systemd-boot-friend is a software which helps you to use systemd-boot.

NOTICE: If you have installed systemd-boot-friend, it will automatically install all existing kernels on the current operating system (systemd-boot does support detecting other EFI boot entries installed on the same EFI system partition, please visit systemd-boot for further information) and generate entries for you once the kernel is upgraded or modified.

Initialize§

In order to use systemd-boot-friend, you have two options:

1. Automatically initialize systemd-boot and install the newest kernel via sbf init
2. Manually install and set-up systemd-boot yourself, then utilize systemd-boot-friend just to update the kernels.

For the automatic method, simply mount your ESP partition to /efi and run sbf init. If everything goes well, you should have a working systemd-boot installation.

For the manual method, you can take a look at systemd-boot - ArchWiki, which describes how to set up systemd-boot by yourself. Then after you have decided on where to mount your ESP partition, you can fill in the mountpoint at /etc/systemd-boot-friend.conf and create the $ESP_MOUNTPOINT/EFI/systemd-boot-friend/ folder, and then you are good to go.

Usage§

systemd-boot-friend has several subcommands. The executable's name is sbf.

init              Initialize systemd-boot-friend
update            Install all kernels and update boot entries
install-kernel    Install the kernel specified
remove-kernel     Remove the kernel specified
list-available    List all available kernels
list-installed    List all installed kernels
config            Configure systemd-boot
set-default       Set the default kernel
set-timeout       Set the boot menu timeout

• init Initializes systemd-boot, and asks if you would like to install all available kernels and generate corresponding boot entries.

• update Removes all installed kernels, reinstalls all available kernels and re-generates the corresponding boot entries.

• install-kernel Installs a specific kernel or choose a kernel if no argument is given. The argument can either be the number corresponding to the kernel in systemd-boot-friend list or the kernel's name (e.g. 5.12.0-aosc-main).

• remove-kernel Similar to install. Removes a specific kernel or choose a kernel if no argument is given. The argument can either be the number corresponding to the kernel in systemd-boot-friend list-installed or the kernel's name (e.g. 5.12.0-aosc-main).

• list-available Lists all available kernels.

• list-installed Lists all kernels installed (from the current OS) in systemd-boot.

• config Configure the systemd-boot loader with an friendly interactive interface, you can also manually configure it by editing $ESP/loader/loader.conf.

• set-default Set the default kernel for systemd-boot to boot from.

• set-timeout Set the timeout of the systemd-boot boot menu.

Configuration§

/etc/systemd-boot-friend.conf is systemd-boot-friend's configuration file.

• VMLINUX

  vmlinux filename format, you can find the filename at /boot usually. The format is vmlinuz-{VERSION} by default, this is for filenames like vmlinuz-5.12.0-aosc-main or vmlinuz-5.12.0-200.fc34.x86_64.

• INITRD

  Similar to VMLINUZ, this is initrd filename format. The format is initramfs-{VERSION}.img by default, this is for filenames like initramfs-5.12.0-aosc-main.img or initramfs-5.12.0-200.fc34.x86_64. For Debian users, modify it to initrd.img-{VERSION}.

• DISTRO

  Distribution name, this is used in boot entry titles. Default value is AOSC OS.

• ESP_MOUNTPOINT

  ESP mountpoint, modify it to your mountpoint before using systemd-boot-friend. Default value is /efi.

• BOOTARG

  This is the kernel parameters used in boot process. In a boot entry file, this is filled after options key. Usually, you have to specify the root partition and make it rw here. For example root=/dev/sda2 rw. See https://systemd.io/BOOT_LOADER_SPECIFICATION/ and https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/systemd-boot#Adding_loaders for further information.

Technical details§

systemd-boot-friend will install kernels to /EFI/systemd-boot-friend/ directory in your ESP partition, and generate boot entries named $VERSION-$LOCALVERSION.conf (e.g. 5.12.0-aosc-main.conf or 5.12.0-200.fc34.x86_64.conf).