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.
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.
These commands are available for all boot loaders that implement the Boot Loader Specification, 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.
JSON output may be requested with --json=.
See the example below for details of the output.
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.
cleanup¶Removes files from the ESP and XBOOTLDR partitions that belong to the entry token but are not referenced in any boot loader entries.
These commands are available for all boot loaders that implement the Boot Loader Specification and the Boot Loader Interface, such as systemd-boot.
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 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-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.
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 (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 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.
--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. For further information on supported disk images, see
systemd-nspawn(1)'s
switch of the same name.
--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.
-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-esp-path option mentioned
above), is available independently from the boot loader used, i.e. also without
systemd-boot being installed.
--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.
--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.
-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.
--no-variables¶Do not touch the firmware's boot loader list stored in EFI variables.
--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.
--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 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.
--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.
--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.
--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¶--version¶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.
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.
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.
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-bootversionimplementing the Boot Loader Interface 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-versionmachine-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-versionmachine-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-versionmachine-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).