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29 .Nd "system bootstrap configuration information"
33 contains descriptive information on bootstrapping the system.
35 it you can specify the kernel to be booted, parameters to be passed to
36 it, and additional modules to be loaded; and generally set all variables
42 format was defined explicitly to resemble
46 some settings are treated in a special fashion.
48 behavior of some settings is defined by the setting's suffix;
49 the prefix identifies which module the setting controls.
51 The general parsing rules are:
54 Spaces and empty lines are ignored.
56 A # sign will mark the remainder of the line as a comment.
58 Only one setting can be present on each line.
61 All settings have the following format:
65 Unless it belongs to one of the classes of settings that receive special
66 treatment, a setting will set the value of a
69 The settings that receive special
70 treatment are listed below.
71 Settings beginning with
73 below define the modules to be loaded and
74 may have any prefix; the prefix identifies a module.
75 All such settings sharing a common
76 prefix refer to the same module.
79 Delay in seconds before automatically booting.
80 A user with console access will be able to interrupt the
82 process and escape into the interactive mode by pressing a key on
83 the console during this delay.
89 is automatically attempted after processing
93 are processed normally, using a 10 second delay.
97 no delay is inserted, but any keys pressed while the kernel and modules are
98 loaded will enter interactive mode.
102 no delay will be inserted and
104 starts interactive mode only if
107 In combination with the
109 option, this option prevents users with console access from being able
112 process and escape to the loader prompt.
115 option in this manner,
120 Immediately executes a
123 This type of setting cannot be processed by programs other
126 so its use should be avoided.
127 Multiple instances of it will be processed
129 .It Ar loader_conf_dirs
130 Space separated list of directories to process for configuration files.
131 The lua-based loader will process files with a
133 suffix that are placed in these directories.
134 Files found here are processed after the ones listed in
135 .Va loader_conf_files
136 but before the ones found in
137 .Va local_loader_conf_files .
138 .It Ar loader_conf_files
139 Defines additional configuration files to be processed right after the
141 .Ar loader_conf_files
142 should be treated as write-only.
143 One cannot depend on any value remaining in the loader environment or carried
144 over into the kernel environment.
145 .It Ar local_loader_conf_files
146 Space separated list of additional configuration files to be processed at last,
148 .Va loader_conf_files
153 When set, must be a space separated list of environment variable names to walk
154 through to guess product information.
155 The order matters as reading a config file override the previously defined
157 Undefined variables are silently ignored.
159 When product information can be guessed, for each product information found,
161 .Pa /boot/loader.conf.d/PRODUCT
163 .Ar loader_conf_dirs .
164 It can be typically used as follow:
166 smbios.system.planar.maker="PLANAR_MAKER"
167 smbios.system.planar.product="PLANAR_PRODUCT"
168 smbios.system.product="PRODUCT"
169 uboot.m_product="M_PRODUCT"
170 product_vars="smbios.system.planar.maker smbios.system.planar.product smbios.system.product uboot.m_product"
173 to read files found in the following directories, in that order:
176 .Pa /boot/loader.conf.d/PLANAR_MAKER
178 .Pa /boot/loader.conf.d/PLANAR_PRODUCT
180 .Pa /boot/loader.conf.d/PRODUCT
182 .Pa /boot/loader.conf.d/M_PRODUCT
185 Name of the kernel to be loaded.
186 If no kernel name is set, no additional
187 modules will be loaded.
188 The name must be a subdirectory of
190 that contains a kernel.
191 .It Ar kernel_options
192 Flags to be passed to the kernel.
193 .It Ar vfs.root.mountfrom
194 Specify the root partition to mount.
197 .Dl vfs.root.mountfrom="ufs:/dev/da0s1a"
200 automatically calculates the value of this tunable from
202 from the partition the kernel was loaded from.
203 The calculated value might be calculated incorrectly when
205 is not available during
207 startup (as during diskless booting from NFS), or if a different
208 device is desired by the user.
209 The preferred value can be set in
212 The value can also be overridden from the
215 This is useful for system recovery when
217 is damaged, lost, or read from the wrong partition.
219 Protect boot menu with a password without interrupting
222 The password should be in clear text format.
223 If a password is set, boot menu will not appear until any key is pressed during
224 countdown period specified by
229 In both cases user should provide specified password to be able to access boot
231 .It Ar bootlock_password
232 Provides a password to be required by check-password before execution is
234 The password should be in clear text format.
235 If a password is set, the user must provide specified password to boot.
236 .It Ar verbose_loading
239 module names will be displayed as they are loaded.
240 .It Ar module_blacklist
241 Blacklist of modules.
242 Modules specified in the blacklist may not be loaded automatically with a
244 directive, but they may be loaded directly at the
247 Blacklisted modules may still be loaded indirectly as dependencies of other
252 that module will be loaded.
253 If no name is defined (see below), the
254 module's name is taken to be the same as the prefix.
256 Defines the name of the module.
258 Defines the module's type.
259 If none is given, it defaults to a kld module.
261 Flags and parameters to be passed to the module.
263 Commands to be executed before the module is loaded.
267 Commands to be executed after the module is loaded.
271 Commands to be executed if the loading of a module fails.
275 which aborts the bootstrap process, use of this setting should be avoided.
279 developers should never use these suffixes for any kernel environment
280 variables (tunables) or conflicts will result.
284 default settings can be ignored.
285 The few of them which are important
287 .Bl -tag -width bootfile -offset indent
288 .It Va local_loader_conf_files
289 .Pq Dq /boot/loader.conf.local
291 .Va loader.conf.local
292 can always be used to override settings from files found in
293 .Va loader_conf_files
295 .Va loader_conf_dirs .
300 a bitmap will be loaded to be displayed on screen while booting.
302 .Pq Dq Pa /boot/splash.bmp
303 Name of the bitmap to be loaded.
304 Any other name can be used.
305 .It Va comconsole_speed
308 .Va BOOT_COMCONSOLE_SPEED
312 Sets the speed of the serial console.
313 If the previous boot loader stage specified that a serial console
314 is in use then the default speed is determined from the current
315 serial port speed setting.
319 selects serial console,
321 selects the video console,
323 selects the EFI console,
325 selects a mute console
326 (useful for systems with neither a video console nor a serial port), and
328 selects the video console which prevents any input and hides all output
331 character (useful for embedded products and such).
333 Set font size for framebuffer mode.
334 Default font size is selected based on screen resolution, to achieve
335 terminal dimensions 80x24.
336 .It Va screen.textmode
339 will trigger BIOS loader to switch to use VESA BIOS Extension (VBE)
340 frame buffer mode for console.
341 The same effect can be achieved by setting
342 .Va vbe_max_resolution .
346 will force BIOS loader to use VGA text mode.
349 .Va vbe_max_resolution
350 is not set, the loader will try to set screen resolution based on EDID
352 If EDID is not available, the default resolution is 800x600 (if available).
359 are set by loader when loader is using framebuffer mode to draw the screen.
360 .It Va efi_max_resolution
361 .It Va vbe_max_resolution
362 Specify the maximum desired resolution for the EFI or VBE framebuffer console.
363 The following values are accepted:
364 .Bl -column "WidthxHeight"
365 .It Sy Value Ta Sy Resolution
368 .It 1080p Ta 1920x1080
369 .It 1440p Ta 2560x1440
370 .It 2160p Ta 3840x2160
373 .It Va Width Ns x Ns Va Height Ta Va Width Ns x Ns Va Height
378 .Pq Dq kernel kernel.old
379 Space or comma separated list of kernels to present in the boot menu.
380 .It Va loader_conf_files
381 .Pq Dq Pa /boot/loader.conf /boot/loader.conf.local
382 .It Va loader_conf_dirs
383 .Pq Dq Pa /boot/loader.conf.d
384 .It Va splash_bmp_load
388 will load the splash screen module, making it possible to display a bmp image
389 on the screen while booting.
390 .It Va splash_pcx_load
394 will load the splash screen module, making it possible to display a pcx image
395 on the screen while booting.
400 the vesa module will be loaded, enabling bitmaps above VGA resolution to
402 .It Va beastie_disable
405 the beastie boot menu will be skipped.
406 .It Va loader_logo Pq Dq Li orbbw
407 Selects a desired logo in the beastie boot menu.
419 the beastie boot menu will be displayed without ANSI coloring.
420 .It Va entropy_cache_load
425 boot-time entropy file
427 See the entropy entries in
429 .It Va entropy_cache_name
431 The name of the very early
432 boot-time entropy cache file.
433 .It Va cpu_microcode_load
437 the microcode update file specified by
438 .Va cpu_microcode_name
439 will be loaded and applied very early during boot.
440 This provides functionality similar to
442 but ensures that CPU features enabled by microcode updates can be
444 The update will be re-applied automatically when resuming from an
446 If the update file contains updates for multiple processor models,
447 the kernel will search for and extract a matching update.
448 Currently this setting is supported only on Intel
453 It has no effect on other processor types.
454 .It Va cpu_microcode_name
455 A path to a microcode update file.
458 Other settings that may be used in
460 that have no default value:
461 .Bl -tag -width bootfile -offset indent
463 Specifies a comma-delimited list of FDT overlays to apply.
464 .Pa /boot/dtb/overlays
465 is created by default for overlays to be placed in.
466 .It Va kernels_autodetect
469 attempt to auto-detect kernels installed in
471 This is an option specific to the Lua-based loader.
472 It is not available in the default Forth-based loader.
475 .Bl -tag -width /boot/defaults/loader.conf -compact
476 .It Pa /boot/defaults/loader.conf
477 Default settings \(em do not change this file.
478 .It Pa /boot/loader.conf
479 User defined settings.
480 .It Pa /boot/loader.conf.lua
481 User defined settings written in lua.
482 .It Pa /boot/loader.conf.d/*.conf
483 User defined settings split in separate files.
484 .It Pa /boot/loader.conf.d/*.lua
485 User defined settings written in lua and split in separate files.
486 .It Pa /boot/loader.conf.local
487 Machine-specific settings for sites with a common loader.conf. Allow to override
488 settings defined in other files.
492 .Xr loader.conf.lua 5 ,
504 This manual page was written by
505 .An Daniel C. Sobral Aq dcs@FreeBSD.org .
511 when it encounters a syntax error, so any options which are vital for
512 booting a particular system (i.e.,
513 .Dq Va hw.ata.ata_dma Ns "=0" )
514 should precede any experimental additions to