DOKK / manpages / debian 12 / network-manager / nm-initrd-generator.8.en
NM-INITRD-GENERATOR(8) System Administration NM-INITRD-GENERATOR(8)

nm-initrd-generator - early boot NetworkManager configuration generator

nm-initrd-generator [OPTIONS...] -- [CMDLINE...]

nm-initrd-generator scans the command line for options relevant to network configuration and creates configuration files for an early instance of NetworkManager run from the initial ramdisk during early boot.

-c | --connections-dir path

Output connection directory.

-p | --persistent-connections-dir path

Persistent connection directory. If it exists, rd.neednet will not cause a default connection to be generated in absence of other options.

-i | --initrd-data-dir path

Output directory for initrd data (e.g. hostname).

-d | --sysfs-dir path

The sysfs mount point.

-r | --run-config-dir path

Output directory for config files.

-s | --stdout

Dump connections to standard output. Useful for debugging.

CMDLINE

The options that appear on the kernel command line. The following options are recognized:
ip
rd.route
bridge
bond
team
vlan
ib.pkey
bootdev
nameserver
net.ifnames
rd.peerdns
rd.iscsi.ibft
rd.bootif
rd.neednet
rd.ethtool
rd.net.timeout.dhcp
rd.net.dhcp.retry
rd.net.dhcp.vendor-class
rd.net.timeout.carrier
rd.znet
rd.znet_ifname
BOOTIF
Please consult the dracut.cmdline(7) manual for the documentation of the precise format of the values supported.

nm-initrd-generator generates a set of connections that are then configured by the NetworkManager instance running in the initrd. There are some differences in behavior compared to the network-legacy dracut module:

•When an interface is configured with a static address and a gateway, the network-legacy module waits that the gateway responds to arping requests before proceeding, while NetworkManager doesn't.

•network-legacy configures interfaces one by one in the order in which they are announced by udev. If multiple interfaces specify a hostname (from command line or from DHCP), the one from the last interface activated wins. With NetworkManager, hostnames from command line have higher precedence over ones from DHCP, and the last that appears in the command line wins.

•NetworkManager supports the ib.pkey=PARENT.PKEY argument to set up an Infiniband partition on IPoIB parent device PARENT using the specified partition key PKEY. The partition key must be in hexadecimal notation without leading "0x", for example "ib.pkey=ib0.8004".

•NetworkManager supports the rd.ethtool=INTERFACE:AUTONEG:SPEED kernel command line option to set up ethtool NIC configuration parameters AUTONEG and SPEED. The INTERFACE being configured must be specified, and the other parameters are optional and can be left blank. When SPEED is set, duplex mode is automatically set to 'full'. INTERFACE accepts string values, AUTONEG accepts boolean values (true and false / on or off / 0 or 1), and SPEED accepts positive integer values.

nm-initrd-generator exits with status 0. It ignores unrecognized options and prints an error message if it encounters a malformed option.

dracut.cmdline(7), NetworkManager(8).

NetworkManager 1.42.4