efibootmgr(8)
Manipulate EFI boot entries and boot order on UEFI systems.
Synopsis
efibootmgr [OPTION]... [BOOTNUM]Description
efibootmgr displays and modifies the EFI boot manager configuration on UEFI systems. It allows you to view, create, delete, and reorder boot entries in the EFI firmware, as well as set the next boot option and timeout values.
Changes made by efibootmgr persist in the EFI Non-Volatile RAM (NVRAM) and affect the system's boot behavior until modified again. This tool is essential for managing dual-boot systems, troubleshooting boot issues, and automating boot configuration.
Root privileges are required for most operations. The command interacts directly with EFI variables, so use caution when modifying boot order on production systems.
Common options
| Flag | What it does |
|---|---|
-l, --list | display current boot entries in the order they will be tried |
-n, --next BOOTNUM | set the next boot entry (e.g., -n 0000) without changing the boot order |
-N, --delete-bootnext | delete the BootNext variable |
-o, --bootorder BOOTNUM1,BOOTNUM2,... | set the boot order as a comma-separated list of boot numbers |
-c, --create | create a new boot entry (requires -d, -p, -L) |
-d, --disk DISK | disk containing the partition (e.g., /dev/sda) |
-p, --part PARTNUM | partition number containing the EFI loader |
-L, --label LABEL | descriptive name for the boot entry |
-B, --delete-bootnum BOOTNUM | delete the specified boot entry (e.g., -B 0005) |
-t, --timeout SECONDS | set the boot menu timeout in seconds |
-T, --delete-timeout | delete the timeout variable and use firmware default |
-v, --verbose | print extra debugging information |
Examples
list all boot entries and show the current boot order
efibootmgrsame as above; explicitly list boot entries with their numbers
efibootmgr -lset the next boot to entry 0002 without changing the permanent boot order
efibootmgr -n 0002set the boot order: entry 0000 first, then 0003, then 0001
efibootmgr -o 0000,0003,0001create a new boot entry named 'Fedora' for the EFI partition at /dev/sda1
sudo efibootmgr -c -d /dev/sda -p 1 -L 'Fedora'delete boot entry 0005 from the firmware
sudo efibootmgr -B -b 0005set the EFI boot menu timeout to 10 seconds
sudo efibootmgr -t 10remove the timeout variable and revert to firmware default
sudo efibootmgr -T