xref: /freebsd/stand/man/loader_lua.8 (revision 59c8e88e72633afbc47a4ace0d2170d00d51f7dc)
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25.Dd September 29, 2021
26.Dt LOADER_LUA 8
27.Os
28.Sh NAME
29.Nm loader_lua
30.Nd kernel bootstrapping final stage
31.Sh DESCRIPTION
32The program called
33.Nm
34is the final stage of
35.Fx Ns 's
36kernel bootstrapping process.
37On IA32 (i386) architectures, it is a
38.Pa BTX
39client.
40It is linked statically to
41.Xr libsa 3
42and usually located in the directory
43.Pa /boot .
44.Pp
45It provides a scripting language that can be used to
46automate tasks, do pre-configuration or assist in recovery
47procedures.
48This scripting language is roughly divided in
49two main components.
50The smaller one is a set of commands
51designed for direct use by the casual user, called "builtin
52commands" for historical reasons.
53The main drive behind these commands is user-friendliness.
54The bigger component is the Lua interpreter.
55.Pp
56During initialization,
57.Nm
58probes for a console and sets the
59.Va console
60variable, or sets it to serial console
61.Pq Dq Li comconsole
62if the previous boot stage used that.
63If multiple consoles are selected, they are listed separated by spaces.
64Then, devices are probed,
65.Va currdev
66and
67.Va loaddev
68are set, and
69.Va LINES
70is set to 24.
71Next, Lua is initialized, and
72.Pa /boot/lua/loader.lua
73is processed if it exists.
74After that,
75.Pa /boot/loader.conf
76is processed if available.
77.Pp
78At this point, if an
79.Ic autoboot
80has not been attempted, and if
81.Va autoboot_delay
82is not set to
83.Dq Li NO
84(case insensitive), then an
85.Ic autoboot
86is attempted.
87If the system gets past this point,
88.Va prompt
89is set and
90.Nm
91enters interactive mode.
92Please note that, historically, even when
93.Va autoboot_delay
94is set to
95.Dq Li 0 ,
96the user can interrupt the autoboot process by pressing a key
97on the console while the kernel and modules are being loaded.
98To prevent this set
99.Va autoboot_delay
100to
101.Dq Li -1 .
102In this case
103.Nm
104enters interactive mode only if
105.Ic autoboot
106has failed.
107.Sh BUILTIN COMMANDS
108In
109.Nm ,
110builtin commands take parameters from the command line.
111Presently,
112the only way to call them from a script is by using
113.Pa evaluate
114on a string.
115If an error condition occurs, an exception is generated,
116which can be intercepted using Lua exception handling.
117If not intercepted, an error message is displayed and
118the interpreter's state is reset, emptying the stack and restoring
119interpreting mode.
120.Pp
121The commands are described in the
122.Xr loader_simp 8
123.Dq BUILTIN COMMANDS
124section.
125.Ss BUILTIN ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
126The environment variables common to all interpreters are described in the
127.Xr loader_simp 8
128.Dq BUILTIN ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
129section.
130.Ss BUILTIN PARSER
131When a builtin command is executed, the rest of the line is taken
132as arguments, and it is processed by a special parser which
133is not used for regular Lua commands.
134.Sh SECURITY
135Access to the
136.Nm
137command line provides several ways of compromising system security,
138including, but not limited to:
139.Pp
140.Bl -bullet
141.It
142Booting from removable storage, by setting the
143.Va currdev
144or
145.Va loaddev
146variables
147.It
148Executing a binary of choice, by setting the
149.Va init_path
150or
151.Va init_script
152variables
153.It
154Overriding ACPI DSDT to inject arbitrary code into the ACPI subsystem
155.El
156.Pp
157One can prevent unauthorized access
158to the
159.Nm
160command line by setting the
161.Va password ,
162or setting
163.Va autoboot_delay
164to -1.
165See
166.Xr loader.conf 5
167for details.
168In order for this to be effective, one should also configure the firmware
169(BIOS or UEFI) to prevent booting from unauthorized devices.
170.Sh MD
171Memory disk (MD) can be used when the
172.Nm
173was compiled with
174.Va MD_IMAGE_SIZE .
175The size of the memory disk is determined by
176.Va MD_IMAGE_SIZE .
177If MD available, a file system can be embedded into the
178.Nm
179with
180.Pa /sys/tools/embed_mfs.sh .
181Then, MD is probed and set to
182.Va currdev
183during initialization.
184.Pp
185Currently, MD is only supported in
186.Xr loader.efi 8 .
187.Sh FILES
188.Bl -tag -width /usr/share/examples/bootforth/ -compact
189.It Pa /boot/loader
190.Nm
191itself.
192.It Pa /boot/defaults/loader.conf
193.It Pa /boot/lua/loader.lua
194Loader init
195.It Pa /boot/loader.conf
196.It Pa /boot/loader.conf.local
197.Nm
198configuration files, as described in
199.Xr loader.conf 5 .
200.Sh EXAMPLES
201Boot in single user mode:
202.Pp
203.Dl boot -s
204.Pp
205Load the kernel, a splash screen, and then autoboot in five seconds.
206Notice that a kernel must be loaded before any other
207.Ic load
208command is attempted.
209.Bd -literal -offset indent
210load kernel
211load splash_bmp
212load -t splash_image_data /boot/chuckrulez.bmp
213autoboot 5
214.Ed
215.Pp
216Set the disk unit of the root device to 2, and then boot.
217This would be needed in a system with two IDE disks,
218with the second IDE disk hardwired to ada2 instead of ada1.
219.Bd -literal -offset indent
220set root_disk_unit=2
221boot /boot/kernel/kernel
222.Ed
223.Pp
224Set the default device used for loading a kernel from a ZFS filesystem:
225.Bd -literal -offset indent
226set currdev=zfs:tank/ROOT/knowngood:
227.Ed
228.Pp
229.Sh ERRORS
230The following values are thrown by
231.Nm :
232.Bl -tag -width XXXXX -offset indent
233.It 100
234Any type of error in the processing of a builtin.
235.It -1
236.Ic Abort
237executed.
238.It -2
239.Ic Abort"
240executed.
241.It -56
242.Ic Quit
243executed.
244.It -256
245Out of interpreting text.
246.It -257
247Need more text to succeed -- will finish on next run.
248.It -258
249.Ic Bye
250executed.
251.It -259
252Unspecified error.
253.El
254.Sh SEE ALSO
255.Xr libsa 3 ,
256.Xr loader.conf 5 ,
257.Xr tuning 7 ,
258.Xr boot 8 ,
259.Xr btxld 8
260.Sh HISTORY
261The
262.Nm
263first appeared in
264.Fx 12.0 .
265