---
title: Automatic Boot Assessment
category: Booting
layout: default
SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later
---

# Automatic Boot Assessment

systemd provides support for automatically reverting back to the previous
version of the OS or kernel in case the system consistently fails to boot. The
[Boot Loader Specification](https://uapi-group.org/specifications/specs/boot_loader_specification/#boot-counting)
describes how to annotate boot loader entries with a counter that specifies how
many attempts should be made to boot it. This document describes how systemd
implements this scheme.

The many different components involved in the implementation may be used
independently and in combination with other software to, for example, support
other boot loaders or take actions outside of the boot loader.

Here's a brief overview of the complete set of components:

* The
  [`kernel-install(8)`](https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/kernel-install.html)
  script can optionally create boot loader entries that carry an initial boot
  counter (the initial counter is configurable in `/etc/kernel/tries`).

* The
  [`systemd-boot(7)`](https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd-boot.html)
  boot loader optionally maintains a per-boot-loader-entry counter described by
  the [Boot Loader Specification](https://uapi-group.org/specifications/specs/boot_loader_specification/#boot-counting)
  that is decreased by one on each attempt to boot the entry, prioritizing
  entries that have non-zero counters over those which already reached a
  counter of zero when choosing the entry to boot.

* The `boot-complete.target` target unit (see
  [`systemd.special(7)`](https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.special.html))
  serves as a generic extension point both for units that are necessary to
  consider a boot successful (e.g. `systemd-boot-check-no-failures.service`
  described below), and units that want to act only if the boot is
  successful (e.g. `systemd-bless-boot.service` described below).

* The
  [`systemd-boot-check-no-failures.service(8)`](https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd-boot-check-no-failures.service.html)
  service is a simple service health check tool. When enabled it becomes an
  indirect dependency of `systemd-bless-boot.service` (by means of
  `boot-complete.target`, see below), ensuring that the boot will not be
  considered successful if there are any failed services.

* The
  [`systemd-bless-boot.service(8)`](https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd-bless-boot.service.html)
  service automatically marks a boot loader entry, for which boot counting as
  mentioned above is enabled, as "good" when a boot has been determined to be
  successful, thus turning off boot counting for it.

* The
  [`systemd-bless-boot-generator(8)`](https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd-bless-boot-generator.html)
  generator automatically pulls in `systemd-bless-boot.service` when use of
  `systemd-boot` with boot counting enabled is detected.

## Details

As described in the
[Boot Loader Specification](https://uapi-group.org/specifications/specs/boot_loader_specification/#boot-counting),
the boot counting data is stored in the file name of the boot loader entries as
a plus (`+`), followed by a number, optionally followed by `-` and another
number, right before the file name suffix (`.conf` or `.efi`).

The first number is the "tries left" counter encoding how many attempts to boot
this entry shall still be made. The second number is the "tries done" counter,
encoding how many failed attempts to boot it have already been made. Each time
a boot loader entry marked this way is booted the first counter is decremented,
and the second one incremented. (If the second counter is missing, then it is
assumed to be equivalent to zero.) If the boot attempt completed successfully
the entry's counters are removed from the name (entry state "good"), thus
turning off boot counting for the future.

## Walkthrough

Here's an example walkthrough of how this all fits together.

1. The user runs `echo 3 >/etc/kernel/tries` to enable boot counting.

2. A new kernel is installed. `kernel-install` is used to generate a new boot
   loader entry file for it. Let's say the version string for the new kernel is
   `4.14.11-300.fc27.x86_64`, a new boot loader entry
   `/boot/loader/entries/4.14.11-300.fc27.x86_64+3.conf` is hence created.

3. The system is booted for the first time after the new kernel has been
   installed. The boot loader now sees the `+3` counter in the entry file
   name. It hence renames the file to `4.14.11-300.fc27.x86_64+2-1.conf`
   indicating that at this point one attempt has started.
   After the rename completed, the entry is booted as usual.

4. Let's say this attempt to boot fails. On the following boot the boot loader
   will hence see the `+2-1` tag in the name, and will hence rename the entry file to
   `4.14.11-300.fc27.x86_64+1-2.conf`, and boot it.

5. Let's say the boot fails again. On the subsequent boot the loader will hence
   see the `+1-2` tag, and rename the file to
   `4.14.11-300.fc27.x86_64+0-3.conf` and boot it.

6. If this boot also fails, on the next boot the boot loader will see the tag
   `+0-3`, i.e. the counter reached zero. At this point the entry will be
   considered "bad", and ordered after all non-bad entries. The next newest
   boot entry is now tried, i.e. the system automatically reverted to an
   earlier version.

The above describes the walkthrough when the selected boot entry continuously
fails. Let's have a look at an alternative ending to this walkthrough. In this
scenario the first 4 steps are the same as above:

1. *as above*

2. *as above*

3. *as above*

4. *as above*

5. Let's say the second boot succeeds. The kernel initializes properly, systemd
   is started and invokes all generators.

6. One of the generators started is `systemd-bless-boot-generator` which
   detects that boot counting is used. It hence pulls
   `systemd-bless-boot.service` into the initial transaction.

7. `systemd-bless-boot.service` is ordered after and `Requires=` the generic
   `boot-complete.target` unit. This unit is hence also pulled into the initial
   transaction.

8. The `boot-complete.target` unit is ordered after and pulls in various units
   that are required to succeed for the boot process to be considered
   successful. One such unit is `systemd-boot-check-no-failures.service`.

9. The graphical desktop environment installed on the machine starts a
   service called `graphical-session-good.service`, which is also ordered before
   `boot-complete.target`, that registers a D-Bus endpoint.

10. `systemd-boot-check-no-failures.service` is run after all its own
   dependencies completed, and assesses that the boot completed
   successfully. It hence exits cleanly.

11. `graphical-session-good.service` waits for a user to log in. In the user
   desktop environment, one minute after the user has logged in and started the
   first program, a user service is invoked which makes a D-Bus call to
   `graphical-session-good.service`. Upon receiving that call,
   `graphical-session-good.service` exits cleanly.

12. This allows `boot-complete.target` to be reached. This signifies to the
    system that this boot attempt shall be considered successful.

13. Which in turn permits `systemd-bless-boot.service` to run. It now
    determines which boot loader entry file was used to boot the system, and
    renames it dropping the counter tag. Thus
    `4.14.11-300.fc27.x86_64+1-2.conf` is renamed to
    `4.14.11-300.fc27.x86_64.conf`. From this moment boot counting is turned
    off for this entry.

14. On the following boot (and all subsequent boots after that) the entry is
    now seen with boot counting turned off, no further renaming takes place.

## How to adapt this scheme to other setups

Of the stack described above many components may be replaced or augmented. Here
are a couple of recommendations.

1. To support alternative boot loaders in place of `systemd-boot` two scenarios
   are recommended:

    a. Boot loaders already implementing the Boot Loader Specification can
       simply implement the same rename logic, and thus integrate fully with
       the rest of the stack.

    b. Boot loaders that want to implement boot counting and store the counters
       elsewhere can provide their own replacements for
       `systemd-bless-boot.service` and `systemd-bless-boot-generator`, but should
       continue to use `boot-complete.target` and thus support any services
       ordered before that.

2. To support additional components that shall succeed before the boot is
   considered successful, simply place them in units (if they aren't already)
   and order them before the generic `boot-complete.target` target unit,
   combined with `Requires=` dependencies from the target, so that the target
   cannot be reached when any of the units fail. You may add any number of
   units like this, and only if they all succeed the boot entry is marked as
   good. Note that the target unit shall pull in these boot checking units, not
   the other way around.

   Depending on the setup, it may be most convenient to pull in such units
   through normal enablement symlinks, or during early boot using a
   [`generator`](https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.generator.html),
   or even during later boot. In the last case, care must be taken to ensure
   that the start job is created before `boot-complete.target` has been
   reached.

3. To support additional components that shall only run on boot success, simply
   wrap them in a unit and order them after `boot-complete.target`, pulling it
   in.

   Such unit would be typically wanted (or required) by one of the
   [`bootup`](https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/bootup.html) targets,
   for example, `multi-user.target`. To avoid potential loops due to conflicting
   [default dependencies](https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.unit.html#Default%20Dependencies)
   ordering, it is recommended to also add an explicit dependency (e.g.
   `After=multi-user.target`) to the unit. This overrides the implicit ordering
   and allows `boot-complete.target` to start after the given bootup target.

## FAQ

1. *I have a service which — when it fails — should immediately cause a
   reboot. How does that fit in with the above?* — That's orthogonal to
   the above, please use `FailureAction=` in the unit file for this.

2. *Under some condition I want to mark the current boot loader entry as bad
   right-away, so that it never is tried again, how do I do that?* — You may
   invoke `/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-bless-boot bad` at any time to mark the
   current boot loader entry as "bad" right-away so that it isn't tried again
   on later boots.
