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 the most basic system settings interactively on the first boot, or optionally non-interactively when a system image is created. The service is started if ConditionFirstBoot=yes is satisfied. This essentially means that /etc is empty, see systemd.unit(5) for details.

The following settings may be set up:

    • The system locale, more specifically the two locale variables LANG= and LC_MESSAGES

    • The system time zone

    • The system host name

    • The machine ID of the system

    • The root user's password

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 while it is 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.

--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.

--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.

--hostname=HOSTNAME
    Sets the system hostname. The argument should be a host name, compatible with DNS. This controls the hostname(5) configuration file.

--machine-id=ID
    Sets the system's machine ID. This controls the machine-id(5) file.

--root-password=PASSWORD, --root-password-file=PATH
    Sets the password of the system's root user. This creates a shadow(5) file. This setting exists in two forms: --root-password= accepts the password to set directly on the command line, and --root-password-file= reads it from a file. Note that it is not recommended to specify passwords on the command line, as other users might be able to see them simply by invoking ps(1).

--prompt-locale, --prompt-timezone, --prompt-hostname, --prompt-root-password
    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.

--prompt
    Query the user for locale, timezone, hostname and root password. This is equivalent to specifying --prompt-locale, --prompt-timezone, --prompt-hostname, --prompt-root-password in combination.

--copy-locale, --copy-timezone, --copy-root-password
    Copy a specific basic setting from the host. This only works in combination with --root= (see above).

--copy
    Copy locale, time zone and root password from the host. This is equivalent to specifying --copy-locale, --copy-timezone, --copy-root-password in combination.

--setup-machine-id
    Initialize the system's machine ID to a random ID. This only works in combination with --root=.

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

--version
    Print a short version string and exit.

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.

SEE ALSO

systemd(1), locale.conf(5), localtime(5), hostname(5), machine-id(5), shadow(5), systemd-machine-id-setup(1), localectl(1), timedatectl(1), hostnamectl(1)