Provided by: systemd_256.5-2ubuntu3.1_amd64 
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
The systemd-firstboot.service unit is one of the units which are used to initialize the
machine configuration during "First Boot", i.e. when the system is freshly installed or
after a factory reset. The systemd(1) manager itself will initialize machine-id(5) and
preset all units, enabling or disabling them according to the systemd.preset(5) settings.
systemd-firstboot.service is started later to interactively initialize basic system
configuration. It is started only if ConditionFirstBoot=yes is met, which essentially
means that /etc/ is unpopulated, see systemd.unit(5) for details. System credentials may
be used to inject configuration; those settings are not queried interactively.
The systemd-firstboot command can also be used to non-interactively initialize an offline
system image.
The following settings may be configured:
• The machine ID of the system
• The system locale, more specifically the two locale variables LANG= and LC_MESSAGES
• The system keyboard map
• The system time zone
• The system hostname
• The kernel command line used when installing kernel images
• The root user's password and shell
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 after it has been set
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.
Added in version 216.
--image=path
Takes a path to a disk image file or block device node. If specified all operations
are applied to file system in the indicated disk image. This is similar to --root= but
operates on file systems stored in disk images or block devices. The disk image should
either contain just a file system or a set of file systems within a GPT partition
table, following the Discoverable Partitions Specification[1]. For further information
on supported disk images, see systemd-nspawn(1)'s switch of the same name.
Added in version 246.
--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.
Added in version 216.
--keymap=KEYMAP
Sets the system keyboard layout. The argument should be a valid keyboard map, such as
"de-latin1". This controls the "KEYMAP" entry in the vconsole.conf(5) configuration
file.
Added in version 236.
--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.
Added in version 216.
--hostname=HOSTNAME
Sets the system hostname. The argument should be a hostname, compatible with DNS. This
controls the hostname(5) configuration file.
Added in version 216.
--setup-machine-id
Initialize the system's machine ID to a random ID. This controls the machine-id(5)
file.
This option only works in combination with --root= or --image=. On a running system,
machine-id is written by the manager with help from systemd-machine-id-
commit.service(8).
Added in version 216.
--machine-id=ID
Set the system's machine ID to the specified value. The same restrictions apply as to
--setup-machine-id.
Added in version 216.
--root-password=PASSWORD, --root-password-file=PATH,
--root-password-hashed=HASHED_PASSWORD
Sets the password of the system's root user. This creates/modifies the passwd(5) and
shadow(5) files. This setting exists in three forms: --root-password= accepts the
password to set directly on the command line, --root-password-file= reads it from a
file and --root-password-hashed= accepts an already hashed password on the command
line. See shadow(5) for more information on the format of the hashed password. Note
that it is not recommended to specify plaintext passwords on the command line, as
other users might be able to see them simply by invoking ps(1).
Added in version 216.
--root-shell=SHELL
Sets the shell of the system's root user. This creates/modifies the passwd(5) file.
Added in version 246.
--kernel-command-line=CMDLINE
Sets the system's kernel command line. This controls the /etc/kernel/cmdline file
which is used by kernel-install(8).
Added in version 246.
--prompt-locale, --prompt-keymap, --prompt-timezone, --prompt-hostname,
--prompt-root-password, --prompt-root-shell
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.
Added in version 216.
--prompt
Query the user for locale, keymap, timezone, hostname, root's password, and root's
shell. This is equivalent to specifying --prompt-locale, --prompt-keymap,
--prompt-timezone, --prompt-hostname, --prompt-root-password, --prompt-root-shell in
combination.
Added in version 216.
--copy-locale, --copy-keymap, --copy-timezone, --copy-root-password, --copy-root-shell
Copy a specific basic setting from the host. This only works in combination with
--root= or --image=.
Added in version 216.
--copy
Copy locale, keymap, time zone, root password and shell from the host. This is
equivalent to specifying --copy-locale, --copy-keymap, --copy-timezone,
--copy-root-password, --copy-root-shell in combination.
Added in version 216.
--force
Write configuration even if the relevant files already exist. Without this option,
systemd-firstboot doesn't modify or replace existing files. Note that when configuring
the root account, even with this option, systemd-firstboot only modifies the entry of
the "root" user, leaving other entries in /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow intact.
Added in version 246.
--reset
If specified, all existing files that are configured by systemd-firstboot are removed.
Note that the files are removed regardless of whether they'll be configured with a new
value or not. This operation ensures that the next boot of the image will be
considered a first boot, and systemd-firstboot will prompt again to configure each of
the removed files.
Added in version 254.
--delete-root-password
Removes the password of the system's root user, enabling login as root without a
password unless the root account is locked. Note that this is extremely insecure and
hence this option should not be used lightly.
Added in version 246.
--welcome=
Takes a boolean argument. By default when prompting the user for configuration options
a brief welcome text is shown before the first question is asked. Pass false to this
option to turn off the welcome text.
Added in version 246.
-h, --help
Print a short help text and exit.
--version
Print a short version string and exit.
CREDENTIALS
systemd-firstboot supports the service credentials logic as implemented by
ImportCredential=/LoadCredential=/SetCredential= (see systemd.exec(5) for details). The
following credentials are used when passed in:
passwd.hashed-password.root, passwd.plaintext-password.root
A hashed or plaintext version of the root password to use, in place of prompting the
user. These credentials are equivalent to the same ones defined for the systemd-
sysusers.service(8) service.
Added in version 249.
passwd.shell.root
Specifies the shell binary to use for the specified account. Equivalent to the
credential of the same name defined for the systemd-sysusers.service(8) service.
Added in version 249.
firstboot.locale, firstboot.locale-messages
These credentials specify the locale settings to set during first boot, in place of
prompting the user.
Added in version 249.
firstboot.keymap
This credential specifies the keyboard setting to set during first boot, in place of
prompting the user.
Note the relationship to the vconsole.keymap credential understood by systemd-
vconsole-setup.service(8): both ultimately affect the same setting, but
firstboot.keymap is written into /etc/vconsole.conf on first boot (if not already
configured), and then read from there by systemd-vconsole-setup, while vconsole.keymap
is read on every boot, and is not persisted to disk (but any configuration in
vconsole.conf will take precedence if present).
Added in version 249.
firstboot.timezone
This credential specifies the system timezone setting to set during first boot, in
place of prompting the user.
Added in version 249.
Note that by default the systemd-firstboot.service unit file is set up to inherit the
listed credentials from the service manager. Thus, when invoking a container with an
unpopulated /etc/ for the first time it is possible to configure the root user's password
to be "systemd" like this:
# systemd-nspawn --image=... --set-credential=firstboot.locale:de_DE.UTF-8 ...
Note that these credentials are only read and applied during the first boot. Once they are
applied they remain applied for subsequent boots, and the credentials are not considered
anymore.
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.
Added in version 233.
SEE ALSO
systemd(1), locale.conf(5), vconsole.conf(5), localtime(5), hostname(5), machine-id(5),
shadow(5), systemd-machine-id-setup(1), localectl(1), timedatectl(1), hostnamectl(1)
NOTES
1. Discoverable Partitions Specification
https://uapi-group.org/specifications/specs/discoverable_partitions_specification