xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man8/man8.pmax/boot.8 (revision 2a399c6883d870daece976daec6ffa7bb7f934ce)
1.\"	$NetBSD: boot.8,v 1.3 1997/03/13 04:55:25 perry Exp $
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38.Dd July 23, 1991
39.Dt BOOT 8 pmax
40.Os
41.Sh NAME
42.Nm boot
43.Nd
44system bootstrapping procedures
45.Sh DESCRIPTION
46The
47.Tn NetBSD
48kernel is started by placing it at the beginning of physical memory
49and transferring to the entry point.
50Since the system is not reenterable,
51it is necessary to read it in from disk or tape
52each time it is to be bootstrapped.
53.Pp
54.Sy Power fail and crash recovery.
55Normally, the system will boot itself at power-up or after crashes.
56An automatic consistency check of the file systems will be performed,
57and unless this fails, the system will resume multi-user operations.
58.Pp
59.Sy Cold starts.
60At power up, all DECstation ROMs consult the
61.Nm haltaction
62environment
63variable in EEPROM to determine whether or not to attempt to boot
64automatically.   If this
65variable is set to \fBh\fR, the ROM prints a prompt on the console and
66waits for user commands.   If set to \fBb\fR, the ROM attempts to autoboot.
67.Pp
68On the DECstation 2100 and 3100, the path used for automatic booting is
69stored in the
70.Nm bootpath
71environment variable.   The path is made up of a
72device type specifier (e.g., rz, tz, mop or tftp) followed by
73a triplet in the form (x,y,z), followed by a filename to load.
74.Pp
75Within the triplet, x is the controller (always 0), y is the SCSI id of
76the drive to
77boot from or 0 for net boots, and z is the partition to boot from
78(usually 0 for SCSI devices, always zero for network booting.
79For network boots, () may be specified instead of (0,0,0).
80.Pp
81The filename is optional for bootp/tftp and mop booting, since in
82these cases the network protocol can be used to determine which
83file to boot.  When booting off the tape, no filename should be
84specified, and when booting off of disk, the filename of a kernel
85must be specified.  Generally, the kernel is named
86.Nm netbsd.
87.Pp
88An example bootpath setting would be:
89.nf
90.sp 1
91.ce 1
92setenv bootpath rz(0,1,0)netbsd
93.fi
94.Pp
95For automatic boots, the ROM automatically passes a
96.Fl a
97argument to the boot
98loader, requesting that
99.Tn NetBSD
100attempt to come up to multi-user mode.   At the boot ROM prompt,
101the user may boot
102.Tn NetBSD
103with either the
104.Nm auto
105or the
106.Nm boot
107command.   If the
108.Nm auto
109command is used, the
110.Fl a
111argument is passed to the kernel, requesting a multi-user boot; otherwise
112the
113.Fl s
114argument is passed, requesting that
115.Tn NetBSD
116boot to single user mode.
117.Pp
118When either the
119.Nm boot
120or the
121.Nm auto
122command is issued with no arguments, the kernel specified in the bootpath
123environment variable is booted.   An alternative kernel may be specified
124with the
125.Fl f
126flag, followed by the path of the kernel to boot, as described above.
127For example:
128.sp 1
129.ce 1
130boot -f rz(0,4,0)netbsd.new
131.Pp
132On TurboChannel machines (all DECstation 5000 models), the boot path
133is specified in the boot environment variable, along with any arguments
134to be passed to the kernel.   Note that to specify boot arguments (e.g.,
135.Fl a)
136when setting the
137.Nm boot
138environment variable, the filename and arguments
139must be enclosed in quotes.   For example:
140.nf
141.sp 1
142.ce 1
143setenv boot "3/rz4/netbsd -a"
144.fi
145.Pp
146The device from which to boot is specified as the TurboChannel slot
147number, a TurboChannel-option-specific device name, and a path to the
148file to load, all seperated by slashes.   You can get a list of the
149devices installed in your TurboChannel slots (as well as any built-in
150devices which appear as TurboChannel slots) by typing the
151.Nm cnfg
152command
153at the boot prompt.   You can get more detailed information about a specific
154TurboChannel option by typing
155.Nm cnfg
156followed by the slot number of that
157option.
158.Pp
159For SCSI devices, the option-specific device identifier is either rz# for
160disks or tz# for tapes, where # is the SCSI id of the device.   For network
161devices, the option-specific protocol identifier is either mop or tftp.
162Filename requirements are as for the DECstation 2100 and 3100.
163.Pp
164To start
165.Tn NetBSD
166from the boot prompt, the
167.Nm boot
168command must be used.   With no arguments, this simply boots the default
169kernel with the default arguments as set with
170.Nm setenv
171.Nm boot.
172If no boot environment variable is set or if an alternative kernel is to be
173booted, the path of that kernel may be specified after the boot command as
174described above, and any arguments may be passed similarly.   For example:
175.sp 1
176.ce 1
177boot 3/rz4/netbsd.new -a
178.Sh SEE ALSO
179.Xr crash 8m ,
180.Xr fsck 8 ,
181.Xr halt 8 ,
182.Xr init 8 ,
183.Xr newfs 8 ,
184.Xr rc 8 ,
185.Xr shutdown 8 ,
186.Xr syslogd 8 ,
187.Xr reboot 8
188.Sh HISTORY
189The
190.Nm
191command is
192.Ud .
193