dracut

Kicksecure ™

Download

On Computer USB Installation Intel / AMD64 ARM64 Raspberry Pi PPC64 Windows (VM) Mac (VM) Linux (VM) VirtualBox (VM) Qubes (VM) KVM (VM) Debian morph to Kicksecure More options Source Code

About

Overview Features Why Open Source? Project Activities Contributors Mission & Vision

Docs

Documentation FAQ Troubleshooting

Community

Forums Forum Best Practices Contribute

Support

Self Support First Policy Search Engines, Docs and AI Support (Limited) Reporting Bugs Contact (Restricted)

Tools Upload file Special pages Recent changes Print Version Page meta What links here Related changes Page information

Page Read Edit History Move Protection Unwatch Watch Delete Purge

User Preferences Watchlist Contributions Logout Create account Login

Donate

• General Troubleshooting
• VirtualBox Troubleshooting
• Recovery
• GRUB
• dracut
• Broken Boot
• Factory Reset
• Download Issues

dracut, an initrd generator

Introduction

Documentation for this is incomplete. Contributions are happily considered! See this for potential alternatives.

Find out which initrd Generator is installed

To check if dracut is already installed, run.

dpkg -l | grep dracut

To check if initramfs-tools is already installed, run.

dpkg -l | grep initramfs-tools

Installation

1. Notices.

Platform specific.

• Debian: The following warning is applicable because dracut is not installed by default in Debian.
• Kicksecure: The following warning is only applicable if dracut is not yet installed. In newer Kicksecure versions, dracut is installed by default.

To check your currently installed initrd generator, see Find out which initrd Generator is installed.

2. Warning.

Warning: There is a risk of the system becoming unbootable due to changes in the initrd creation tool.

• General risk: The system may become unbootable when changing the initrd creation tool.
• Backups: Always maintain backups and proceed with caution when making changes.
• Dracut bug reports: If issues with dracut occur, do not report them here, as they are unrelated to Kicksecure.

3. Create folder /etc/dracut.conf.d.

sudo mkdir --parents /etc/dracut.conf.d

4. Open file /etc/dracut.conf.d/fix.conf in an editor with root rights.

Select your platform.

Kicksecure

See Open File with Root Rights for detailed instructions on why to use sudoedit for better security and how to use it.

Note: Mousepad (or the chosen text editor) must be closed before running the sudoedit command.

sudoedit /etc/dracut.conf.d/fix.conf

Kicksecure for Qubes

NOTES:

• When using Kicksecure-Qubes, this needs to be done inside the Template.

sudoedit /etc/dracut.conf.d/fix.conf

• After applying this change, shutdown the Template.
• All App Qubes based on the Template need to be restarted if they were already running.
• This is a general procedure required for Qubes and unspecific to Kicksecure for Qubes.

Others and Alternatives

• This is just an example. Other tools could achieve the same goal.
• If this example does not work for you or if you are not using Kicksecure, please refer to this link.

sudoedit /etc/dracut.conf.d/fix.conf

5. Paste.

hostonly=yes hostonly_mode=sloppy

6. Save.

7. Install dracut and systemd-cryptsetup.

sudo apt install --no-install-recommends dracut systemd-cryptsetup

8. Done.

Installation of dracut has been completed.

Re-Generate dracut Initrd

sudo dracut -f

Bugs

• Specific risk: Issues may occur during migration to dracut if full disk encryption is used.
  • Likely issues:
    • Package systemd-cryptsetup is not installed.
    • hostonly=yes configuration option is not used.
  • Workaround: If boot fails: setting the kernel parameter rd.auto might help. (Tested on Debian bookworm.)
• Note on bug status: Closed bugs do not necessarily mean the issue is resolved in your distribution's APT repository. Fixes may have been reverted upstream, making bug status verification difficult.
• dracut (abandoned)
  • fix(crypt): Encrypted root FS handling with generic initrd #2520 (abandoned pull request for dracut)
  • Generic initrd does not work with encrypted root FS without further configuration
• dracut-ng upstream bug reports and pull requests:
  • With encrypted root + unencrypted boot + systemd, dracut may generate an initrd incapable of decrypting the root disk without showing any warnings or errors #684
  • fix(systemd-crypt): add potentially needed modules to generic initrd #319
  • fix(crypt): unlock encrypted devices by default during boot #320
  • revert(crypt): do not unlock encrypted devices by default during boot #529
• Debian upstream bug reports:
  • unbootable system after installing dracut on a standard Debian installation - #1
  • unbootable system after installing dracut on a standard Debian installation - #2
  • dracut: generic initrd does not work with encrypted root FS without further configuration
  • Unable to boot LUKS-encrypted system
• Forum discussion:
  • https://forums.whonix.org/t/replacing-initramfs-tools-with-dracut/4487/23
• ram-wipe discussion:
  • https://github.com/Kicksecure/ram-wipe/issues/2#issuecomment-2813730463

Resources

• https://git.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dracut/tree/debian/99-ubuntu.conf

Kicksecure A secure by default operating system with the latest security research in place.

Dark mode

Follow us on social media

Supported by Power Up Privacy

Kicksecure is proudly supported until 2025 by Power Up Privacy, a privacy advocacy group that seeks to supercharge privacy projects with resources so they can complete their mission of making our world a better place. (Strictly subject to our sponsorship policy.)

At Kicksecure we value freedom and trust, supporting Open Source and Freedom Software

By using this website, you acknowledge you have read, understood, and agree to be bound by these agreements: Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, E-Sign Consent, DMCA, Imprint 2012- 2025 ENCRYPTED SUPPORT LLC

Your support makes
all the difference!

We believe security software like Kicksecure needs to remain Open Source and independent. Would you help sustain and grow the project? Learn more about our 13 year success story and maybe DONATE!