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System Administration Commands                           boot(1M)



NAME
     boot - start the system kernel or a standalone program

SYNOPSIS
  SPARC
     boot [ OBP names]  [file]  [-aV]  [-D  default-file]  [boot-
     flags] [--] [client-program-args]

  x86
     kernel multiboot [file] [boot-args] [-B prop=val [,val...]]

     i

DESCRIPTION
     Bootstrapping is the process  of  loading  and  executing  a
     standalone  program.  For  the  purpose  of this discussion,
     bootstrapping means the process of loading and executing the
     bootable operating system. Typically, the standalone program
     is the operating system kernel  (see  kernel(1M)),  but  any
     standalone  program  can be booted instead. On a SPARC-based
     system, the diagnostic monitor for a machine is a good exam-
     ple  of a standalone program other than the operating system
     that can be booted.

     If the standalone is identified as a dynamically-linked exe-
     cutable,  boot  will load the interpreter (linker/loader) as
     indicated by the executable format and then transfer control
     to  the interpreter. If the standalone is statically-linked,
     it will jump directly to the standalone.

     Once the kernel is loaded, it starts the UNIX system, mounts
     the   necessary  file  systems  (see  vfstab(4)),  and  runs
     /sbin/init to bring the system to  the  "initdefault"  state
     specified in /etc/inittab. See inittab(4).

  SPARC Bootstrap Procedure
     On SPARC based systems,  the  bootstrap  procedure  on  most
     machines consists of the following basic phases.

     After the machine is turned  on,  the  system  firmware  (in
     PROM) executes power-on self-test (POST). The form and scope
     of these tests depends on the version  of  the  firmware  in
     your system.

     After  the  tests  have  been  completed  successfully,  the
     firmware  attempts  to  autoboot if the appropriate flag has
     been set in  the  non-volatile  storage  area  used  by  the
     firmware.  The  name  of the file to load, and the device to
     load it from can also be manipulated.

     These flags and names can be set using the  eeprom(1M)  com-
     mand  from  the shell, or by using PROM commands from the ok



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System Administration Commands                           boot(1M)



     prompt after the system has been halted.

     The second level program is  either  ufsboot  (when  booting
     from  a  disk),  or inetboot or wanboot (when booting across
     the network).

     Network Booting

     Network booting  occurs  in  two  steps:  the  client  first
     obtains  an IP address and any other parameters necessary to
     permit it to load the second-stage booter. The  second-stage
     booter in turn loads the UNIX kernel.

     An IP address can be obtained in one of  three  ways:  RARP,
     DHCP,  or  manual  configuration, depending on the functions
     available in and configuration of the PROM. Machines of  the
     sun4u kernel architecture have DHCP-capable PROMs.

     The boot command syntax for specifying the  two  methods  of
     network booting are:

     boot net:rarp
     boot net:dhcp

     The command:

     boot net

     without a rarp or dhcp specifier, invokes the default method
     for network booting over the network interface for which net
     is an alias.

     The  sequence  of   events   for   network   booting   using
     RARP/bootparams  is  described  in the following paragraphs.
     The sequence for DHCP follows the  RARP/bootparams  descrip-
     tion.

     When booting over the  network  using  RARP/bootparams,  the
     PROM  begins  by broadcasting a reverse ARP request until it
     receives a reply. When a reply is received,  the  PROM  then
     broadcasts  a TFTP request to fetch the first block of inet-
     boot. Subsequent requests will be sent to  the  server  that
     initially  answered  the first block request. After loading,
     inetboot will also use reverse ARP to fetch its IP  address,
     then  broadcast  bootparams RPC calls (see bootparams(4)) to
     locate configuration information and its root  file  system.
     inetboot then loads the kernel via NFS and transfers control
     to it.

     When booting over the network using DHCP,  the  PROM  broad-
     casts  the  hardware  address  and  kernel  architecture and
     requests  an  IP  address,  boot  parameters,  and   network



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System Administration Commands                           boot(1M)



     configuration  information. After a DHCP server responds and
     is selected (from among potentially multiple servers),  that
     server  sends  to  the  client  an  IP address and all other
     information needed to boot the client. After receipt of this
     information,  the  client PROM examines the name of the file
     to be loaded, and will behave in one of two ways,  depending
     on  whether the file's name appears to be an HTTP URL. If it
     does not, the PROM downloads inetboot, loads that file  into
     memory,  and executes it. inetboot invokes the kernel, which
     loads the files it  needs  and  releases  inetboot.  Startup
     scripts  then  initiate  the DHCP agent (see dhcpagent(1M)),
     which implements further DHCP activities.

     If the file to be loaded is an HTTP URL, the PROM  will  use
     HTTP  to  load  the  referenced file. If the client has been
     configured with  an  HMAC  SHA-1  key,  it  will  check  the
     integrity  of  the  loaded file before proceeding to execute
     it. The file is expected to be  the  wanboot  binary.   When
     wanboot  begins  executing, it will determine whether suffi-
     cient information is available to it to allow it to proceed.
     If any necessary information is missing, it will either exit
     with an appropriate error or bring up a command  interpreter
     and prompt for further configuration information.  Once wan-
     boot has obtained the necessary information,  it  will  load
     its  boot  file  system  into memory by means of HTTP. If an
     encryption key has been installed  on  the  client,  wanboot
     will decrypt the file system image and its accompanying hash
     (presence of an encryption key but  no  hashing  key  is  an
     error),  then verify the hash. The boot file system contains
     various configuration data needed to allow  wanboot  to  set
     the correct time and proceed to obtain a root file system.

     The boot file system is examined to determine  whether  wan-
     boot  should  use HTTP or secure HTTP. If the former, and if
     the client has been configured with an HMAC SHA-1 key,  wan-
     boot  will  perform an integrity check of the root file sys-
     tem. Once the root file system has been loaded  into  memory
     (and  possibly  had  an  integrity check performed), wanboot
     loads  and  executes  UNIX  from  it.  If  provided  with  a
     boot_logger  URL  by means of the wanboot.conf(4) file, wan-
     boot will periodically log its progress.

     Not all PROMs are capable of consuming URLs. You can  deter-
     mine  whether  a  client  is  so  capable  using  the  list-
     security-keys OBP command (see monitor(1M)).

     WAN booting is not currently available on the x86 platform.

     The wanboot Command Line

     When the client  program  is  wanboot,  it  accepts  client-
     program-args of the form:



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System Administration Commands                           boot(1M)



     boot ... -o opt1[,opt2[,...]]

     where each option may be an action:

     dhcp

         Require wanboot to obtain  configuration  parameters  by
         means of DHCP.



     prompt

         Cause wanboot to enter its command interpreter.



     <cmd>

         One of the interpreter commands listed below.



     ...or an assignment, using the interpreter's parameter names
     listed below.

     The wanboot Command Interpreter

     The wanboot command interpreter is invoked  by  supplying  a
     client-program-args  of "-o prompt" when booting. Input con-
     sists  of  single  commands  or  assignments,  or  a  comma-
     separated list of commands or assignments. The configuration
     parameters are:

     host-ip

         IP address of the client (in dotted-decimal notation)



     router-ip

         IP address of  the  default  router  (in  dotted-decimal
         notation)



     subnet-mask

         subnet mask (in dotted-decimal notation)





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System Administration Commands                           boot(1M)



     client-id

         DHCP client identifier (a quoted  ASCII  string  or  hex
         ASCII)



     hostname

         hostname to request in DHCP transactions (ASCII)



     http-proxy

         HTTP proxy server specification (IPADDR[:PORT])



     The key names are:

     3des

         the triple DES encryption key (48 hex ASCII characters)



     aes

         the AES encryption key (32 hex ASCII characters)



     sha1

         the HMAC SHA-1 signature key (40 hex ASCII characters)



     Finally, the URL or the WAN boot CGI is referred to by means
     of:

     bootserver

         URL of WAN boot's CGI  (the  equivalent  of  OBP's  file
         parameter)



     The interpreter accepts the following commands:





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System Administration Commands                           boot(1M)



     help

         Print a brief description of the available commands



     var=val

         Assign val to var, where var is one of the configuration
         parameter names, the key names, or bootserver.



     var=

         Unset parameter var.



     list

         List  all  parameters  and  their  values  (key   values
         retrieved by means of OBP are never shown).



     prompt

         Prompt for values for unset parameters. The name of each
         parameter and its current value (if any) is printed, and
         the user can accept this value (press Return) or enter a
         new value.



     go

         Once the user is satisfied that  all  values  have  been
         entered, leave the interpreter and continue booting.



     exit

         Quit the boot interpreter and return to OBP's ok prompt.



     Any of these assignments or commands can be  passed  on  the
     command  line  as part of the -o options, subject to the OBP
     limit of 128 bytes  for  boot  arguments.  For  example,  -o
     list,go  would  simply  list current (default) values of the



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System Administration Commands                           boot(1M)



     parameters and then continue booting.

     Booting from Disk

     When booting from disk (or disk-like device), the bootstrap-
     ping  process  consists of two conceptually distinct phases,
     primary boot and secondary boot. In the primary boot  phase,
     the PROM loads the primary boot block from blocks 1 to 15 of
     the disk partition selected as the boot device.

     If the pathname to the  standalone  is  relative  (does  not
     begin with a slash), the second level boot will look for the
     standalone in a platform-dependent search path. This path is
     guaranteed  to  contain  /platform/platform-name. Many SPARC
     platforms  next  search  the  platform-specific  path  entry
     /platform/hardware-class-name.  See  filesystem(5).  If  the
     pathname is absolute, boot will use the specified path.  The
     boot  program  then  loads the standalone at the appropriate
     address, and then transfers control.

     If the filename is not given on the command line  or  other-
     wise  specified,  for  example, by the boot-file NVRAM vari-
     able, boot chooses an appropriate default file to load based
     on what software is installed on the system and the capabil-
     ities of the hardware and firmware.

  OpenBoot PROM boot Command Behavior
     The OpenBoot boot command takes arguments of  the  following
     form:

     ok boot [device-specifier] [arguments]

     The default boot command has no arguments:


     ok boot


     If no device-specifier is given on the  boot  command  line,
     OpenBoot typically uses the boot-device or diag-device NVRAM
     variable. If no optional arguments are given on the  command
     line,  OpenBoot  typically  uses  the boot-file or diag-file
     NVRAM variable as default boot arguments. (If the system  is
     in  diagnostics  mode,  diag-device  and  diag-file are used
     instead of boot-device and boot-file).

     arguments may include more than  one  string.  All  argument
     strings  are  passed  to  the secondary booter; they are not
     interpreted by OpenBoot.

     If any arguments are specified on  the  boot  command  line,
     then  neither the boot-file nor the diag-file NVRAM variable



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System Administration Commands                           boot(1M)



     is used. The contents of the NVRAM variables are not  merged
     with command line arguments. For example, the command:

     ok boot -s


     ignores the settings in both  boot-file  and  diag-file;  it
     interprets  the  string "-s" as arguments. boot will not use
     the contents of boot-file or diag-file.

     With older PROMs, the command:

     ok boot net

     took no arguments, using instead the settings  in  boot-file
     or diag-file (if set) as the default file name and arguments
     to pass to boot. In most cases, it is best to allow the boot
     command to choose an appropriate default based upon the sys-
     tem type, system hardware and firmware,  and  upon  what  is
     installed  on  the  root  file system. Changing boot-file or
     diag-file can generate unexpected results  in  certain  cir-
     cumstances.

     This behavior is found on most OpenBoot 2.x  and  3.x  based
     systems. Note that differences may occur on some platforms.

     The command:

          ok boot cdrom


     ...also normally takes no arguments. Accordingly,  if  boot-
     file is set to the 64-bit kernel filename and you attempt to
     boot the installation CD or DVD with boot cdrom,  boot  will
     fail  if  the installation media contains only a 32-bit ker-
     nel.

     Because the  contents  of  boot-file  or  diag-file  can  be
     ignored  depending  on  the  form  of the boot command used,
     reliance upon boot-file should be discouraged for most  pro-
     duction systems.

     When executing a WAN boot from a local (CD or DVD)  copy  of
     wanboot, one must use:

          ok boot cdrom -F wanboot - install


     Modern PROMs have enhanced the network boot support  package
     to  support  the  following  syntax for arguments to be pro-
     cessed by the package:




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System Administration Commands                           boot(1M)



          [protocol,] [key=value,]*


     All arguments are optional and can appear in any order. Com-
     mas  are  required  unless the argument is at the end of the
     list. If specified, an argument takes  precedence  over  any
     default  values,  or, if booting using DHCP, over configura-
     tion information provided by a DHCP server for those parame-
     ters.

     protocol, above, specifies the address discovery protocol to
     be used.

     Configuration parameters, listed  below,  are  specified  as
     key=value attribute pairs.

     tftp-server

         IP address of the TFTP server



     file

         file to download using TFTP or URL for WAN boot



     host-ip

         IP address of the client (in dotted-decimal notation)



     router-ip

         IP address of the default router



     subnet-mask

         subnet mask (in dotted-decimal notation)



     client-id

         DHCP client identifier






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System Administration Commands                           boot(1M)



     hostname

         hostname to use in DHCP transactions



     http-proxy

         HTTP proxy server specification (IPADDR[:PORT])



     tftp-retries

         maximum number of TFTP retries



     dhcp-retries

         maximum number of DHCP retries



     The list of arguments to be processed by  the  network  boot
     support package is specified in one of two ways:

       o  As arguments passed to the package's open method, or

       o  arguments listed in the  NVRAM  variable  network-boot-
          arguments.


     Arguments specified in network-boot-arguments will  be  pro-
     cessed  only  if  there  are  no  arguments  passed  to  the
     package's open method.

     Argument Values

     protocol specifies the  address  discovery  protocol  to  be
     used. If present, the possible values are rarp or dhcp.

     If other configuration parameters are specified in  the  new
     syntax  and style specified by this document, absence of the
     protocol parameter implies manual configuration.

     If no other configuration parameters are  specified,  or  if
     those  arguments  are  specified in the positional parameter
     syntax currently supported,  the  absence  of  the  protocol
     parameter causes the network boot support package to use the
     platform-specific default address discovery protocol.




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System Administration Commands                           boot(1M)



     Manual configuration requires that the  client  be  provided
     its  IP  address, the name of the boot file, and the address
     of the server providing the boot file  image.  Depending  on
     the   network  configuration,  it  might  be  required  that
     subnet-mask and router-ip also be specified.

     If the protocol argument is not specified, the network  boot
     support  package  uses the platform-specific default address
     discovery protocol.

     tftp-server is the IP  address  (in  standard  IPv4  dotted-
     decimal  notation) of the TFTP server that provides the file
     to download if using TFTP.

     When using DHCP, the  value,  if  specified,  overrides  the
     value of the TFTP server specified in the DHCP response.

     The TFTP RRQ is unicast to the server if one is specified as
     an argument or in the DHCP response. Otherwise, the TFTP RRQ
     is broadcast.

     file specifies the file to be loaded by TFTP from  the  TFTP
     server,  or  the URL if using HTTP. The use of HTTP is trig-
     gered if the file name is a URL,  that  is,  the  file  name
     starts with http: (case-insensitive).

     When using RARP and TFTP, the default file name is the ASCII
     hexadecimal  representation of the IP address of the client,
     as documented in a preceding section of this document.

     When using DHCP, this argument, if specified, overrides  the
     name of the boot file specified in the DHCP response.

     When using DHCP and TFTP, the  default  file  name  is  con-
     structed from the root node's name property, with commas (,)
     replaced by periods (.).

     When specified on the command line, the  filename  must  not
     contain slashes (/).

     The format of URLs is described in RFC 2396. The HTTP server
     must  be  specified  as  an  IP  address  (in  standard IPv4
     dotted-decimal notation). The optional port number is speci-
     fied  in  decimal.  If  a  port  is  not  specified, port 80
     (decimal) is implied.

     The URL presented must be "safe-encoded", that is, the pack-
     age  does  not  apply escape encodings to the URL presented.
     URLs containing commas must be presented as a quoted string.
     Quoting URLs is optional otherwise.





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System Administration Commands                           boot(1M)



     host-ip specifies the IP address (in standard  IPv4  dotted-
     decimal notation) of the client, the system being booted. If
     using RARP as the  address  discovery  protocol,  specifying
     this argument makes use of RARP unnecessary.

     If DHCP is used, specifying the host-ip argument causes  the
     client  to  follow  the  steps  required of a client with an
     "Externally Configured Network Address", as specified in RFC
     2131.

     router-ip is the IP address (in standard IPv4 dotted-decimal
     notation)  of  a router on a directly connected network. The
     router will be used as  the  first  hop  for  communications
     spanning  networks. If this argument is supplied, the router
     specified here takes precedence over  the  preferred  router
     specified in the DHCP response.

     subnet-mask (specified in standard IPv4 dotted-decimal nota-
     tion)  is  the  subnet  mask on the client's network. If the
     subnet mask is not provided (either by means of  this  argu-
     ment  or in the DHCP response), the default mask appropriate
     to the network class (Class A,  B,  or  C)  of  the  address
     assigned to the booting client will be assumed.

     client-id specifies the unique identifier  for  the  client.
     The  DHCP  client  identifier  is  derived  from this value.
     Client identifiers can be specified as:

       o  The ASCII hexadecimal representation of the identifier,
          or

       o  a quoted string


     Thus,  client-id="openboot"  and  client-id=6f70656e626f6f74
     both represent a DHCP client identifier of 6F70656E626F6F74.

     Identifiers specified on the  command  line  must  must  not
     include slash (/) or spaces.

     The maximum length of  the  DHCP  client  identifier  is  32
     bytes,  or  64 characters representing 32 bytes if using the
     ASCII hexadecimal form. If the  latter  form  is  used,  the
     number  of  characters  in  the  identifier  must be an even
     number. Valid characters are 0-9, a-f, and A-F.

     For correct identification of clients, the client identifier
     must be unique among the client identifiers used on the sub-
     net to which the client is attached.  System  administrators
     are  responsible  for  choosing  identifiers  that meet this
     requirement.




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System Administration Commands                           boot(1M)



     Specifying a client identifier on a command line takes  pre-
     cedence over any other DHCP mechanism of specifying identif-
     iers.

     hostname (specified as a string) specifies the  hostname  to
     be used in DHCP transactions. The name might or might not be
     qualified with the local domain name. The maximum length  of
     the hostname is 255 characters.

     Note -  The  hostname  parameter  can  be  used  in  service
             environments  that  require  that the client provide
             the desired hostname to  the  DHCP  server.  Clients
             provide  the  desired  hostname  to the DHCP server,
             which can then register the hostname and IP  address
             assigned to the client with DNS.


     http-proxy is specified in the following  standard  notation
     for a host:

     host [":"" port]

     ...where host is specified as an IP ddress (in standard IPv4
     dotted-decimal  notation) and the optional port is specified
     in decimal. If a port is not specified, port 8080  (decimal)
     is implied.

     tftp-retries is the maximum number of retries (specified  in
     decimal)  attempted before the TFTP process is determined to
     have failed. Defaults to using infinite retries.

     dhcp-retries is the maximum number of retries (specified  in
     decimal)  attempted before the DHCP process is determined to
     have failed. Defaults to of using infinite retries.

  x86 Bootstrap Procedure
     On x86 based systems, the bootstrapping process consists  of
     two  conceptually distinct phases, kernel loading and kernel
     initialization. Kernel loading is implemented in GRUB (GRand
     Unified  Bootloader) using the BIOS ROM on the system board,
     and BIOS extensions in ROMs on peripheral boards.  The  BIOS
     loads  GRUB,  starting with the first physical sector from a
     floppy disk, hard disk, DVD, or CD. If supported by the  ROM
     on  the network adapter, the BIOS can also download the pxe-
     grub binary  from  a  network  boot  server.  Once  GRUB  is
     located,  it  executes  a  commands in a menu to load a pre-
     constructed boot archive containing kernel program and data.
     GRUB  also  loads  a small program called "multiboot", which
     implements the kernel side of the Multiboot Specification.

     Kernel initialization starts when GRUB finishes loading  the
     boot  archive  and  hands  control  over  to  the  multiboot



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System Administration Commands                           boot(1M)



     program. At this point, GRUB becomes inactive  and  no  more
     I/O  occurs  with  the  boot  device.  The multiboot program
     assembles the core kernel modules and starts  the  operating
     system, links in the necessary modules from the boot archive
     and mounts the root filesystem on the real root  device.  At
     this  point,  the  kernel  regains storage I/O, mounts addi-
     tional file systems  (see  vfstab(4)),  and  starts  various
     operating system services (see smf(5)).

OPTIONS
  SPARC
     The following SPARC options are supported:

     -a

         The boot program interprets this flag to  mean  ask  me,
         and  so  it  prompts for the name of the standalone. The
         '-a' flag is then passed to the standalone program.



     -D default-file

         Explicitly specify the default-file.  On  some  systems,
         boot  chooses  a dynamic default file, used when none is
         otherwise specified. This option allows the default-file
         to  be  explicitly  set  and  can be useful when booting
         kmdb(1) since, by default, kmdb loads  the  default-file
         as exported by the boot program.



     -V

         Display verbose debugging information.



     boot-flags

         The boot program passes all boot-flags to file. They are
         not  interpreted by boot. See the kernel(1M) and kmdb(1)
         manual pages for information about the options available
         with the default standalone program.



     client-program-args

         The boot program passes all client-program-args to file.
         They are not interpreted by boot.




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System Administration Commands                           boot(1M)



     file

         Name of a standalone program to boot. If a  filename  is
         not  explicitly  specified,  either  on the boot command
         line or in the boot-file NVRAM variable, boot chooses an
         appropriate default filename.



     OBP names

         Specify the open boot prom designations. For example, on
         Desktop    SPARC    based   systems,   the   designation
         /sbus/esp@0,800000/sd@3,0:a indicates a SCSI  disk  (sd)
         at  target  3,  lun0  on the SCSI bus, with the esp host
         adapter plugged into slot 0.



  x86
     The following x86 options are supported:

     -B prop=val...

         One or more property-value pairs to  be  passed  to  the
         multiboot program. Multiple property-value pairs must be
         separated  by  a  comma.  Use  of  this  option  is  the
         equivalent   of   the   command:  eeprom  prop=val.  See
         eeprom(1M) for available properties and valid values.



     boot-args

         The boot program passes all boot-args to file. They  are
         not  interpreted by boot. See kernel(1M) and kmdb(1) for
         information about the options available with the kernel.



     file

         Name of a standalone program to boot. The default is  to
         boot                         /platform/i86pc/kernel/unix
         (/platform/i86pc/kernel/amd64/unix if the CPU is  64-bit
         capable)  from  the  root partition, but you can specify
         another program on the command line.



     multiboot




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System Administration Commands                           boot(1M)



         Name of  the  multiboot  program  loaded  by  GRUB.  The
         default  name  is  /platform/i86pc/multiboot.  This name
         should not be changed.



x86 BOOT SEQUENCE DETAILS
     After a PC-compatible  machine  is  turned  on,  the  system
     firmware  in  the  BIOS  ROM  executes  a power-on self test
     (POST), runs BIOS extensions in peripheral board  ROMs,  and
     invokes  software  interrupt INT 19h, Bootstrap. The INT 19h
     handler typically performs the standard PC-compatible  boot,
     which  consists  of trying to read the first physical sector
     from the first diskette drive, or, if that fails,  from  the
     first  hard disk. The processor then jumps to the first byte
     of the sector image in memory.

x86 Primary Boot
     The first sector on a floppy disk contains the  master  boot
     block  (GRUB stage1). The stage 1 is responsible for loading
     GRUB stage2. Now GRUB is fully functional. It reads and exe-
     cutes  the menu file /boot/grub/menu.lst. A similar sequence
     occurs for DVD or CD boot, but the master boot  block  loca-
     tion  and  contents are dictated by the El Torito specifica-
     tion. The El Torito boot also leads to strap.com,  which  in
     turn loads boot.bin.

     The first sector on a hard disk  contains  the  master  boot
     block,  which contains the master boot program and the FDISK
     table, named for the PC program that maintains it. The  mas-
     ter  boot  finds  the  active  partition in the FDISK table,
     loads its first sector (GRUB stage1), and jumps to its first
     byte  in  memory.  This completes the standard PC-compatible
     hard disk boot sequence. If GRUB stage1 is installed on  the
     master  boot  block  (see the -m option of installgrub(1M)),
     then stage2 is loaded directly from the Solaris FDISK parti-
     tion regardless of the active partition.

     An x86 FDISK partition for the Solaris software begins  with
     a one-cylinder boot slice, which contains GRUB stage1 in the
     first sector, the standard Solaris  disk  label  and  volume
     table  of  contents  (VTOC) in the second and third sectors,
     and GRUB stage2 in the fiftieth and subsequent sectors.  The
     area from sector 4 to 49 might contain boot blocks for older
     versions of Solaris. This makes  it  possible  for  multiple
     Solaris  releases  on  the  same  FDISK to coexist. When the
     FDISK partition for the Solaris software is the active  par-
     tition,  the master boot program (mboot) reads the partition
     boot program in the first sector into memory  and  jumps  to
     it.  It  in  turn  reads GRUB stage2 program into memory and
     jumps to it. Once the GRUB menu is displayed, the  user  can
     choose to boot an operating system on a different partition,



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System Administration Commands                           boot(1M)



     a different disk, or possibly from the network.

     For network booting, the supported method is Intel's Preboot
     eXecution  Environment (PXE) standard. When booting from the
     network using PXE, the system or network adapter  BIOS  uses
     DHCP  to  locate  a network bootstrap program (pxegrub) on a
     boot server and reads it using Trivial File Transfer  Proto-
     col  (TFTP). The BIOS executes the pxegrub by jumping to its
     first byte in memory. The pxegrub program downloads  a  menu
     file and presents the entries to user.

x86 Kernel Startup
     The kernel startup process  is  independent  of  the  kernel
     loading  process. During kernel startup, console I/O goes to
     the device specified by the console property. The root  dev-
     ice  is  specified  by  the  bootpath property, and the root
     filesystem type is specified by the fstype  property.  These
     properties  should  be  setup by the Solaris Install/Upgrade
     process in /boot/solaris/bootenv.rc and  can  be  overridden
     with  the -B option, described above (see the eeprom(1M) man
     page). If  the  properties  are  not  present,  console  I/O
     defaults to screen and keyboard. The root device defaults to
     ramdisk and the filesystem defaults to ufs.

EXAMPLES
  SPARC
     Example  1:  To  Boot  the  Default  Kernel  In  Single-User
     Interactive Mode

     To boot the default kernel in single-user interactive  mode,
     respond to the ok prompt with one of the following:

     boot -as

     boot disk3 -as

     Example 2: Network Booting with WAN Boot-Capable PROMs

     To illustrate some of the subtle  repercussions  of  various
     boot  command  line  invocations,  assume  that the network-
     boot-arguments are set and that net is devaliased  as  shown
     in the commands below.

     In the following command, device  arguments  in  the  device
     alias  are  processed by the device driver. The network boot
     support  package  processes   arguments   in   network-boot-
     arguments.

     boot net

     The command below results in no device arguments.  The  net-
     work  boot  support  package processes arguments in network-



SunOS 5.10          Last change: 24 May 2005                   17






System Administration Commands                           boot(1M)



     boot-arguments.

     boot net:

     The command below results in no device  arguments.  rarp  is
     the  only  network  boot  support package argument. network-
     boot-arguments is ignored.

     boot net:rarp

     In the command below, the  specified  device  arguments  are
     honored.  The  network  boot support package processes argu-
     ments in network-boot-arguments.

     boot net:speed=100,duplex=full

     Example 3: Using wanboot with Older PROMs

     The command below results in the wanboot binary being loaded
     from  DVD or CD, at which time wanboot will perform DHCP and
     then drop into its command interpreter to allow the user  to
     enter keys and any other necessary configuration.

     boot cdrom -F wanboot -o dhcp,prompt

  x86 (32-bit)
     Example  4:  To  Boot  the  Default  Kernel  In  Single-User
     Interactive Mode

     To boot the default kernel in single-user interactive  mode,
     edit the GRUB kernel command line to read:

     kernel /platform/i86pc/multiboot kernel/unix -as

  x86 (64-bit Only)
     Example  5:  To  Boot  the  Default  Kernel  In  Single-User
     Interactive Mode

     To boot the default kernel in single-user interactive  mode,
     edit the GRUB kernel command line to read:

     kernel /platform/i86pc/multiboot kernel/amd64/unix -as

     Example 6: Switching Between 32-bit and  64-bit  Kernels  on
     64-bit x86 Platform

     The default value of the boot-file eeprom(1M) variable is  a
     null string, which allows the secondary booter to select the
     kernel, 32-bit or  64-bit,  appropriate  for  your  system's
     hardware.  If  you  want to specify one kernel or the other,
     use the following steps.




SunOS 5.10          Last change: 24 May 2005                   18






System Administration Commands                           boot(1M)



     To specify the 32-bit kernel, as  root  or  with  equivalent
     privileges, enter:

     # eeprom boot-file kernel/unix


     Upon the next reboot, your system will be running the 32-bit
     kernel.

     Alternatively, you can specify the 32-bit kernel in the GRUB
     menu:

     kernel /platform/i86pc/multiboot kernel/unix


     To specify the 64-bit kernel, as  root  or  with  equivalent
     privileges, enter:

     # eeprom boot-file kernel/amd64/unix


     Upon the next reboot, your system will be running the 64-bit
     kernel.

     Alternatively, you can specify the 64-bit kernel in the GRUB
     menu:

     kernel /platform/i86pc/multiboot kernel/amd64/unix


     To return the boot-file variable to  its  default  value,  a
     null string, so that the secondary booter selects the kernel
     appropriate for your system's hardware, enter:

     # eeprom boot-file ""


     You can determine the current value of the  boot-file  vari-
     able, as a non-privileged user, by entering:

     % eeprom boot-file


     See eeprom(1M) for details on that command.

FILES
     /platform/platform-name/ufsboot

         Second-level program to boot from a disk, DVD, or CD






SunOS 5.10          Last change: 24 May 2005                   19






System Administration Commands                           boot(1M)



     /etc/inittab

         Table in which the initdefault state is specified



     /sbin/init

         Program that brings the system to the initdefault state




  64-bit SPARC Only
     /platform/platform-name/kernel/sparcv9/unix

         Default program to boot system.



  x86 Only
     /boot

         Directory containing boot-related files.



     /platform/i86pc/multiboot

         kernel program implementing the kernel side of the  Mul-
         tiboot Specification.



     /platform/i86pc/kernel/unix

         Default program to boot system.



  64-bit x86 Only
     /platform/i86pc/kernel/amd64/unix

         Default program to boot system.



SEE ALSO
     kmdb(1), uname(1),  eeprom(1M),  init(1M),  installboot(1M),
     kernel(1M),   monitor(1M),  shutdown(1M),  uadmin(2),  boot-
     params(4), inittab(4), vfstab(4), wanboot.conf(4),  filesys-
     tem(5)



SunOS 5.10          Last change: 24 May 2005                   20






System Administration Commands                           boot(1M)



     RFC   903,   A   Reverse   Address   Resolution    Protocol,
     http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc903.txt

     RFC   2131,    Dynamic    Host    Configuration    Protocol,
     http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2131.txt

     RFC  2132,  DHCP  Options  and  BOOTP   Vendor   Extensions,
     http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2132.txt

     RFC 2396, Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI):  Generic  Syn-
     tax, http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2396.txt

     System Administration Guide: Basic Administration

     Sun Hardware Platform Guide

     OpenBoot Command Reference Manual

WARNINGS
     The boot utility is unable to determine which files  can  be
     used  as bootable programs. If the booting of a file that is
     not bootable is requested, the boot  utility  loads  it  and
     branches to it. What happens after that is unpredictable.

NOTES
     platform-name can be found using the -i option of  uname(1).
     hardware-class-name  can  be  found  using  the -m option of
     uname(1).

     The current release of the Solaris operating system does not
     support machines running an UltraSPARC-I CPU.
























SunOS 5.10          Last change: 24 May 2005                   21





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