xref: /freebsd/sbin/reboot/boot_i386.8 (revision 595e514d0df2bac5b813d35f83e32875dbf16a83)
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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 July 4, 2010
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
85The remainder of this subsection deals only with the boot blocks.
86The
87.Xr loader 8
88program is documented separately.
89.Pp
90After the boot blocks have been loaded,
91you should see a prompt similar to the following:
92.Bd -literal
93>> FreeBSD/i386 BOOT
94Default: 0:ad(0,a)/boot/loader
95boot:
96.Ed
97.Pp
98The automatic boot will attempt to load
99.Pa /boot/loader
100from partition
101.Ql a
102of either the floppy or the hard disk.
103This boot may be aborted by typing any character on the keyboard
104at the
105.Ql boot:
106prompt.
107At this time, the following input will be accepted:
108.Bl -tag -width indent
109.It Ic \&?
110Give a short listing of the files in the root directory of the default
111boot device, as a hint about available boot files.
112(A
113.Ic ?\&
114may also be specified as the last segment of a path, in which case
115the listing will be of the relevant subdirectory.)
116.Pp
117.It Xo
118.Sm off
119.Ar bios_drive : interface ( unit , Oo Ar slice , Oc Ar part )
120.Ar filename
121.Sm on
122.Op Fl aCcDdghmnPprsv
123.Op Fl S Ns Ar speed
124.Xc
125Specify boot file and flags.
126.Bl -tag -width indent
127.It Ar bios_drive
128The drive number as recognized by the BIOS.
1290 for the first drive, 1 for the second drive, etc.
130.It Ar interface
131The type of controller to boot from.
132Note that the controller is required
133to have BIOS support since the BIOS services are used to load the
134boot file image.
135.Pp
136The supported interfaces are:
137.Pp
138.Bl -tag -width "adXX" -compact
139.It ad
140ST506, IDE, ESDI, RLL disks on a WD100[2367] or lookalike
141controller
142.It fd
1435 1/4" or 3 1/2" High density floppies
144.It da
145SCSI disk on any supported SCSI controller
146.\".It cd
147.\"boot from CDROM
148.El
149.It Ar unit
150The unit number of the drive on the interface being used.
1510 for the first drive, 1 for the second drive, etc.
152.It Oo Ar slice , Oc Ns Ar part
153The partition letter inside the
154.Bx
155portion of the disk.
156See
157.Xr bsdlabel 8 .
158By convention, only partition
159.Ql a
160contains a bootable image.
161If sliced disks are used
162.Pq Dq fdisk partitions ,
163any
164.Ar slice
165(1 for the first slice, 2 for the second slice, etc.\&)
166can be booted from, with the default (if not specified) being the active slice
167or, otherwise, the first
168.Fx
169slice.
170If
171.Ar slice
172is specified as 0, the first
173.Fx
174slice (also known as
175.Dq compatibility
176slice) is booted from.
177.It Ar filename
178The pathname of the file to boot (relative to the root directory
179on the specified partition).
180Defaults to
181.Pa /boot/kernel/kernel .
182Symbolic links are not supported (hard links are).
183.It Xo Op Fl aCcDdghmnPpqrsv
184.Op Fl S Ns Ar speed
185.Xc
186Boot flags:
187.Pp
188.Bl -tag -width "-CXX" -compact
189.It Fl a
190during kernel initialization,
191ask for the device to mount as the root file system.
192.It Fl C
193try to mount root file system from a CD-ROM.
194.It Fl c
195this flag is currently a no-op.
196.It Fl D
197boot with the dual console configuration.
198In the single
199configuration, the console will be either the internal display
200or the serial port, depending on the state of the
201.Fl h
202option below.
203In the dual console configuration,
204both the internal display and the serial port will become the console
205at the same time, regardless of the state of the
206.Fl h
207option.
208.It Fl d
209enter the DDB kernel debugger
210(see
211.Xr ddb 4 )
212as early as possible in kernel initialization.
213.It Fl g
214use the GDB remote debugging protocol.
215.It Fl h
216force the serial console.
217For instance, if you boot from the internal console,
218you can use the
219.Fl h
220option to force the kernel to use the serial port as its
221console device.
222The serial port driver
223.Xr sio 4
224(but not
225.Xr uart 4 )
226has a flag (0x20) to override this option.
227If that flag is set, the serial port will always be used as the console,
228regardless of the
229.Fl h
230option described here.
231.It Fl m
232mute the console to suppress all console input and output during the
233boot.
234.It Fl n
235ignore key press to interrupt boot before
236.Xr loader 8
237is invoked.
238.It Fl P
239probe the keyboard.
240If no keyboard is found, the
241.Fl D
242and
243.Fl h
244options are automatically set.
245.It Fl p
246pause after each attached device during the device probing phase.
247.It Fl q
248be quiet,
249do not write anything to the console unless automatic boot fails or
250is disabled.
251This option only affects second-stage bootstrap,
252to prevent next stages from writing to the console use in
253combination with the
254.Fl m
255option.
256.It Fl r
257use the statically configured default for the device containing the
258root file system
259(see
260.Xr config 8 ) .
261Normally, the root file system is on the device
262that the kernel was loaded from.
263.It Fl s
264boot into single-user mode; if the console is marked as
265.Dq insecure
266(see
267.Xr ttys 5 ) ,
268the root password must be entered.
269.It Fl S Ns Ar speed
270set the speed of the serial console to
271.Ar speed .
272The default is 9600 unless it has been overridden by setting
273.Va BOOT_COMCONSOLE_SPEED
274in
275.Xr make.conf 5
276and recompiling and reinstalling the boot blocks.
277.It Fl v
278be verbose during device probing (and later).
279.El
280.El
281.El
282.Pp
283Use the
284.Pa /boot.config
285file to set the default configuration options for the boot block code.
286See
287.Xr boot.config 5
288for more information about the
289.Pa /boot.config
290file.
291.Sh FILES
292.Bl -tag -width /boot/loader -compact
293.It Pa /boot.config
294parameters for the boot blocks (optional)
295.It Pa /boot/boot1
296first stage bootstrap file
297.It Pa /boot/boot2
298second stage bootstrap file
299.It Pa /boot/loader
300third stage bootstrap
301.It Pa /boot/kernel/kernel
302default kernel
303.It Pa /boot/kernel.old/kernel
304typical non-default kernel (optional)
305.El
306.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
307When disk-related errors occur, these are reported by the second-stage
308bootstrap using the same error codes returned by the BIOS, for example
309.Dq Disk error 0x1 (lba=0x12345678) .
310Here is a partial list of these error codes:
311.Pp
312.Bl -tag -width "0x80" -compact
313.It 0x1
314Invalid argument
315.It 0x2
316Address mark not found
317.It 0x4
318Sector not found
319.It 0x8
320DMA overrun
321.It 0x9
322DMA attempt across 64K boundary
323.It 0xc
324Invalid media
325.It 0x10
326Uncorrectable CRC/ECC error
327.It 0x20
328Controller failure
329.It 0x40
330Seek failed
331.It 0x80
332Timeout
333.El
334.Pp
335.Sy "NOTE" :
336On older machines, or otherwise where EDD support (disk packet
337interface support) is not available, all boot-related files and
338structures (including the kernel) that need to be accessed during the
339boot phase must reside on the disk at or below cylinder 1023 (as the
340BIOS understands the geometry).
341When a
342.Dq Disk error 0x1
343is reported by the second-stage bootstrap, it generally means that this
344requirement has not been adhered to.
345.Sh SEE ALSO
346.Xr ddb 4 ,
347.Xr boot.config 5 ,
348.Xr make.conf 5 ,
349.Xr ttys 5 ,
350.Xr boot0cfg 8 ,
351.Xr bsdlabel 8 ,
352.Xr btxld 8 ,
353.Xr config 8 ,
354.Xr halt 8 ,
355.Xr loader 8 ,
356.Xr nextboot 8 ,
357.Xr reboot 8 ,
358.Xr shutdown 8
359.Sh BUGS
360The bsdlabel format used by this version of
361.Bx
362is quite
363different from that of other architectures.
364.Pp
365Due to space constraints, the keyboard probe initiated by the
366.Fl P
367option is simply a test that the BIOS has detected an
368.Dq extended
369keyboard.
370If an
371.Dq XT/AT
372keyboard (with no F11 and F12 keys, etc.) is attached, the probe will
373fail.
374