boot(8) - NetBSD Manual Pages

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BOOT(8)              NetBSD/atari System Manager's Manual              BOOT(8)


NAME

     boot -- system bootstrapping procedures


DESCRIPTION

   Power fail and crash recovery
     When the NetBSD kernel is booted normally (using one of the two methods
     discussed below), it initializes itself and proceeds to boot the system.
     An automatic consistency check of the file systems takes place, and
     unless this fails, the system comes up to multi-user operations.  The
     proper way to shut the system down is with the shutdown(8) command.

     If the system crashes, it will enter the kernel debugger, ddb(4), if it
     is configured in the kernel.  If the debugger is not present, or the
     debugger is exited, the system will attempt a dump to the configured dump
     device (which will be automatically recovered with savecore(8) during the
     next boot cycle).  After the dump is complete (successful or not), the
     system will attempt a reboot.

   Booting NetBSD using the bootloader
     When a bootable NetBSD partition is created by means of installboot(8)
     and the boot-preference bit in the NVRAM is either invalid or set to
     NetBSD , the Atari BIOS will automatically start the NetBSD bootloader.
     By default it will load the kernel image /netbsd and attempts to boot it
     into multi-user mode. This behaviour can be changed by either keeping the
     Alternate or the Right-Shift key pressed during the boot. When the
     Alternate key is pressed, the bootstrap is aborted, causing the BIOS to
     continue scanning the disks for a bootable partition (this is compatible
     with AHDI 3.0). Pressing the Right-Shift key during the boot, causes the
     boot loader to enter the interactive mode.  In interactive mode, the com-
     mand line looks like:


           [OS-type] [boot-path] [boot-options]

     Each component of the command can be omitted in which case the defaults
     indicated will be used.

     OS-type:
                   .netbsd (the default)
                   .linux
                   .asv
                   .tos

                   If something other than .netbsd is specified, control is
                   returned to the BIOS with the boot preference set to the
                   selected type. Due to limitations of the BIOS however, the
                   search for bootblocks is continued rather than restarted.

     boot-path     This gives you the opportunity to boot another kernel, say:
                   /netbsd.old.  The default is /netbsd

     boot-options  These options are a subset of the loadbsd(8) options.
                   -a    Boot into multi-user mode (the default)
                   -b    Prompt for the root file system device, the system
                         crash dump device, and the path to init(8).
                   -d    Enter the kernel debugger
                   -q    Boot in quiet mode
                   -v    Boot in verbose mode

   Booting using the loadbsd program
     When you want (or have to) start NetBSD from GEM, you have to use the
     loadbsd(8) program that is supplied on the kernel-floppy. The loadbsd
     command line specification is:

           loadbsd [-abdhqstvwDV] [-S amount] [-T amount] kernel-path

     Description of options:

     -a    Boot automatically into multi-user mode.

     -b    Prompt for the root file system device, the system crash dump
           device, and the path to init(8).

     -d    Enter the kernel debugger after booting.

     -h    Print a help screen that tries to explain the same options as men-
           tioned here.

     -o outputfile
           Write all output to the file outputfile.

     -q    Boot in quiet mode.

     -s    Tell NetBSD only to use ST compatible RAM.

     -t    Test loading of the kernel but don't start NetBSD.

     -v    Boot in verbose mode.

     -w    Wait for a keypress before exiting loadbsd. This is useful when
           starting this program under GEM.

     -D    Show debugging output while booting the kernel.

     -S amount
           Set the amount of available ST compatible RAM in bytes. Normally
           this value is set automatically from the values initialized by the
           BIOS.

     -T amount
           Set the amount of available TT compatible RAM in bytes. Normally
           this value is set automatically from the values initialized by the
           BIOS.

     -V    Print the version of loadbsd(8) that you are using.

     kernel-path
           This is a GEMDOS path specification of the kernel to boot.

     Note: Because the loadbsd program can only read kernels from a GEMDOS
     filesystem, the file /netbsd is usually not the same as the actual kernel
     booted. This can cause some programs to fail.


FILES

     /netbsd  system kernel


SEE ALSO

     ddb(4), savecore(8), shutdown(8)

NetBSD 3.1.1                     April 8, 2003                    NetBSD 3.1.1