bootctl — Control EFI firmware boot settings and manage boot loader
bootctl [OPTIONS...] {COMMAND}
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.
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.
These commands are available for all boot loaders that implement the Boot Loader Specification and/or the Boot Loader Interface, such as systemd-boot.
list¶Shows all available boot loader entries implementing the Boot Loader Specification, as well as any other entries discovered or automatically generated by a boot loader implementing the Boot Loader Interface.
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 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.
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
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
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 for further information.
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. 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.
--no-pager¶Do not pipe output into a pager.
-h, --help¶--version¶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.