path: root/sys/arch/i386/stand/boot/boot.8

.\"	$OpenBSD: boot.8,v 1.18 2000/07/12 20:19:23 deraadt Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 1997-1999 Michael Shalayeff
.\" All rights reserved.
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.\"    must display the following acknowledgement:
.\"      This product includes software developed by Michael Shalayeff.
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.Dd September 1, 1997
.Dt BOOT 8 i386
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm boot , boot.conf
.Nd
i386-specific second-stage bootstrap
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The main purpose of this program is to load the system kernel, dealing with
the downfalls of the PC BIOS architecture.
.Pp
As described in
.Xr boot_i386 8
this program is loaded by the
.Xr biosboot 8
primary bootstrap loader and provides a convenient way to load the kernel.
This program acts as an enhanced boot monitor for PC systems, providing
common interface for the kernel to start from.
.Pp
Basic operations include:
.Bl -bullet -compact
.It
Detecting and switching between multiple consoles.
.It
Loading kernels from any device supported by your system BIOS.
.It
Loading kernels compressed by
.Xr gzip 1 .
.It
Passing system parameters queried from the BIOS to the kernel.
.It
Providing an interactive command line.
.El
.Pp
The sequence of its operation is as follows: initialization,
parsing the configuration file, then an interactive command line.
While at the command line you have 5 seconds to type any commands,
if needed. If time expires, the kernel will be loaded according to
the current variable settings (See the
.Nm set
command).  Each time a kernel load fails, the timeout
is increased by one second. The sequence of
.Nm
operations is as follows:
.Bl -enum
.It
Set up a protected mode environment which catches and reports processor
exceptions, and provides a simple protected-mode BIOS interface.
.It
Probe for console devices, which includes the (default) PC VGA+Keyboard
console (pc0) and up to four serial consoles (com0 through com3) connected
to the serial ports. Display messages to the default console about the
devices found.
.It
Detect memory. Conventional memory is detected by quering the BIOS.
Extended memory is detected by probing page-by-page through the address
space, rather than asking the BIOS; many BIOS cannot report larger than
64M of memory.
All the memory found is reported to the default console device.
.It
Probe for APM support in the BIOS. Message printed if support is present.
.It
If the file
.Pa /etc/boot.conf
exists on the filesystem
.Nm
was loaded from, open and parse it. This file may contain any commands
.Nm
accepts at the interactive prompt.
Though default settings usually suffice, they can be changed here.
.It
The header line
.Pp
.Dl OpenBSD BOOT [x.xx]
.Pp
is displayed to the active console, where
.Ar x.xx
is a version number of the
.Nm
program, followed by the
.Pp
.Dl boot>
.Pp
prompt, which means you are in the interactive mode and may enter
commands. If you do not,
.Nm
will proceed loading kernel with the current parameters after the
timeout period has expired.
.El
.Sh COMMANDS
The following commands are accepted at the
.Nm
prompt:
.Bl -tag -width stty_device_speed_____
.It boot Op Ar image Op Fl abcds
Boots kernel image specified by
.Ar image
with any options given. Image specification consists of a pair
.Em device : filename ,
either or both of each maybe omitted (':' is not needed if both are omitted),
in which case values from
.Nm
variables will be used.
.It echo Op Ar args
Displays
.Ar args
on the console device.
.It help
Prints a list of available commands and machine dependent
commands, if any.
.It machine Op Ar command
Issues machine-dependent commands. These are defined for i386 architecture:
.Bl -tag -width diskinfo_
.It Nm diskinfo
Prints list of hard disks installed on your system including:
BIOS device number, and the BIOS geometry.
.It Nm memory
If used without any arguments this command will print out
the memory configuration as determined through BIOS routines.
Otherwise the arguments would specify the expressions to modify the
memory configuration. The expression would have a form of:
.Pp
.Dl [+-]<size>@<address>
.Pp
Meaning to add(+) or exempt(-) the specified by the
.Ar <size>
amount of memory at the location specified by the
.Ar <address>
argument.
.It Nm regs
Prints contents of processor registers if compiled with
.Em DEBUG .
.El
.It ls Op Ar directory
Prints contents of the specified
.Ar directory
in long format including: attributes and file type, owner, group,
size, filename.
.It reboot
Reboots machine by initiating a warm boot procedure.
.It set Op Ar varname Op Ar value
If invoked without arguments, prints a list of variables and their values.
If only
.Ar varname
is specified, displays contents of that variable.
If
.Ar varname
and
.Ar value
are both specified, sets that variable to the given value.
Variables include:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -compact -width boothow
.It Nm addr
Address at which to load the kernel.
.It Nm howto
Options to pass to the loaded kernel.
.It Nm debug
Debug flag if
.Nm
was compiled with DEBUG defined.
.It Nm device
Boot device name (ie: fd0a, sd0a).
.It Nm tty
Active console device name (ie: com0, com1, pc0)
.It Nm image
File name containing the kernel image.
.El
.It stty Op Ar device Op Ar speed
Displays or sets the
.Ar speed
for a console
.Ar device .
If changing baudrate for the currently
active console, gives you five seconds of pause
before changing the baud rate to allow you to change your terminal's
speed to match.  If changing speed
.Em not
for the active console, sets the baudrate value to be used the
.Em next
time you switch to a serial console.
The baudrate value is not used for the pc0 console.
.Pp
The default baudrate if not specifically
set is 9600 baud.
.It time
Displays system time and date.
.El
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width /usr/mdec/biosbootxx -compact
.It Pa /usr/mdec/biosboot
first stage bootstrap
.It Pa /boot
system bootstrap
.It Pa /etc/boot.conf
system bootstrap's startup file
.It Pa /bsd
kernel image
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr gzip 1 ,
.Xr boot_i386 8 ,
.Xr fdisk 8 ,
.Xr installboot 8
.Pp
RFC 1950 describes the zlib library interface.
.Pp
The official home page for the version of zlib used in this
operating system see http://quest.jpl.nasa.gov/zlib/ .
.Sh BUGS
Well, nobody is perfect.
.Sh HISTORY
This program was written by Michael Shalayeff for
.Ox 2.1 .