prom(8) (RM400 only) prom(8)
NAME
prom - PROM monitor used to perform power-on tests and to bootstrap
the SASH
SYNOPSIS
The PROM monitor resides in PROM as firmware and is invoked automati-
cally via power-on or reset.
DESCRIPTION
The PROM monitor is used to perform the startup procedure after
power-on (power-on tests and basic initializations) and to boot the
SASH (stand-alone shell). The commands provided by the PROM are the
same as the SASH commands, apart from the cp command. The PROM monitor
is entered after the power-on tests have been run. The next actions
performed by the PROM monitor depend on the bootmode environment vari-
able; this variable is stored in non-volatile RAM and retains its
value during power-off.
______________________________________________________________________
| Bootmode | Action |
|____________|________________________________________________________|
| d | Power-on tests are skipped. Memory is cleared. The |
| | PROM monitor waits for user input. |
| | |
| m | Power-on tests are performed. If an error occurs, the |
| | bootmode is changed automatically to "e" (error). |
| | After completing the tests, the PROM monitor waits for|
| | user input. |
| | |
| c | Power-on tests are performed. If an error occurs, the |
| | bootmode is changed automatically to "e" (error). If |
| | no error occurs, the PROM monitor automatically boots |
| | the SASH (which will subsequently boot the Reliant |
| | UNIX operating system automatically). |
| | |
| e | An error occurred in a previous run of the power-on |
| | tests. This bootmode will not be reset automatically |
| | to another value ("m" or "c") if the next run of the |
| | power-on tests is error free. |
| | |
| w | Warm start is performed at reset; the PROM looks for a|
| | valid "restart block" in memory and transfers control|
| | to the routine pointed to within the block. If no |
| | valid "restart block" is found, a cold start is per- |
| | formed. |
|____________|________________________________________________________|
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prom(8) (RM400 only) prom(8)
______________________________________________________________________
| Bootmode | Action |
|____________|________________________________________________________|
| r | A remote installation is started from the firmware |
| | (after a reset or init 6). The boot mode is subse- |
| | quently set again to "c". |
|____________|________________________________________________________|
| | |
| i | An installation is started from the system CD (after a|
| | reset or init 6). The boot mode is subsequently set |
| | again to "c". |
|____________|________________________________________________________|
The name of the file to boot automatically when the bootmode environ-
ment variable has the value "c" is stored in the bootfile environment
variable. These environment variables can be changed with the PROM
monitor command setenv and displayed with the printenv command. They
both retain their values during power-off as they are stored in non-
volatile RAM.
When waiting for user input, the PROM monitor issues the prompt >>.
At almost any time, pressing ^D or ^C will cause the PROM monitor to
cancel any commands issued and fall back into its command parser to
await user input again.
SEE ALSO
nvram(7), sash(8).
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