Limine is an advanced, portable, multiprotocol boot loader originally developed as the reference implementation for the Limine boot protocol, but also supporting the ability to boot Linux as well as to chainload other boot loaders.

Note In the entire article *esp* denotes the mountpoint of the EFI system partition aka ESP.

Supported file systems

Limine supports FAT12, FAT16, FAT32 and ISO9660. The list of supported file systems is intentionally limited per Limine’s design philosophy.

Note This does not mean that Limine cannot boot an OS which uses any other file system for its root; it just means that the kernel, initramfs, and any other files needed at boot will have to reside on a FAT partition (such as the ESP on UEFI systems).

Installation

Install the limine package.

Follow the instructions in #Deploying the boot loader and #Configuration.

Deploying the boot loader

UEFI systems

Note If installing on a system with a 32-bit UEFI, substitute the BOOTX64.EFI filename with BOOTIA32.EFI.

Deploying Limine on UEFI systems involves copying the /usr/share/limine/BOOTX64.EFI file to the EFI system partition, and to make the UEFI BIOS aware of it.

# mkdir -p esp/EFI/limine
# cp /usr/share/limine/BOOTX64.EFI esp/EFI/limine/

Tip If installing to removable media, or on certain motherboards onto which efibootmgr-created custom firmware boot entries do not work or are ignored, it is recommended to copy the BOOTX64.EFI file to *esp*/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI instead, which is the default boot loader application search location, and to skip the rest of this section.

Limine does not add an entry for the boot loader in the NVRAM automatically. Use efibootmgr to setup an entry for Limine.

To do so, one can do the following:

# efibootmgr \
--create \
--disk /dev/sdX \
--part Y \
--label "Arch Linux Limine Bootloader" \
--loader '\EFI\limine\BOOTX64.EFI' \
--unicode

• */dev/sdX* is the disk (not a partition) where the ESP is located on. For example /dev/sda or /dev/nvme0n1. See Device file#Block device names for a description of the block device naming scheme.
• Y is the partition index of the ESP, so if the ESP is /dev/sda1, then Y should be 1.

Note Read efibootmgr and its documentation for further information on how to add, remove, change, and sort boot entries.

BIOS systems with MBR

Deploying Limine on BIOS systems involves copying the /usr/share/limine/limine-bios.sys file, which contains stage 3 code that Limine needs to boot, to either the root, a /boot, a /limine, or a /boot/limine directory of any partition on the disk onto which Limine will be deployed, as long as the filesystem is supported. This usually means having to use a FAT partition for /boot, and copying the limine-bios.sys file to /boot/limine.

For example:

# mkdir -p /boot/limine
# cp /usr/share/limine/limine-bios.sys /boot/limine/

Then stage 1 and 2 need to be deployed to the disk:

# limine bios-install /dev/sdX

*/dev/sdX* is the disk (not a partition) where Limine is to be installed. For example /dev/sda or /dev/nvme0n1. This has to be the disk hosting the /boot partition. See Device file#Block device names for a description of the block device naming scheme.

BIOS systems with GPT

To deploy Limine for BIOS booting from a GPT partitioned disk you need to specify a GPT partition in which to store the stage 2 boot loader (in addition to a FAT32 partition mounted on either /boot, /limine or /boot/limine as explained in previous section). The partition must be at least 32 KiB in size, must not be formatted with a file system or mounted.

Create a mebibyte partition (+1M with fdisk or gdisk) on the disk with no file system and with partition type GUID 21686148-6449-6E6F-744E-656564454649.

• fdisk: Create a partition and use the t command to change its partition type to BIOS boot.
• gdisk: Create a partition with partition type ef02.
• GNU Parted: Create a partition and set the bios_grub flag on it.

Then deploy stage 1 and 2 to the disk, optionally specifying the 1-based number of the BIOS boot partition:

limine bios-install /dev/sdX partition_number

If the partition number is left out, limine bios-install will try to detect it automatically.

Like the MBR case, you must copy limine-bios.sys file (and your configuration limine.conf to either the root, a /boot, a /limine, or a /boot/limine directory of any partition on the disk other than the one used to deploy the stage 2 bootloader before calling limine bios-install.

UEFI + BIOS bootable drives

As long as a drive is MBR formatted, and it contains an EFI system partition (which can be the same as the /boot partition used for BIOS systems), it is possible to follow both the BIOS and UEFI deployment procedures in order to create a drive capable of booting on both legacy BIOS as well as UEFI systems. This is useful, for example, for installing an operating system on a USB flash drive which is to be used on multiple systems which may or may not support UEFI, or to ease moving hard drives across systems.

Configuration

limine does not ship a default configuration file, it is therefore necessary to create one. This file is necessary to teach Limine which operating systems are available for boot. The configuration file has a lot of options as Limine allows for a fair degree of customisation. A detailed documentation of the configuration file, its format, and its options can be found here.

The configuration file needs to reside on either the root, a /boot, a /limine, or a /boot/limine directory of a partition on the drive on which Limine is deployed, as long as the file system of said partition is supported. For UEFI systems, it may also reside on *esp*/EFI/BOOT or on *esp*/EFI/limine (the recommended location). The configuration file has to be named limine.conf.

Note In a Limine config, boot():/ represents the partition on which limine.conf is located.

Here follows a simple example configuration that contains 1 boot menu entry that describes a typical Arch Linux kernel and initramfs:

limine.conf

timeout: 5

/Arch Linux
protocol: linux
path: boot():/vmlinuz-linux
cmdline: root=UUID=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx rw
module_path: boot():/initramfs-linux.img

*xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx* is the root file system’s UUID.

In case the /boot partition, where the kernel and initramfs are, and the partition of the limine.conf file do not match (such as, for example, on UEFI systems with an extra /boot partition which is not the same as the ESP, and limine.conf is placed on the ESP), it may be necessary to replace boot():/ in the configuration file with uuid(*xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx*):/, where *xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx* represents the PARTUUID of the /boot FAT partition.

Tip If you are booting from an UEFI system with Secure Boot activated then consider securing both Limine config file and resources files like kernels and modules. Indeed everyone that can access the FAT partition that stores the configuration file and the needed resources can alter these file even with SecureBoot.

To prevent this you should first embed the b2sum checksum of every resource file in the configuration. Limine file paths have an optional field containing the b2sum checksum of the file. This field can be specified by appending the # character and then the 128 characters checksum:

boot():/path#checksum

To protect the config file you should embed its b2sum in the EFI executable with limine enroll-config command.

Memtest86+

Add one of the following entries to the configuration file.

For UEFI, install memtest86+-efi and add:

limine.conf

/Memtest86+
protocol: efi
path: boot():/memtest86+/memtest.efi

For BIOS, install memtest86+ and add:

limine.conf

/Memtest86+
protocol: linux
path: boot():/memtest86+/memtest.bin

Windows entry (UEFI)

Add the following to the configuration:

limine.conf

/Windows
protocol: efi
path: boot():/EFI/Microsoft/Boot/bootmgfw.efi

Alternatively replace boot():/ with uuid(*xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx*):/, where *xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx* is the PARTUUID of the ESP, if limine.conf is not on the ESP.

pacman hook

While not mandatory, it may be useful to set up a pacman hook to deploy Limine whenever it is upgraded.

UEFI

Note

• Make sure to replace the ESP directory path if using something other than *esp*/EFI/limine (e.g. *esp*/EFI/BOOT).
• If using a 32-bit UEFI system, make sure to substitute BOOTX64.EFI with BOOTIA32.EFI.

/etc/pacman.d/hooks/99-limine.hook

[Trigger]
Operation = Install
Operation = Upgrade
Type = Package
Target = limine

[Action]
Description = Deploying Limine after upgrade...
When = PostTransaction
Exec = /usr/bin/cp /usr/share/limine/BOOTX64.EFI esp/EFI/limine/

BIOS

Note Keep in mind that the device paths may change with the addition or removal of devices, moving the installation to different machines, and other factors. This may cause the BIOS hook to accidentally install Limine on an unwanted device.

/etc/pacman.d/hooks/99-limine.hook

[Trigger]
Operation = Install
Operation = Upgrade
Type = Package
Target = limine

[Action]
Description = Deploying Limine after upgrade...
When = PostTransaction
Exec = /bin/sh -c "/usr/bin/limine bios-install /dev/sdX && /usr/bin/cp /usr/share/limine/limine-bios.sys /boot/limine/"

• */dev/sdX* is the disk (not a partition) where Limine was installed to in the previous steps.

Tips and tricks

Boot entry automation

To automate kernel integration (initramfs or UKI) with Limine, install:

• limine-dracut-supportAUR for Dracut

or

• limine-mkinitcpio-hookAUR for mkinitcpio

Both tools include pacman hooks for automatically handling kernel entries.

Note

• When updating or reinstalling Limine, its EFI image is automatically deployed to the ESP on UEFI system with x86_64 architecture.
• When using legacy BIOS or alternative CPU architectures such as ARM or RISC-V, automatic deployment of the EFI binary is disabled. In those cases, a specific Limine binary must be manually deployed to your boot partition.

Note

Some non-compliant UEFI motherboards (e.g., certain MSI boards) have non-standard or broken EFI implementations. They may not work with efibootmgr or kernel-based UEFI detection. To skip UEFI detection and registration and set Limine as the fallback bootloader at the standard EFI path *esp*/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI, run:

# limine-install --skip-uefi --fallback

After that, open BIOS setup and change boot order to make the standard EFI path the default boot option.

Configurations

(Optional) Copy /etc/limine-entry-tool.conf to /etc/default/limine if not present.

Edit /etc/default/limine:

• If bootctl --print-esp-path does not detect your ESP, manually set ESP_PATH to any mounted FAT32 boot partition you want to use. Then run limine-install to install the Limine EFI binary.
• (Optional) Set KERNEL_CMDLINE[default]+= with your preferred complete kernel parameters.

Tip

• If unsure about which kernel parameters to use, copy them from /proc/cmdline into KERNEL_CMDLINE[default]=, but do not do this from a live ISO, temporary environment, or snapshot.
• If KERNEL_CMDLINE[default]= or KERNEL_CMDLINE= is not set, the tool will first try to read from the file /etc/kernel/cmdline. If unavailable, it will fall back to reading from /proc/cmdline.
• Optionally, KERNEL_CMDLINE[fallback]= applies to kernel entries containing the name fallback.
• Additionally, KERNEL_CMDLINE[*kernel name*]= corresponds to kernel entry name in the boot menu, allowing unique kernel cmdline/parameters per kernel entry. For example, KERNEL_CMDLINE[linux-lts]= for linux-lts kernel entry.
• KERNEL_CMDLINE[*key*]+= appends kernel parameters to the existing KERNEL_CMDLINE[*key*] values defined in drop-in config files under /etc/limine-entry-tool.d/*.conf. In contrast, KERNEL_CMDLINE[*key*]= fully replaces them according to config priority. Example:

KERNEL_CMDLINE[default]="rw root=UUID=..."
KERNEL_CMDLINE[default]+="quiet splash"

• (Optional) To save ESP space, set DRACUT_FALLBACK to no to disable automatic fallback generation by Dracut for initramfs or UKI.
• (Optional) If you prefer booting with UKI, set ENABLE_UKI to yes.

Tip Advantages of UKI:

• systemd-boot or rEFInd can automatically load UKIs generated by the tool.

• If sbctl is installed and enabled, the tool can automatically sign the UKI with your Secure Boot key when updating or installing kernel.

• (Optional) Set FIND_BOOTLOADERS to yes to detect and add systemd-boot, rEFInd, or the default EFI loader to Limine if they are present in the same ESP.

• (Optional) Set ENABLE_LIMINE_FALLBACK to yes to make the Limine EFI entry the default fallback. Some motherboards will automatically boot this if custom boot entries get wiped by firmware updates.

• (Optional) Install kernel-modules-hook to keep the kernel in case of an upgrade failure, ensuring system functionality after reboot.

Note After making changes, run limine-update to regenerate limine.conf.

For more configuration options, refer to limine-entry-tool README

Commands

• limine-install installs Limine to your EFI system partition.

• limine-install --fallback installs Limine as the default fallback boot loader.

• limine-update updates Limine and generates an initramfs or UKI depending on your initramfs generator:

• For mkinitcpio: run limine-mkinitcpio instead of mkinitcpio

• For dracut: run limine-dracut instead of dracut

• limine-scan detects active EFI boot entries (dual boot) and allows you to easily add them to Limine.

Tip Managing kernels manually with limine-entry-tool

If you do not use an initramfs tool or use a different one like booster, limine-entry-toolAUR does not provide initramfs generation and does not include automatic pacman hooks for kernel management. You are free to create custom scripts using the limine-entry-tool command with your desired options to manage (add, update, and remove) boot entries.

Snapper snapshot integration for Btrfs

limine-snapper-syncAUR tool provides integration between Snapper and the Limine boot loader. It is useful for:

• Supports booting into selected Snapper snapshot.
• Offers two different methods for restoring a system snapshot: rsync or btrfs.
• After restoring a snapshot, a “backup” entry is added to the Limine boot loader, providing an easy way to revert to the “backup” if needed.
• Automatically repairs corrupted bootable files from old snapshots on the ESP when a new snapshot with the same bootable files is created.
• Automatically logs error messages about potential hardware issues if two hashes of the same bootable file do not match on the ESP.
• Testing read-only snapshots: Use overlayfs to test any installed packages on an immutable-like system without modifying the original data. Note that this does not mean testing the boot partition or a separate home subvolume/partition.

Note If you are using GNOME, be aware that GDM requires write access and cannot start from a read-only snapshot. You need an OverlayFS solution to provide a temporary writable layer.

---

The directory path /usr/lib/modules/* must be in the same root subvolume as /, because a selected snapshot requires its matching kernel modules from this path during boot. Otherwise, the snapshot will fail to boot.

Configurations

Note It is recommended to have an ESP size of more than 4 GiB, depending on how many bootable snapshots, kernel versions, and large early-boot modules (e.g., NVIDIA or Wi‑Fi drivers) you plan to install.

Tip Automatic boot configuration

Use limine-dracut-support or limine-mkinitcpio-hook (see #Boot entry automation) to automatically update kernel boot entries in *esp*/limine.conf whenever kernels are installed, updated, or removed. This allows you to skip the first configuration step below.

1. Configure *esp*/limine.conf to include either the //Snapshots or /Snapshots keyword for auto-generated snapshot entries.

An example:

limine.conf

/+Arch Linux
comment: Any comment
comment: machine-id=yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

//Linux
protocol: linux
path: boot():/vmlinuz-linux
cmdline: root=UUID=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx rw rootflags=subvol=/@
module_path: boot():/initramfs-linux.img

//Snapshots

Note

• Including the machine-ID from /etc/machine-id is optional but very helpful for automatic identification. Renaming OS names does not matter.
• Bootable files must be placed in the same ESP as limine.conf, as only the boot(): function is supported.

2. (Optional) Copy any configurations from /etc/limine-snapper-sync.conf to /etc/default/limine if they are not already present.

Edit /etc/default/limine, which will override /etc/limine-snapper-sync.conf:

• If bootctl --print-esp-path does not detect your ESP, manually set ESP_PATH to your ESP/boot mount point.

• (Optional) Set MAX_SNAPSHOT_ENTRIES to limit the number of snapshot entries. The default is 8.

• (Optional) Set LIMIT_USAGE_PERCENT to stop creating new snapshot entries when the limit of ESP usage is exceeded. The default is 85.

• If using custom Snapper layout, make sure to configure the following:

• Specify ROOT_SUBVOLUME_PATH for the path to your root subvolume. The default is /@ in most cases.

• Specify ROOT_SNAPSHOTS_PATH for the path to your root snapshots. The default is /@/.snapshots, which is the standard Snapper layout for the root subvolume /@.

3. Run the command to check if it succeeds or shows an error message:

# limine-snapper-sync

Note If it shows an error that command limine-reset-enroll and limine-enroll-config not found, these commands are provided by either limine-dracut-supportAUR, limine-mkinitcpio-hookAUR or limine-entry-toolAUR, which is not installed.

This error can be safely ignored if you do not use them. Alternatively, to prevent this error, edit /etc/limine-snapper-sync.conf to remove two lines:

COMMANDS_BEFORE_SAVE="limine-reset-enroll"
COMMANDS_AFTER_SAVE="limine-enroll-config"

4. If everything works, then enable limine-snapper-sync.service to automatically synchronize boot entries with the Snapper snapshot list.

# systemctl enable --now limine-snapper-sync.service

5. (Optional) Install snap-pac. It triggers Snapper to create snapshots during system updates, which limine-snapper-sync then synchronizes to generate related snapshot entries in Limine.

For further details and additional configuration options, refer to limine-snapper-sync README.

Commands

• limine-snapper-sync synchronizes Limine snapshot entries with the Snapper list.
• limine-snapper-list displays the current Limine snapshot entries.
• limine-snapper-info provides detailed information about versions, the total number of bootable snapshots, and verifies bootable files.
• limine-snapper-restore restores your system, including matching kernel versions, from a selected bootable snapshot.

Known issues

• Supports only any Snapper layouts, not arbitrary Btrfs layouts without Snapper.
• Cannot generate bootable snapshot entries for old snapshots created before the tool was installed, as these snapshots typically no longer have their corresponding kernel versions.

Troubleshooting

Having problems? Check out the troubleshooting guide in the README

See also

• Limine’s Codeberg repository