bootinfoscript is a bash script which searches all hard drives attached to the computer for information related to booting and displays it in a convenient format. Its primary use is for troubleshooting booting problems.

How to use the bootinfoscript

• Boot into any Linux based operating system, LiveCD or LiveUSB with an Internet connection.
• Download the last version of Boot Info Script
• Extract the tarball to a directory of your choice (e.g.: your Downloads directory).
• Open a terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal in Gnome2) and type :

    sudo ~/Downloads/bootinfoscript

• If your operation system does not use sudo, use:

    su -
    ~/Downloads/bootinfoscript

• You will now have the file RESULTS.txt in the same directory as the script. But if the script is inside a system directory (like /usr or /etc) RESULTS.txt will be in the home directory.
• If you already have an existing RESULTS.txt, subsequent files will be called RESULTS1.txt, RESULTS2.txt,...
• Open RESULTS.txt in your favorite text editor.
• If you came here from a Linux forum, paste the content of RESULTS.txt into your next post. Make sure to use the appropriate formating. For example in the Ubuntu forums click on the code tags (the symbol #) before pasting RESULTS.txt.

Help text of bootinfoscript

$ ./bootinfoscript --help

Usage Boot Info Script:
-----------------------

  Run the script as sudoer:

    sudo ./bootinfoscript <outputfile>

  or if your operating system does not use sudo:

    su -
    ./bootinfoscript <outputfile>


  When running the script, without specifying an output file, all the output
  is written to the file "RESULTS.txt" in the same folder as the script.

  But when run from /bin, /sbin, /usr/bin, or another system folder, the file
  "RESULTS.txt" is written to the home directory of the user.

  When the file "RESULTS.txt" already exists, the results will be written to
  "RESULTS1.txt". If "RESULTS1.txt" exists, the results will be written to
  "RESULTS2.txt", ...


  To get version number, release date, last git commit and git retrieval date
  of this script, use (no root rights needed):

    ./bootinfoscript -v
    ./bootinfoscript -V
    ./bootinfoscript --version


  To get this help text, use (no root rights needed):

    ./bootinfoscript -h
    ./bootinfoscript -help
    ./bootinfoscript --help


  To automatically gzip a copy of the output file, use (root rights needed):

    ./bootinfoscript -g <outputfile>
    ./bootinfoscript --gzip <outputfile>


  To write the output to stdout instead of a file, use (root rights needed):

    ./bootinfoscript --stdout


  The last development version of Boot Info Script can be downloaded, with:
    (no root rights needed)

    ./bootinfoscript --update <filename>

  If no filename is specified, the file will be saved in the home dir as
  "bootinfoscript_YYYY-MM-DD_hh:mm:ss".