limine/CONFIG.md
2020-09-24 23:18:51 +02:00

3.1 KiB

Limine configuration file

The Limine configuration file is comprised of assignments and entries.

Entries describe boot entries which the user can select in the boot menu.

An entry is simply a line starting with : followed by a newline-terminated string. Any locally assignable key that comes after it, and before another entry, or the end of the file, will be tied to the entry.

Assignments are simple KEY=VALUE style assignments. VALUE can have spaces and = symbols, without requiring quotations. New lines are delimiters.

Some assignments are part of an entry (local), some other assignments are global. Global assignments can appear anywhere in the file and are not part of an entry, although usually one would put them at the beginning of the config. Some local assignments are shared between entries using any protocol, while other local assignments are specific to a given protocol.

Globally assignable keys are:

  • TIMEOUT - Specifies the timeout in seconds before the first entry is automatically booted.
  • TEXTMODE - If set to on, do not use graphical VESA framebuffer for the boot menu.
  • THEME_BLACK, THEME_RED, THEME_GREEN, THEME_BROWN, THEME_BLUE, THEME_MAGENTA, THEME_CYAN, THEME_GREY, THEME_WHITE - Specifies the colors used by the terminal (RRGGBB).
  • THEME_MARGIN - Set the amount of margin around the terminal.

Locally assignable (non protocol specific) keys are:

  • PROTOCOL - The boot protocol that will be used to boot the kernel. Valid protocols are: linux, stivale, chainload.
  • KERNEL_PROTO - Alias of PROTOCOL.
  • CMDLINE - The command line string to be passed to the kernel. Can be omitted.
  • KERNEL_CMDLINE - Alias of CMDLINE.

Locally assignable (protocol specific) keys are:

  • Linux protocol:

    • KERNEL_DRIVE - The BIOS drive (in decimal) where the kernel resides (if unspecified, boot drive is assumed).
    • KERNEL_PARTITION - The index (in decimal) of the partition containing the kernel.
    • KERNEL_PATH - The path of the kernel in said partition, forward slashes to delimit directories.
    • INITRD_PARTITION - Partition index of the initial ramdisk.
    • INITRD_PATH - The path to the initial ramdisk.
  • stivale protocol:

    • KERNEL_DRIVE - The BIOS drive (in decimal) where the kernel resides (if unspecified, boot drive is assumed).
    • KERNEL_PARTITION - The index (in decimal) of the partition containing the kernel.
    • KERNEL_PATH - The path of the kernel in said partition, forward slashes to delimit directories.
    • MODULE_PARTITION - Partition index of a module.
    • MODULE_PATH - The path to a module.
    • MODULE_STRING - A string to be passed to a module.
  • Chainload protocol:

    • DRIVE - The BIOS drive (in decimal) to chainload.
    • PARTITION - The partition index (in decimal) to chainload (if omitted, chainload the drive's bootsector).

    Note that one can define these 3 variable multiple times to specify multiple modules. The entries will be matched in order. E.g.: the 1st partition entry will be matched to the 1st path and the 1st string entry that appear, and so on.