1.\" Copyright (c) 1999 Daniel C. Sobral 2.\" All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 6.\" are met: 7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 8.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 11.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 12.\" 13.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 14.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 15.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 16.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 17.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 18.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 19.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 20.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 21.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 22.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 23.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 24.\" 25.\" $FreeBSD: src/sys/boot/forth/loader.conf.5,v 1.18 2002/08/27 01:02:56 trhodes Exp $ 26.\" $DragonFly: src/sys/boot/forth/loader.conf.5,v 1.13 2008/09/15 21:23:44 thomas Exp $ 27.Dd October 6, 2010 28.Dt LOADER.CONF 5 29.Os 30.Sh NAME 31.Nm loader.conf 32.Nd system bootstrap configuration information 33.Sh DESCRIPTION 34The file 35.Nm 36contains descriptive information on bootstrapping the system. 37Through it you can specify the kernel to be booted, 38parameters to be passed to it, 39and additional kernel modules to be loaded; 40and generally set all variables described in 41.Xr loader 8 . 42.Pp 43A file 44.Pa dloader.rc 45must contain the following lines for 46.Nm 47to be automatically processed: 48.Pp 49.Dl include defaults/loader.conf 50.Dl optinclude loader.conf 51.Dl optinclude loader.conf.local 52.Pp 53If no 54.Pa /boot/dloader.rc 55exists at installworld time, one with the above lines will be installed. 56.Sh SYNTAX 57Though 58.Nm Ns 's 59format was defined explicitly to resemble 60.Xr rc.conf 5 , 61and can be sourced by 62.Xr sh 1 , 63some settings are treated in a special fashion. 64Also, the behavior of some settings is defined by the setting's suffix; 65the prefix identifies which module the setting controls. 66.Pp 67The general parsing rules are: 68.Bl -bullet 69.It 70Spaces and empty lines are ignored. 71.It 72A 73.Ql # 74sign will mark the remainder of the line as a comment. 75.It 76Only one setting can be present on each line. 77.El 78.Pp 79All settings have the following format: 80.Pp 81.Dl variable="value" 82.Pp 83This assigns value to a local variable. 84If variable is in a list of known kernel environment variables or 85is a kernel tunable, 86it is also assigned to the kernel environment variable of the given name. 87.Pp 88The settings that receive special treatment are listed below. 89Settings beginning with 90.Aq Ar module 91below define the kernel modules to be loaded. 92All such settings sharing a common 93prefix refer to the same module. 94.Bl -tag -width indent 95.It Ar kernel 96Name of the kernel to be loaded. 97If no kernel name is set, no additional 98modules will be loaded. 99.It Ar kernel_options 100Flags to be passed to the kernel (see 101.Xr boot 8 ) . 102.It Ar verbose_loading 103If set to 104.Dq YES , 105module names will be displayed as they are loaded. 106.It Ao Ar module Ac Ns Ar _load 107If set to 108.Dq YES , 109that kernel module will be loaded. 110If no 111.Ao Ar module Ac Ns Ar _name 112is defined (see below), the 113module's name is taken to be 114.Aq Ar module . 115.It Ao Ar module Ac Ns Ar _name 116Defines the name of the module. 117.It Ao Ar module Ac Ns Ar _type 118Defines the module's type. 119If none is given, it defaults to a 120.Xr kld 4 121module. 122.It Ao Ar module Ac Ns Ar _flags 123Flags and parameters to be passed to the module. 124.It Ao Ar module Ac Ns Ar _before 125Commands to be executed before the module is loaded. 126Use of this setting 127should be avoided. 128.It Ao Ar module Ac Ns Ar _after 129Commands to be executed after the module is loaded. 130Use of this setting 131should be avoided. 132.It Ao Ar module Ac Ns Ar _error 133Commands to be executed if the loading of a module fails. 134Except for the 135special value 136.Dq abort , 137which aborts the bootstrap process, use of this setting should be avoided. 138.El 139.Sh DEFAULT SETTINGS 140See 141.Pa /boot/defaults/loader.conf 142for 143.Nm Ns 's 144default settings. 145The few of them which are important 146or useful are: 147.Bl -tag -width indent 148.It Va bitmap_load 149.Pq Dq NO 150If set to 151.Dq YES , 152a bitmap will be loaded to be displayed on screen while booting. 153.It Va bitmap_name 154.Pq Dq splash.bmp 155Name of the bitmap to be loaded. 156Any other name can be used. 157.It Va boot_verbose 158.Pq Dq NO 159Set to 160.Dq YES 161to enable verbose booting. 162.It Va console 163.Pq Dq vidconsole 164.Dq comconsole 165selects serial console, 166.Dq vidconsole 167selects the video console, and 168.Dq nullconsole 169selects a mute console 170(useful for systems with neither a video console nor a serial port). 171.It Va fred_disable 172.Pq Dq NO 173Shows a monochrome version of Fred, the official 174.Dx 175mascot, when the 176boot menu appears. 177To make his life a bit more colorful, consider setting 178.Pa loader_color 179to 180.Dq YES . 181.It Va fred_on_left 182.Pq Dq NO 183Shows Fred on the left side of the menu rather than the right side. 184.It Va kernel 185.Pq Dq kernel . 186.It Va loader_color 187.Pq Dq NO 188If set to 189.Dq YES , 190you'll meet Fred, the official 191.Dx 192mascot, in technicolor when the 193boot menu appears (remember to set 194.Pa fred_disable 195to 196.Dq NO 197for this to work.) 198.It Va splash_bmp_load 199.Pq Dq NO 200If set to 201.Dq YES , 202will load the splash screen module, making it possible to display a bmp image 203on the screen while booting. 204.It Va splash_pcx_load 205.Pq Dq NO 206If set to 207.Dq YES , 208will load the splash screen module, making it possible to display a pcx image 209on the screen while booting. 210.It Va userconfig_script_load 211.Pq Dq NO 212If set to 213.Dq YES , 214will load the userconfig data. 215.It Va vesa_load 216.Pq Dq NO 217If set to 218.Dq YES , 219the vesa module will be loaded, enabling bitmaps above VGA resolution to 220be displayed. 221.El 222.Sh FILES 223.Bl -tag -width ".Pa /boot/defaults/dloader.menu" -compact 224.It Pa /boot/defaults/dloader.menu 225default settings for menu setup -- do not change this file. 226.It Pa /boot/defaults/loader.conf 227default settings -- do not change this file. 228.It Pa /boot/dloader.menu 229defines the commands used by 230.Nm loader 231to setup menus. 232.It Pa /boot/loader.conf 233user defined settings. 234.It Pa /boot/loader.conf.local 235machine-specific settings for sites with a common loader.conf. 236.It Pa /boot/dloader.rc 237contains the instructions to automatically process. 238.El 239.Sh SEE ALSO 240.Xr boot 8 , 241.Xr loader 8 242.Sh HISTORY 243The file 244.Nm 245first appeared in 246.Fx 3.2 . 247.Sh AUTHORS 248This manual page was written by 249.An Daniel C. Sobral Aq dcs@FreeBSD.org . 250
