LiveCD/USB Guide
Index of Common Boot Options

## Alphabetical Index of Common Options

This is an alphabetical table of many of the more commonly used boot options. They are colored coded by when the option takes effect. The pre-bootstrap and post-bootstrap options are all kernel options. The pre-bootstrap ones take effect immediately when the kernel starts and the post-bootstrap ones take effect when modules are loaded which happens right at the start of the init process, right after the linuxrc bootstrap.

| In almost every Linux system, you can find out what boot options were used with the command "`cat /proc/cmdline`". If you want to see one option per line then do:
    for opt in $(cat /proc/cmdline); do echo $opt; done

Legend
yellow | = before bootstrap
white | = during bootstrap
green | = right after bootstrap
blue | = during init
Option | Section | Definition
--- | --- | ---
bootdev | boot | the name of the device that holds the linuxfs file
bootdir | boot | the directory that holds the linuxfs file
bootlabel | boot | the label of the device that holds the linuxfs file
bp | debug | set a breakpoint in linuxrc script
bootuuid | boot | the UUID of the device that holds the linuxfs file
check | debug | check the md5 sum for linuxfs and iso files
dark |  | make output colors darker
db+ | debug | enable limited linuxrc debugging
db- | debug | disable limited linuxrc debugging
debug | debug | puts kernel in debug mode
delay | debug | wait "delay" seconds before looking for the linuxfs file
desktop | personalize | which desktop manager to use
dpi | personalize | Set display resolution (in X-windows)
drvr | personalize | which video driver to use
fromhd | deprecated | use cheat:bootdev: or cheat:bootlabel: or cheat:bootuuid:
fromiso | deprecated | the device containing an ISO file to boot off of
image_dir | deprecated | use cheat:bootdir:
image_name | deprecated | use cheat:sqname:
highcolor |  | make output more colorful
lang | personalize | Set language
kbd | personalize | Set keyboard layout
kbdvar | personalize | set keyboard variant
kbopt | personalize | set keyboard options
lean | optimize | turn off some services usually not needed in LiveCD/USB
lowcolor |  | make output less colorful
mean | optimize | disable network connections
mem | debug | pretend system has less memory
mirror | optimize | set apt mirror
nocolor |  | remove all color from output
nodeb | debug | don't install .deb files from the deb/ subdirectory
noetc | debug | don't load /etc files from the etc/ subdirectory
nohal |  | disable hal and dbus
nomodeset |  | disable all modesetting
noremaster | remaster | don't remaster even when a .new file is found
nouveau.modeset |  | disable modesetting for nouveau driver
noRox | personalize | disable Rox desktop with some icons
noxorg | personalize | use automatic X detection
persist | persistence | set persistence options
persistdev | persistence | the device holding the persistence file(s)
persistdir | persistence | the directory holding the persistence file(s)
persistlabel | persistence | the label of the device holding the persistence file(s)
persistretry | persistence | number of times to retry mounting persist device
persistuuid | persistence | the UUID of the device holding the persistence file(s)
pk | debug | control kernel messages during bootstrap
pki | debug | control kernel messages at start of init
quiet | debug | turn off many kernel messages
retry | boot | number of times to retry mounting the boot device
rollback | remaster | return to previous version after a failed remaster
rootdelay | debug | wait this many seconds before booting
rwmode |  | default mode for mounting file systems in linuxrc
sqext | boot | the extension of the linuxfs file
sqname | boot | the name of the linuxfs file [antiX/linuxfs]
toram | optimize | copy the linuxfs file into RAM to speed up operations
tz | personalize | Set the timezone
usb-mount | personalize | Set external devices to auto-mount when attached.
vga | personalize | set resolution of the virtual consoles
verbose | debug | the level of verbosity
wait | debug | wait "wait" seconds before running init
Xtralean | optimize | disable even more services