.\" Copyright (c) 1999 Daniel C. Sobral
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.\" $FreeBSD: src/sys/boot/forth/loader.conf.5,v 1.18 2002/08/27 01:02:56 trhodes Exp $
.Dd October 6, 2010
.Dt LOADER.CONF 5
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm loader.conf
.Nd system bootstrap configuration information
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The file
.Nm
contains descriptive information on bootstrapping the system.
Through it you can specify the kernel to be booted,
parameters to be passed to it,
and additional kernel modules to be loaded;
and generally set all variables described in
.Xr loader 8 .
.Pp
A file
.Pa dloader.rc
must contain the following lines for
.Nm
to be automatically processed:
.Pp
.Dl include defaults/loader.conf
.Dl optinclude loader.conf
.Dl optinclude loader.conf.local
.Pp
If no
.Pa /boot/dloader.rc
exists at installworld time, one with the above lines will be installed.
.Sh SYNTAX
Though
.Nm Ns 's
format was defined explicitly to resemble
.Xr rc.conf 5 ,
and can be sourced by
.Xr sh 1 ,
some settings are treated in a special fashion.
Also, the behavior of some settings is defined by the setting's suffix;
the prefix identifies which module the setting controls.
.Pp
The general parsing rules are:
.Bl -bullet
.It
Spaces and empty lines are ignored.
.It
A
.Ql #
sign will mark the remainder of the line as a comment.
.It
Only one setting can be present on each line.
.El
.Pp
All settings have the following format:
.Pp
.Dl variable="value"
.Pp
This assigns value to a local variable.
If variable is in a list of known kernel environment variables or
is a kernel tunable,
it is also assigned to the kernel environment variable of the given name.
.Pp
The settings that receive special treatment are listed below.
Settings beginning with
.Aq Ar module
below define the kernel modules to be loaded.
All such settings sharing a common
prefix refer to the same module.
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Ar kernel
Name of the kernel to be loaded.
If no kernel name is set, no additional
modules will be loaded.
.It Ar kernel_options
Flags to be passed to the kernel (see
.Xr boot 8 ) .
.It Ar verbose_loading
If set to
.Dq YES ,
module names will be displayed as they are loaded.
.It Ao Ar module Ac Ns Ar _load
If set to
.Dq YES ,
that kernel module will be loaded.
If no
.Ao Ar module Ac Ns Ar _name
is defined (see below), the
module's name is taken to be
.Aq Ar module .
.It Ao Ar module Ac Ns Ar _name
Defines the name of the module.
.It Ao Ar module Ac Ns Ar _type
Defines the module's type.
If none is given, it defaults to a
.Xr kld 4
module.
.It Ao Ar module Ac Ns Ar _flags
Flags and parameters to be passed to the module.
.It Ao Ar module Ac Ns Ar _before
Commands to be executed before the module is loaded.
Use of this setting
should be avoided.
.It Ao Ar module Ac Ns Ar _after
Commands to be executed after the module is loaded.
Use of this setting
should be avoided.
.It Ao Ar module Ac Ns Ar _error
Commands to be executed if the loading of a module fails.
Except for the
special value
.Dq abort ,
which aborts the bootstrap process, use of this setting should be avoided.
.El
.Sh DEFAULT SETTINGS
See
.Pa /boot/defaults/loader.conf
for
.Nm Ns 's
default settings.
The few of them which are important
or useful are:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Va bitmap_load
.Pq Dq NO
If set to
.Dq YES ,
a bitmap will be loaded to be displayed on screen while booting.
.It Va bitmap_name
.Pq Dq splash.bmp
Name of the bitmap to be loaded.
Any other name can be used.
.It Va boot_verbose
.Pq Dq NO
Set to
.Dq YES
to enable verbose booting.
.It Va console
.Pq Dq vidconsole
.Dq comconsole
selects serial console,
.Dq vidconsole
selects the video console, and
.Dq nullconsole
selects a mute console
(useful for systems with neither a video console nor a serial port).
.It Va fred_disable
.Pq Dq NO
Shows a monochrome version of Fred, the official
.Dx
mascot, when the
boot menu appears.
To make his life a bit more colorful, consider setting
.Pa loader_color
to
.Dq YES .
.It Va fred_on_left
.Pq Dq NO
Shows Fred on the left side of the menu rather than the right side.
.It Va kernel
.Pq Dq kernel .
.It Va loader_color
.Pq Dq NO
If set to
.Dq YES ,
you'll meet Fred, the official
.Dx
mascot, in technicolor when the
boot menu appears (remember to set
.Pa fred_disable
to
.Dq NO
for this to work.)
.It Va splash_bmp_load
.Pq Dq NO
If set to
.Dq YES ,
will load the splash screen module, making it possible to display a bmp image
on the screen while booting.
.It Va splash_pcx_load
.Pq Dq NO
If set to
.Dq YES ,
will load the splash screen module, making it possible to display a pcx image
on the screen while booting.
.It Va userconfig_script_load
.Pq Dq NO
If set to
.Dq YES ,
will load the userconfig data.
.It Va vesa_load
.Pq Dq NO
If set to
.Dq YES ,
the vesa module will be loaded, enabling bitmaps above VGA resolution to
be displayed.
.El
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width ".Pa /boot/defaults/dloader.menu" -compact
.It Pa /boot/defaults/dloader.menu
default settings for menu setup -- do not change this file.
.It Pa /boot/defaults/loader.conf
default settings -- do not change this file.
.It Pa /boot/dloader.menu
defines the commands used by
.Nm loader
to setup menus.
.It Pa /boot/loader.conf
user defined settings.
.It Pa /boot/loader.conf.local
machine-specific settings for sites with a common loader.conf.
.It Pa /boot/dloader.rc
contains the instructions to automatically process.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr boot 8 ,
.Xr loader 8
.Sh HISTORY
The file
.Nm
first appeared in
.Fx 3.2 .
.Sh AUTHORS
This manual page was written by
.An Daniel C. Sobral Aq dcs@FreeBSD.org .