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.
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.
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.
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].
set-default ID, set-oneshot ID
Sets the default boot loader entry. Takes a single boot loader
entry ID string 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. Optionally, 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. When an empty string ("") is specified as an ID,
then the corresponding EFI variable will be unset.
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.
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.
-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 (similar 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, or
when EFI variables cannot be written. Currently only applies to
random seed operations.
--make-machine-id-directory=yes|no|auto
Control creation and deletion of the top-level machine ID directory
on the file system containing boot loader entries (i.e. beneath the
file system returned by the --print-boot-path option, see above)
during install and remove, respectively. "auto" is equivalent to
"yes" if /etc/machine-id resides on a filesystem other than tmpfs
and "no" otherwise (in the latter case the machine ID is likely
transient and hence should not be used persistently in the ESP).
Defaults to "auto". See machine-id(5) for details about the machine
ID concept and file.
Overriding this may be desirable to hide the machine ID from the
(unencrypted) ESP, configure a kernel-install(8) script, or,
conversely, commit a transient machine ID.
The top-level machine ID directory is useful to allow smooth
multi-boot installations: each installed OS instance will have a
different machine ID and thus a separate directory to place its
boot-time resources in. If this feature is turned off with this
option, care needs to be taken that multiple OS instances do not
place conflicting files on the shared ESP and Extended Boot Loader
Partitions, or that multiple OS instances are not possible.
--no-pager
Do not pipe output into a pager.
-h, --help
Print a short help text and exit.
--version
Print a short version string and exit.
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.
SEE ALSO
systemd-boot(7), Boot Loader Specification[1], Boot Loader
Interface[2], systemd-boot-system-token.service(8)
NOTES
1. Boot Loader Specification
https://systemd.io/BOOT_LOADER_SPECIFICATION
2. Boot Loader Interface
https://systemd.io/BOOT_LOADER_INTERFACE
3. Random Seeds
https://systemd.io/RANDOM_SEEDS
systemd 249 BOOTCTL(1)
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