Sortix volatile manual
This manual documents Sortix volatile, a development build that has not been officially released. You can instead view this document in the latest official manual.
NAME
kernel — operating system kernelSYNOPSIS
/boot/sortix.bin [--disable-em] [--enable-em] [--disable-network-drivers] [--enable-network-drivers] [--firmware=[bios | efi | pc]] [--no-random-seed] [--] [init ...]DESCRIPTION
/boot/sortix.bin is the operating system kernel. It initializes and manages the hardware to provide a multitasking computing environment. The kernel is a multiboot(7) compatible executable loaded by the bootloader along with a companion initrd(7) that contains a userland.- --disable-em
- Don't initialize the em(4) driver.
- --disable-network-drivers
- Don't initialize any network drivers. This option ensures the booted system is not networked.
- --enable-em
- Do initialize the em(4) driver.
- --enable-network-drivers
- Do initialize network drivers. This is the default behavior.
- --firmware=[bios | efi | pc]
- Informs the kernel the system is booted using bios or efi. The pc value is a synonym for bios.
- --no-random-seed
- Don't warn if no random seed file was loaded by the bootloader (usually from /boot/random.seed). This option is useful for live environments where this situation is unavoidable.
- tar(7) archives in the ustar format are extracted into the root directory. The bootloader must already have decompressed the archive.
- --append-to=file
- Append the contents of the module to the specifed file, creating it with mode 644 if it doesn't exist. Non-existent parent directories are created with mode 755 as needed.
- --create-to=file
- Create the specified file with mode 644 with contents of the module, but only if it doesn't already exist. No action is taken if the file already existed. Non-existent parent directories are created with mode 755 as needed.
- --random-seed
- The module contains random data used to seed the kernel entropy gathering. This file is supposed to contain 256 bytes of secret randomness that hasn't been used before. Recycling the random seed is dangerous and insecure. Omitting the random seed will cause the kernel entropy to be insecurely seeded with the current time and other readily available information. The bootloader normally loads the random seed from /boot/random.seed.
- --tar
- The module is a tar(7) archive that is extracted into the root directory.
- --tix
- The module is a tix(7) binary package that is installed into the root directory.
- --to=file
- Write the contents of the module to the specifed file, creating it with mode 644 if it doesn't exist, and truncating it if it does exist. Non-existent parent directories are created with mode 755 as needed.