xref: /freebsd/sbin/reboot/boot_i386.8 (revision bfe691b2f75de2224c7ceb304ebcdef2b42d4179)
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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.Op Fl S Ns Ar speed
133.Xc
134Specify boot file and flags.
135.Bl -tag -width indent
136.It Ar bios_drive
137The drive number as recognized by the BIOS.
1380 for the first drive, 1 for the second drive, etc.
139.It Ar interface
140The type of controller to boot from.
141Note that the controller is required
142to have BIOS support since the BIOS services are used to load the
143boot file image.
144.Pp
145The supported interfaces are:
146.Pp
147.Bl -tag -width "adXX" -compact
148.It ad
149ST506, IDE, ESDI, RLL disks on a WD100[2367] or lookalike
150controller
151.It fd
1525 1/4" or 3 1/2" High density floppies
153.It da
154SCSI disk on any supported SCSI controller
155.\".It cd
156.\"boot from CDROM
157.El
158.It Ar unit
159The unit number of the drive on the interface being used.
1600 for the first drive, 1 for the second drive, etc.
161.It Oo Ar slice , Oc Ns Ar part
162The partition letter inside the
163.Bx
164portion of the disk.
165See
166.Xr bsdlabel 8 .
167By convention, only partition
168.Ql a
169contains a bootable image.
170If sliced disks are used
171.Pq Dq fdisk partitions ,
172any
173.Ar slice
174(1 for the first slice, 2 for the second slice, etc.\&)
175can be booted from, with the default (if not specified) being the active slice
176or, otherwise, the first
177.Fx
178slice.
179If
180.Ar slice
181is specified as 0, the first
182.Fx
183slice (also known as
184.Dq compatibility
185slice) is booted from.
186.It Ar filename
187The pathname of the file to boot (relative to the root directory
188on the specified partition).
189Defaults to
190.Pa /boot/kernel/kernel .
191Symbolic links are not supported (hard links are).
192.It Xo Op Fl aCcDdghmnPpqrsv
193.Op Fl S Ns Ar speed
194.Xc
195Boot flags:
196.Pp
197.Bl -tag -width "-CXX" -compact
198.It Fl a
199during kernel initialization,
200ask for the device to mount as the root file system.
201.It Fl C
202try to mount root file system from a CD-ROM.
203.It Fl c
204this flag is currently a no-op.
205.It Fl D
206boot with the dual console configuration.
207In the single
208configuration, the console will be either the internal display
209or the serial port, depending on the state of the
210.Fl h
211option below.
212In the dual console configuration,
213both the internal display and the serial port will become the console
214at the same time, regardless of the state of the
215.Fl h
216option.
217.It Fl d
218enter the DDB kernel debugger
219(see
220.Xr ddb 4 )
221as early as possible in kernel initialization.
222.It Fl g
223use the GDB remote debugging protocol.
224.It Fl h
225force the serial console.
226For instance, if you boot from the internal console,
227you can use the
228.Fl h
229option to force the kernel to use the serial port as its
230console device.
231The serial port driver
232.Xr sio 4
233has a flag (0x20) to override this option.
234If that flag is set, the serial port will always be used as the console,
235regardless of the
236.Fl h
237option described here.
238See the man page for
239.Xr sio 4
240for more details.
241.It Fl m
242mute the console to suppress all console input and output during the
243boot.
244.It Fl n
245ignore key press to interrupt boot before
246.Xr loader 8
247is invoked.
248.It Fl P
249probe the keyboard.
250If no keyboard is found, the
251.Fl D
252and
253.Fl h
254options are automatically set.
255.It Fl p
256pause after each attached device during the device probing phase.
257.It Fl q
258be quiet,
259do not write anything to the console unless automatic boot fails or
260is disabled.
261This option only affects second-stage bootstrap,
262to prevent next stages from writing to the console use in
263combination with the
264.Fl m
265option.
266.It Fl r
267use the statically configured default for the device containing the
268root file system
269(see
270.Xr config 8 ) .
271Normally, the root file system is on the device
272that the kernel was loaded from.
273.It Fl s
274boot into single-user mode; if the console is marked as
275.Dq insecure
276(see
277.Xr ttys 5 ) ,
278the root password must be entered.
279.It Fl S Ns Ar speed
280set the speed of the serial console to
281.Ar speed .
282The default is 9600 unless it has been overridden by setting
283.Va BOOT_COMCONSOLE_SPEED
284in
285.Xr make.conf 5
286and recompiling and reinstalling the boot blocks.
287.It Fl v
288be verbose during device probing (and later).
289.El
290.El
291.El
292.Pp
293You may put a BIOS drive number, a controller type, a unit number,
294a partition, a kernel file name, and any valid option in
295.Pa /boot.config
296to set defaults.
297Enter them in one line just as you type at the
298.Ql boot:
299prompt.
300.Sh FILES
301.Bl -tag -width /boot/loader -compact
302.It Pa /boot.config
303parameters for the boot blocks (optional)
304.It Pa /boot/boot1
305first stage bootstrap file
306.It Pa /boot/boot2
307second stage bootstrap file
308.It Pa /boot/loader
309third stage bootstrap
310.It Pa /boot/kernel/kernel
311default kernel
312.It Pa /boot/kernel.old/kernel
313typical non-default kernel (optional)
314.El
315.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
316When disk-related errors occur, these are reported by the second-stage
317bootstrap using the same error codes returned by the BIOS, for example
318.Dq Disk error 0x1 (lba=0x12345678) .
319Here is a partial list of these error codes:
320.Pp
321.Bl -tag -width "0x80" -compact
322.It 0x1
323Invalid argument
324.It 0x2
325Address mark not found
326.It 0x4
327Sector not found
328.It 0x8
329DMA overrun
330.It 0x9
331DMA attempt across 64K boundary
332.It 0xc
333Invalid media
334.It 0x10
335Uncorrectable CRC/ECC error
336.It 0x20
337Controller failure
338.It 0x40
339Seek failed
340.It 0x80
341Timeout
342.El
343.Pp
344.Sy "NOTE" :
345On older machines, or otherwise where EDD support (disk packet
346interface support) is not available, all boot-related files and
347structures (including the kernel) that need to be accessed during the
348boot phase must reside on the disk at or below cylinder 1023 (as the
349BIOS understands the geometry).
350When a
351.Dq Disk error 0x1
352is reported by the second-stage bootstrap, it generally means that this
353requirement has not been adhered to.
354.Sh SEE ALSO
355.Xr ddb 4 ,
356.Xr make.conf 5 ,
357.Xr ttys 5 ,
358.Xr boot0cfg 8 ,
359.Xr bsdlabel 8 ,
360.Xr btxld 8 ,
361.Xr config 8 ,
362.Xr halt 8 ,
363.Xr loader 8 ,
364.Xr nextboot 8 ,
365.Xr reboot 8 ,
366.Xr shutdown 8
367.Sh BUGS
368The
369.Xr bsdlabel 5
370format used by this version of
371.Bx
372is quite
373different from that of other architectures.
374.Pp
375Due to space constraints, the keyboard probe initiated by the
376.Fl P
377option is simply a test that the BIOS has detected an
378.Dq extended
379keyboard.
380If an
381.Dq XT/AT
382keyboard (with no F11 and F12 keys, etc.) is attached, the probe will
383fail.
384