# Setting password to protect beastie boot menu



## driesm (Oct 28, 2016)

Whenever I try to set a password in loader.conf in terms of password="test" my system does not autoboot nor does it show the beastie boot menu. From the manual pages:

password   Protect boot menu with a password without interrupting autoboot process. The password should be in clear text format.  If a password is set, boot menu will not appear until any key is pressed during countdown period specified by autoboot_delay variable or autoboot process fails.  In both cases user should provide specified password to be able to access boot menu.

Am I doing something wrong or am I just completely misinterpreting the setting of password="test" in loader.conf. I also added the errror message I get when the system tries to autoboot after a password has been set. When I execute `show password` it says the password is set to test. Furthermore, when I enter the command `boot` the system boots perfectly without any hickups. It just doesn't do so automatically. My loader.conf contents are simply: password="test". Also, when I remove the variable of password="test" in loader.conf my system does autoboot and shows the beastie boot menu.

Thanks in Advance


----------



## ABV (Oct 28, 2016)

It's possible that this is a bug. For me, setting `bootlock_password` works correctly, but I encounter the same problem you do when I set just `password`. I don't think you're misinterpreting it all.


----------



## driesm (Oct 29, 2016)

Hey there, thank you for your reply. Your loader.conf variable does work. However this is not what I was looking for. Setting this variable prevents autoboot and the password is required to boot. I'd like to only have a password on the boot menu. I think that this might be a bug aswell for it clearly states in the manual what it should do but it doesn't ;D!


----------



## RichardM (Oct 29, 2016)

I remember this feature stopped working a few years ago, I think when going from FreeBSD 9.1 to 9.2. The syntax is (was) correct - password="******" in /boot/loader/conf.


----------



## rdslw (Oct 7, 2017)

Looks like it's still bugged as of October 2017


----------



## Beastie (Oct 7, 2017)

No one bothers fixing it probably because it's not a very useful feature? This protects you from unauthorized access just as much as a BIOS password or FreeBSD login/password (that is, not very much).

Anyway, the forums are not the proper place to report bugs. Check Bugzilla for anything relevant and file a bug report there.


----------



## rdslw (Oct 8, 2017)

Yeah, there are two bugs reported, while one of them has even a patch with solution https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=207069 but looks like assigned person (dteske@) is  not available, as this bug lingering in this state for some time.


----------

