man `1 BOOTCTL`

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.

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.

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.

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.

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-random-
seed.service(8).

See Random Seeds[3] for further information.

KERNEL IMAGE COMMANDS
kernel-identify kernel
Takes a kernel image as argument. Checks what kind of kernel the
image is. Returns one of uki, pe or unknown.

kernel-inspect kernel
Takes a kernel image as argument. Prints details about the kernel.

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

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://systemd.io/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://systemd.io/DISCOVERABLE_PARTITIONS

systemd 252 BOOTCTL(1)

man 1 BOOTCTL

man `1 BOOTCTL`