NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

     boot_alpha - Alpha system bootstrapping procedures

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

   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    [Toc]    [Back]
     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    [Toc]    [Back]
     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 empty,
 /bsd will be used by default.

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

           a    Boot the system multi-user.
           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.  This is the default
behaviour of
                the kernel if no flags are specified.

   Abnormal system termination    [Toc]    [Back]
     In case of system crashes, the kernel will usually enter the
kernel debugger,
  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 multiuser
 boot cycle.  It is also possible  to  force  other  behaviours from ddb.

FILES    [Toc]    [Back]

     /bsd               default system kernel
     /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    [Toc]    [Back]

     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    [Toc]    [Back]

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

OpenBSD     3.6                         October      2,      2002