Cheat codes
Finnix, the LiveCD for system administrators
Finnix includes many startup options that can be specified at the boot: prompt. One boot profile must be selected, and multiple boot options may be appended.
[edit] Boot Profiles
boot: finnix
finnix is the default boot profile, and will give you a 1024x768 pixel screen and a quiet bootup (no kernel messages). Simply pressing <ENTER> at the boot: prompt will give you this profile.
boot: finnix64 boot: debug64
Loads a 64-bit kernel (AMD64 or G5) in normal or debug mode, respectively. In Finnix-PPC, the finnix and debug profiles load the 32-bit kernel, which is incompatible with G5 machines. As of this writing, all AMD64 CPUs can boot 32-bit kernels, but booting a 64-bit kernel on a supported system has several additional advantages. The AMD64 kernel was added in Finnix 89.0.
boot: text
Quiet bootup, no framebuffer (standard 80x24 character screen).
boot: debug
Verbose bootup, no framebuffer, with kernel messages and extra Finnix debug messages. In addition, Finnix will drop you down to a shell prompt at several stages to perform debugging.
boot: failsafe
Verbose bootup, no framebuffer, with nearly all kernel-level hardware autodetection turned off.
boot: userdef
No arguments are passed to the kernel whatsoever. To be of any use you must at least do "userdef initrd=minirt".
boot: memtest
(x86 only) Loads Memtest86+, a memory testing program that runs independently of Finnix.
[edit] Finnix Boot Options
boot: finnix debug boot: finnix umldebug
Activates Finnix-specific debugging options (see the debug boot profile above). (umldebug was added in Finnix 86.2 because debug is a reserved keyword for the UML kernel).
boot: finnix finnixfile=/FINNIX/FINNIX
In Finnix 86.2 and later, allows you to specify an alternate location to the squashfs compressed root filesystem (default /FINNIX/FINNIX on the first found media).
boot: finnix root=/dev/hdc
In Finnix 86.2 and later, 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 anyways.
boot: finnix toram
One of my favorite features. 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.
boot: finnix noeject
Disables CD auto-ejection after shutdown, or after toram copying during bootup.
boot: finnix testcd
Tests all files on the Finnix CD against known good checksums, to guard against burning defects. As of Finnix 86.1, this option can be combined with toram.
boot: finnix nodma
(Finnix 88.0+) 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).
boot: finnix noacpi boot: finnix noapm
Disables detection of ACPI or APM. By default, ACPI and APM are detected automatically and set up accordingly.
boot: finnix noboothwsetup
Disables probing of PCI devices during initrd, and the automatic loading of appropriate modules that would follow.
boot: finnix nohwsetup
Disables probing of PCI devices, and the automatic loading of appropriate modules that would follow.
boot: finnix noswap
Disables detection of swap partitions, and the automatic usage that would follow.
boot: finnix nofstab
Disables scanning of disk partitions and creating an /etc/fstab file.
boot: finnix nodhcp
Disables DHCP, if network devices are found.
boot: finnix strace
(Finnix 86.2+) 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.
boot: finnix 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.
boot: finnix sshd_password=YourPassword
(Finnix 92.0+) 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).
boot: finnix keyboard=es
Sets a default keyboard mapping.
boot: finnix tz=PST8PDT
Sets the time zone. By default the time zone is set to UTC.
boot: finnix root=/dev/ubda boot: finnix root=/dev/ubda squashroot
Only needed for UML/Xen guests. The UML/Xen initrd will mount the value of root and expect it to be a Finnix ISO (if squashroot is not specified) or a squashfs root filesystem (if squashroot is specified).
boot: finnix nolvm
(Finnix 87.0+) Disables autodetection of LVM partitions.
boot: finnix noraid
(Finnix 89.0+) Disables autodetection of MD RAID sets.
boot: finnix nocrypt
(Finnix 89.0+) Disables autodetection of LUKS crypted partitions.
boot: finnix nomouse
(Finnix 87.0+) Disables starting mouse (GPM) services.
boot: finnix rw
(Finnix 87.0+) Attempts to mount the root filesystem (containing the SquashFS files) read-write. By default, the media is usually mounted read-only, as it is usually a CDROM disc. However, for USB thumb drives, you most likely want to also write to the USB media.
boot: finnix bootchart
(Finnix 88.0+) Utilizes Bootchart, and places the completed boot chart in /var/log/bootchart.tgz.
boot: finnix usbhid
(Finnix 89.0+) Attempts to load USB HID (keyboard/mouse) drivers as soon as possible. This allows USB-only systems to use the debug mode.
boot: finnix unionmod=unionfs
(Finnix 89.0+) Specifies which union filesystem module should be used, unionfs or aufs. Defaults to unionfs. aufs was not included in Finnix 89.0, but is expected to be available as an option in future versions.
boot: finnix nfsroot=192.168.0.2:/share/finnix nfsif=eth0 \ nfsip=192.168.0.10 nfsnetmask=255.255.255.0 nfsvers=2
(Finnix 89.0+) Attempts to boot Finnix by NFS. Boot logic is as follows:
- If nfsroot is not specified, all other NFS boot options are ignored, and CD autodetection is performed instead.
- If nfsip is specified, a static client IP address is configured.
- If nfsnetmask is not specified, "255.255.255.0" is assumed.
- If nfsif is not specified, "eth0" is assumed.
- If nfsip is not specified, DHCP is attempted.
- If nfsif is specified, the specified interface is the only interface attempted.
- If nfsif is not specified, all available interfaces are attempted in series, until a DHCP server answers on an interface.
- If nfsvers is not specified, "2" is assumed.
[edit] Deprecated/Removed Boot Options
boot: finnix expert boot: finnix modules-disk
Will try to load a floppy disk containing kernel modules, and will prompt you for which modules you want to load. This functionality has been removed as of Finnix 87.0. If you need to load custom modules, use debug mode.
boot: finnix bootscsi boot: finnix bootusb boot: finnix bootfirewire
Loads SCSI, USB, or Firewire modules to be used to look for the Finnix CD. Use these only if you have a SCSI/USB/Firewire CDROM drive. (SCSI/USB/Firewire disks will be probed automatically once the CD is found, even without these options.) Removed as of Finnix 88.0.
boot: finnix bootusb bootusb2 (Finnix 86.1 and previous) boot: finnix bootusb nobootusb2 (Finnix 86.2 and later)
In Finnix versions 86.1 and previous, bootusb2 was a modifier to bootusb, and told Finnix to load the EHCI drivers as well as UHCI and OHCI. In 86.2 (and later versions), USB2 boot functionality was made the default, and instead the nobootusb2 modifier can be passed to bootusb, telling Finnix to load UHCI and OHCI drivers during pre-boot, but not EHCI. Removed as of Finnix 88.0.
boot: finnix nobootusb
By default, USB drivers are loaded on Finnix-PPC (but not Finnix, by default), so the USB keyboard can be used. If you are using Finnix-PPC on an ADB system and want to save a few seconds, use this option. Removed as of Finnix 88.0.
boot: finnix nobootide
(Finnix 87.0+) Disables detection of IDE drive detection for the purpose of finding the boot media. Note that even if this option is specified, hwsetup may find and load modules for certain IDE controllers later on in the boot process. This option saves a small amount of load time when you know you'll be booting from a USB/SCSI device. Removed as of Finnix 88.0.
boot: finnix dma
By default, Finnix does not enable DMA on hard drives, because sometimes Linux DMA mode can wreak havoc with older IDE controllers. But if you have a IDE controller made in the last 5 years or so, enabling dma should not be a problem. Removed as of Finnix 88.0.
boot: finnix noscsi boot: finnix nousb boot: finnix nofirewire boot: finnix nopcmcia
Disables detection of SCSI/USB/Firewire/PCMCIA disks. Removed as of Finnix 88.0.
boot: finnix nousb2
If USB is enabled, nousb2 can be used to prevent loading of EHCI drivers. Removed as of Finnix 88.0.
boot: finnix blind brltty=/dev/ttyS0
Enables support for blind users. Removed as of Finnix 88.0.
boot: finnix uml boot: finnix xen
Enables UML/Xen guest mode. As of Finnix 86.2, UML/Xen guests are detected automatically, and these options are not needed. Removed as of Finnix 88.0.