xref: /openbsd/distrib/notes/loongson/prep (revision 264ca280)
1dnl	$OpenBSD: prep,v 1.4 2010/02/18 20:44:41 jasper Exp $
2Most MACHINE systems are shipped with a Linux system installed on the disk
3drive or SSD.  This system will likely use two partitions, one for the
4system and applications, and another for the user data. OpenBSD will in turn
5need its own MBR partition.
6
7If there is no unpartitioned space left on the disk, it will be necessary to
8shrink and recreate the data partition; before installing OpenBSD/MACHINE,
9you should make sure any important data on this partition is backed up.
10
11If you intend to only use OpenBSD on your machine, please note that, at this
12point, it is necessary to keep an ext2 or ext3 Linux partition, to be able
13to boot the system.
14
15Before you install your system, you should familiarize yourself with PMON,
16the open source firmware and bootloader of your machine.
17
18Entering PMON:
19
20    Upon power-up, or after a reset, a splash screen is displayed while PMON
21    initializes.
22
23    On Lemote systems, after PMON initializes, a text mode boot menu appears.
24    At this menu, you can either select one of the systems to boot with the
25    arrows keys and press enter, or abort the countdown sequence and get to
26    the PMON commandline by hitting `c'.
27
28    If you have set up your machine to automatically boot into OpenBSD,
29    and want to enter PMON, you should press the `Del' key or
30    `ESC [ G' if you are using a serial console. You must have attached a
31    VGA monitor for the last step, as the commands you type on the console,
32    will show up on the VGA monitor.
33
34    On Gdium systems, the system proceeds to immediately boot into the
35    operating system; to enter PMON, repeatedly press the `del' key
36    (on the top right corner of the keyboard) before the G-Key lits,
37    until the splash screen disappears and a PMON prompt appears.
38dnl XXX it does not work for me anymore ?!?
39dnl    Another way to abort autoboot is to start the system with the G-Key
40dnl    removed; the system will then stop with the splash screen displayed,
41dnl    and pressing the `del' key will get you to the PMON prompt.
42
43    PMON command are entered at the ``PMON>'' prompt; you may correct typos
44    using the backspace key, and retrieve previous commands from the history
45    using Ctrl-P. On Lemote systems, unfortunately, there is no cursor shape
46    displayed, which can make command line editing quite tedious.
47
48PMON file path concepts:
49
50    The filenames used by PMON always mention explicitly the location of
51    the filesystem they refer to, as well as the filesystem type. They
52    are constructed as
53    	/dev/fs/<filesystem type>@<device name>/<path within the filesystem>
54
55    On Lemote systems, the internal storage (either a disk drive or an SSD)
56    is `wd0'. On the Gdium Liberty, the G-Key slot is `usbg0'. Other devices
57    connected to the USB ports are named `usb0', `usb1', etc, in the order
58    PMON configures them. At any time the ``devls'' command will list
59    the devices you can boot from. Note that it is not possible to boot from
60    the SD card reader.
61
62    Supported filesystems are `ext2', for Linux ext2 and ext3 filesystem
63    partition, and `iso9660' for CD-ROM.
64
65    As an example, the /boot/vmlinux file on the first partition of the
66    hard disk becomes:
67	/dev/fs/ext2@wd0/boot/vmlinux
68