man/man8/boot.8

.\"	$NetBSD: boot.8,v 1.6 2007/12/14 12:03:53 apb Exp $
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.\"     @(#)boot_i386.8	8.2 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
.\"
.Dd December 14, 2007
.Os
.Dt BOOT 8
.Sh NAME
.Nm boot
.Nd
system bootstrapping procedures
.Sh DESCRIPTION
This document provides information on using common features in the
.Nx
boot loader.
Additional information may be found in
architecture-specific
.Xr boot 8
manual pages.
.Ss Interactive mode
In interactive mode, the boot loader will present a prompt, allowing
input of these commands:
.\" NOTE: much of this text is duplicated in architecture-specific
.\" man pages (man8/man8.*/*boot*.8);
.\" please try to keep all relevant files synchronized.
.Bl -tag -width 04n -offset 04n
.It Xo Ic boot
.Op Va device : Ns
.Op Va filename
.Op Fl acdqsvxz
.Xc
The default
.Va device
will be set to the disk that the boot loader was
loaded from.
To boot from an alternate disk, the full name of the device should
be given at the prompt.
.Va device
is of the form
.Xo Va xd
.Op Va N Ns Op Va x
.Xc
where
.Va xd
is the device from which to boot,
.Va N
is the unit number, and
.Va x
is the partition letter.
.Pp
The following list of supported devices may vary from installation to
installation:
.Pp
.Bl -hang -compact
.It hd
Hard disks.
.It fd
Floppy drives.
.El
.Pp
The default
.Va filename
is
.Pa netbsd ;
if the boot loader fails to successfully
open that image, it then tries
.Pa netbsd.gz
(expected to be a kernel image compressed by gzip), followed by
.Pa netbsd.old ,
.Pa netbsd.old.gz ,
.Pa onetbsd ,
and finally
.Pa onetbsd.gz .
Alternate system images can be loaded by just specifying the name of the image.
.Pp
Options are:
.Bl -tag -width xxx
.It Fl a
Prompt for the root file system device, the system crash dump
device, and the path to
.Xr init 8 .
.It Fl c
Bring the system up into the device configuration manager.
From here the device locators can be tuned to the hardware; see
.Xr userconf 4 .
.It Fl d
Bring the system up in debug mode.
Here it waits for a kernel debugger connect; see
.Xr ddb 4 .
.It Fl q
Boot the system in quiet mode.
.It Fl s
Bring the system up in single-user mode.
.It Fl v
Boot the system in verbose mode.
.It Fl x
Boot the system with debug messages enabled.
.It Fl z
Boot the system in silent mode.
.El
.It Ic consdev Va dev
Immediately switch the console to the specified device
.Va dev
and reprint the banner.
.Va dev
must be one of
.\" .Bl -item -width com[0123]kbd -offset indent -compact
.Ar pc , com0 , com1 , com2 ,
.Ar com3 , com0kbd , com1kbd , com2kbd ,
.Ar com3kbd ,
or
.Ar auto .
See
.Sx Console Selection Policy
in
.Xr boot_console 8 .
.It Ic dev Op Va device
Set the default drive and partition for subsequent filesystem
operations.
Without an argument, print the current setting.
.Va device
is of the form specified in
.Cm boot .
.It Ic help
Print an overview about commands and arguments.
.It Ic ls Op Pa path
Print a directory listing of
.Pa path ,
containing inode number, filename, and file type.
.Pa path
can contain a device specification.
.It Ic quit
Reboot the system.
.El
.Pp
In an emergency, the bootstrap methods described in the
.Nx
installation notes for the specific architecture
can be used.
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width /usr/mdec/bootxx_fstype -compact
.It Pa /boot
boot program code loaded by the primary bootstrap
.\" .It Pa /boot.cfg
.\" optional configuration file
.\" (used only on i386 and amd64 architectures)
.It Pa /netbsd
system code
.It Pa /netbsd.gz
gzip-compressed system code
.It Pa /usr/mdec/boot
master copy of the boot program (copy to /boot)
.It Pa /usr/mdec/bootxx_fstype
primary bootstrap for filesystem type fstype, copied to the start of
the
.Nx
partition by
.Xr installboot 8 .
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
Architecture-specific
.Xr boot 8
manual pages,
.Xr ddb 4 ,
.Xr userconf 4 ,
.\" .Xr boot.cfg 5 ,
.Xr boot_console 8 ,
.Xr halt 8 ,
.Xr installboot 8 ,
.Xr reboot 8 ,
.Xr shutdown 8
.Sh BUGS
Any
.Ar filename
specified after the boot options, e.g.:
.Pp
.Bd -unfilled -offset indent -compact
.Cm boot -d netbsd.test
.Ed
.Pp
is ignored, and the default kernel is booted.