This page lists InkBox's boot flags used to modify the working environment at startup time. These flags hold a boolean value (true/false) and are located as single files in [sd-p1]/flags
Common boot flags
Interactive flags
| Flag
|
Description
|
Example use-case
|
Enabled by default?
|
DIAGS_BOOT
|
Boots into Diagnostics mode (partition 2 of the SD card).
|
Perform an unattended factory reset (pair with DO_FACTORY_RESET)
|
No
|
DO_FACTORY_RESET
|
Tells the initrd to launch the reset.sh script if DIAGS_BOOT is enabled
|
Perform an unattended factory reset (pair with DIAGS_BOOT)
|
No
|
DO_SOFT_RESET
|
Tells the initrd to launch the soft-reset.sh script if DIAGS_BOOT is enabled
|
Perform an unattended soft reset (pair with DIAGS_BOOT)
|
No
|
X11_START
|
Start X11 windowing system
|
Play with your favourite X11 apps
|
Yes
|
FIRST_BOOT
|
Tell InkBox that it's the first boot, thus launch OOBE setup et al.
|
Set after a factory reset
|
N/A
|
WILL_UPDATE
|
Tells root filesystem that it has to update.
|
Update InkBox
|
No
|
KERNEL_FLASH
|
Tell initrd to flash a kernel. The kernel needs to be in [sd-p1]/boot and its name needs to start with uImage
|
When you're desperate and can't do anything else (e.g. dd)
|
No
|
ALERT
|
Tell InkBox that something unusual happened. May be paired with ALERT_SIGN and/or ALERT_DOWNGRADE.
|
Set when the security policy is violated (e.g. jumping from std to root kernel without factory reset)
|
No
|
ALERT_SIGN
|
Tell InkBox that the update packages' digital signatures' verification failed.
|
When an user tries to update InkBox without a valid dgst file paired with the relevant package.
|
No
|
ALERT_DOWNGRADE
|
Tell InkBox that an illegal downgrade operation has happened.
|
When user mistakenly tries to downgrade from version 1.5 to 1.3.
|
No
|
ENCRYPT_LOCK
|
Prevent device from booting until it reaches epoch written in this file. Will lead to an "Error code 6" splash.
|
When encrypted storage is enabled and the user enters too much wrong passphrases
|
No
|
DISPLAY_DEBUG
|
Display boot serial console output on the eInk screen.
Warning: extremely power-hungry.
|
Provide debug information without needing to connect to a serial console
|
No
|
Read-only flags
| Flag
|
Description
|
Example use-case
|
Enabled by default?
|
X11_STARTED
|
Tells if X11 was started or not (set even if X11_START is disabled)
|
Used by InkBox's GUI to check if X11 was started or not to hide/show KoBox-specific options in the UI
|
N/A
|
Kernel-specific flags
Root kernel
Interactive flags
| Flag
|
Description
|
Example use-case
|
Enabled by default?
|
USBNET_ENABLE
|
Enable USB networking at boot
|
Gain shell access via SSH to InkBox
|
No
|
USBNET_IP
|
Use a custom USBNet IP (write IP directly in the flag)
|
When your Wi-Fi network uses the same subnet as your Kobo (192.168.2.0/24) (pair with USBNET_ENABLE)
|
N/A
|
RW_ROOTFS
|
Mount overlay root filesystem (fuse-overlayfs) read-write at boot (note: this can also be done with ifsctl mnt rootfs rw at run-time)
|
Modify some files
|
No
|
DFL
|
Activates DFL mode, which exports the whole MMC over USB. Self-deactivates after a reboot. See Direct Firmware Loader mode for details.
|
Access the MMC without getting the microSD card out of the eReader.
|
No
|
INITRD_DEBUG
|
Starts a telnet server from the initrd environment that lets you 'escape' the root filesystem's chroot via USB networking.
|
Some strange things happen and you don't know their origin.
|
No
|
BOOT_USB_DEBUG
|
Started automatically in the root kernel if a critical error is encountered (see Boot error codes). Will activate USB networking (default IP: 192.168.2.2) as well as a Telnet and FTP server. Self-deactivates after a reboot. See Boot-time USB debug mode for details.
|
Troubleshoot an issue from the init ramdisk at boot.
|
No
|
LOGIN_SHELL
|
Replaces the default login shell with the one in the flag's content. Available options are bash, zsh and fish.
|
You want something better than busybox ash.
|
No
|
GUI_DEBUG
|
Turn on stdout logging of InkBox GUI events. Can be viewed by running rc-service inkbox_gui restart on serial console or SSH session.
|
Helps debugging what is happening on the Qt GUI.
|
No
|