xref: /openbsd/sys/arch/i386/stand/boot/boot.8 (revision d5c8a52e)
1.\"	$OpenBSD: boot.8,v 1.54 2012/08/15 19:02:01 jmc Exp $
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3.\" Copyright (c) 1997-2001 Michael Shalayeff
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28.Dd $Mdocdate: August 15 2012 $
29.Dt BOOT 8 i386
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm boot ,
33.Nm boot.conf
34.Nd
35i386-specific second-stage bootstrap
36.Sh DESCRIPTION
37The main purpose of this program is to load the system kernel while dealing
38with the downfalls of the PC BIOS architecture.
39.Pp
40As described in
41.Xr boot_i386 8 ,
42this program is loaded by the
43.Xr biosboot 8
44primary bootstrap loader and provides a convenient way to load the kernel.
45This program acts as an enhanced boot monitor for PC systems, providing
46a common interface for the kernel to start from.
47.Pp
48Basic operations include:
49.Pp
50.Bl -bullet -compact
51.It
52Detecting and switching between multiple consoles.
53.It
54Loading kernels from any device supported by your system BIOS.
55.It
56Loading kernels compressed by
57.Xr gzip 1 .
58.It
59Passing system parameters queried from the BIOS to the kernel.
60.It
61Providing an interactive command line.
62.El
63.Pp
64The sequence of its operation is as follows: initialization,
65parsing the configuration file, then an interactive command line.
66While at the command line you have 5 seconds to type any commands, if needed.
67If time expires, the kernel will be loaded according to
68the current variable settings (see the
69.Nm set
70command).
71Each time a kernel load fails, the timeout is increased by one second.
72The sequence of
73.Nm
74operations is as follows:
75.Bl -enum
76.It
77Set up a protected mode environment which catches and reports processor
78exceptions and provides a simple protected-mode BIOS interface.
79.It
80Probe for console devices, which includes the (default) PC VGA+Keyboard
81console
82.Pq Li pc0
83and up to four serial consoles
84.Pf ( Li com0
85through
86.Li com3 )
87connected to the serial ports.
88Display messages to the default console about the devices found.
89.It
90Detect memory.
91Conventional memory is detected by querying the BIOS.
92Extended memory is detected by probing page-by-page through the address
93space, rather than asking the BIOS; many BIOS's cannot report larger than
9464M of memory.
95All memory found is reported to the default console device.
96.It
97Probe for APM support in the BIOS.
98Display a message if support is present.
99.It
100If the file
101.Pa /etc/boot.conf
102exists on the filesystem
103.Nm
104was loaded from, open and parse it.
105This file may contain any commands
106.Nm
107accepts at the interactive prompt.
108Though default settings usually suffice, they can be changed here.
109.Pp
110.Pa boot.conf
111processing can be skipped, and the automatic boot cancelled, by holding
112down either Control key as
113.Nm
114starts.
115.It
116The header line
117.Pp
118.Dl >> OpenBSD/i386 BOOT [x.xx]
119.Pp
120is displayed to the active console, where
121.Ar x.xx
122is the version number of the
123.Nm
124program, followed by the
125.Pp
126.Dl boot>
127.Pp
128prompt, which means you are in interactive mode and may enter commands.
129If you do not,
130.Nm
131will proceed to load the kernel with the current parameters after the
132timeout period has expired.
133.El
134.Pp
135By default,
136.Nm
137attempts to load the kernel executable
138.Pa /bsd .
139If it fails to find the kernel and no alternative kernel image has
140been specified, the system will be unable to boot.
141.Sh COMMANDS
142The following commands are accepted at the
143.Nm
144prompt:
145.Bl -tag -width shorten
146.It boot Op Ar image Op Fl acds
147Boots the kernel image specified by
148.Ar image
149with any options given.
150Image specification consists of a pair
151.Ar device : Ns Ar filename ;
152either or both can be omitted (`:' is not needed if both are omitted),
153in which case values from
154.Nm
155variables will be used.
156.Pp
157When selecting the
158.Ar device
159to boot from,
160.Nm
161makes no distinction between SCSI and IDE type drives;
162they are detected as
163.Sq hd
164devices.
165Therefore, to boot kernel
166.Pa /bsd
167from slice
168.Sq a
169on the first hard drive
170.Pq irrespective of device type ,
171specify
172.Dq boot hd0a:/bsd .
173.Bl -tag -width _a_
174.It Fl a
175Causes the kernel to ask for the
176.Nm root
177device to use.
178.It Fl c
179Causes the kernel to go into
180.Xr boot_config 8
181before performing
182.Xr autoconf 4
183procedures.
184.It Fl d
185Causes the kernel to drop into
186.Xr ddb 4
187at the earliest convenient point.
188.It Fl s
189Causes the kernel to boot single-user.
190.El
191.It echo Op Ar args
192Displays
193.Ar args
194on the console device.
195.It help
196Prints a list of available commands and machine dependent
197commands, if any.
198.It machine Op Ar command
199Issues machine-dependent commands.
200These are defined for i386 architecture:
201.Bl -tag -width diskinfo
202.It Nm comaddr
203Set the I/O base address for the serial port to be used as serial console.
204.It Nm diskinfo
205Prints a list of hard disks installed on your system including:
206BIOS device number, and the BIOS geometry.
207.It Nm memory
208If used without any arguments, this command will print out
209the memory configuration as determined through BIOS routines.
210Otherwise the arguments specify how to modify the
211memory configuration.
212They take the form of:
213.Pp
214.Dl =<size>[KMG]
215.Dl [+-]<size>@<address>
216.Pp
217Meaning to add(+), exempt(-) or limit(=) the amount of memory specified by
218.Ar <size>
219at the location specified by
220.Ar <address> .
221Both size and base address can be specified as octal,
222decimal, or hexadecimal numbers, as accepted by the
223.Xr strtoul 3
224routine.
225.Pp
226The limit(=) option simply ignores any memory above the given
227memory limit.
228This is useful for testing kernels in an artificially
229constrained memory situation.
230For example, the following limits the kernel to using only
231memory below 64M:
232.Bd -unfilled -offset indent
233machine mem =64M
234.Ed
235.Pp
236Memory segments are not required to be adjacent to each other;
237the only requirement is that there is real physical memory under
238the range added.
239The following example adds 32M of memory right after the first 16M:
240.Bd -unfilled -offset indent
241machine mem +0x2000000@0x1000000
242.Ed
243.Pp
244Another useful command is to withdraw a range
245of memory from OS usage (it may have been wrongfully reported as
246useful by the BIOS).
247This example
248effectively excludes the 15\(en16M range from the map of useful memory:
249.Bd -unfilled -offset indent
250machine mem -0x100000@0xf00000
251.Ed
252.It Nm regs
253Prints contents of processor registers if compiled with
254.Em DEBUG .
255.El
256.It ls Op Ar directory
257Prints contents of the specified
258.Ar directory
259in long format including: attributes and file type, owner, group,
260size, filename.
261.It reboot
262Reboots the machine by initiating a warm boot procedure.
263.It set Op Ar varname Op Ar value
264If invoked without arguments, prints a list of variables and their values.
265If only
266.Ar varname
267is specified, displays contents of that variable.
268If
269.Ar varname
270and
271.Ar value
272are both specified, sets that variable to the given value.
273Variables include:
274.Pp
275.Bl -tag -compact -width boothow
276.It Nm addr
277Address at which to load the kernel.
278.It Nm debug
279Debug flag if
280.Nm
281was compiled with DEBUG defined.
282.It Nm device
283Boot device name (e.g.,
284.Li fd0a ,
285.Li hd0a ) .
286.It Nm howto
287Options to pass to the loaded kernel.
288.It Nm image
289File name containing the kernel image.
290.It Nm timeout
291Number of seconds boot will wait for human intervention before
292booting the default kernel image.
293.It Nm tty
294Active console device name (e.g.,
295.Li com0 ,
296.Li com1 ,
297.Li pc0 ) .
298.El
299.It stty Op Ar device Op Ar speed
300Displays or sets the
301.Ar speed
302for a console
303.Ar device .
304If changing the baudrate for the currently active console,
305.Nm
306offers you five seconds of grace time before committing the change
307to allow you to change your terminal's speed to match.
308If changing speed
309.Em not
310for the active console, the baudrate is set for the
311.Em next
312time you switch to a serial console.
313The baudrate value is not used for the
314.Li pc0
315console.
316.Pp
317The default baudrate is 9600bps.
318.It time
319Displays system time and date.
320.El
321.Sh FILES
322.Bl -tag -width /usr/mdec/biosbootxx -compact
323.It Pa /usr/mdec/biosboot
324first stage bootstrap
325.It Pa /usr/mdec/pxeboot
326PXE bootstrap
327.It Pa /boot
328system bootstrap
329.It Pa /etc/boot.conf
330system bootstrap's startup file
331.It Pa /bsd
332kernel image
333.It Pa /bsd.sp
334kernel image for single processor machines
335.It Pa /bsd.mp
336kernel image for multiprocessor machines
337.It Pa /bsd.rd
338kernel image for installation/recovery
339.El
340.Sh EXAMPLES
341Boot the default kernel:
342.Pp
343.Dl boot> boot
344.Pp
345Remove the 5 second pause at boot-time permanently, causing
346.Nm
347to load the kernel immediately without prompting:
348.Pp
349.Dl # echo \&"boot\&" > /etc/boot.conf
350.Pp
351Use serial console.
352A null modem cable should connect the specified serial port to a terminal.
353Useful for debugging.
354.Pp
355.Dl boot> set tty com0
356.Pp
357Invoke the serial console at every boot:
358.Pp
359.Dl # echo \&"set tty com0\&" > /etc/boot.conf
360.Pp
361Boot the kernel named
362.Pa /bsd
363from the second hard disk in
364.Dq User Kernel Configuration
365mode (see
366.Xr boot_config 8 ) .
367This mechanism allows for the explicit enabling and disabling of devices
368during the current boot sequence, as well as the modification
369of device parameters.
370Once booted, such changes can be made permanent by using
371.Xr config 8 Ns 's
372.Fl e
373option.
374.Pp
375.Dl boot> boot hd1a:/bsd -c
376.Sh SEE ALSO
377.Xr gzip 1 ,
378.Xr autoconf 4 ,
379.Xr ddb 4 ,
380.Xr biosboot 8 ,
381.Xr boot_config 8 ,
382.Xr boot_i386 8 ,
383.Xr fdisk 8 ,
384.Xr installboot 8 ,
385.Xr pxeboot 8 ,
386.Xr reboot 8
387.Pp
388RFC 1950 describes the zlib library interface.
389.Pp
390The official home page for the version of zlib used in this
391operating system is at
392.Lk http://www.gzip.org/zlib/ .
393.Sh HISTORY
394This program was written by Michael Shalayeff for
395.Ox 2.1 .
396