xref: /freebsd/sbin/reboot/boot_i386.8 (revision 6af83ee0d2941d18880b6aaa2b4facd1d30c6106)
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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 September 30, 2004
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
92parition 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.Sm on
130.Ar filename
131.Op Fl aCcDdghmnPprsv
132.Xc
133Specify boot file and flags.
134.Bl -tag -width indent
135.It Ar bios_drive
136The drive number as recognized by the BIOS.
1370 for the first drive, 1 for the second drive, etc.
138.It Ar interface
139The type of controller to boot from.
140Note that the controller is required
141to have BIOS support since the BIOS services are used to load the
142boot file image.
143.Pp
144The supported interfaces are:
145.Pp
146.Bl -tag -width "adXX" -compact
147.It ad
148ST506, IDE, ESDI, RLL disks on a WD100[2367] or lookalike
149controller
150.It fd
1515 1/4" or 3 1/2" High density floppies
152.It da
153SCSI disk on any supported SCSI controller
154.\".It cd
155.\"boot from CDROM
156.El
157.It Ar unit
158The unit number of the drive on the interface being used.
1590 for the first drive, 1 for the second drive, etc.
160.It Oo Ar slice , Oc Ns Ar part
161The partition letter inside the
162.Bx
163portion of the disk.
164See
165.Xr bsdlabel 8 .
166By convention, only partition
167.Ql a
168contains a bootable image.
169If sliced disks are used
170.Pq Dq fdisk partitions ,
171any
172.Ar slice
173(1 for the first slice, 2 for the second slice, etc.\&)
174can be booted from, with the default (if not specified) being the active slice
175or, otherwise, the first
176.Fx
177slice.
178If
179.Ar slice
180is specified as 0, the first
181.Fx
182slice (also known as
183.Dq compatibility
184slice) is booted from.
185.It Ar filename
186The pathname of the file to boot (relative to the root directory
187on the specified partition).
188Defaults to
189.Pa /kernel .
190Symbolic links are not supported (hard links are).
191.It Fl aCcDdghmnPprsv
192Boot flags:
193.Pp
194.Bl -tag -width "-CXX" -compact
195.It Fl a
196during kernel initialization,
197ask for the device to mount as the root file system.
198.It Fl C
199try to mount root file system from a CD-ROM.
200.It Fl c
201this flag is currently a no-op.
202.It Fl D
203boot with the dual console configuration.
204In the single
205configuration, the console will be either the internal display
206or the serial port, depending on the state of the
207.Fl h
208option below.
209In the dual console configuration,
210both the internal display and the serial port will become the console
211at the same time, regardless of the state of the
212.Fl h
213option.
214.It Fl d
215enter the DDB kernel debugger
216(see
217.Xr ddb 4 )
218as early as possible in kernel initialization.
219.It Fl g
220use the GDB remote debugging protocol.
221.It Fl h
222force the serial console.
223For instance, if you boot from the internal console,
224you can use the
225.Fl h
226option to force the kernel to use the serial port as its
227console device.
228The serial port driver
229.Xr sio 4
230has a flag (0x20) to override this option.
231If that flag is set, the serial port will always be used as the console,
232regardless of the
233.Fl h
234option described here.
235See the man page for
236.Xr sio 4
237for more details.
238.It Fl m
239mute the console.
240.It Fl n
241ignore key press to interrupt boot before
242.Xr loader 8
243is invoked.
244.It Fl P
245probe the keyboard.
246If no keyboard is found, the
247.Fl D
248and
249.Fl h
250options are automatically set.
251.It Fl p
252pause after each attached device during the device probing phase.
253.It Fl r
254use the statically configured default for the device containing the
255root file system
256(see
257.Xr config 8 ) .
258Normally, the root file system is on the device
259that the kernel was loaded from.
260.It Fl s
261boot into single-user mode; if the console is marked as
262.Dq insecure
263(see
264.Xr ttys 5 ) ,
265the root password must be entered.
266.It Fl v
267be verbose during device probing (and later).
268.El
269.El
270.El
271.Pp
272You may put a BIOS drive number, a controller type, a unit number,
273a partition, a kernel file name, and any valid option in
274.Pa /boot.config
275to set defaults.
276Enter them in one line just as you type at the
277.Ql boot:
278prompt.
279.Sh FILES
280.Bl -tag -width /boot/loader -compact
281.It Pa /boot.config
282parameters for the boot blocks (optional)
283.It Pa /boot/boot1
284first stage bootstrap file
285.It Pa /boot/boot2
286second stage bootstrap file
287.It Pa /boot/loader
288third stage bootstrap
289.It Pa /boot/kernel/kernel
290default kernel
291.It Pa /boot/kernel.old/kernel
292typical non-default kernel (optional)
293.El
294.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
295When disk-related errors occur, these are reported by the second-stage
296bootstrap using the same error codes returned by the BIOS, for example
297.Dq Disk error 0x1 (lba=0x12345678) .
298Here is a partial list of these error codes:
299.Pp
300.Bl -tag -width "0x80" -compact
301.It 0x1
302Invalid argument
303.It 0x2
304Address mark not found
305.It 0x4
306Sector not found
307.It 0x8
308DMA overrun
309.It 0x9
310DMA attempt across 64K boundary
311.It 0xc
312Invalid media
313.It 0x10
314Uncorrectable CRC/ECC error
315.It 0x20
316Controller failure
317.It 0x40
318Seek failed
319.It 0x80
320Timeout
321.El
322.Pp
323.Sy "NOTE" :
324On older machines, or otherwise where EDD support (disk packet
325interface support) is not available, all boot-related files and
326structures (including the kernel) that need to be accessed during the
327boot phase must reside on the disk at or below cylinder 1023 (as the
328BIOS understands the geometry).
329When a
330.Dq Disk error 0x1
331is reported by the second-stage bootstrap, it generally means that this
332requirement has not been adhered to.
333.Sh SEE ALSO
334.Xr ddb 4 ,
335.Xr ttys 5 ,
336.Xr boot0cfg 8 ,
337.Xr bsdlabel 8 ,
338.Xr btxld 8 ,
339.Xr config 8 ,
340.Xr halt 8 ,
341.Xr loader 8 ,
342.Xr reboot 8 ,
343.Xr shutdown 8
344.Sh BUGS
345The
346.Xr bsdlabel 5
347format used by this version of
348.Bx
349is quite
350different from that of other architectures.
351.Pp
352Due to space constraints, the keyboard probe initiated by the
353.Fl P
354option is simply a test that the BIOS has detected an
355.Dq extended
356keyboard.
357If an
358.Dq XT/AT
359keyboard (with no F11 and F12 keys, etc.) is attached, the probe will
360fail.
361