Systemd-boot-lifeboat

Automatically backup your bootloader entries to a backup configuration, for easy restoration.

Example

#> sudo ./systemd_boot_lifeboat.py
Copying /EFI/Arch/linux-signed.efi to /EFI/Arch/lifeboat_1660426707_linux-signed.efi
Created boot entry: lifeboat_1660426707_arch_signed.conf
#> sudo ./systemd_boot_lifeboat.py
arch_signed.conf is already backed up to lifeboat_1660426707_arch_signed.conf
 Nothing to do
#> sudo mkinitcpio -P; sudo sbupdate
==> Building image from preset: /etc/mkinitcpio.d/linux.preset: 'default'
#> sudo ./systemd_boot_lifeboat.py
Copying /EFI/Arch/linux-signed.efi to /EFI/Arch/lifeboat_1660426748_linux-signed.efi
Created boot entry: lifeboat_1660426748_arch_signed.conf

Requirements

1. Use systemd-boot as your bootloader
2. Have your efi system partition (ESP) mounted somewhere (typically to /efi)
3. Have enough room on your ESP to store backups

Installation (Arch-derived OS)

1. Install from https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/systemd-boot-lifeboat
2. Enable with systemctl enable systemd-boot-lifeboat.service

Manual Installation

1. Copy systemd_boot_lifeboat.py to your system, and make it executable.
2. Enable the script to run once per-boot (with root permissions)

Configuration options

If you are using the provided systemd-boot-lifeboat.service, you can customize these options by creating a drop-in file. Simply run sudo systemctl edit systemd-boot-lifeboat.service and add the following to your override.conf:

[Service]
ExecStart=
ExecStart=/usr/share/systemd-boot-lifeboat/systemd_boot_lifeboat.py --your-flags-here

You need the ExecStart= to clear out the service's default ExecStart

usage: systemd_boot_lifeboat.py [-h] [-n MAX_LIFEBOATS] [-e ESP_PATH] [-b BOOT_PATH] [--default-sort-key DEFAULT_SORT_KEY]
                                [--default-version DEFAULT_VERSION] [-c DEFAULT_CONFIG_PATH] [--dry-run]

Clone the boot entry if it has changed

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -n MAX_LIFEBOATS, --max-lifeboats MAX_LIFEBOATS
  --default-sort-key DEFAULT_SORT_KEY
                        Default sort key to use, if not present (default: linux)
  --default-version DEFAULT_VERSION
                        Default sort key to use, if not present (default: uname -a)
  -c DEFAULT_CONFIG_PATH, --default-config-path DEFAULT_CONFIG_PATH
                        Fully qualified location to the conf file to use as a template for creating new lifeboats (default: None)
  --dry-run             Print what would actually happen, but take no action (default: False)

By default, systemd-boot-lifeboat keeps the previous two entries backed up. You can change this by passing in --max_backups to the python script. To make this change, you need to type systemctl edit systemd-boot-lifeboat.service and modify the command line as appropriate.

Development

1. Clone the repository
2. ln -s $PWD/pre-commit $PWD/.git/hooks/
3. Run the unit tests sudo python -m unittest -v
4. install with makepkg -si -p PKGBUILD.dev
5. sudo systemctl enable systemd-boot-lifeboat.service

The unit tests have to be run as root, unfortunately, due to the extensive use of chroot.