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

NAME
     boot_alpha - Alpha system bootstrapping procedures

DESCRIPTION
   Cold starts
     When powered on, the SRM firmware will proceed to its initialization, and
     will boot an operating system if the auto_action variable is set to
     ``boot'' or ``restart'', or will wait for interactive commands if set to
     ``halt''.

   Warm starts
     After a panic, or if the system is rebooted via reboot(8) or shutdown(8),
     the SRM console will only restart the system if the auto_action variable
     is set to ``boot''.

   Boot process options
     The SRM console will attempt to boot a kernel named from the boot_file
     environment variable, on the device listed in the bootdef_dev variable.
     A list of the recognized SRM devices can be obtained with the command
     show dev at the SRM prompt.  If the boot_file variable is not set or emp-
     ty, /bsd will be used by default.

     The kernel will be passed the options listed in the boot_osflags vari-
     able.  Option letters are case insensitive.  The following option letters
     are recognized:

           a    Boot the system multi-user.  This is the default behaviour of
                the kernel if no flags are specified.
           b    Enter the debugger, ddb(4), as soon as the kernel console has
                been initialized.
           c    Enter the ``User Kernel Configuration'' mode upon startup
                (boot_config(8)).
           d    Create a kernel crash dump immediately after the devices have
                been configured.  This option is only available on kernels
                compiled with "option DEBUG".
           h    On the next system reboot, always halt the system, even if a
                reboot is required.
           n    Prompt for the root filesystem device after the devices have
                been configured.
           s    Boot the system single-user.

   Abnormal system termination
     In case of system crashes, the kernel will usually enter the kernel de-
     bugger, ddb(4), unless it is not present in the kernel, or it is disabled
     via the ddb.panic sysctl.  Upon leaving ddb, or if ddb was not entered,
     the kernel will halt the system if it was still in device configuration
     phase, or attempt a dump to the configured dump device, if possible.  The
     crash dump will then be recovered by savecore(8) during the next multi-
     user boot cycle.  It is also possible to force other behaviours from ddb.

FILES
     /bsd               default system kernel
     /bsd.rd            standalone installation kernel, suitable for disaster
                        recovery
     /usr/mdec/bootxx   primary bootstrap for ``ffs'' file system
     /usr/mdec/boot     secondary bootstrap (usually also installed as /boot)
     /usr/mdec/netboot  network bootstrap

SEE ALSO
     ddb(4), boot_config(8), halt(8), init(8), installboot(8), reboot(8),
     savecore(8), setnetbootinfo(8), shutdown(8)

     Alpha Architecture Reference Manual Third Edition, Digital Press, Alpha
     Architecture Committee, 1998.

BUGS
     The device names used by OpenBSD/alpha and the SRM Console often have no
     relation to each other.

OpenBSD 4.7                     January 3, 2010                              2
