SYSTEMD-FIRSTBOOT(1) systemd-firstboot SYSTEMD-FIRSTBOOT(1)
NAME
systemd-firstboot, systemd-firstboot.service - Initialize basic system
settings on or before the first boot-up of a system
SYNOPSIS
systemd-firstboot [OPTIONS...]
systemd-firstboot.service
DESCRIPTION
systemd-firstboot initializes basic system settings interactively
during the first boot, or non-interactively on an offline system image.
The service is started during boot if ConditionFirstBoot=yes is met,
which essentially means that /etc/ is unpopulated, see systemd.unit(5)
for details.
The following settings may be configured:
• The machine ID of the system
• The system locale, more specifically the two locale variables LANG=
and LC_MESSAGES
• The system keyboard map
• The system time zone
• The system hostname
• The kernel command line used when installing kernel images
• The root user's password and shell
Each of the fields may either be queried interactively by users, set
non-interactively on the tool's command line, or be copied from a host
system that is used to set up the system image.
If a setting is already initialized, it will not be overwritten and the
user will not be prompted for the setting.
Note that this tool operates directly on the file system and does not
involve any running system services, unlike localectl(1),
timedatectl(1) or hostnamectl(1). This allows systemd-firstboot to
operate on mounted but not booted disk images and in early boot. It is
not recommended to use systemd-firstboot on the running system after it
has been set up.
OPTIONS
The following options are understood:
--root=root
Takes a directory path as an argument. All paths will be prefixed
with the given alternate root path, including config search paths.
This is useful to operate on a system image mounted to the
specified directory instead of the host system itself.
Added in version 216.
--image=path
Takes a path to a disk image file or block device node. If
specified all operations are applied to file system in the
indicated disk image. This is similar to --root= but operates on
file systems stored in disk images or block devices. The disk image
should either contain just a file system or a set of file systems
within a GPT partition table, following the Discoverable Partitions
Specification[1]. For further information on supported disk images,
see systemd-nspawn(1)'s switch of the same name.
Added in version 246.
--locale=LOCALE, --locale-messages=LOCALE
Sets the system locale, more specifically the LANG= and LC_MESSAGES
settings. The argument should be a valid locale identifier, such as
"de_DE.UTF-8". This controls the locale.conf(5) configuration file.
Added in version 216.
--keymap=KEYMAP
Sets the system keyboard layout. The argument should be a valid
keyboard map, such as "de-latin1". This controls the "KEYMAP" entry
in the vconsole.conf(5) configuration file.
Added in version 236.
--timezone=TIMEZONE
Sets the system time zone. The argument should be a valid time zone
identifier, such as "Europe/Berlin". This controls the localtime(5)
symlink.
Added in version 216.
--hostname=HOSTNAME
Sets the system hostname. The argument should be a hostname,
compatible with DNS. This controls the hostname(5) configuration
file.
Added in version 216.
--setup-machine-id
Initialize the system's machine ID to a random ID. This controls
the machine-id(5) file.
This option only works in combination with --root= or --image=. On
a running system, machine-id is written by the manager with help
from systemd-machine-id-commit.service(8).
Added in version 216.
--machine-id=ID
Set the system's machine ID to the specified value. The same
restrictions apply as to --setup-machine-id.
Added in version 216.
--root-password=PASSWORD, --root-password-file=PATH,
--root-password-hashed=HASHED_PASSWORD
Sets the password of the system's root user. This creates/modifies
the passwd(5) and shadow(5) files. This setting exists in three
forms: --root-password= accepts the password to set directly on the
command line, --root-password-file= reads it from a file and
--root-password-hashed= accepts an already hashed password on the
command line. See shadow(5) for more information on the format of
the hashed password. Note that it is not recommended to specify
plaintext passwords on the command line, as other users might be
able to see them simply by invoking ps(1).
Added in version 216.
--root-shell=SHELL
Sets the shell of the system's root user. This creates/modifies the
passwd(5) file.
Added in version 246.
--kernel-command-line=CMDLINE
Sets the system's kernel command line. This controls the
/etc/kernel/cmdline file which is used by kernel-install(8).
Added in version 246.
--prompt-locale, --prompt-keymap, --prompt-timezone, --prompt-hostname,
--prompt-root-password, --prompt-root-shell
Prompt the user interactively for a specific basic setting. Note
that any explicit configuration settings specified on the command
line take precedence, and the user is not prompted for it.
Added in version 216.
--prompt
Query the user for locale, keymap, timezone, hostname, root's
password, and root's shell. This is equivalent to specifying
--prompt-locale, --prompt-keymap, --prompt-timezone,
--prompt-hostname, --prompt-root-password, --prompt-root-shell in
combination.
Added in version 216.
--copy-locale, --copy-keymap, --copy-timezone, --copy-root-password,
--copy-root-shell
Copy a specific basic setting from the host. This only works in
combination with --root= or --image=.
Added in version 216.
--copy
Copy locale, keymap, time zone, root password and shell from the
host. This is equivalent to specifying --copy-locale,
--copy-keymap, --copy-timezone, --copy-root-password,
--copy-root-shell in combination.
Added in version 216.
--force
Write configuration even if the relevant files already exist.
Without this option, systemd-firstboot doesn't modify or replace
existing files. Note that when configuring the root account, even
with this option, systemd-firstboot only modifies the entry of the
"root" user, leaving other entries in /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow
intact.
Added in version 246.
--reset
If specified, all existing files that are configured by
systemd-firstboot are removed. Note that the files are removed
regardless of whether they'll be configured with a new value or
not. This operation ensures that the next boot of the image will be
considered a first boot, and systemd-firstboot will prompt again to
configure each of the removed files.
Added in version 254.
--delete-root-password
Removes the password of the system's root user, enabling login as
root without a password unless the root account is locked. Note
that this is extremely insecure and hence this option should not be
used lightly.
Added in version 246.
--welcome=
Takes a boolean argument. By default when prompting the user for
configuration options a brief welcome text is shown before the
first question is asked. Pass false to this option to turn off the
welcome text.
Added in version 246.
-h, --help
Print a short help text and exit.
--version
Print a short version string and exit.
CREDENTIALS
systemd-firstboot supports the service credentials logic as implemented
by ImportCredential=/LoadCredential=/SetCredential= (see
systemd.exec(5) for details). The following credentials are used when
passed in:
passwd.hashed-password.root, passwd.plaintext-password.root
A hashed or plaintext version of the root password to use, in place
of prompting the user. These credentials are equivalent to the same
ones defined for the systemd-sysusers.service(8) service.
Added in version 249.
passwd.shell.root
Specifies the shell binary to use for the specified account.
Equivalent to the credential of the same name defined for the
systemd-sysusers.service(8) service.
Added in version 249.
firstboot.locale, firstboot.locale-messages
These credentials specify the locale settings to set during first
boot, in place of prompting the user.
Added in version 249.
firstboot.keymap
This credential specifies the keyboard setting to set during first
boot, in place of prompting the user.
Note the relationship to the vconsole.keymap credential understood
by systemd-vconsole-setup.service(8): both ultimately affect the
same setting, but firstboot.keymap is written into
/etc/vconsole.conf on first boot (if not already configured), and
then read from there by systemd-vconsole-setup, while
vconsole.keymap is read on every boot, and is not persisted to disk
(but any configuration in vconsole.conf will take precedence if
present).
Added in version 249.
firstboot.timezone
This credential specifies the system timezone setting to set during
first boot, in place of prompting the user.
Added in version 249.
Note that by default the systemd-firstboot.service unit file is set up
to inherit the listed credentials from the service manager. Thus, when
invoking a container with an unpopulated /etc/ for the first time it is
possible to configure the root user's password to be "systemd" like
this:
# systemd-nspawn --image=... --set-credential=firstboot.locale:de_DE.UTF-8 ...
Note that these credentials are only read and applied during the first
boot process. Once they are applied they remain applied for subsequent
boots, and the credentials are not considered anymore.
EXIT STATUS
On success, 0 is returned, a non-zero failure code otherwise.
KERNEL COMMAND LINE
systemd.firstboot=
Takes a boolean argument, defaults to on. If off,
systemd-firstboot.service won't interactively query the user for
basic settings at first boot, even if those settings are not
initialized yet.
Added in version 233.
SEE ALSO
systemd(1), locale.conf(5), vconsole.conf(5), localtime(5),
hostname(5), machine-id(5), shadow(5), systemd-machine-id-setup(1),
localectl(1), timedatectl(1), hostnamectl(1)
NOTES
1. Discoverable Partitions Specification
https://uapi-group.org/specifications/specs/discoverable_partitions_specification
systemd 255 SYSTEMD-FIRSTBOOT(1)
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