Provided by: pibootctl_0.5.2-0ubuntu1_all 
NAME
pibootctl - pibootctl manual
SYNOPSIS
pibootctl [-h] [--version] command ...
DESCRIPTION
The pibootctl utility exists to query and manipulate the boot configuration of the Raspberry Pi. It also
permits easy storage and retrieval of boot configurations. Each of the commands provided by the utility
are listed in the following section.
COMMANDS
diff Display the differences between the specified boot configuration and the current one, or another
specified configuration.
get Retrieve the value of specified setting(s).
help The default command, which describes the specified command or configuration setting.
list List the stored boot configurations.
load Restore the named boot configuration to be used at the next boot.
remove Delete the specified boot configuration.
rename Rename the specified boot configuration.
save Save the current boot configuration to the specified name.
set Modify or reset the specified configuration setting(s).
show Show the specified stored configuration.
status Output the current boot configuration; by default this only prints modified settings.
USAGE
Typically, the status command is the first used, to determine the current boot configuration:
$ pibootctl status
+------------------------+-------+
| Name | Value |
|------------------------+-------|
| i2c.enabled | on |
| spi.enabled | on |
| video.overscan.enabled | off |
+------------------------+-------+
After which the save command might be used to take a backup of the configuration before editing it with
the set command:
$ sudo pibootctl save default
$ sudo pibootctl set camera.enabled=on gpu.mem=128
$ sudo pibootctl save cam
NOTE:
Note that commands which modify the content of the boot partition (e.g. save and set) are executed
with sudo as root privileges are typically required.
The configuration of pibootctl itself dictates where the stored configurations are placed on disk. By
default this is under a "pibootctl" directory on the boot partition, but this can be changed in the
pibootctl configuration. The application attempts to read its configuration from the following locations
on startup:
• /lib/pibootctl/pibootctl.conf
• /etc/pibootctl.conf
• $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/pibootctl.conf
The final location is only intended for developers working on pibootctl itself. The others should be used
by packages providing pibootctl on your chosen OS.
Stored boot configurations are simply PKZIP <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zip_(file_format)> files
containing the files that make up the boot configuration (sometimes this is just the config.txt file, and
sometimes other files may be included).
NOTE:
In the event that your system is unable to boot (e.g. because of mis-configuration), you can restore a
stored boot configuration simply by unzipping the stored configuration back into the root of the boot
partition.
In other words, you can simply place your Pi's SD card in a Windows or MAC OS X computer which should
automatically mount the boot partition (which is the only partition that these OS' will understand on
the card), find the "pibootctl" folder and under there you should see all your stored configurations
as .zip files. Unzip one of these into the folder above "pibootctl", overwriting files as necessary
and you have restored your boot configuration.
The diff command can be used to discover the differences between boot configurations:
$ pibootctl diff default
+------------------------+---------------+-------------+
| Name | <Current> | default |
|------------------------+---------------+-------------|
| boot.firmware.filename | 'start_x.elf' | 'start.elf' |
| boot.firmware.fixup | 'fixup_x.dat' | 'fixup.dat' |
| camera.enabled | on | off |
| gpu.mem | 128 (Mb) | 64 (Mb) |
+------------------------+---------------+-------------+
NOTE:
Some settings indirectly affect others. Even though we did not explicitly set boot.firmware.filename,
setting camera.enabled affected its default value.
The help command can be used to display the help screen for each sub-command:
$ pibootctl help save
usage: pibootctl save [-h] [-f] name
Store the current boot configuration under a given name.
positional arguments:
name The name to save the current boot configuration under; can
include any characters legal in a filename
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-f, --force Overwrite an existing configuration, if one exists
Additionally, help will accept setting names to display information about the defaults and underlying
commands each setting represents:
$ pibootctl help camera.enabled
Name: camera.enabled
Default: off
Command(s): start_x, start_debug, start_file, fixup_file
Enables loading the Pi camera module firmware. This implies that
start_x.elf (or start4x.elf) will be loaded as the GPU firmware rather than
the default start.elf (and the corresponding fixup file).
Note: with the camera firmware loaded, gpu.mem must be 64Mb or larger
(128Mb is recommended for most purposes; 256Mb may be required for complex
processing pipelines).
The list command can be used to display the content of the configuration store, and load to restore
previously saved configurations:
$ pibootctl list
+---------+--------+---------------------+
| Name | Active | Timestamp |
|---------+--------+---------------------|
| cam | x | 2020-03-11 21:29:56 |
| default | | 2020-03-11 21:29:13 |
+---------+--------+---------------------+
$ sudo pibootctl load default
AUTHOR
Dave Jones
COPYRIGHT
2019-2020 Dave Jones