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31 .Nd "system bootstrap configuration information"
35 contains descriptive information on bootstrapping the system.
37 it you can specify the kernel to be booted, parameters to be passed to
38 it, and additional modules to be loaded; and generally set all variables
44 format was defined explicitly to resemble
48 some settings are treated in a special fashion.
50 behavior of some settings is defined by the setting's suffix;
51 the prefix identifies which module the setting controls.
53 The general parsing rules are:
56 Spaces and empty lines are ignored.
58 A # sign will mark the remainder of the line as a comment.
60 Only one setting can be present on each line.
63 All settings have the following format:
67 Unless it belongs to one of the classes of settings that receive special
68 treatment, a setting will set the value of a
71 The settings that receive special
72 treatment are listed below.
73 Settings beginning with
75 below define the modules to be loaded and
76 may have any prefix; the prefix identifies a module.
77 All such settings sharing a common
78 prefix refer to the same module.
81 Immediately executes a
84 This type of setting cannot be processed by programs other
87 so its use should be avoided.
88 Multiple instances of it will be processed
90 .It Ar loader_conf_dirs
91 Space separated list of directories to process for configuration files.
92 The lua-based loader will process files with a
94 suffix that are placed in these directories.
95 .It Ar loader_conf_files
96 Defines additional configuration files to be processed right after the
99 should be treated as write-only.
100 One cannot depend on any value remaining in the loader environment or carried
101 over into the kernel environment.
103 Name of the kernel to be loaded.
104 If no kernel name is set, no additional
105 modules will be loaded.
106 The name must be a subdirectory of
108 that contains a kernel.
109 .It Ar kernel_options
110 Flags to be passed to the kernel.
111 .It Ar vfs.root.mountfrom
112 Specify the root partition to mount.
115 .Dl vfs.root.mountfrom="ufs:/dev/da0s1a"
118 automatically calculates the value of this tunable from
120 from the partition the kernel was loaded from.
121 The calculated value might be calculated incorrectly when
123 is not available during
125 startup (as during diskless booting from NFS), or if a different
126 device is desired by the user.
127 The preferred value can be set in
130 The value can also be overridden from the
133 This is useful for system recovery when
135 is damaged, lost, or read from the wrong partition.
137 Protect boot menu with a password without interrupting
140 The password should be in clear text format.
141 If a password is set, boot menu will not appear until any key is pressed during
142 countdown period specified by
147 In both cases user should provide specified password to be able to access boot
149 .It Ar bootlock_password
150 Provides a password to be required by check-password before execution is
152 The password should be in clear text format.
153 If a password is set, the user must provide specified password to boot.
154 .It Ar verbose_loading
157 module names will be displayed as they are loaded.
158 .It Ar module_blacklist
159 Blacklist of modules.
160 Modules specified in the blacklist may not be loaded automatically with a
162 directive, but they may be loaded directly at the
165 Blacklisted modules may still be loaded indirectly as dependencies of other
170 that module will be loaded.
171 If no name is defined (see below), the
172 module's name is taken to be the same as the prefix.
174 Defines the name of the module.
176 Defines the module's type.
177 If none is given, it defaults to a kld module.
179 Flags and parameters to be passed to the module.
181 Commands to be executed before the module is loaded.
185 Commands to be executed after the module is loaded.
189 Commands to be executed if the loading of a module fails.
193 which aborts the bootstrap process, use of this setting should be avoided.
197 developers should never use these suffixes for any kernel environment
198 variables (tunables) or conflicts will result.
202 default settings can be ignored.
203 The few of them which are important
205 .Bl -tag -width bootfile -offset indent
210 a bitmap will be loaded to be displayed on screen while booting.
212 .Pq Dq Pa /boot/splash.bmp
213 Name of the bitmap to be loaded.
214 Any other name can be used.
215 .It Va comconsole_speed
218 .Va BOOT_COMCONSOLE_SPEED
222 Sets the speed of the serial console.
223 If the previous boot loader stage specified that a serial console
224 is in use then the default speed is determined from the current
225 serial port speed setting.
229 selects serial console,
231 selects the video console,
233 selects a mute console
234 (useful for systems with neither a video console nor a serial port), and
236 selects the video console which prevents any input and hides all output
239 character (useful for embedded products and such).
240 .It Va efi_max_resolution
241 .It Va vbe_max_resolution
242 Specify the maximum desired resolution for the EFI or VESA BIOS Extension (VBE)
244 The following values are accepted:
245 .Bl -column "WidthxHeight"
246 .It Sy Value Ta Sy Resolution
249 .It 1080p Ta 1920x1080
250 .It 2160p Ta 3840x2160
253 .It Va Width Ns x Ns Va Height Ta Va Width Ns x Ns Va Height
258 .Pq Dq kernel kernel.old
259 Space or comma separated list of kernels to present in the boot menu.
260 .It Va loader_conf_files
261 .Pq Dq Pa /boot/loader.conf /boot/loader.conf.local
262 .It Va loader_conf_dirs
263 .Pq Dq Pa /boot/loader.conf.d
264 .It Va splash_bmp_load
268 will load the splash screen module, making it possible to display a bmp image
269 on the screen while booting.
270 .It Va splash_pcx_load
274 will load the splash screen module, making it possible to display a pcx image
275 on the screen while booting.
280 the vesa module will be loaded, enabling bitmaps above VGA resolution to
282 .It Va beastie_disable
285 the beastie boot menu will be skipped.
286 .It Va loader_logo Pq Dq Li orbbw
287 Selects a desired logo in the beastie boot menu.
299 the beastie boot menu will be displayed without ANSI coloring.
300 .It Va entropy_cache_load
305 boot-time entropy file
307 See the entropy entries in
309 .It Va entropy_cache_name
311 The name of the very early
312 boot-time entropy cache file.
313 .It Va cpu_microcode_load
317 the microcode update file specified by
318 .Va cpu_microcode_name
319 will be loaded and applied very early during boot.
320 This provides functionality similar to
322 but ensures that CPU features enabled by microcode updates can be
324 The update will be re-applied automatically when resuming from an
326 If the update file contains updates for multiple processor models,
327 the kernel will search for and extract a matching update.
328 Currently this setting is supported only on Intel
333 It has no effect on other processor types.
334 .It Va cpu_microcode_name
335 A path to a microcode update file.
338 Other settings that may be used in
340 that have no default value:
341 .Bl -tag -width bootfile -offset indent
343 Specifies a comma-delimited list of FDT overlays to apply.
344 .Pa /boot/dtb/overlays
345 is created by default for overlays to be placed in.
346 .It Va kernels_autodetect
349 attempt to auto-detect kernels installed in
351 This is an option specific to the Lua-based loader.
352 It is not available in the default Forth-based loader.
355 .Bl -tag -width /boot/defaults/loader.conf -compact
356 .It Pa /boot/defaults/loader.conf
357 default settings -- do not change this file.
358 .It Pa /boot/loader.conf
359 user defined settings.
360 .It Pa /boot/loader.conf.local
361 machine-specific settings for sites with a common loader.conf.
375 This manual page was written by
376 .An Daniel C. Sobral Aq dcs@FreeBSD.org .
382 when it encounters a syntax error, so any options which are vital for
383 booting a particular system (i.e.\&
384 .Dq Va hw.ata.ata_dma Ns "=0" )
385 should precede any experimental additions to