Release v2.2.2 is EOL. Refer to https://docs.zfsbootmenu.org for current documentation.

Portable ZFSBootMenu

Contents

Portable ZFSBootMenu#

UEFI makes it easy to deploy ZFSBootMenu without a local installation. Most UEFI systems will search for and run an EFI executable at the path /EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI on a FAT-formatted EFI System Partition located on any disk that the firmware is told to boot. This executable can be a standard ZFSBootMenu release image or a custom, locally generated image. Almost any modern system can be made to launch a ZFSBootMenu instance just by inserting and booting from a minimally configured USB drive.

Procedure#

  1. On a USB drive, create a GPT header.

  2. Create an EFI system partition on the drive. The partition should be at least 100 MB.

    • With gdisk, this is accomplished by setting the parition type to EF00.

    • With parted, this is accomplished by setting the boot flag on the partition.

  3. Format the partition as FAT.

  4. Fetch a copy of the ZFSBootMenu release image:

    curl -LJO https://get.zfsbootmenu.org/efi
    
  5. Save the resulting download as EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI within the EFI system partiton.

  6. Tell your system to boot from the USB drive.