How am I supposed to edit Silverblue kernel arguments with a touchscreen?

#1

Hello. I have Fedora Silverblue installed on a tablet, and I’m having a nightmare of a time trying to do something as simple as change the kernel arguments. I know it can be done via rpm-ostree kargs --editor. My problem is that I’m using a touchscreen, which means I’m using GNOME’s touch keyboard, which for some bizarre reason has no Escape, Ctrl, Alt, etc. keys.

Running rpm-ostree kargs --editor launches it in Vi. I can enter insert mode and make my changes, but then I have no way to save and exit, since I lack an Escape key!

Running EDITOR="flatpak run org.gnome.gedit" rpm-ostree kargs --editor launches Gedit, but with a blank file open, so there’s nothing for me to edit.

Nano isn’t installed by default, and I could install it temporarily (albeit with a reboot before and after), but as far as I know that needs the Ctrl key to save and exit, which also isn’t on the GNOME touch keyboard.

This seems very ridiculous. Am I missing something? Is there a simple way to change these kernel arguments without digging out an entire keyboard to plug into my tablet?

Thanks.

#2

rpm-ostree kargs append=$1=$2
man rpm-ostree

#3

Thanks. I did read the man page previously, which is how I learned of the --editor argument. For some reason I thought that was the only option it gave and didn’t go back and double check. Sorry about that! In my case I want to change an existing argument rather than append, but it seems --replace will probably do the job. Thanks again.

1 Like
#4

A GUI would be nice but kernel arguments maybe is not the usual thing that should be tweaked if everything is working properly (else it’s a bug).