xref: /freebsd/sbin/reboot/boot_i386.8 (revision 3642298923e528d795e3a30ec165d2b469e28b40)
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7.\" Almost completely rewritten for FreeBSD 2.1 by Joerg Wunsch.
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9.\" Substantially revised for FreeBSD 3.1 by Robert Nordier.
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35.\"     @(#)boot_i386.8	8.2 (Berkeley) 4/19/94
36.\"
37.\" $FreeBSD$
38.\"
39.Dd August 18, 2005
40.Dt BOOT 8 i386
41.Os
42.Sh NAME
43.Nm boot
44.Nd system bootstrapping procedures
45.Sh DESCRIPTION
46.Sy Power fail and crash recovery .
47Normally, the system will reboot itself at power-up or after crashes.
48An automatic consistency check of the file systems will be performed,
49and unless this fails, the system will resume multi-user operations.
50.Pp
51.Sy Cold starts .
52Most i386 PCs attempt to boot first from floppy disk drive 0 (sometimes
53known as drive A:) and, failing that, from hard disk drive 0 (sometimes
54known as drive C:, or as drive 0x80 to the BIOS).
55Some BIOSes allow
56you to change this default sequence, and may also include a CD-ROM
57drive as a boot device.
58.Pp
59By default, a three-stage bootstrap is employed, and control is
60automatically passed from the boot blocks (bootstrap stages one and
61two) to a separate third-stage bootstrap program,
62.Xr loader 8 .
63This third stage provides more sophisticated control over the booting
64process than it is possible to achieve in the boot blocks, which are
65constrained by occupying limited fixed space on a given disk or slice.
66.Pp
67However, it is possible to dispense with the third stage altogether,
68either by specifying a kernel name in the boot block parameter
69file,
70.Pa /boot.config ,
71or, unless option
72.Fl n
73is set, by hitting a key during a brief pause (while one of the characters
74.Sy - ,
75.Sy \e ,
76.Sy \&| ,
77or
78.Sy /
79is displayed) before
80.Xr loader 8
81is invoked.
82Booting will also be attempted at stage two, if the
83third stage cannot be loaded.
84.Pp
85Make note of the fact that
86.Pa /boot.config
87is read only from the
88.Ql a
89partition.
90As a result, slices which are missing an
91.Ql a
92partition require user intervention during the boot process.
93.Pp
94The remainder of this subsection deals only with the boot blocks.
95The
96.Xr loader 8
97program is documented separately.
98.Pp
99After the boot blocks have been loaded,
100you should see a prompt similar to the following:
101.Bd -literal
102>> FreeBSD/i386 BOOT
103Default: 0:ad(0,a)/boot/loader
104boot:
105.Ed
106.Pp
107The automatic boot will attempt to load
108.Pa /boot/loader
109from partition
110.Ql a
111of either the floppy or the hard disk.
112This boot may be aborted by typing any character on the keyboard
113at the
114.Ql boot:
115prompt.
116At this time, the following input will be accepted:
117.Bl -tag -width indent
118.It Ic \&?
119Give a short listing of the files in the root directory of the default
120boot device, as a hint about available boot files.
121(A
122.Ic ?\&
123may also be specified as the last segment of a path, in which case
124the listing will be of the relevant subdirectory.)
125.Pp
126.It Xo
127.Sm off
128.Ar bios_drive : interface ( unit , Oo Ar slice , Oc Ar part )
129.Ar filename
130.Sm on
131.Op Fl aCcDdghmnPprsv
132.Sm off
133.Op Fl S Ar speed
134.Sm on
135.Xc
136Specify boot file and flags.
137.Bl -tag -width indent
138.It Ar bios_drive
139The drive number as recognized by the BIOS.
1400 for the first drive, 1 for the second drive, etc.
141.It Ar interface
142The type of controller to boot from.
143Note that the controller is required
144to have BIOS support since the BIOS services are used to load the
145boot file image.
146.Pp
147The supported interfaces are:
148.Pp
149.Bl -tag -width "adXX" -compact
150.It ad
151ST506, IDE, ESDI, RLL disks on a WD100[2367] or lookalike
152controller
153.It fd
1545 1/4" or 3 1/2" High density floppies
155.It da
156SCSI disk on any supported SCSI controller
157.\".It cd
158.\"boot from CDROM
159.El
160.It Ar unit
161The unit number of the drive on the interface being used.
1620 for the first drive, 1 for the second drive, etc.
163.It Oo Ar slice , Oc Ns Ar part
164The partition letter inside the
165.Bx
166portion of the disk.
167See
168.Xr bsdlabel 8 .
169By convention, only partition
170.Ql a
171contains a bootable image.
172If sliced disks are used
173.Pq Dq fdisk partitions ,
174any
175.Ar slice
176(1 for the first slice, 2 for the second slice, etc.\&)
177can be booted from, with the default (if not specified) being the active slice
178or, otherwise, the first
179.Fx
180slice.
181If
182.Ar slice
183is specified as 0, the first
184.Fx
185slice (also known as
186.Dq compatibility
187slice) is booted from.
188.It Ar filename
189The pathname of the file to boot (relative to the root directory
190on the specified partition).
191Defaults to
192.Pa /boot/kernel/kernel .
193Symbolic links are not supported (hard links are).
194.It Xo Op Fl aCcDdghmnPprsv
195.Sm off
196.Op Fl S Ar speed
197.Sm on
198.Xc
199Boot flags:
200.Pp
201.Bl -tag -width "-CXX" -compact
202.It Fl a
203during kernel initialization,
204ask for the device to mount as the root file system.
205.It Fl C
206try to mount root file system from a CD-ROM.
207.It Fl c
208this flag is currently a no-op.
209.It Fl D
210boot with the dual console configuration.
211In the single
212configuration, the console will be either the internal display
213or the serial port, depending on the state of the
214.Fl h
215option below.
216In the dual console configuration,
217both the internal display and the serial port will become the console
218at the same time, regardless of the state of the
219.Fl h
220option.
221.It Fl d
222enter the DDB kernel debugger
223(see
224.Xr ddb 4 )
225as early as possible in kernel initialization.
226.It Fl g
227use the GDB remote debugging protocol.
228.It Fl h
229force the serial console.
230For instance, if you boot from the internal console,
231you can use the
232.Fl h
233option to force the kernel to use the serial port as its
234console device.
235The serial port driver
236.Xr sio 4
237has a flag (0x20) to override this option.
238If that flag is set, the serial port will always be used as the console,
239regardless of the
240.Fl h
241option described here.
242See the man page for
243.Xr sio 4
244for more details.
245.It Fl m
246mute the console.
247.It Fl n
248ignore key press to interrupt boot before
249.Xr loader 8
250is invoked.
251.It Fl P
252probe the keyboard.
253If no keyboard is found, the
254.Fl D
255and
256.Fl h
257options are automatically set.
258.It Fl p
259pause after each attached device during the device probing phase.
260.It Fl r
261use the statically configured default for the device containing the
262root file system
263(see
264.Xr config 8 ) .
265Normally, the root file system is on the device
266that the kernel was loaded from.
267.It Fl s
268boot into single-user mode; if the console is marked as
269.Dq insecure
270(see
271.Xr ttys 5 ) ,
272the root password must be entered.
273.It Xo Sm off
274.Fl S Ar speed
275.Sm on
276.Xc
277set the speed of the serial console to
278.Ar speed .
279The default is 9600 unless it has been overridden by setting
280.Va BOOT_COMCONSOLE_SPEED
281in
282.Pa /etc/make.conf
283and recompiling the boot blocks.
284.It Fl v
285be verbose during device probing (and later).
286.El
287.El
288.El
289.Pp
290You may put a BIOS drive number, a controller type, a unit number,
291a partition, a kernel file name, and any valid option in
292.Pa /boot.config
293to set defaults.
294Enter them in one line just as you type at the
295.Ql boot:
296prompt.
297.Sh FILES
298.Bl -tag -width /boot/loader -compact
299.It Pa /boot.config
300parameters for the boot blocks (optional)
301.It Pa /boot/boot1
302first stage bootstrap file
303.It Pa /boot/boot2
304second stage bootstrap file
305.It Pa /boot/loader
306third stage bootstrap
307.It Pa /boot/kernel/kernel
308default kernel
309.It Pa /boot/kernel.old/kernel
310typical non-default kernel (optional)
311.El
312.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
313When disk-related errors occur, these are reported by the second-stage
314bootstrap using the same error codes returned by the BIOS, for example
315.Dq Disk error 0x1 (lba=0x12345678) .
316Here is a partial list of these error codes:
317.Pp
318.Bl -tag -width "0x80" -compact
319.It 0x1
320Invalid argument
321.It 0x2
322Address mark not found
323.It 0x4
324Sector not found
325.It 0x8
326DMA overrun
327.It 0x9
328DMA attempt across 64K boundary
329.It 0xc
330Invalid media
331.It 0x10
332Uncorrectable CRC/ECC error
333.It 0x20
334Controller failure
335.It 0x40
336Seek failed
337.It 0x80
338Timeout
339.El
340.Pp
341.Sy "NOTE" :
342On older machines, or otherwise where EDD support (disk packet
343interface support) is not available, all boot-related files and
344structures (including the kernel) that need to be accessed during the
345boot phase must reside on the disk at or below cylinder 1023 (as the
346BIOS understands the geometry).
347When a
348.Dq Disk error 0x1
349is reported by the second-stage bootstrap, it generally means that this
350requirement has not been adhered to.
351.Sh SEE ALSO
352.Xr ddb 4 ,
353.Xr ttys 5 ,
354.Xr boot0cfg 8 ,
355.Xr bsdlabel 8 ,
356.Xr btxld 8 ,
357.Xr config 8 ,
358.Xr halt 8 ,
359.Xr loader 8 ,
360.Xr reboot 8 ,
361.Xr shutdown 8
362.Sh BUGS
363The
364.Xr bsdlabel 5
365format used by this version of
366.Bx
367is quite
368different from that of other architectures.
369.Pp
370Due to space constraints, the keyboard probe initiated by the
371.Fl P
372option is simply a test that the BIOS has detected an
373.Dq extended
374keyboard.
375If an
376.Dq XT/AT
377keyboard (with no F11 and F12 keys, etc.) is attached, the probe will
378fail.
379