boot(8) - NetBSD Manual Pages

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


NAME

     boot -- system bootstrapping procedures


DESCRIPTION

     This document provides information on using common features in the NetBSD
     boot loader.

   Interactive mode
     In interactive mode, the boot loader will present a prompt, allowing
     input of these commands:

         boot [device:][filename] [-acdqsv]
               The default 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.  device is of the
               form xd [N[x]] where xd is the device from which to boot, N is
               the unit number, and x is the partition letter.

               The following list of supported devices may vary from installa-
               tion to installation:

               hd      Hard disks.
               fd      Floppy drives.

               The default filename is netbsd; if the boot loader fails to
               successfully open that image, it then tries netbsd.gz (expected
               to be a kernel image compressed by gzip), followed by
               netbsd.old, netbsd.old.gz, onetbsd, and finally onetbsd.gz.
               Alternate system images can be loaded by just specifying the
               name of the image.

               Options are:

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

               -c   Bring the system up into the device configuration manager.
                    From here the device locators can be tuned to the hard-
                    ware; see userconf(4).

               -d   Bring the system up in debug mode.  Here it waits for a
                    kernel debugger connect; see ddb(4).

               -q   Boot the system in quiet mode.

               -s   Bring the system up in single-user mode.

               -v   Boot the system in verbose mode.

         consdev dev
               Immediately switch the console to the specified device dev and
               reprint the banner.  dev must be one of pc, com0, com1, com2,
               com3, com0kbd, com1kbd, com2kbd, com3kbd, or auto.  See Console
               Selection Policy in boot_console(8).

         dev [device]
               Set the default drive and partition for subsequent filesystem
               operations. Without an argument, print the current setting.
               device is of the form specified in boot.

         help  Print an overview about commands and arguments.

         ls [path]
               Print a directory listing of path, containing inode number,
               filename and file type.  path can contain a device specifica-
               tion.

         quit  Reboot the system.

     In an emergency, the bootstrap methods described in the NetBSD installa-
     tion notes for the specific architecture can be used.


FILES

     /boot                    boot program code loaded by the primary boot-
                              strap
     /netbsd                  system code
     /netbsd.gz               gzip-compressed system code
     /usr/mdec/boot           master copy of the boot program (copy to /boot)
     /usr/mdec/bootxx_fstype  primary bootstrap for filesystem type fstype,
                              copied to the start of the netbsd partition by
                              installboot(8).


SEE ALSO

     ddb(4), userconf(4), boot_console(8), halt(8), installboot(8), reboot(8),
     shutdown(8)

     Any filename specified after the boot options, e.g.:

           boot -d netbsd.test

     is ignored, and the default kernel is booted.

NetBSD 4.0                     November 25, 2006                    NetBSD 4.0