These are the boot options that are useful when starting Anaconda. For more information on using Anaconda options, refer to "Appendix A. Boot Options" in the Fedora Installation Guide.

Anaconda bootup is handled by dracut, so most of the kernel arguments handled by dracut are also valid. See dracut.kernel(7) for details on those options.

Throughout this guide, installer-specific options are prefixed with inst. (e.g. inst.ks). The inst prefix is optional; ks still works just fine. The inst prefix may be required in a future release.

Installation Source

Note
Installable Trees

An installable tree is a directory structure containing installer images, packages, and repodata.
[an installable tree must contain a valid .treeinfo file for inst.repo or inst.stage2 to work.]

Usually this is either a copy of the DVD media (or loopback-mounted DVD image), or the <arch>/os/ directory on the Fedora mirrors.

inst.repo

This gives the location of the Install Source - that is, the place where the installer can find its images and packages. It can be specified in a few different ways:

inst.repo=cdrom

Search the system’s CDROM drives for installer media. This is the default.

inst.repo=cdrom:<device>

Look for installer media in the specified disk device.

inst.repo=hd:<device>:<path>

Mount the given disk partition and install from the given path.

inst.repo=[http,https,ftp]://<host>/<path>

Look for an installable tree at the given URL.

inst.repo=nfs:[<options>:]<server>:/<path>

Mount the given NFS server and path. Uses NFS version 3 by default.

You can specify what version of the NFS protocol to use by adding nfsvers=X to the options.

Note
Disk Device Names

Disk devices may be specified with any of the following forms:

Kernel Device Name

/dev/sda1, sdb2

Filesystem Label

LABEL=FLASH, LABEL=Fedora, CDLABEL=Fedora\x2017\x20x86_64

Filesystem UUID

UUID=8176c7bf-04ff-403a-a832-9557f94e61db

Non-alphanumeric characters should be escaped with \xNN, where NN is the hexidecimal representation of the character (e.g. \x20 for the space character (' ').

inst.stage2

This specifies the location to fetch the only the installer runtime image. The packages will be ignored. Otherwise the same as inst.repo.

NOTE: inst.stage2 expects a directory like inst.repo. If you need to provide a URL to an image to be used, try root=live:<url> instead.

Kickstart

inst.ks

Give the location of a kickstart file to be used to automate the install. Uses the same formats as inst.repo.

If <path> is omitted, /ks.cfg is assumed.

If inst.ks is used without a value, the installer will look for nfs:<next_server>:/<filename>:

  • <next_server> is the DHCP "next-server" option, or the IP of the DHCP server itself,

  • <filename> is the DHCP "filename" option, or /kickstart/, and

  • if the filename given ends in /, <ip>-kickstart is added

  • example:

    • DHCP server: 192.168.122.1

    • client address: 192.168.122.100

      • kickstart file: nfs:192.168.122.1:/kickstart/192.168.122.100-kickstart

inst.ks.sendmac

Add headers to outgoing HTTP requests which include the MAC addresses of all network interfaces. The headers are of the form:

  • X-RHN-Provisioning-MAC-0: eth0 01:23:45:67:89:ab

This is helpful when using inst.ks=http... to provision systems.

inst.ks.sendsn

Add a header to outgoing HTTP requests which includes the system’s serial number.
[as read from /sys/class/dmi/id/product_serial]
 The header is of the form:

  • X-System-Serial-Number: <serial>

Network Options

Initial network setup is handled by dracut. For detailed information consult the "Network" section of dracut.kernel(7).

The most common dracut network options are covered here, along with some installer-specific options.

ip

Configure one (or more) network interfaces. You can use multiple ip arguments to configure multiple interfaces, but if you do you must specify an interface for every ip= argument, and you must specify which interface is the primary boot interface with bootdev.

Accepts a few different forms; the most common are:

ip=<dhcp|dhcp6|auto6|ibft>

Try to bring up every interface using the given autoconf method. Defaults to ip=dhcp if network is required by inst.repo, inst.ks, inst.updates, etc.

ip=<interface>:<autoconf>

Bring up only one interface using the given autoconf method, e.g. ip=eth0:dhcp.

ip=<ip>::<gateway>:<netmask>:<hostname>:<interface>:none

Bring up the given interface with a static network config, where:

<ip>

The client IP address. IPv6 addresses may be specified by putting them in square brackets, like so: [2001:DB8::1].

<gateway>

The default gateway. IPv6 addresses are accepted here too.

<netmask>

The netmask (e.g. 255.255.255.0) or prefix (e.g. 64).

<hostname>

Hostname for the client machine. Optional.

ip=<ip>::<gateway>:<netmask>:<hostname>:<interface>:<autoconf>:<mtu>

Bring up the given interface with the given autoconf method, but override the automatically obtained IP/gateway/etc. with the provided values.

Technically all of the items are optional, so if you want to use dhcp but also set a hostname you can do ip=::::<hostname>::dhcp.

nameserver

Specify the address of a nameserver to use. May be used multiple times.

bootdev

Specify which interface is the boot device. Required if multiple ip= options are used.

ifname

ifname=<interface>:<MAC>

Assign the given interface name to the network device with the given MAC. May be used multiple times.

inst.dhcpclass

Set the DHCP vendor class identifier. (ISC dhcpd will see this value as "option vendor-class-identifier").

Defaults to anaconda-$(uname -srm).
[For Fedora 17 this should be something like anaconda-Linux 3.3.4-4.fc17.x86_64 x86_64]

Console / Display Options

console

This is a kernel option that specifies what device to use as the primary console. For example, if your console should be on the first serial port, use console=ttyS0.

You can use multiple console= options; boot message will be displayed on all consoles, but anaconda will put its display on the last console listed.

Using this option implies text.

inst.lang

Set the language to be used during installation. This should be a language that’s valid for use with the lang kickstart command.

inst.keymap

Set the keyboard layout to use. This should be something valid for use with the keyboard kickstart command.

inst.cmdline

Force command line install mode. This mode simply prints out text and does not allow any interaction. All options must be specified in a kickstart or on the command line.

inst.graphical

Make the installer to run in graphical mode. This is the default.

inst.text

Force the installer to use a very limited text-based UI. Unless you’re using a kickstart this probably isn’t a good idea; you should use VNC instead.

inst.vnc

Run the installer GUI in a VNC session. You will need a VNC client application to interact with the installer. VNC sharing is enabled, so multiple clients may connect.

A system installed with VNC will start in text mode (runlevel 3).

Consider setting a vnc password (see below).

inst.vncpassword

Set a password on the VNC server used by the installer.

inst.vncconnect

inst.vncconnect=<host>[:<port>]

Once the install starts, connect to a listening VNC client at the given host. Default port is 5900.

Use with vncviewer -listen.

inst.headless

Specify that the machine being installed onto doesn’t have any display hardware, and that anaconda shouldn’t bother looking for it.

inst.xdriver

Specify the X driver that should be used during installation and on the installed system.

inst.usefbx

Use the framebuffer X driver (fbdev) rather than a hardware-specific driver.

Equivalent to inst.xdriver=fbdev.

inst.sshd

Start up sshd during system installation. You can then ssh in while the installation progresses to debug or monitor its progress.

NOTE: The root account has no password by default. You can set one using the sshpw kickstart command.

Debugging and Troubleshooting

inst.mediacheck

Verify the installer media before starting the install.

inst.rescue

Run the rescue environment. This is useful for trying to diagnose and fix broken systems.

inst.updates

Give the location of an updates.img to be applied to the installer runtime. Takes the same arguments as inst.repo and inst.ks.

If no <path> is given, /updates.img is assumed.

inst.loglevel

inst.loglevel=<debug|info|warning|error|critical>

Set the minimum level required for messages to be logged on a terminal (log files always contain messages of all levels). The default value is info.

inst.syslog

inst.syslog=<host>[:<port>]

Once installation is running, send log messages to the syslog process on the given host. The default port is 514 (UDP).

Requires the remote syslog process to accept incoming connections.

inst.virtiolog

Forward logs through the named virtio port (a character device at /dev/virtio-ports/<name>). A port named org.fedoraproject.anaconda.log.0 will be used by default, if found.

+ For more information see https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Anaconda/Logging.

inst.autostep

Normally, if the information needed by a given installer screen has already been provided, the installer will skip that screen (for example, if you specify lang=en, the language screen is skipped.)

This option forces the installer to display those screens briefly before stepping through to the next one.

This is mostly used with the autoscreenshot kickstart command to get automated screenshots of the installer.

inst.debug

Use inst.debug=1 to add a "debug" button to the UI, which allows dropping into a Python debugger.

inst.traceback

Intentionally raise an exception to make the installer crash with a traceback. This is for testing our crash-handling code. Don’t use it unless you want the installer to crash.

Deprecated Options

These options should still be accepted by the installer, but they’re deprecated and may be removed soon.

method

This is just an alias for inst.repo.

repo=nfsiso:…

The difference between an installable tree and a dir with an .iso file is autodetected, so this is the same as inst.repo=nfs:…

dns

Use nameserver instead. Note that nameserver does not take comma-separated lists; just use multiple nameserver options.

netmask, gateway, hostname

These can be provided as part of the ip option.

ip=bootif

A PXE-supplied BOOTIF option will be used automatically, so there’s no need for this.

ksdevice

Not present

The first device with a usable link is used

ksdevice=link

Ignored (this is the same as the default behavior)

ksdevice=bootif

Ignored (this is the default if BOOTIF= is present)

ksdevice=ibft

Replaced with ip=ibft

ksdevice=<MAC>

Replaced with BOOTIF=${MAC/:/-}

ksdevice=<DEV>

Replaced with bootdev=$MAC

blacklist, nofirewire

modprobe handles blacklisting kernel modules on its own; try modprobe.blacklist=<mod1>,<mod2>...

You can blacklist the firewire module with modprobe.blacklist=firewire_ohci.

Removed Options

These options are obsolete and have been removed.

askmethod, asknetwork

Anaconda’s initramfs is now is completely non-interactive, so these have been removed.

Instead, specify a repo or use appropriate network options.

serial

This option was never intended for public use; it was supposed to be used to force anaconda to use /dev/ttyS0 as its console when testing it on a live machine.

Use console=ttyS0 or similar instead. See console for details.

updates

Plain updates is no longer supported. Use inst.updates=hd:<dev>[:<img>], discussed above.

essid, wepkey, wpakey

Dracut doesn’t support wireless networking, so these don’t do anything.

ethtool

Who needs to force half-duplex 10-base-T anymore?

gdb

This was used to debug loader, so it has been removed. There are plenty of options for debugging dracut-based initramfs - see the dracut "Troubleshooting" guide.

ks=floppy

We no longer support floppy drives. Try ks=hd:<device> instead.

display

For remote display of the UI, use inst.vnc.

utf8

All this option actually did was set TERM=vt100. The default TERM setting works fine these days, so this was no longer necessary.

noipv6

ipv6 is built into the kernel and can’t be removed. You should be able to disable it with ipv6.disable, though.

upgradeany

Anaconda doesn’t handle upgrades anymore.

Future Options

These options are not present in Fedora 17 but will return in a future version.

dd, driverdisk

Support for Driver Update Disks will return in Fedora 18.

proxy

Support for commandline-configured network proxies will return in Fedora 18.