Bug 853127 – livegui iso does not honor the nox boot parameter

• Product: Gentoo Release Media
• Status: RESOLVED FIXED

[Description jerm 2022-06-20 05:05:41 UTC]

In the most recent livegui install images, pressing the F7 key displays the following text:

nox          This causes an X-enabled LiveCD to not automatically start X, but rather, to drop to the command line instead.

However, entering the nox option on the kernel command line has no effect, and X is still automatically started.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Boot a VM or machine using a livegui image (livegui-amd64-20220522T170533Z.iso was tested).
2. Press a key to pause booting, then enter a kernel name (gentoo or gentoo-nofb), followed by the parameter 'nox' (without quotes).
3. Press enter to boot kernel with the parameters entered.
Actual Results:  
The 'nox' parameter has no effect. Xorg and the display manager are started as usual.

Expected Results:  
Xorg and display manager should not start, and the user should be dropped to a command line.

I've mostly tested this in a VM. I wonder what other kernel options listed in the liveusb boot help menus might also be similarly nonfunctional.

It should be fixed, or else the option could be removed from the boot help menus. Workaround would be to either a) manually shut down the displaymanager service, plasma, and Xorg, or b) use the minimal install iso instead.

Someone might need the extra stuff on the livegui iso, however. For example, exfat is available on the livegui iso, but absent from the minimal one.

[Comment 1 Matt Turner 2022-06-20 15:55:15 UTC]

We changed the option from 'nox' to 'nogui' in display-manager-init. We should update the text to reflect that. Thanks for the heads up!

[Comment 2 Robin Johnson 2022-06-21 18:04:16 UTC]

mattst88:
Can you make it keep supporting "nox" for now (maybe also display a warning)

[Comment 3 Matt Turner 2022-06-22 04:32:13 UTC]

(In reply to Robin Johnson from comment #2)
> mattst88:
> Can you make it keep supporting "nox" for now (maybe also display a warning)

Yep, we can. I asked slashbeast to take a look at this and some of the other display-manager-init bug reports.

[Comment 4 Larry the Git Cow 2024-02-27 16:54:32 UTC]

The bug has been referenced in the following commit(s):

https://gitweb.gentoo.org/proj/catalyst.git/commit/?id=991ac4cbe370572840ef586db208c77157e7dfa4

commit 991ac4cbe370572840ef586db208c77157e7dfa4
Author:     Ben Kohler <[e-mail]>
AuthorDate: 2024-02-27 16:52:12 +0000
Commit:     Ben Kohler <[e-mail]>
CommitDate: 2024-02-27 16:54:15 +0000

    livecd/files/README.txt: adjust nox -> nogui
    
    Bug: https://bugs.gentoo.org/853127
    
    Signed-off-by: Ben Kohler <[e-mail]>

 livecd/files/README.txt | 4 ++--
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)