Man page 5 : initramfs.conf

initramfs.conf - configuration file for mkinitramfs

The behaviour of

mkinitramfs can be modified by its configuration file. Each line in the file can be a configuration variable, a blank line, or a comment. The value of an variable is assigned by an statement of the form: name=[value] Configuration options can be broken out into configuration snippets and placed in individual files in the /etc/mkinitramfs/conf.d directory. Files in this directory are always read after the main configuration file, so you can override the settings in the main config file without editing it directly.

• \fB MODULES
      Specifies the modules for the initramfs image. The default setting is most. most adds most file system, all ide, sata, scsi and usb drivers. dep tries to guess which modules are necessary for the running box. netboot adds the base modules, network modules, but skips block devices. list includes only modules from the additional modules list to load them early.
• \fB BUSYBOX
      Include busybox utilities for the boot scripts. If set to 'n'

mkinitramfs will build an initramfs without busybox. Beware that many boot scripts need busybox utilities.

• \fB KEYMAP
      If set to 'y', the console keymap will be loaded during the initramfs stage. The keymap will anyway be loaded by the initscripts later, and the packages that might need input will normally set this variable automatically, so there should normally be no need to set this.
• \fB COMPRESS
      Specifies the compression method used for the initramfs image.

mkinitramfs will default to gzip if the kernel lacks support (CONFIG_RD) or the corresponding userspace utility is not present.

• \fB UMASK
      Set the umask value of the generated initramfs file. Useful to not disclose eventual keys.

• \fB BOOT
      Allows to use an nfs drive as the root of the drive. The default is to boot from local media (hard drive, USB stick). Set to nfs for an NFS root share.
• \fB DEVICE
      Specifies the network interface, like eth0.
• \fB ROOT
      Allows optional root bootarg hardcoding, when no root bootarg can be passed. A root bootarg overrides that special setting.
• \fB NFSROOT
      Defaults to auto in order to pick up value from DHCP server. Otherwise you need to specify HOST:MOUNT.

• /etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf
      

The initramfs-tools are written by Maximilian Attems <>, Jeff Bailey <> and numerous others. Loosely based on mkinitrd.conf by Herbert Xu.

R initramfs-tools (8), mkinitramfs (8), update-initramfs (8).