INSTALLBOOT(8)      OpenBSD System Manager's Manual (Alpha)     INSTALLBOOT(8)

NAME
     installboot - install disk bootstrap software

SYNOPSIS
     installboot [-nv] boot bootxx rawdiskdevice

DESCRIPTION
     The installboot utility prepares a disk for bootstrapping.

     The OpenBSD/alpha disk bootstrap software is split into two parts: a
     small first-stage boot program that is written into the disklabel area of
     a disk (and hence is limited in size to 7680 bytes), and a second-stage
     boot program that resides in the filesystem proper (typically with the
     name /boot). The first-stage boot program is loaded into memory by the
     SRM console software.  After receiving control of the system, it loads
     the second-stage boot program from a set of filesystem block numbers that
     have been hard-coded into it by installboot. The second-stage boot pro-
     gram locates and loads the kernel.

     The second-stage boot program and the prototype code for the first-stage
     boot program can be found in /usr/mdec/boot and /usr/mdec/bootxx, respec-
     tively.  /usr/mdec/boot may be installed simply by copying it to the root
     directory of the partition you wish to boot from, but after it is in-
     stalled installboot must be run.

     The options recognized by installboot are as follows:

     -n    Do not actually write anything on the disk.

     -v    Verbose mode.

     The arguments are:

     boot           The name of the second-stage boot program in the file sys-
                    tem where the first-stage boot program is to be installed.

     bootxx         The name of the prototype file for the first-stage boot
                    program.

     rawdiskdevice  The name of the device corresponding to the raw whole-disk
                    partition (the ``raw partition'') of the disk on which the
                    first-stage boot program is to be installed.

EXAMPLES
     boot resides in the FFS file system mounted on / from ``sd0a'', you would
     install the first-stage boot program on the disk (and therefore make the
     disk bootable) by using the command:

           installboot /boot /usr/mdec/bootxx /dev/rsd0c

BUGS
     The OpenBSD/alpha boot blocks can only load kernels from disks' ``a''
     partitions.  (However, the second-stage boot program may be located on
     any FFS file system partition on the disk.)

     Installboot requires simultaneous access to the mounted file system and
     the disks' raw partition.  That is not allowed with the kernel
     securelevel variable (see sysctl(8)) set to a value greater than one, or
     with securelevel set to one if the ``boot'' program resides in a file
     system on the disk's raw partition.

SEE ALSO
     disklabel(8), init(8), sysctl(8)

HISTORY
     The alpha installboot command first appeared in NetBSD 1.2.

OpenBSD 3.0                    January 16, 1997                              2
