com.apple.Boot.plist(5)

NAME
com.apple.Boot.plist - Configuration plist for Mac OS X booter

DESCRIPTION
The Mac OS X booter ( boot.efi on EFI-based Macintosh systems) is responsible for loading the initial parts of the operating system into memory and executing them. Its default behavior is to start up Mac OS X in graphical mode. However, certain behavior can be configured using the com.apple.Boot.plist file, as well as NVRAM variables, EFI boot options, and keyboard "snag keys".

The com.apple.Boot.plist is a standard plist(5) format Core Foundation property list stored in XML format. Keys are generally strings like Kernel Flags, with either string or integer values. The following key-values are currently supported:

Kernel Flags
    [string] This option specifies arguments to be passed directly to the kernel to change its behavior (although some kernel options are parsed by the booter as well for correctness). Common options include "debug=0x144" to enable kernel debugging, "-v" to enable verbose boot, "-s" to boot to single user mode, "cpus=1" to simulate a single core system, and "maxmem=1024" to cap available memory to 1024 MB RAM. All desired options should be space-separated within the <string> tag. The default value is the empty string.

MKext Cache
    [string] This option specifies the mkext file to be loaded, which contains kernel extensions. The path uses backslash ("\ ") path delimeters. The default value is System\ Library\ Caches\ com.apple.kext.caches\ Startup\ Extensions.mkext.

Kernel
    [string] This option specifies the kernel file to be loaded. The path uses backslash ("\ ") path delimeters. The default value is mach_kernel.

Kernel Cache
    [string] This option specifies the prelinked kernel file to be loaded, which contains both the kernel and kernel extensions, linked at their final load addresses. The path uses backslash ("\ ") path delimeters. The default value is calculated programmatically using System\ Library\ Caches\ com.apple.kext.caches\ Startup\ kernelcache_${ARCH}.${CHECKSUM} as the template, where ${ARCH} is the architecture of the kernel ("i386" or "x86_64") and ${CHECKSUM} is a 32-bit hash of characteristics of the boot volume and machine hardware.

Kernel Architecture
    [string] This option specifies which kernel architecture to use when the kernel file is a universal binary and the hardware supports more than one kernel architecture. It can be either "i386" or "x86_64" to choose the respective slice of the universal binary. If the kernel is not a universal binary, this option has no effect. If the hardware only supports the 32-bit kernel, this option has no effect. The default value is determined programmatically based on the hardware, and whether Mac OS X Server is being used.

Root UUID
    [string] This option is rarely used and specifies to the kernel what block device should be probed as the root filesystem ("/"), and is most commonly overriden by the OS installation software when installing onto AppleRAID volumes. It can be either a filesystem volume UUID, as represented by diskutil info, or a GPT partition UUID. The default is generated programmatically based on which filesystem the booter itself was loaded from.

Since the com.apple.Boot.plist file exists on the root filesystem, it is tied to that OS volume, and is no longer honored if Startup Disk or bless(8) is used to change the boot preference to another volume.

The Kernel Flags options can also be specified via --optionto bless(8), which encodes the string in the EFI boot options along with the OS boot volume preference. The space-separated strings are merged with kernel flags specified in the com.apple.Boot.plist and NVRAM.

At boot time, the booter checks to see if certain keys are being pressed, and alters behavior accordingly. This is in addition to similar functionality that the firmware itself may implement before starting the booter. Since pressing keys requires physical interaction, they take precendence over preferences set through other means, including the com.apple.Boot.plist file and NVRAM. The following key combinations are currently supported:

Shift
    Boot in Safe Mode. Effectively the same as passing "-x" in Kernel Flags, and causes most caches to be ignored by the booter.

Command-S
    Boot in Single User Mode. Effectively the same as passing "-s" in Kernel Flags, and causes the system to boot to an interactive shell with no system services started.

Command-V
    Boot in Verbose Mode. Effectively the same as passing "-v" in Kernel Flags, and causes the system to boot to verbose text logging before starting the graphical user interface.

Command-R
    Boot in Recovery Mode. This causes the system to boot into special Recovery System image, which can be used used to restore the system from Time Machine Backup, re-install Mac OS X, or use Disk Utility to repair or erase disks.

3 2 Boot with the 32-bit kernel. Effectively the same as passing "arch=i386" in Kernel Flags, and causes the system to prefer the 32-bit kernel on systems that would otherwise boot the 64-bit kernel.

6 4 Boot with the 64-bit kernel (if supported on this system). Effectively the same as passing "arch=x86_64" in Kernel Flags, and causes the system to prefer the 64-bit kernel on systems that would otherwise boot the 32-bit kernel. If the 64-bit kernel is not supported, the option is ignored.

ENVIRONMENT
The Mac OS X booter can also be controlled by NVRAM variables, which are analogous to environment variables. NVRAM variables are key-value pairs. The "boot-args" NVRAM variable can be used to provide additional arguments to the kernel, and will be merged with Kernel Flags in the com.apple.Boot.plist file and EFI boot options set with bless(8).

Since NVRAM variables are system-wide, they are consulted regardless of what OS volume is set as the boot preference. NVRAM variables are persistent even when the boot preference is changed by Startup Disk or bless(8).

FILES

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist
    Location of the com.apple.Boot.plist file.

SEE ALSO
nvram(8), bless(8), kextcache(8)