kernel-install(8) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | COMMANDS | THE $BOOT PARTITION | OPTIONS | ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES | EXIT STATUS | FILES | SEE ALSO | NOTES | COLOPHON

KERNEL-INSTALL(8)            kernel-install            KERNEL-INSTALL(8)

NAME         top

       kernel-install - Add and remove kernel and initrd images to and
       from /boot

SYNOPSIS         top

       kernel-install [OPTIONS...] add KERNEL-VERSION KERNEL-IMAGE
                      [INITRD-FILE...]

       kernel-install [OPTIONS...] remove KERNEL-VERSION

       kernel-install [OPTIONS...] inspect [KERNEL-IMAGE]

DESCRIPTION         top

       kernel-install is used to install and remove kernel and initrd
       images [1] to and from the boot loader partition, referred to as
       $BOOT here. It will usually be one of /boot/, /efi/, or
       /boot/efi/, see below.

       kernel-install will run the executable files ("plugins") located
       in the directory /usr/lib/kernel/install.d/ and the local
       administration directory /etc/kernel/install.d/. All files are
       collectively sorted and executed in lexical order, regardless of
       the directory in which they live. However, files with identical
       filenames replace each other. Files in /etc/kernel/install.d/
       take precedence over files with the same name in
       /usr/lib/kernel/install.d/. This can be used to override a
       system-supplied executables with a local file if needed; a
       symbolic link in /etc/kernel/install.d/ with the same name as an
       executable in /usr/lib/kernel/install.d/, pointing to /dev/null,
       disables the executable entirely. Executables must have the
       extension ".install"; other extensions are ignored.

       An executable placed in these directories should return 0 on
       success. It may also return 77 to cause the whole operation to
       terminate (executables later in lexical order will be skipped).

COMMANDS         top

       The following commands are understood:

       add KERNEL-VERSION KERNEL-IMAGE [INITRD-FILE ...]
           This command expects a kernel version string and a path to a
           kernel image file as arguments. Optionally, one or more
           initrd images may be specified as well (note that plugins
           might generate additional ones).  kernel-install calls the
           executable files from /usr/lib/kernel/install.d/*.install and
           /etc/kernel/install.d/*.install (i.e. the plugins) with the
           following arguments:

               add KERNEL-VERSION $BOOT/ENTRY-TOKEN/KERNEL-VERSION/ KERNEL-IMAGE [INITRD-FILE ...]

           The third argument directly refers to the path where to place
           kernel images, initrd images and other resources for Boot
           Loader Specification[2] Type #1 entries (the "entry
           directory"). If other boot loader schemes are used the
           parameter may be ignored. The ENTRY-TOKEN string is typically
           the machine ID and is supposed to identify the local
           installation on the system. For details see below.

           Two default plugins execute the following operations in this
           case:

           •   kernel-install creates $BOOT/ENTRY-TOKEN/KERNEL-VERSION,
               if enabled (see $KERNEL_INSTALL_LAYOUT).

           •   50-depmod.install runs depmod(8) for the KERNEL-VERSION.

           •   90-loaderentry.install copies KERNEL-IMAGE to
               $BOOT/ENTRY-TOKEN/KERNEL-VERSION/linux. If INITRD-FILEs
               are provided, it also copies them to
               $BOOT/ENTRY-TOKEN/KERNEL_VERSION/INITRD-FILE. This can
               also be used to prepend microcode before the actual
               initrd. It also creates a boot loader entry according to
               the Boot Loader Specification[2] (Type #1) in
               $BOOT/loader/entries/ENTRY-TOKEN-KERNEL-VERSION.conf. The
               title of the entry is the PRETTY_NAME parameter specified
               in /etc/os-release or /usr/lib/os-release (if the former
               is missing), or "Linux KERNEL-VERSION", if unset.

               If $KERNEL_INSTALL_LAYOUT is not "bls", this plugin does
               nothing.

           •   90-uki-copy.install copies a file uki.efi from
               $KERNEL_INSTALL_STAGING_AREA or if it does not exist the
               KERNEL-IMAGE argument, only if it has a ".efi" extension,
               to $BOOT/EFI/Linux/ENTRY-TOKEN-KERNEL-VERSION.efi.

               If $KERNEL_INSTALL_LAYOUT is not "uki", this plugin does
               nothing.

       remove KERNEL-VERSION
           This command expects a kernel version string as single
           argument. This calls executables from
           /usr/lib/kernel/install.d/*.install and
           /etc/kernel/install.d/*.install with the following arguments:

               remove KERNEL-VERSION $BOOT/ENTRY-TOKEN/KERNEL-VERSION/

           Afterwards, kernel-install removes the entry directory
           $BOOT/ENTRY-TOKEN/KERNEL-VERSION/ and its contents, if it
           exists.

           Two default plugins execute the following operations in this
           case:

           •   50-depmod.install removes the files generated by depmod
               for this kernel again.

           •   90-loaderentry.install removes the file
               $BOOT/loader/entries/ENTRY-TOKEN-KERNEL-VERSION.conf.

           •   90-uki-copy.install removes the file
               $BOOT/EFI/Linux/ENTRY-TOKEN-KERNEL-VERSION.efi.

       inspect [KERNEL-IMAGE]
           Shows the various paths and parameters configured or
           auto-detected. In particular shows the values of the various
           $KERNEL_INSTALL_* environment variables listed below.

THE $BOOT PARTITION         top

       The partition where the kernels and Boot Loader Specification[2]
       snippets are located is called $BOOT.  kernel-install determines
       the location of this partition by checking /efi/, /boot/, and
       /boot/efi/ in turn. The first location where
       $BOOT/loader/entries/ or $BOOT/ENTRY-TOKEN/ exists is used.

OPTIONS         top

       The following options are understood:

       --esp-path=
           Path to the EFI System Partition (ESP). If not specified,
           /efi/, /boot/, and /boot/efi/ are checked in turn. It is
           recommended to mount the ESP to /efi/, if possible.

       --boot-path=
           Path to the Extended Boot Loader partition, as defined in the
           Boot Loader Specification[2]. If not specified, /boot/ is
           checked. It is recommended to mount the Extended Boot Loader
           partition to /boot/, if possible.

       --make-entry-directory=yes|no|auto
           Controls creation and deletion of the Boot Loader
           Specification[2] Type #1 entry directory on the file system
           containing resources such as kernel and initrd images during
           add and remove, respectively. The directory is named after
           the entry token, and is placed immediately below the boot
           root directory. When "auto", the directory is created or
           removed only when the install layout is "bls". Defaults to
           "auto".

       --entry-token=
           Controls how to name and identify boot loader entries for
           this kernel installation or deletion. Takes one of "auto",
           "machine-id", "os-id", "os-image-id", or an arbitrary string
           prefixed by "literal:" as argument.

           If set to machine-id the entries are named after the machine
           ID of the running system (e.g.
           "b0e793a9baf14b5fa13ecbe84ff637ac"). See machine-id(5) for
           details about the machine ID concept and file.

           If set to os-id the entries are named after the OS ID of the
           running system, i.e. the ID= field of os-release(5) (e.g.
           "fedora"). Similarly, if set to os-image-id the entries are
           named after the OS image ID of the running system, i.e. the
           IMAGE_ID= field of os-release (e.g.
           "vendorx-cashier-system").

           If set to auto (the default), the /etc/kernel/entry-token (or
           $KERNEL_INSTALL_CONF_ROOT/entry-token) file will be read if
           it exists, and the stored value used. Otherwise if the local
           machine ID is initialized it is used. Otherwise IMAGE_ID=
           from os-release will be used, if set. Otherwise, ID= from
           os-release will be used, if set. Otherwise a randomly
           generated machine ID is used.

           Using the machine ID for naming the entries is generally
           preferable, however there are cases where using the other
           identifiers is a good option. Specifically: if the
           identification data that the machine ID entails shall not be
           stored on the (unencrypted) $BOOT_ROOT partition, or if the
           ID shall be generated on first boot and is not known when the
           entries are prepared. Note that using the machine ID has the
           benefit that multiple parallel installations of the same OS
           can coexist on the same medium, and they can update their
           boot loader entries independently. When using another
           identifier (such as the OS ID or the OS image ID), parallel
           installations of the same OS would try to use the same entry
           name. To support parallel installations, the installer must
           use a different entry token when adding a second
           installation.

       -v, --verbose
           Output additional information about operations being
           performed.

       -h, --help
           Print a short help text and exit.

       --version
           Print a short version string and exit.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES         top

   Environment variables exported for plugins
       If --verbose is used, $KERNEL_INSTALL_VERBOSE=1 will be exported
       for plugins. They may output additional logs in this case.

       $KERNEL_INSTALL_MACHINE_ID is set for the plugins to the desired
       machine-id to use. It's always a 128-bit ID. Normally it's read
       from /etc/machine-id, but it can also be overridden via
       $MACHINE_ID (see below). If not specified via these methods, a
       fallback value will generated by kernel-install and used only for
       a single invocation.

       $KERNEL_INSTALL_ENTRY_TOKEN is set for the plugins to the desired
       entry "token" to use. It's an identifier that shall be used to
       identify the local installation, and is often the machine ID,
       i.e. same as $KERNEL_INSTALL_MACHINE_ID, but might also be a
       different type of identifier, for example a fixed string or the
       ID=, IMAGE_ID= values from /etc/os-release. The string passed
       here will be used to name Boot Loader Specification entries, or
       the directories the kernel image and initial RAM disk images are
       placed into.

       Note that while $KERNEL_INSTALL_ENTRY_TOKEN and
       $KERNEL_INSTALL_MACHINE_ID are often set to the same value, the
       latter is guaranteed to be a valid 32 character ID in lowercase
       hexadecimals while the former can be any short string. The entry
       token to use is read from /etc/kernel/entry-token, if it exists.
       Otherwise a few possible candidates below $BOOT are checked for
       Boot Loader Specification Type 1 entry directories, and if found
       the entry token is derived from that. If that is not successful,
       $KERNEL_INSTALL_MACHINE_ID is used as fallback.

       $KERNEL_INSTALL_BOOT_ROOT is set for the plugins to the absolute
       path of the root directory (mount point, usually) of the
       hierarchy where boot loader entries, kernel images, and
       associated resources should be placed. This usually is the path
       where the XBOOTLDR partition or the ESP (EFI System Partition)
       are mounted, and also conceptually referred to as $BOOT. Can be
       overridden by setting $BOOT_ROOT (see below).

       $KERNEL_INSTALL_LAYOUT=auto|bls|uki|other|...  is set for the
       plugins to specify the installation layout. Additional layout
       names may be defined by convention. If a plugin uses a special
       layout, it's encouraged to declare its own layout name and
       configure layout= in install.conf upon initial installation. The
       following values are currently understood:

       bls
           Standard Boot Loader Specification[2] Type #1 layout,
           compatible with systemd-boot(7): entries in
           $BOOT/loader/entries/ENTRY-TOKEN-KERNEL-VERSION[+TRIES].conf,
           kernel and initrds under $BOOT/ENTRY-TOKEN/KERNEL-VERSION/

           Implemented by 90-loaderentry.install.

       uki
           Standard Boot Loader Specification[2] Type #2 layout,
           compatible with systemd-boot(7): unified kernel images under
           $BOOT/EFI/Linux as
           $BOOT/EFI/Linux/ENTRY-TOKEN-KERNEL-VERSION[+TRIES].efi.

           Implemented by 90-uki-copy.install.

       other
           Some other layout not understood natively by kernel-install.

       auto
           Pick the layout automatically. If the kernel is a UKI set
           layout to uki. If not default to bls if
           $BOOT/loader/entries.srel with content "type1" or
           $BOOT/ENTRY-TOKEN exists, or other otherwise.

           Leaving layout blank has the same effect. This is the
           default.

       $KERNEL_INSTALL_INITRD_GENERATOR and
       $KERNEL_INSTALL_UKI_GENERATOR are set for plugins to select the
       initrd and/or UKI generator. This may be configured as
       initrd_generator= and uki_generator= in install.conf, see below.

       $KERNEL_INSTALL_STAGING_AREA is set for plugins to a path to a
       directory. Plugins may drop files in that directory, and they
       will be installed as part of the loader entry, based on the file
       name and extension: Files named initrd* will be installed as
       INITRD-FILEs, and files named microcode* will be prepended before
       INITRD-FILEs.

   Environment variables understood by kernel-install
       $KERNEL_INSTALL_CONF_ROOT can be set to override the location of
       the configuration files read by kernel-install. When set,
       install.conf, entry-token, and other files will be read from this
       directory.

       $KERNEL_INSTALL_PLUGINS can be set to override the list of
       plugins executed by kernel-install. The argument is a
       whitespace-separated list of paths.  "KERNEL_INSTALL_PLUGINS=:"
       may be used to prevent any plugins from running.

       $MACHINE_ID can be set for kernel-install to override
       $KERNEL_INSTALL_MACHINE_ID, the machine ID.

       $BOOT_ROOT can be set for kernel-install to override
       $KERNEL_INSTALL_BOOT_ROOT, the installation location for boot
       entries.

       The last two variables may also be set in install.conf. Variables
       set in the environment take precedence over the values specified
       in the config file.

EXIT STATUS         top

       If every executable returns 0 or 77, 0 is returned, and a
       non-zero failure code otherwise.

FILES         top

       /usr/lib/kernel/install.d/*.install
       /etc/kernel/install.d/*.install
           Drop-in files which are executed by kernel-install.

       /usr/lib/kernel/cmdline /etc/kernel/cmdline /proc/cmdline
           Read by 90-loaderentry.install. The content of the file
           /etc/kernel/cmdline specifies the kernel command line to use.
           If that file does not exist, /usr/lib/kernel/cmdline is used.
           If that also does not exist, /proc/cmdline is used.
           $KERNEL_INSTALL_CONF_ROOT may be used to override the path.

       /etc/kernel/tries
           Read by 90-loaderentry.install and 90-uki-copy.install. If
           this file exists a numeric value is read from it and the
           naming of the generated entry file or UKI is slightly altered
           to include it as
           $BOOT/loader/entries/ENTRY-TOKEN-KERNEL-VERSION+TRIES.conf or
           $BOOT/EFI/Linux/ENTRY-TOKEN-KERNEL-VERSION+TRIES.efi,
           respectively. This is useful for boot loaders such as
           systemd-boot(7) which implement boot attempt counting with a
           counter embedded in the entry file name.
           $KERNEL_INSTALL_CONF_ROOT may be used to override the path.

       /etc/kernel/entry-token
           If this file exists it is read and used as "entry token" for
           this system, i.e. is used for naming Boot Loader
           Specification entries, see $KERNEL_INSTALL_ENTRY_TOKEN above
           for details.  $KERNEL_INSTALL_CONF_ROOT may be used to
           override the path.

       /etc/machine-id
           The content of this file specifies the machine identification
           MACHINE-ID.

       /etc/os-release /usr/lib/os-release
           Read by 90-loaderentry.install. If available, PRETTY_NAME= is
           read from these files and used as the title of the boot menu
           entry. Otherwise, "Linux KERNEL-VERSION" will be used.

       /usr/lib/kernel/install.conf /etc/kernel/install.conf
           Configuration options for kernel-install, as a series of
           KEY=VALUE assignments, compatible with shell syntax,
           following the same rules as described in os-release(5).
           /etc/kernel/install.conf will be read if present, and
           /usr/lib/kernel/install.conf otherwise. This file is
           optional.  $KERNEL_INSTALL_CONF_ROOT may be used to override
           the path.

           Currently, the following keys are supported: MACHINE_ID=,
           BOOT_ROOT=, layout=, initrd_generator=, uki_generator=. See
           the Environment variables section above for details.

SEE ALSO         top

       machine-id(5), os-release(5), depmod(8), systemd-boot(7), Boot
       Loader Specification[2]

NOTES         top

        1. Nowadays actually CPIO archives used as an "initramfs",
           rather than "initrd". See bootup(7) for an explanation.

        2. Boot Loader Specification
           https://uapi-group.org/specifications/specs/boot_loader_specification

COLOPHON         top

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systemd 253                                            KERNEL-INSTALL(8)

Pages that refer to this page: systemd-firstboot(1)systemd.directives(7)systemd.index(7)