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.\" 27.Dd August 14, 2015 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.Pp 172When using a comconsole the kernel defaults to allowing a console on sio0. 173To change this to sio1 you must specify 174.Va sio0.flags=0 175and 176.Va sio1.flags=0x10 177in addition to setting the console to the comconsole. 178You can also set the baud rate with (for example) 179.Va sio1.baud=115200 180or simply inherit the baud set in the boot code. 181Normally these must be set if you want to use a stock kernel in a 182IPMI environment. 183When setting the serial console you must specify the serial port 184with (for example) 185.Va sio1.port=0x3e8 . 186Typically sio0 is on 0x3f8 and sio1 is on 0x2f8, but IPMI consoles 187on sio1 are often on 0x3e8 (instead of sio2), which can be confusing. 188Be sure to specify the correct port 189if you want early kernel boot messages to work. 190If you do not specify the port the console will still operate on 191the serial port but only after the kernel has started init. 192.Pp 193Some IPMI environments do not enable sio1 during the BIOS boot, 194which can cause the loader to get confused and not pass RB_SERIAL 195to the kernel. 196Setting console=comconsole in this situation also does not work because 197then the loader is inacessible. Instead, set the sioX fields as shown 198above and also add 199.Va set boot_serial="YES" 200to cause the kernel to use the serial port without also forcing the 201boot loader to use the serial port. 202.Pp 203The boot1/boot2 code uses BIOS calls to read and write the screen but also 204mirrors output to and monitors COM1 @ 9600. 205In an IPMI environment you do not usually have to adjust the boot code 206at all, instead using the IPMI feature to redirect the video output. 207In non-IPMI setups if you want the boot code to be available on 208COM2 at 57600 baud instead of COM1, for example, you must set the variables 209.Va BOOT_COMCONSOLE_PORT=0x2f8 210and 211.Va BOOT_COMCONSOLE_SPEED=57600 212in 213.Pa /etc/make.conf 214and recompile and install the boot code at 215.Pa /usr/src/sys/boot , 216then install the bootcode to the partition via 217.Xr disklabel 8 . 218.Pp 219Note that in comconsole mode the kernel will pick up the baud rate 220from the boot loader, so no kernel recompile is needed. 221.It Va kernel 222.Pq Dq kernel . 223.It Va loader_plain 224.Pq Dq NO 225Unlike in the past, the loader defaults to displaying Fred, the official 226.Dx 227mascot, in color when the boot menu appears, unless 228.Pa console 229is set to 230.Dq comconsole 231in 232.Pa loader.conf 233or in the environment. If set to 234.Dq YES , 235Fred will always be displayed in monochrome. 236.It Va fred_is_red 237.Pq Dq NO 238Under color mode, Fred is depicted as a blue dragonfly with cyan wings 239by default. If set to 240.Dq YES , 241Fred will be shown as a red dragonfly with red wings instead. 242.It Va fred_disable 243.Pq Dq NO 244Fred is displayed with the menu by default. If set to 245.Dq YES , 246Fred will not be shown. The area will simply be blank. 247.It Va fred_on_left 248.Pq Dq NO 249If set to 250.Dq YES , 251Fred will be displayed on the left side of the menu rather than the right side. 252.It Va fred_separated 253.Pq Dq NO 254If set to 255.Dq YES , 256a line will be drawn between Fred and the menu block. 257.It Va splash_bmp_load 258.Pq Dq NO 259If set to 260.Dq YES , 261will load the splash screen module, making it possible to display a bmp image 262on the screen while booting. 263.It Va splash_pcx_load 264.Pq Dq NO 265If set to 266.Dq YES , 267will load the splash screen module, making it possible to display a pcx image 268on the screen while booting. 269.El 270.Sh IPMI 271Generally speaking machines with IPMI capabilities are capable of 272redirecting the BIOS POST to a fake serial port controlled by the BMC. 273It is then possible to use 274.Xr ipmitool 1 275from 276.Xr dports 7 277to access the console. 278.Dx 279kernels adjust the video mode in a way that the BMC cannot usually 280redirect, so your best bet is to set the boot loader AND the kernel up to 281use a serial port via the 282.Va console=comconsole 283feature described above. 284Often the IPMI controller, called the BMC, is not sitting on COM1 so 285.Dx Ap s 286default console parameters and baud rate will not work. 287.Sh FILES 288.Bl -tag -width ".Pa /boot/defaults/dloader.menu" -compact 289.It Pa /boot/defaults/dloader.menu 290default settings for menu setup -- do not change this file. 291.It Pa /boot/defaults/loader.conf 292default settings -- do not change this file. 293.It Pa /boot/dloader.menu 294defines the commands used by 295.Nm loader 296to setup menus. 297.It Pa /boot/loader.conf 298user defined settings. 299.It Pa /boot/loader.conf.local 300machine-specific settings for sites with a common loader.conf. 301.It Pa /boot/dloader.rc 302contains the instructions to automatically process. 303.El 304.Sh SEE ALSO 305.Xr boot 8 , 306.Xr loader 8 307.Sh HISTORY 308The file 309.Nm 310first appeared in 311.Fx 3.2 . 312.Sh AUTHORS 313This manual page was written by 314.An Daniel C. Sobral Aq Mt dcs@FreeBSD.org . 315
