BOOT_HPPA64(8)     OpenBSD System Manager's Manual (HPPA64)     BOOT_HPPA64(8)

NAME
     boot_hppa64 - hppa64 system bootstrapping procedures

DESCRIPTION
   System starts
     When powered on, after a panic, or if the system is rebooted via
     reboot(8) or shutdown(8), the hppa firmware (``PDC'') will proceed to its
     initialization, and will boot an operating system if autoboot is enabled.

   Boot process description
     System boot blocks are provided as a ``LIF'' (Logical Interchange Format)
     archive, either on a disk, tape or CD-ROM device, or via the network, us-
     ing the bootp protocol.  A small mkboot(8) utility is provided for com-
     bining primary boot and a number of images (OS kernels or standalone bi-
     naries) into one ``LIF'' volume suitable for booting.

   PDC concepts
     If autoboot is enabled, the PDC will attempt to boot from the specified
     ``boot path'' value.  If no ``boot path'' has been specified, the PDC
     will then scan for bootable devices and boot from the first found, after
     a few seconds allowing the user to interrupt the boot process.  If auto-
     boot is disabled, the PDC will enter interactive mode, after an optional
     device scan.  In all cases, it is possible to enter interactive mode by
     holding the escape key during the selftests, or when prompted to do so to
     abort the current operation, unless the PDC has been configured in
     ``secure mode''.

   ISL interaction
     ``ISL'' stands for ``Initial System Loader'' and is the boot(8) program
     in OpenBSD.  On all versions of the PDC the ``boot'' command (see below)
     will be followed by the question: ``Interact with IPL (Y, N, or
     Cancel)?>'' where a positive answer will invoke an interactive prompt in
     the boot(8) program later and negative will thus suppress it.  A cancel-
     lation will abort the boot process.

     With the default behaviour being a non-interactive boot process.

   PDC operation
     There is only one interactive mode, with a BOOT_ADMIN> prompt, which pro-
     vides both boot settings and commands.  The complete list of commands de-
     pends on the machine and PDC version.  The following list only mentions
     commands impacting the boot process.

           auto boot    Displays or changes the autoboot setting.  If auto
                        boot is set to ``on'', the PDC will always attempt to
                        boot.  The booted device chosen will depend on the
                        auto search setting.

           auto search  Displays or changes the device scan setting.  If auto
                        search is set to ``on'', the PDC will attempt to boot
                        the first bootable device found in this order:
                              1.   Boot device path setting.
                              2.   SCSI devices connected to the built-in SCSI
                                   controller, the highest ID numbers being
                                   preferred.
                              3.   Network bootp server (see also dhcpd(8)).
                              4.   Other SCSI devices connected to secondary
                                   controllers, the highest ID numbers being
                                   preferred.
                        If auto search is set to ``off'' and the primary boot
                        path points to a bootable device, no device scan will
                        occur.

                        Note that setting auto search to ``on'' will force au-
                        toboot, regardless of the auto boot value.

           boot         Boots off the specified device.  The ``primary'' and
                        ``alternate'' path settings may be booted with boot
                        pri and boot alt respectively.

           path         Displays or changes the boot and console devices.  The
                        boot device is defined as the ``primary'' path, and
                        another setting may be stored as the ``alternate''
                        path for rescue purposes.  For example, to define the
                        primary boot path to the SCSI disk with ID 5 connected
                        to the built-in controller, one would enter path pri
                        scsi.5.

                        When invoked without parameters, path will list the
                        various path settings.

   Boot process options
     The OpenBSD hppa boot loader program is extensively described in a sepa-
     rate document, boot(8).

   Abnormal system termination
     If the system crashes, it will enter the kernel debugger, ddb(4), if it
     is configured in the kernel.  If the crash occurred during initialization
     and the debugger is not present or is exited, the kernel will halt the
     system.  If the crash occurred during normal operation and the debugger
     is not present or is exited, the system will attempt a dump to the con-
     figured dump device (which will be automatically recovered with
     savecore(8) during the next multi-user boot cycle), and after the dump is
     complete (successful or not) the kernel will attempt a reboot.

FILES
     /bsd                default system kernel
     /bsd.rd             standalone installation kernel, suitable for disaster
                         recovery
     boot.lif            network bootstrap and kernel combined image
     /usr/mdec/cdboot    primary bootstrap for ``cd9660'' file system
     /usr/mdec/xxboot    primary bootstrap for ``ffs'' file system
     /usr/mdec/boot      system bootstrap (usually also installed as /boot)

SEE ALSO
     ddb(4), boot(8), dhcpd(8), halt(8), init(8), reboot(8), savecore(8),
     shutdown(8)

OpenBSD 4.7                      May 31, 2007                                2
