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:

           # cp /usr/mdec/boot /boot
           # /usr/mdec/installboot -n -v /boot /usr/mdec/bootxx /dev/rsd0c

     And if the information supplied looks right, run the above without the -n
     flag.

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

HISTORY
     The alpha installboot command first appeared in NetBSD 1.2.

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.)

OpenBSD 4.7                      March 6, 2010                               1
