempts to blindly load USB HID (keyboard/mouse) drivers as soon as possible. This allows USB-only systems to use the debug mode.

unionmod=aufs
unionmod=unionfs
unionmod=unionfs2

Specifies which union filesystem module should be used, unionfs or aufs. As of Finnix 101, Finnix will determine with functionality is available, preferring aufs if both are present.

nfsroot=192.168.0.2:/share/finnix nfsvers=2

Attempts to boot Finnix by NFS. If nfsvers= is not specified, NFSv2 is assumed.

ip_int=eth0,eth1

ip_eth0_v4dhcp=yes

ip_eth1_v4addr=192.168.2.2 ip_eth1_v4netmask=255.255.255.128
  ip_v4gateway=192.168.2.1

ip_eth1_v6addr=2001:db8::2 ip_eth1_v6netmask=32 ip_v6gateway=2001:db8::1

ip_dns=192.168.2.10,2001:db8::3 ip_search=domain.lan,otherdomain.lan

Sets boot-time IP information. If ip_int is set, DHCP will not be attempted on any interfaces unless ip_$INT_v4dhcp=yes is explicitly set. If combined with nfsroot= (see above), this is performed early in the initrd period, otherwise it is performed late in the boot. (Finnix 104+. Finnix 102/103 was limited to IPv4 only.)

seedbytes=pool
seedbytes=0
seedbytes=4096

Generate random data for seeding the Linux random number generators. By default, 8 bytes are generated. seedbytes=0 disables this, seedbytes=pool generates the number of bytes in an entropy pool (currently 4096 bytes), and seedbytes=N allows for an arbitrary number of bytes. Note that RNG generation is slow, approximately 32 bytes per second. (Finnix 104+. Finnix 103 had a different format)