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Henrik edited this page Jul 29, 2023 · 89 revisions

The organization and categories of dracut modules below are only meant for gaining better understanding of what each module does. In the dracut source code, there are no specific types or categories for dracut modules.

Dracut module types (categories)

  • shell
  • library (usually included by other dracut modules as a dependency and not directly by user)
  • filesystems (kernel module and corresponding user-space utilities for a filesystem)
  • device (kernel module and corresponding user space utilities for a device).
  • kernel (only kernel modules, no user-space utilities)
  • utils (no kernel module, only user-space utilities)
  • meta (only for making decision which other modules to include)

local

Module Description Type
base Base module with required utilities library
bash bash (bash is preferred interpreter if there more of them available) shell
biosdevname BIOS network device renaming utils
btrfs btrfs filesystem
busybox busybox shell
caps drop capabilities before init
convertfs Merges / into /usr on next boot
crypt encrypted LUKS filesystems and cryptsetup filesystem
crypt-gpg GPG for crypto operations and SmartCards (may requires GPG keys)
crypt-loop encrypted loopback devices (symmetric key)
dash dash shell
debug debug features
dm device-mapper library
dmraid DMRAID arrays
dmsquash-live SquashFS images
dmsquash-live-autooverlay creates a partition for overlayfs usage in the free space on the root filesystem's parent block device
dmsquash-live-ntfs SquashFS images located in NTFS filesystems
drm kernel modules for DRM (complex graphics devices) kernel
ecryptfs kernel module for ecryptfs (stacked cryptographic filesystem) filesystem
fips Enforces FIPS security standard regulations
fs-lib filesystem tools (including fsck.* and mount) library
fstab-sys Arranges for arbitrary partitions to be mounted before rootfs
i18n Includes keymaps, console fonts, etc.
img-lib Includes various tools for decompressing images library
integrity Extended Verification Module and ima-evm-utils
kernel-modules kernel modules for root filesystems and other boot-time devices kernel
kernel-modules-extra extra out-of-tree kernel modules kernel
lvm LVM devices
lvmthinpool-monitor Monitor LVM thinpool service
masterkey masterkey that can be used to decrypt other keys and keyutils
mdraid kernel module for md raid cluster, mdadm device
mksh mksh shell
modsign kernel module for signing, keyutils
multipath multipath devices device
nvdimm non-volatile DIMM devices device
overlayfs kernel module for overlayfs filesystem
ppcmac thermal for PowerPC device
qemu kernel modules to boot inside qemu kernel
lunmask Masks LUN devices to select only ones which required to boot
plymouth show splash via plymouth utils
pollcdrom polls CD-ROM
rescue utilities for rescue mode (such as ping, ssh, vi, fsck.*) utils
resume resume from low-power state
rootfs-block mount block device as rootfs device
securityfs mount securityfs early filesystem
selinux selinux policy
shutdown Sets up hooks to run on shutdown
syslog Includes syslog capabilites utils
terminfo Includes a terminfo file utils
udev-rules Includes udev and some basic rules library
uefi-lib Includes UEFI tools library
usrmount mounts /usr
virtfs virtual filesystems (9p) filesystem
virtiofs virtiofs filesystem
warpclock Sets kernel's timezone and reset the system time if adjtime is set to LOCAL
watchdog Includes watchdog devices management; works only if systemd not in use
watchdog-modules kernel modules for watchdog loaded early in booting kernel

network

  • requires IP connectivity
  • works with and without systemd
Module Description
cifs CIFS, cifs-utils
fcoe Adds support for Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
fcoe-uefi Adds support for Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) in EFI mode
ifcfg Includes /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/* network scripts for network autogeneration
iscsi Adds support for iSCSI devices
kernel-network-modules Includes and loads kernel modules for network devices
livenet Fetch live updates for SquashFS images
nbd kernel module for Network Block Device, nbd
network Virtual module for network service providers
network-legacy Includes legacy networking tools support
nfs kernel module for NFS, nfs-utils
nvmf Adds support for NVMe over Fabrics devices
qemu-net Includes network kernel modules for QEMU environment
ssh-client Includes ssh and scp clients
url-lib Includes curl and SSL certs

systemd

These modules would require including a version of systemd into initramfs.

Module Description
bluetooth Includes bluetooth devices support
dbus Virtual module for dbus-broker or dbus-daemon
dbus-broker
dbus-daemon
dracut-systemd Base systemd dracut module
fido2
lvmmerge Merges lvm snapshots
memstrack Includes memstrack for memory usage monitoring
pcsc Adds support for PCSC Smart cards
pkcs11 Includes PKCS#11 libraries
rngd Starts random generator serive on early boot
squash Builds SquashFS initramfs
systemd Adds systemd as early init initialization system
systemd-ac-power systemd-ac-power
systemd-ask-password systemd-ask-password
systemd-coredump systemd-coredump
systemd-creds systemd-creds
systemd-hostnamed systemd-hostnamed
systemd-initrd INITRD_INTERFACE
systemd-integritysetup systemd-integritysetup
systemd-journald systemd-journald
systemd-ldconfig
systemd-modules-load systemd-modules-load
systemd-pcrphase systemd-pcrphase
systemd-portabled systemd-portabled
systemd-pstore systemd-pstore
systemd-repart systemd-repart
systemd-resolved systemd-resolved
systemd-sysctl systemd-sysctl
systemd-sysext systemd-sysext
systemd-sysusers systemd-sysusers
systemd-timedated systemd-timedated
systemd-timesyncd systemd-timesyncd
systemd-tmpfiles systemd-tmpfiles
systemd-udevd systemd-udevd
systemd-veritysetup systemd-veritysetup
tpm2-tss Adds support for TPM2 devices

systemd network

Module Description
systemd-network-management Adds network management for systemd
systemd-networkd
connman connman
network-manager NetworkManager

s390(x)

Module Description
cio_ignore
cms mount z/VM CMS disks on s390
dasd
dasd_mod
dasd_rules
dcssblk
qeth_rules
zfcp networking
zfcp_rules
zipl
znet networking

test

Module Description
test
test-makeroot
test-root