man
5 dracut.conf
DRACUT.CONF(5) dracut DRACUT.CONF(5)
NAME
dracut.conf - configuration file(s) for dracut
SYNOPSIS
/etc/dracut.conf /etc/dracut.conf.d/*.conf
/usr/lib/dracut/dracut.conf.d/*.conf
DESCRIPTION
dracut.conf is loaded during the initialisation phase of dracut.
Command line parameter will override any values set here.
*.conf files are read from /usr/lib/dracut/dracut.conf.d and
/etc/dracut.conf.d. Files with the same name in /etc/dracut.conf.d will
replace files in /usr/lib/dracut/dracut.conf.d. The files are then read
in alphanumerical order and will override parameters set in
/etc/dracut.conf. Each line specifies an attribute and a value. A #
indicates the beginning of a comment; following characters, up to the
end of the line are not interpreted.
dracut command line options will override any values set here.
Configuration files must have the extension .conf; other extensions are
ignored.
add_dracutmodules+=" <dracut modules> "
Add a space-separated list of dracut modules to call when building
the initramfs. Modules are located in /usr/lib/dracut/modules.d.
force_add_dracutmodules+=" <dracut modules> "
Force to add a space-separated list of dracut modules to the
default set of modules, when host-only mode is specified. This
parameter can be specified multiple times.
omit_dracutmodules+=" <dracut modules> "
Omit a space-separated list of dracut modules to call when building
the initramfs. Modules are located in /usr/lib/dracut/modules.d.
dracutmodules+=" <dracut modules> "
Specify a space-separated list of dracut modules to call when
building the initramfs. Modules are located in
/usr/lib/dracut/modules.d. This option forces dracut to only
include the specified dracut modules. In most cases the
"add_dracutmodules" option is what you want to use.
add_drivers+=" <kernel modules> "
Specify a space-separated list of kernel modules to add to the
initramfs. The kernel modules have to be specified without the
".ko" suffix.
force_drivers+=" <list of kernel modules> "
See add_drivers above. But in this case it is ensured that the
drivers are tried to be loaded early via modprobe.
omit_drivers+=" <kernel modules> "
Specify a space-separated list of kernel modules not to add to the
initramfs. The kernel modules have to be specified without the
".ko" suffix.
drivers+=" <kernel modules> "
Specify a space-separated list of kernel modules to exclusively
include in the initramfs. The kernel modules have to be specified
without the ".ko" suffix.
filesystems+=" <filesystem names> "
Specify a space-separated list of kernel filesystem modules to
exclusively include in the generic initramfs.
drivers_dir="<kernel modules directory>"
Specify the directory where to look for kernel modules.
fw_dir+=" :<dir>[:<dir> ...] "
Specify additional colon-separated list of directories where to
look for firmware files.
libdirs+=" <dir>[ <dir> ...] "
Specify a space-separated list of directories where to look for
libraries.
install_items+=" <file>[ <file> ...] "
Specify additional files to include in the initramfs, separated by
spaces.
install_optional_items+=" <file>[ <file> ...] "
Specify additional files to include in the initramfs, separated by
spaces, if they exist.
compress="{cat|bzip2|lzma|xz|gzip|lzo|lz4|zstd|<compressor [args
...]>}"
Compress the generated initramfs using the passed compression
program. If you pass it just the name of a compression program, it
will call that program with known-working arguments. If you pass
arguments, it will be called with exactly those arguments.
Depending on what you pass, this may result in an initramfs that
the kernel cannot decompress. To disable compression, use "cat".
squash_compress="{<compressor [args ...]>}"
Compress the squashfs image using the passed compressor and
compressor specific options for mksquashfs. You can refer to
mksquashfs manual for supported compressors and compressor specific
options. If squash module is not called when building the
initramfs, this option will not take effect.
do_strip="{yes|no}"
Strip binaries in the initramfs (default=yes).
aggresive_strip="{yes|no}"
Strip more than just debug symbol and sections, for a smaller
initramfs build. The "do_strip=yes" option must also be specified
(default=no).
do_hardlink="{yes|no}"
Hardlink files in the initramfs (default=yes).
prefix=" <directory> "
Prefix initramfs files with <directory>.
hostonly="{yes|no}"
Host-only mode: Install only what is needed for booting the local
host instead of a generic host and generate host-specific
configuration (default=no).
hostonly_mode="{sloppy|strict}"
Specify the host-only mode to use (default=sloppy). In "sloppy"
host-only mode, extra drivers and modules will be installed, so
minor hardware change won't make the image unbootable (e.g. changed
keyboard), and the image is still portable among similar hosts.
With "strict" mode enabled, anything not necessary for booting the
local host in its current state will not be included, and modules
may do some extra job to save more space. Minor change of hardware
or environment could make the image unbootable.
hostonly_cmdline="{yes|no}"
If set to "yes", store the kernel command line arguments needed in
the initramfs. If hostonly="yes" and this option is not configured,
it's automatically set to "yes".
hostonly_nics+=" [<nic>[ <nic> ...]] "
Only enable listed NICs in the initramfs. The list can be empty, so
other modules can install only the necessary network drivers.
persistent_policy="<policy>"
Use <policy> to address disks and partitions. <policy> can be any
directory name found in /dev/disk. E.g. "by-uuid", "by-label"
tmpdir="<temporary directory>"
Specify temporary directory to use.
Warning
If chrooted to another root other than the real root device, use
--fstab and provide a valid /etc/fstab.
use_fstab="{yes|no}"
Use /etc/fstab instead of /proc/self/mountinfo (default=no).
add_fstab+=" <filename> "
Add entries of <filename> to the initramfs /etc/fstab.
add_device+=" <device> "
Bring up <device> in initramfs, <device> should be the device name.
This can be useful in host-only mode for resume support when your
swap is on LVM an encrypted partition.
mdadmconf="{yes|no}"
Include local /etc/mdadm.conf (default=no).
lvmconf="{yes|no}"
Include local /etc/lvm/lvm.conf (default=no).
fscks=" <fsck tools> "
Add a space-separated list of fsck tools. If nothing is specified,
the default is: "umount mount /sbin/fsck* xfs_db xfs_check
xfs_repair e2fsck jfs_fsck reiserfsck btrfsck". The installation is
opportunistic (non-existing tools are ignored).
nofscks="{yes|no}"
If specified, inhibit installation of any fsck tools (default=no).
ro_mnt="{yes|no}"
Mount / and /usr read-only by default (default=no).
kernel_cmdline="parameters"
Specify default kernel command line parameters.
kernel_only="{yes|no}"
Only install kernel drivers and firmware files (default=no).
no_kernel="{yes|no}"
Do not install kernel drivers and firmware files (default=no).
acpi_override="{yes|no}"
[WARNING] ONLY USE THIS IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING!
Override BIOS provided ACPI tables. For further documentation read
Documentation/acpi/initrd_table_override.txt in the kernel sources.
Search for ACPI table files (must have .aml suffix) in
acpi_table_dir= directory (see below) and add them to a separate
uncompressed cpio archive. This cpio archive gets glued
(concatenated, uncompressed one must be the first one) to the
compressed cpio archive. The first, uncompressed cpio archive is
for data which the kernel must be able to access very early (and
cannot make use of uncompress algorithms yet) like microcode or
ACPI tables (default=no).
acpi_table_dir="<dir>"
Directory to search for ACPI tables if acpi_override= is set to
yes.
early_microcode="{yes|no}"
Combine early microcode with ramdisk (default=yes).
stdloglvl="{0-6}"
Specify logging level for standard error (default=4).
Note
Logging levels:
0 - suppress any messages
1 - only fatal errors
2 - all errors
3 - warnings
4 - info
5 - debug info (here starts lots of output)
6 - trace info (and even more)
sysloglvl="{0-6}"
Specify logging level for syslog (default=0).
fileloglvl="{0-6}"
Specify logging level for logfile (default=4).
logfile="<file>"
Path to logfile.
sshkey="<file>"
SSH key file used with ssh-client module.
show_modules="{yes|no}"
Print the name of the included modules to standard output during
build (default=no).
i18n_vars="<variable mapping>"
Distribution specific variable mapping. See
dracut/modules.d/10i18n/README for a detailed description.
i18n_default_font="<fontname>"
The font <fontname> to install, if not specified otherwise. Default
is "eurlatgr".
i18n_install_all="{yes|no}"
Install everything regardless of generic or host-only mode
(default=no).
reproducible="{yes|no}"
Create reproducible images (default=no).
noimageifnotneeded="{yes|no}"
Do not create an image in host-only mode, if no kernel driver is
needed and no /etc/cmdline/*.conf will be generated into the
initramfs (default=no).
loginstall="<directory>"
Log all files installed from the host to <directory>.
uefi="{yes|no}"
Instead of creating an initramfs image, dracut will create an UEFI
executable, which can be executed by an UEFI BIOS (default=no). The
default output filename is
<EFI>/EFI/Linux/linux-$kernel$-<MACHINE_ID>-<BUILD_ID>.efi. <EFI>
might be /efi, /boot or /boot/efi depending on where the ESP
partition is mounted. The <BUILD_ID> is taken from BUILD_ID in
/usr/lib/os-release or if it exists /etc/os-release and is left
out, if BUILD_ID is non-existant or empty.
machine_id="{yes|no}"
Affects the default output filename of the UEFI executable,
including the <MACHINE_ID> part (default=yes).
uefi_stub="<file>"
Specifies the UEFI stub loader, which will load the attached
kernel, initramfs and kernel command line and boots the kernel. The
default is
/lib/systemd/boot/efi/linux<EFI-MACHINE-TYPE-NAME>.efi.stub.
uefi_splash_image="<file>"
Specifies the UEFI stub loader's splash image. Requires bitmap
(.bmp) image format.
uefi_secureboot_cert="<file>", uefi_secureboot_key="<file>"
Specifies a certificate and corresponding key, which are used to
sign the created UEFI executable. Requires both certificate and key
need to be specified and sbsign to be installed.
kernel_image="<file>"
Specifies the kernel image, which to include in the UEFI
executable. The default is /lib/modules/<KERNEL-VERSION>/vmlinuz or
/boot/vmlinuz-<KERNEL-VERSION>.
sbat="parameters"
Specifies the SBAT parameters, which to include in the UEFI
executable. By default the default SBAT string added is
"sbat,1,SBAT Version,sbat,1,
https://github.com/rhboot/shim/blob/main/SBAT.md".
enhanced_cpio="{yes|no}"
Attempt to use the dracut-cpio binary, which optimizes archive
creation for copy-on-write filesystems (default=no). When
specified, initramfs archives are also padded to ensure optimal
data alignment for extent sharing. To retain reflink data
deduplication benefits, this should be used alongside the
compress="cat" and do_strip="no" parameters, with initramfs source
files, tmpdir staging area and destination all on the same
copy-on-write capable filesystem.
parallel="{yes|no}"
If set to yes, try to execute tasks in parallel (currently only
supported for --regenerate-all).
FILES
/etc/dracut.conf
Old configuration file. You better use your own file in
/etc/dracut.conf.d/.
/etc/dracut.conf.d/
Any /etc/dracut.conf.d/*.conf file can override the values in
/etc/dracut.conf. The configuration files are read in
alphanumerical order.
AUTHOR
Harald Hoyer
SEE ALSO
dracut(8) dracut.cmdline(7)
dracut c386524 06/09/2025 DRACUT.CONF(5)