NAME
bootctl - Control EFI firmware boot settings and manage boot loaderSYNOPSIS
bootctl
[OPTIONS...] {COMMAND}
DESCRIPTION
bootctl can check the EFI firmware and boot loader status, list and manage available boot loaders and boot loader entries, and install, update, or remove the systemd-boot(7) boot loader on the current system.GENERIC EFI FIRMWARE/BOOT LOADER COMMANDS
These commands are available on any EFI system, regardless of the boot loader used. statusShows brief information about the system
firmware, the boot loader that was used to boot the system, the boot loaders
currently available in the ESP, the boot loaders listed in the firmware's list
of boot loaders and the current default boot loader entry. If no command is
specified, this is the implied default.
See the example below for details of the output.
reboot-to-firmware [BOOL]
Query or set the
"Reboot-Into-Firmware-Setup" flag of the EFI firmware. Takes a
boolean argument which controls whether to show the firmware setup on next
system reboot. If the argument is omitted shows the current status of the
flag, or whether the flag is supported. This controls the same flag as
systemctl reboot --firmware-setup, but is more low-level and allows
setting the flag independently from actually requesting a reboot.
Hint: use systemctl reboot --firmware-setup to reboot into firmware setup
once. See systemctl(1) for details.
systemd-efi-options [STRING]
When called without the optional argument,
prints the current value of the "SystemdOptions" EFI variable. When
called with an argument, sets the variable to that value. See
systemd(1) for the meaning of that variable.
BOOT LOADER SPECIFICATION COMMANDS
These commands are available for all boot loaders that implement the Boot Loader Specification[1] and/or the Boot Loader Interface[2], such as systemd-boot. listShows all available boot loader entries
implementing the Boot Loader Specification[1], as well as any other
entries discovered or automatically generated by a boot loader implementing
the Boot Loader Interface[2]. JSON output may be requested with
--json=.
See the example below for details of the output.
set-default ID, set-oneshot ID
Sets the default boot loader entry. Takes a
single boot loader entry ID string or a glob pattern as argument. The
set-oneshot command will set the default entry only for the next boot,
the set-default will set it persistently for all future boots.
bootctl list can be used to list available boot loader entries and their
IDs.
In addition, the boot loader entry ID may be specified as one of:
@default, @oneshot or @current, which correspond to the
current default boot loader entry for all future boots, the current default
boot loader entry for the next boot, and the currently booted boot loader
entry. These special IDs are resolved to the current values of the EFI
variables LoaderEntryDefault, LoaderEntryOneShot and
LoaderEntrySelected, see Boot Loader Specification[1] for
details. These special IDs are primarily useful as a quick way to persistently
make the currently booted boot loader entry the default choice, or to upgrade
the default boot loader entry for the next boot to the default boot loader
entry for all future boots, but may be used for other operations too.
If set to @saved the chosen entry will be saved as an EFI variable on
every boot and automatically selected the next time the boot loader starts.
When an empty string ("") is specified as the ID, then the
corresponding EFI variable will be unset.
Hint: use systemctl reboot --boot-loader-entry=ID to reboot
into a specific boot entry and systemctl reboot
--boot-loader-menu= timeout to reboot into the boot loader
menu once. See systemctl(1) for details.
set-timeout TIMEOUT, set-timeout-oneshot TIMEOUT
Sets the boot loader menu timeout in seconds.
The set-timeout-oneshot command will set the timeout only for the next
boot. See systemd.time(7) for details about the syntax of time spans.
If this is set to menu-hidden or 0 no menu is shown and the
default entry will be booted immediately, while setting this to
menu-force disables the timeout while always showing the menu. When an
empty string ("") is specified the bootloader will revert to its
default menu timeout.
SYSTEMD-BOOT COMMANDS
These commands manage the systemd-boot EFI boot loader, and do not work in conjunction with other boot loaders. installInstalls systemd-boot into the EFI
system partition. A copy of systemd-boot will be stored as the EFI
default/fallback loader at ESP/EFI/BOOT/BOOT*.EFI. The boot loader is
then added to the top of the firmware's boot loader list.
update
Updates all installed versions of
systemd-boot(7), if the available version is newer than the version
installed in the EFI system partition. This also includes the EFI
default/fallback loader at ESP/EFI/BOOT/BOOT*.EFI. The boot loader is
then added to end of the firmware's boot loader list if missing.
remove
Removes all installed versions of
systemd-boot from the EFI system partition and the firmware's boot
loader list.
is-installed
Checks whether systemd-boot is
installed in the ESP. Note that a single ESP might host multiple boot loaders;
this hence checks whether systemd-boot is one (of possibly many)
installed boot loaders — and neither whether it is the default nor
whether it is registered in any EFI variables.
random-seed
Generates a random seed and stores it in the
EFI System Partition, for use by the systemd-boot boot loader. Also,
generates a random 'system token' and stores it persistently as an EFI
variable, if one has not been set before. If the boot loader finds the random
seed in the ESP and the system token in the EFI variable it will derive a
random seed to pass to the OS and a new seed to store in the ESP from the
combination of both. The random seed passed to the OS is credited to the
kernel's entropy pool by the system manager during early boot, and permits
userspace to boot up with an entropy pool fully initialized very early on.
Also see systemd-boot-system-token.service(8).
See Random Seeds[3] for further information.
OPTIONS
The following options are understood: --esp-path=Path to the EFI System Partition (ESP). If not
specified, /efi/, /boot/, and /boot/efi/ are checked in turn. It is
recommended to mount the ESP to /efi/, if possible.
--boot-path=
Path to the Extended Boot Loader partition, as
defined in the Boot Loader Specification[1]. If not specified, /boot/
is checked. It is recommended to mount the Extended Boot Loader partition to
/boot/, if possible.
--root=root
Takes a directory path as an argument. All
paths will be prefixed with the given alternate root path, including
config search paths.
--image=image
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 option 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[4]. For further information on supported disk images, see
systemd-nspawn(1)'s switch of the same name.
--install-source=
When installing binaries with --root=
or --image=, selects where to source them from. Takes one of
"auto" (the default), "image" or "host". With
"auto" binaries will be picked from the specified directory or
image, and if not found they will be picked from the host. With
"image" or "host" no fallback search will be performed if
the binaries are not found in the selected source.
-p, --print-esp-path
This option modifies the behaviour of
status. Only prints the path to the EFI System Partition (ESP) to
standard output and exits.
-x, --print-boot-path
This option modifies the behaviour of
status. Only prints the path to the Extended Boot Loader partition if
it exists, and the path to the ESP otherwise to standard output and exit. This
command is useful to determine where to place boot loader entries, as they are
preferably placed in the Extended Boot Loader partition if it exists and in
the ESP otherwise.
Boot Loader Specification Type #1 entries should generally be placed in the
directory "$(bootctl -x)/loader/entries/". Existence of that
directory may also be used as indication that boot loader entry support is
available on the system. Similarly, Boot Loader Specification Type #2 entries
should be placed in the directory "$(bootctl -x)/EFI/Linux/".
Note that this option (similarly to the --print-booth-path option
mentioned above), is available independently from the boot loader used, i.e.
also without systemd-boot being installed.
--no-variables
Do not touch the firmware's boot loader list
stored in EFI variables.
--graceful
Ignore failure when the EFI System Partition
cannot be found, when EFI variables cannot be written, or a different or newer
boot loader is already installed. Currently only applies to
is-installed, update, and random-seed verbs.
-q, --quiet
Suppress printing of the results of various
commands and also the hints about ESP being unavailable.
--make-entry-directory=yes|no
Controls creation and deletion of the Boot
Loader Specification[1] Type #1 entry directory on the file system
containing resources such as kernel and initrd images during install
and remove, respectively. The directory is named after the entry token,
as specified with --entry-token= parameter described below, and is
placed immediately below the $BOOT root directory (i.e. beneath the
file system returned by the --print-boot-path option, see above).
Defaults to "no".
--entry-token=
Controls how to name and identify boot loader
entries for this OS installation. Accepted during install, and takes
one of "auto", "machine-id", "os-id",
"os-image-id" or an arbitrary string prefixed by
"literal:" as argument.
If set to machine-id the entries are named after the machine ID of the
running system (e.g. "b0e793a9baf14b5fa13ecbe84ff637ac"). See
machine-id(5) for details about the machine ID concept and file.
If set to os-id the entries are named after the OS ID of the running
system, i.e. the ID= field of os-release(5) (e.g.
"fedora"). Similarly, if set to os-image-id the entries are
named after the OS image ID of the running system, i.e. the IMAGE_ID=
field of os-release (e.g. "vendorx-cashier-system").
If set to auto (the default), the /etc/kernel/entry-token file will be
read if it exists, and the stored value used. Otherwise if the local machine
ID is initialized it is used. Otherwise IMAGE_ID= from os-release will
be used, if set. Otherwise, ID= from os-release will be used, if set.
Unless set to "machine-id", or when --make-entry-directory=yes
is used the selected token string is written to a file
/etc/kernel/entry-token, to ensure it will be used for future entries. This
file is also read by kernel-install(8), in order to identify under
which name to generate boot loader entries for newly installed kernels, or to
determine the entry names for removing old ones.
Using the machine ID for naming the entries is generally preferable, however
there are cases where using the other identifiers is a good option.
Specifically: if the identification data that the machine ID entails shall not
be stored on the (unencrypted) $BOOT partition, or if the ID shall be
generated on first boot and is not known when the entries are prepared. Note
that using the machine ID has the benefit that multiple parallel installations
of the same OS can coexist on the same medium, and they can update their boot
loader entries independently. When using another identifier (such as the OS ID
or the OS image ID), parallel installations of the same OS would try to use
the same entry name. To support parallel installations, the installer must use
a different entry token when adding a second installation.
--all-architectures
Install binaries for all supported EFI
architectures (this implies --no-variables).
--efi-boot-option-description=
Description of the entry added to the
firmware's boot option list. Defaults to "Linux Boot Manager".
Using the default entry name "Linux Boot Manager" is generally
preferable as only one bootloader installed to a single ESP partition should
be used to boot any number of OS installations found on the various disks
installed in the system. Specifically distributions should not use this flag
to install a branded entry in the boot option list. However in situations with
multiple disks, each with their own ESP partition, it can be beneficial to
make it easier to identify the bootloader being used in the firmware's boot
option menu.
--no-pager
Do not pipe output into a pager.
--json=MODE
Shows output formatted as JSON. Expects one of
"short" (for the shortest possible output without any redundant
whitespace or line breaks), "pretty" (for a pretty version of the
same, with indentation and line breaks) or "off" (to turn off JSON
output, the default).
-h, --help
Print a short help text and exit.
--version
Print a short version string and exit.
SIGNED .EFI FILES
bootctl install and update will look for a systemd-boot file ending with the ".efi.signed" suffix first, and copy that instead of the normal ".efi" file. This allows distributions or end-users to provide signed images for UEFI SecureBoot.EXIT STATUS
On success, 0 is returned, a non-zero failure code otherwise.ENVIRONMENT
If $SYSTEMD_RELAX_ESP_CHECKS=1 is set the validation checks for the ESP are relaxed, and the path specified with --esp-path= may refer to any kind of file system on any kind of partition. Similarly, $SYSTEMD_RELAX_XBOOTLDR_CHECKS=1 turns off some validation checks for the Extended Boot Loader partition.EXAMPLES
Example 1. Output from status and list$ bootctl status System: Firmware: UEFI 2.40 ( firmware-version) ← firmware vendor and version Secure Boot: disabled (setup) ← secure boot status TPM2 Support: yes Boot into FW: supported ← does the firmware support booting into itself Current Boot Loader: ← details about sd-boot or another boot loader Product: systemd-boot version implementing the Boot Loader Interface[2] Features: ✓ Boot counting ✓ Menu timeout control ✓ One-shot menu timeout control ✓ Default entry control ✓ One-shot entry control ✓ Support for XBOOTLDR partition ✓ Support for passing random seed to OS ✓ Load drop-in drivers ✓ Boot loader sets ESP information ESP: /dev/disk/by-partuuid/01234567-89ab-cdef-dead-beef00000000 File: └─/EFI/systemd/systemd-bootx64.efi Random Seed: ← random seed used for entropy in early boot Passed to OS: yes System Token: set Exists: yes Available Boot Loaders on ESP: ESP: /boot/efi (/dev/disk/by-partuuid/01234567-89ab-cdef-dead-beef00000000) File: └─/EFI/systemd/systemd-bootx64.efi (systemd-boot 251 File: └─/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI (systemd-boot 251 Boot Loaders Listed in EFI Variables: Title: Linux Boot Manager ID: 0x0001 Status: active, boot-order Partition: /dev/disk/by-partuuid/... File: └─/EFI/systemd/systemd-bootx64.efi Title: Fedora ID: 0x0000 Status: active, boot-order Partition: /dev/disk/by-partuuid/... File: └─/EFI/fedora/shimx64.efi Title: Linux-Firmware-Updater ID: 0x0002 Status: active, boot-order Partition: /dev/disk/by-partuuid/... File: └─/EFI/fedora/fwupdx64.efi Boot Loader Entries: $BOOT: /boot/efi (/dev/disk/by-partuuid/01234567-89ab-cdef-dead-beef00000000) Default Boot Loader Entry: type: Boot Loader Specification Type #1 (.conf) title: Fedora Linux 36 (Workstation Edition) id: ... source: /boot/efi/loader/entries/ entry-token-kernel-version.conf version: kernel-version machine-id: ... linux: / entry-token/kernel-version/linux initrd: / entry-token/kernel-version/initrd options: root=...
$ bootctl list Boot Loader Entries: type: Boot Loader Specification Type #1 (.conf) title: Fedora Linux 36 (Workstation Edition) (default) (selected) id: ... source: /boot/efi/loader/entries/ entry-token-kernel-version.conf version: kernel-version machine-id: ... linux: / entry-token/kernel-version/linux initrd: / entry-token/kernel-version/initrd options: root=... type: Boot Loader Specification Type #2 (.efi) title: Fedora Linux 35 (Workstation Edition) id: ... source: /boot/efi/EFI/Linux/fedora- kernel-version.efi version: kernel-version machine-id: ... linux: /EFI/Linux/fedora- kernel-version.efi options: root=... type: Automatic title: Reboot Into Firmware Interface id: auto-reboot-to-firmware-setup source: /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/LoaderEntries-4a67b082-0a4c-41cf-b6c7-440b29bb8c4f
SEE ALSO
systemd-boot(7), Boot Loader Specification[1], Boot Loader Interface[2], systemd-boot-system-token.service(8)NOTES
- 1.
- Boot Loader Specification
- 2.
- Boot Loader Interface
- 3.
- Random Seeds
- 4.
- Discoverable Partitions Specification
systemd 252 |