Boot flags

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
USBNET_DEVICE_ADDRESS	Use a custom USBNet device MAC address instead of a random one	When macOS creates 20 instances of "RNDIS/Ethernet Gadget"	N/A
USBNET_HOST_ADDRESS	Use a custom USBNet host MAC address instead of a random one	Same as above	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, or at /var/log/inkbox-gui.log	Helps debugging what is happening on the Qt GUI.	No
IPD_DEBUG	Debug power daemon events at /var/log/ipd.log	Suspend is not working properly.	No