From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]: time-out n 1: a brief suspension of play; "each team has two time-outs left" From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (18 March 2015) [foldoc]: timeout A period of time after which an error condition is raised if some event has not occured. A common example is sending a message. If the receiver does not acknowledge the message within some preset timeout period, a transmission error is assumed to have occured.
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The Boot Loader Interface
systemd can interface with the boot loader to receive performance data and
other information, and pass control information. This is only supported on EFI
systems. Data is transferred between the boot loader and systemd in EFI
variables. All EFI variables use the vendor UUID
4a67b082-0a4c-41cf-b6c7-440b29bb8c4f
.
-
The EFI Variable
LoaderTimeInitUSec
contains the timestamp in microseconds when the loader was initialized. This value is the time spent in the firmware for initialization, it is formatted as numeric, NUL-terminated, decimal string, in UTF-16. -
The EFI Variable
LoaderTimeExecUSec
contains the timestamp in microseconds when the loader finished its work and is about to execute the kernel. The time spent in the loader is the difference betweenLoaderTimeExecUSec
andLoaderTimeInitUSec
. This value is formatted the same way asLoaderTimeInitUSec
. -
The EFI variable
LoaderDevicePartUUID
contains the partition GUID of the ESP the boot loader was run from formatted as NUL-terminated UTF16 string, in normal GUID syntax. -
The EFI variable
LoaderConfigTimeout
contains the boot menu timeout currently in use. It may be modified both by the boot loader and by the host. The value should be formatted as numeric, NUL-terminated, decimal string, in UTF-16. The time is specified in µs. -
Similarly, the EFI variable
LoaderConfigTimeoutOneShot
contains a boot menu timeout for a single following boot. It is set by the OS in order to request display of the boot menu on the following boot. When set overridesLoaderConfigTimeout
. It is removed automatically after being read by the boot loader, to ensure it only takes effect a single time. This value is formatted the same way asLoaderConfigTimeout
. If set to0
the boot menu timeout is turned off, and the menu is shown indefinitely. -
The EFI variable
LoaderEntries
may contain a series of boot loader entry identifiers, one after the other, each individually NUL terminated. This may be used to let the OS know which boot menu entries were discovered by the boot loader. A boot loader entry identifier should be a short, non-empty alphanumeric string (possibly containing-
, too). The list should be in the order the entries are shown on screen during boot. See below regarding a recommended vocabulary for boot loader entry identifiers. -
The EFI variable
LoaderEntryDefault
contains the default boot loader entry to use. It contains a NUL-terminated boot loader entry identifier. -
Similarly, the EFI variable
LoaderEntryOneShot
contains the default boot loader entry to use for a single following boot. It is set by the OS in order to request booting into a specific menu entry on the following boot. When set overridesLoaderEntryDefault
. It is removed automatically after being read by the boot loader, to ensure it only takes effect a single time. This value is formatted the same way asLoaderEntryDefault
. -
The EFI variable
LoaderEntrySelected
contains the boot loader entry identifier that was booted. It is set by the boot loader and read by the OS in order to identify which entry has been used for the current boot. -
The EFI variable
LoaderFeatures
contains a 64bit unsigned integer with a number of flags bits that are set by the boot loader and passed to the OS and indicate the features the boot loader supports. Specifically, the following bits are defined:1 << 0
→ The boot loader honoursLoaderConfigTimeout
when set.1 << 1
→ The boot loader honoursLoaderConfigTimeoutOneShot
when set.1 << 2
→ The boot loader honoursLoaderEntryDefault
when set.1 << 3
→ The boot loader honoursLoaderEntryOneShot
when set.1 << 4
→ The boot loader supports boot counting as described in Automatic Boot Assessment.
If LoaderTimeInitUSec
and LoaderTimeExecUSec
are set, systemd-analyze
will include them in its boot-time analysis. If LoaderDevicePartUUID
is set,
systemd will mount the ESP that was used for the boot to /boot
, but only if
that directory is empty, and only if no other file systems are mounted
there. The systemctl reboot --boot-loader-entry=…
and systemctl reboot --boot-loader-menu=…
commands rely on the LoaderFeatures
,
LoaderConfigTimeoutOneShot
, LoaderEntries
, LoaderEntryOneShot
variables.
Boot Loader Entry Identifiers
While boot loader entries may be named relatively freely, it's highly
recommended to follow the following rules when picking identifiers for the
entries, so that programs (and users) can derive basic context and meaning from
the identifiers as passed in LoaderEntries
, LoaderEntryDefault
,
LoaderEntryOneShot
, LoaderEntrySelected
, and possibly show nicely localized
names for them in UIs.
-
When boot loader entries are defined through Boot Loader Specification drop-in files the identifier should be derived directly from the drop-in snippet name, but with the
.conf
(or.efi
in case of Type #2 entries) suffix removed. -
Entries automatically discovered by the boot loader (as opposed to being configured in configuration files) should generally have an identifier prefixed with
auto-
. -
Boot menu entries referring to Microsoft Windows installations should either use the identifier
windows
or use thewindows-
prefix for the identifier. If a menu entry is automatically discovered, it should be prefixed withauto-
, see above (Example: this means an automatically discovered Windows installation might have the identifierauto-windows
orauto-windows-10
or so.). -
Similar, boot menu entries referring to Apple MacOS X installations should use the identifier
osx
or one that is prefixed withosx-
. If such an entry is automatically discovered by the boot loader useauto-osx
as identifier, orauto-osx-
as prefix for the identifier, see above. -
If a boot menu entry encapsulates the EFI shell program, it should use the identifier
efi-shell
(or when automatically discovered:auto-efi-shell
, see above). -
If a boot menu entry encapsulates a reboot into EFI firmware setup feature, it should use the identifier
reboot-to-firmware-setup
(orauto-reboot-to-firmware-setup
in case it is automatically discovered).