Since the various things you can pass to rc.sysinit seem to be lacking
in documentation, I whipped this up. Is it worth finishing, and if so
what should I do with it?
rc.sysinit parameters
v 0.0 for initscripts 7.50
Jason Tibbitts, 2004.05.01
There are various functions of the rc.sysinit script which can be
controlled by the administrator. Since it is impossible to pass
information directly to rc.sysinit since the machine hasn't completed
booting, the script uses four methods to obtain user input:
*) Checking for a key press
*) Checking the existence of various files, usually in / (the root
directory). This means you can create a certain file which will
control rc.sysinit when the machine next boots. (It is an old
trick from the days before journaling filesystems to do:
touch /fastboot;sync;sync;sync;reboot
in order to skip the often agonizingly long fsck process.
Superstition demands three calls to sync.)
*) Checking the contents of various files, most notably
/etc/sysconfig/init. See
/usr/share/doc/initscripts-*/sysconfig.txt for descriptions of many
of these.
*) Parsing the kernel command line, which is conveniently made
available to userspace as /proc/cmdline. This makes it possible to
use the boot loader to pass information to rc.sysinit.
rc.sysinit parameters (taken from initscripts 7.50 in FC2T3):
Parameter: CONSOLETYPE
Set where: /etc/sysconfig/init and automatically determined by a call
to /sbin/consoletype, I think.
Values: vt, pty, serial
Controls whether loadkeys, setsysfont, etc are called.
Parameter: BOOTUP
Set where: /etc/sysconfig/init
See sysconfig.txt. Controls various verbosity and color settings for
the boot scripts.
Parameter: GRAPHICAL
Set where: /etc/sysconfig/init
See sysconfig.txt? Might not be there.
Parameter: LOGLEVEL
Set where: /etc/sysconfig/init, I think.
Values: ?
Passed to dmesg -n; sets console log level.
Parameter: rhgb
Set where: kernel command line
Values: none (boolean, either it's there or it isn't)
Controls the graphical bootup happens. BOOTUP and GRAPHICAL must also
be set.
Parameter: CLOCKMODE
Parameter: CLOCKFLAGS
Parameter: nousb
Parameter: nomodules
Parameter: fastboot
Set where: existence of /fastboot, kernel command line
Values: none (boolean, either it's there or it isn't)
If it's there, fsck will be skipped if possible.
Parameter: fsckoptions
Set where: contents of /fsckoptions
Values: legal options to /sbin/fsck
Passed verbatim to fsck when checking filesystems.
Parameter: forcefsck
Set where: existence of /forcefsck, kernel command line
Values: none (boolean, either it's there or it isn't)
Passes '-f' to fsck, forcing a full check.
Parameter: autofsck
Set where: existence of /.autofsck
Values: none (boolean)
Causes system to complain about unclean shutdown and prompt for a full
fsck. This file gets removed when the system shuts down and created
later in startup, so if it exists at boot time then things didn't shut
down properly.
Parameter: nopnp
Parameter: halt
?
Parameter: poweroff
?
Parameter: nofirewire
Set where: kernel command line
Values: none (boolean)
Turns off firewire modules.
Parameter: ide-scsi
Set where: kernel command line
Values: none (boolean)
Causes ide-cd and ide-scsi modules to be probed.
Parameter: netprofile
Set where: kernel command line, like "netprofile=value"
Values: Any network profile you have set up.
If set, /usr/sbin/system-config-network-cmd --profile will be called
with the value you provide.
Parameter: confirm
Set where: kernel command line
Values: none (boolean)
If present, forces an interactive boot. This does the same thing as
pressing 'i' when prompted to "Press 'I' to enter interactive
startup.".
- J<
