Command Line Options
Arguments passed to the bootloader that change how Bleed behaves before it even starts.
These are typically used to enable or disable features your hardware might not support, or just to give you control over early boot behaviour. Providing an invalid value usually stops the machine booting, or causes weird behaviour - so make sure you know what you're doing.
There are two kinds of argument:
- key=value - written as
name=value, no space around the=.init=/initrd/bin/doomfor example. - flag - just the name on its own, no
=valueneeded. Its presence turns the behaviour on.verbosefor example.
Names and values are case sensitive and expected in lowercase, so you shouldn't ever need caps anyway.
Quick reference
| Option | Type | Default |
|---|---|---|
init |
key=value | /initrd/bin/verdict |
splash |
key=value | bleed splash shown |
ttyfont |
key=value | initrd/fonts/ttyfont.psf |
verbose |
flag | off (no early console) |
no-smap |
flag | off (SMAP/SMEP auto-enabled if supported) |
no-umip |
flag | off (UMIP auto-enabled if supported) |
init key=value #
expects a valid path to an ELF executable
Defines the first program Bleed loads and hands off to userspace. Defaults to
/initrd/bin/verdict, the Verdict Shell, if omitted. Set it to any valid
process path - for example init=/initrd/bin/doom to boot straight into Doom.
If the path is invalid, or the process fails to load, there's no warning - you'll just get a black screen.
splash key=value #
expects bleed or no
The splash can be controlled, by default it will show the BGRT image, provided by the firmware, if the firmware
doesnt provide one then it'll silently fallback onto the Bleed Logo, you can however force it to be
the bleed logo at all times by setting splash=bleed or you may disable it entirely by setting splash=no
ttyfont key=value #
expects a valid PSF font path
Sets the console font Bleed loads on boot. Defaults to initrd/fonts/ttyfont.psf
if not provided. Bleed ships an alternative font at /initrd/fonts/alternative.psf
if you want to try it, or point this at your own font's path.
verbose flag #
Brings up the early boot console immediately, before most of the kernel has finished initialising. Useful if you want to see what's happening (or going wrong) from the very first lines of boot output, rather than waiting for the rest of the console subsystem.
If this flag is absent, the kernel will not show boot logging info and will just display a logo.
no-smap flag #
Bleed automatically detects whether your processor supports Supervisor Mode Access
Prevention (and SMEP) and enables it accordingly. If that's causing problems on your
hardware, include no-smap to skip enabling it entirely.
If this flag is absent, the kernel decides for itself.
no-umip flag #
Bleed automatically detects whether your processor supports Usermode Instruction
Prevention and enables it accordingly. If that's causing problems on your hardware,
include no-umip to skip enabling it entirely.
If this flag is absent, the kernel decides for itself.