BOOTCTL(1) bootctl BOOTCTL(1)
NAME
bootctl - Control EFI firmware boot settings and manage boot loader
SYNOPSIS
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.
status
Shows 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.
Added in version 239.
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.
Added in version 251.
BOOT LOADER SPECIFICATION COMMANDS
These commands are available for all boot loaders that implement the
Boot Loader Specification[1], such as systemd-boot.
list
Shows 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.
Added in version 239.
unlink ID
Removes a boot loader entry including the files it refers to. Takes
a single boot loader entry ID string or a glob pattern as argument.
Referenced files such as kernel or initrd are only removed if no
other entry refers to them.
Added in version 253.
cleanup
Removes files from the ESP and XBOOTLDR partitions that belong to
the entry token but are not referenced in any boot loader entries.
Added in version 253.
BOOT LOADER INTERFACE COMMANDS
These commands are available for all boot loaders that implement the
Boot Loader Specification[1] and the Boot Loader Interface[2], such as
systemd-boot.
set-default ID, set-oneshot ID, set-sysfail 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. The
set-sysfail command will set the boot loader entry to be used in
case of a system failure. System failure (SysFail) boot entries can
optionally modify the automatic selection order in the event of a
failure, such as a boot firmware update failure with the failure
status recorded in the EFI system table.
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, LoaderEntrySysFail,
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.
Added in version 240.
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-disabled or 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.
Added in version 250.
SYSTEMD-BOOT COMMANDS
These commands manage the systemd-boot EFI boot loader, and do not work
in conjunction with other boot loaders.
install
Installs 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.
Added in version 239.
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.
Added in version 239.
remove
Removes all installed versions of systemd-boot from the EFI system
partition and the firmware's boot loader list.
Added in version 239.
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.
Added in version 243.
random-seed
Generates a random seed and stores it in the EFI System Partition
(ESP), for use by the systemd-boot boot loader. If a random seed
already exists in the ESP it is refreshed. 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-random-
seed.service(8).
See Random Seeds[3] for further information.
Added in version 243.
KERNEL IMAGE COMMANDS
kernel-identify KERNEL-IMAGE
Takes a kernel image as argument. Checks what kind of kernel the
image is. Returns one of "uki", "addon", "pe", and "unknown".
Added in version 253.
kernel-inspect KERNEL-IMAGE
Takes a kernel image as argument. Prints details about the image.
Added in version 253.
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.
Added in version 252.
--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.
Added in version 252.
--image-policy=policy
Takes an image policy string as argument, as per systemd.image-
policy(7). The policy is enforced when operating on the disk image
specified via --image=, see above. If not specified, defaults to
the "*" policy, i.e. all recognized file systems in the image are
used.
--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.
Added in version 252.
-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.
Added in version 236.
-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-esp-path option
mentioned above), is available independently from the boot loader
used, i.e. also without systemd-boot being installed.
Added in version 242.
--print-loader-path
This option modifies the behaviour of status: it shows the absolute
path to the boot loader EFI binary used for the current boot if
this information is available. Note that no attempt is made to
verify whether the binary still exists.
Added in version 257.
--print-stub-path
This option modifies the behaviour of status: it shows the absolute
path to the UKI/stub EFI binary used for the current boot if this
information is available. Note that no attempt is made to verify
whether the binary still exists.
Added in version 257.
-R, --print-root-device
Print the path to the block device node backing the root file
system of the local OS. This prints a path such as /dev/nvme0n1p5.
If the root file system is backed by dm-crypt/LUKS or dm-verity the
underlying block device is returned. If the root file system is
backed by multiple block devices (as supported by btrfs) the
operation will fail. If the switch is specified twice (i.e. -RR)
and the discovered block device is a partition device the "whole"
block device it belongs to is determined and printed (e.g.
/dev/nvme0n1). If the root file system is "tmpfs" (or a similar
in-memory file system), the block device backing /usr/ is returned
if applicable. If the root file system is a network file system
(e.g. NFS, CIFS) the operation will fail.
Added in version 254.
--variables=yes|no
Controls whether to touch the firmware's boot loader list stored in
EFI variables, and other EFI variables. If not specified defaults
to no when execution in a container runtime is detected, yes
otherwise.
Added in version 258.
--random-seed=yes|no
By default, the install command initializes a random seed file in
the ESP. When creating an image it may be desirable to disable that
in order to avoid having the same seed in all instances.
Added in version 257.
--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, random-seed and install verbs. Since version
v258, it is implicitly enabled when running inside a chroot.
Added in version 244.
-q, --quiet
Suppress printing of the results of various commands and also the
hints about ESP being unavailable.
Added in version 251.
--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".
Added in version 251.
--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.
Added in version 251.
--all-architectures
Install binaries for all supported EFI architectures (this implies
--variables=no).
Added in version 252.
--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.
Added in version 252.
--dry-run
Dry run for unlink and cleanup.
In dry run mode, the unlink and cleanup operations only print the
files that would get deleted without actually deleting them.
Added in version 253.
--secure-boot-auto-enroll=yes|no, --private-key=PATH/URI,
--private-key-source=TYPE[:NAME], --certificate=PATH,
--certificate-source=TYPE[:NAME]
Configure the ESP for secure boot auto-enrollment when invoking the
install command. Takes a boolean argument. Disabled by default.
Enabling this option will make bootctl populate the ESP with signed
"PK", "KEK" and "db" signature databases, each containing the given
certificate in "DER" format as their only entry. These secure boot
signature databases will be picked up and enrolled by systemd-boot
if secure boot is in setup mode and secure boot auto-enrollment is
enabled.
When specifying this option, a certificate and private key have to
be provided as well using the --certificate= and --private-key=
options. The --certificate= option takes a path to a PEM encoded
X.509 certificate or a URI that's passed to the OpenSSL provider
configured with --certificate-source which takes one of "file" or
"provider", with the latter being followed by a specific provider
identifier, separated with a colon, e.g. "provider:pkcs11". The
--private-key= option can take a path or a URI that will be passed
to the OpenSSL engine or provider, as specified by
--private-key-source= as a "type:name" tuple, such as
"engine:pkcs11". The specified OpenSSL signing engine or provider
will be used to sign the EFI signature lists.
Added in version 257.
--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. bootctl
--print-root-device returns exit status 80 in case the root file system
is not backed by single block device, and other non-zero exit statuses
on other errors.
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
✓ Menu can be disabled
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
In the listing, "(default)" specifies the entry that will be used by
default, and "(selected)" specifies the entry that was selected the
last time (i.e. is currently running).
SEE ALSO
systemd-boot(7), Boot Loader Specification[1], Boot Loader
Interface[2], systemd-boot-random-seed.service(8)
NOTES
1. Boot Loader Specification
https://uapi-
group.org/specifications/specs/boot_loader_specification
2. Boot Loader Interface
https://systemd.io/BOOT_LOADER_INTERFACE
3. Random Seeds
https://systemd.io/RANDOM_SEEDS
4. Discoverable Partitions Specification
https://uapi-
group.org/specifications/specs/discoverable_partitions_specification
systemd 258 BOOTCTL(1)
bootctl \- Control EFI firmware boot settings and manage boot loader