Manual: efibootmgr
EFIBOOTMGR(8) EFIBOOTMGR(8)
NAME
efibootmgr - change the UEFI Boot Manager configuration
SYNOPSIS
efibootmgr [ -a ] [ -A ] [ -b XXXX ] [ -B ] [ -c ] [ -d DISK ] [ -D ] [ -e 1|3|-1 ] [ -E NUM ] [ --full-dev-path |
--file-dev-path ] [ -f ] [ -F ] [ -g ] [ -i NAME ] [ -l NAME ] [ -L LABEL ] [ -m t|f ] [ -M X ] [ -n XXXX ] [ -N ] [
-o XXXX,YYYY,ZZZZ ... ] [ -O ] [ -p PART ] [ -q ] [ -r | -y ] [ -t seconds ] [ -T ] [ -u ] [ -v ] [ -V ] [ -w ] [ -@
file ]
DESCRIPTION
efibootmgr is a userspace application used to modify the UEFI Boot Manager. This application can create and destroy
boot entries, change the boot order, change the next running boot option, and more.
Details on the UEFI Boot Manager are available from the UEFI Specification, v1.02 or later, available from:
http://www.uefi.org
Note: efibootmgr requires that the kernel support access to EFI non-volatile variables through
/sys/firmware/efi/vars or /sys/firmware/efi/efivars/.
OPTIONS
The following is a list of options accepted by efibootmgr:
-a | --active
Set bootnum active.
-A | --inactive
Set bootnum inactive.
-b | --bootnum XXXX
Modify BootXXXX (hex).
-B | --delete-bootnum
Delete bootnum.
-c | --create
Create new variable bootnum and add to bootorder.
-C | --create-only
Create new variable bootnum and and do not add to bootorder.
-d | --disk DISK
The disk containing the loader (defaults to /dev/sda).
-D | --remove-dups
Remove duplicated entries from BootOrder.
-e | --edd 1|3
Force EDD 1.0 or 3.0 creation variables.
Use -e 1 together with -E if you are using a very old system which uses UEFI to boot, but requires legacy CSM
(BIOS) device drivers for storage devices.
-e 3 is now deprecated, and is an alias for --full-dev-path.
-E | --edd-device NUM
EDD 1.0 device number (defaults to 0x80). See --edd.
--full-dev-path
Force creation of boot entries use a full UEFI device path, starting at the PCIe root or equivalent on the
current platform. The default is to use a hard disk based HD() abbreviated path.
You shouldn't need to use this option unless the system firmware won't boot off of your device using an abbre‐
viated HD() device path.
Note that forcing a full path will fail if we don't know what the system device root is, how the specified de‐
vice is connected to it, or how to encode any one of those.
--file-dev-path
Force creation of boot entries use an abbreviated UEFI device path which starts with the File() portion of the
path. The default is to use a hard disk based HD() abbreviated path.
-f | --reconnect
Re-connect devices after driver is loaded. Only applicable for driver entries.
-F | --do-not-reconnect
Do not reconnect devices after driver is loaded. Only applicable for driver entries.
-g | --gpt
Force disk with invalid PMBR to be treated as GPT.
-i | --iface NAME
Create a netboot entry for the named interface.
-k | --keep NAME
Keep old entries when adjusting order.
-l | --loader NAME
Specify a loader (defaults to \EFI\ubuntu\grub.efi).
-L | --label LABEL
Boot manager display label (defaults to "Linux").
-m | --mirror-below-4G t|f
Set t if you want to mirror memory below 4GB.
-M | --mirror-above-4G X
X percentage memory to mirror above 4GB. Floating-point value with up to 2 decimal places is accepted.
-n | --bootnext XXXX
Set BootNext to XXXX (hex).
-N | --delete-bootnext
Delete BootNext.
-o | --bootorder XXXX,YYYY,ZZZZ
Explicitly set BootOrder (hex). Any value from 0 to FFFF is accepted so long as it corresponds to an existing
Boot#### variable, and zero padding is not required.
-O | --delete-bootorder
Delete BootOrder.
-p | --part PART
Partition number containing the bootloader (defaults to 1).
-q | --quiet
Quiet mode - suppresses output.
-r | --driver
Operate on Driver#### variables instead of Boot#### variables.
-t | --timeout seconds
Boot Manager timeout, in seconds.
-T | --delete-timeout
Delete Timeout variable.
-u | --unicode | --UCS-2
Handle extra command line arguments as UCS-2 (default is ASCII).
-v | --verbose
Verbose mode - prints additional information.
-V | --version
Just print version string and exit.
-w | --write-signature
Write unique signature to the MBR if needed.
-y | --sysprep
Operate on SysPrep#### variables instead of Boot#### variables.
-@ | --append-binary-args
Append extra variable args from file (use - to read from stdin). Data in file is appended as command line ar‐
guments to the boot loader command, with no modification to the data, so you can pass any binary or text data
necessary.
EXAMPLES
Displaying the current settings (must be root):
[root@localhost ~]# efibootmgr
BootCurrent: 0004
BootNext: 0003
BootOrder: 0004,0000,0001,0002,0003
Timeout: 30 seconds
Boot0000* Diskette Drive(device:0)
Boot0001* CD-ROM Drive(device:FF)
Boot0002* Hard Drive(Device:80)/HD(Part1,Sig00112233)
Boot0003* PXE Boot: MAC(00D0B7C15D91)
Boot0004* Linux
Each of the above are boot variables, which are defined as follows:
• BootCurrent - the boot entry used to start the currently running system
• BootOrder - the boot order as would appear in the boot manager. The boot manager tries to boot the first
active entry in this list. If unsuccessful, it tries the next entry, and so on.
• BootNext - the boot entry which is scheduled to be run on next boot. This supersedes BootOrder for one boot
only, and is deleted by the boot manager after first use. This allows you to change the next boot behavior
without changing BootOrder.
• Timeout - the time in seconds between when the boot manager appears on the screen until when it automati‐
cally chooses the startup value from BootNext or BootOrder.
• Five boot entries (0000 - 0004), along with the active/inactive flag (* means active) and the name displayed
on the screen.
Creating a new boot option
An OS installer would call efibootmgr -c. This assumes that /dev/sda1 is your EFI System Partition, and is mounted
at /boot/efi. This creates a new boot option, called "Linux", and puts it at the top of the boot order list. Op‐
tions may be passed to modify the default behavior. The default OS Loader is \EFI\ubuntu\grub.efi.
Changing the boot order
Assuming the configuration in the first example, efibootmgr -o 3,4 could be called to specify PXE boot first, then
Linux boot.
Changing the boot order for the next boot only
Assuming the configuration in the first example, efibootmgr -n 4 could be called to specify that the Linux entry be
taken on next boot.
Deleting a boot option
Assuming the configuration in the first example, efibootmgr -b 4 -B could be called to delete entry 4 and remove it
from the BootOrder.
Creating network boot entries
A system administrator wants to create a boot option to network boot. You create the boot entry with: efibootmgr -c
-i eth0 -L netboot [ -l '\filename.efi' ]
BUGS
Please direct any bugs, features, patches, etc. to the Red Hat bootloader team at https://github.com/rhboot/efiboot‐
mgr .
AUTHOR
This man page was generated by dann frazier for the Debian GNU/Linux operating system and updated
by Robert Bisewski , but may be used by others.
It has subsequently been modified by Robbie Harwood for the efibootmgr project.
28 September 2021 EFIBOOTMGR(8)