Thanks, I appreciate the hint, I should have noticed that a kernel parameter would be one way to do it (I'm familiar with writing initramfs-tools/hooks to make

Thanks, I appreciate the hint, I should have noticed that a kernel parameter would be one way to do it (I'm familiar with writing initramfs-tools/hooks to make the existing keyscripts work). The fact remains though that a wheezy dist-upgrade is going to ruin your day badly enough to spend some time digging up your iDRAC/whatever creds (admittedly, nobody is going to dist-upgrade their prod servers without testing first... or are they? :P)