NAME

boot − startup procedures

DESCRIPTION

A Sun UNIX system is booted using the ‘b’ command of the PROM monitor.  In general, just typing ‘b’ followed by carriage return will boot the default system from the default disk.  In order to insure that the memory mapping hardware is in a known state before booting unix, use the PROM monitor’s “k1” command.  To specify more fully what to boot, the following command format is used:

b dk(drive,partition)filename

Where drive is the disk drive unit number to boot from, partition is the disk partition of the disk, and filename is the name of the program to boot, which must be in the root of the filesystem. The drive defaults to 0, the partition to 2, and the filename to “unix”. To boot a specific file from the default disk, use the command:

b filename

When UNIX is booted it will print a list of devices it found on the system.  It will then prompt for the root device.  In general the response should be of the form “ddnp”, where “dd” is the disk name, “n” is the drive number, and “p” is the partition.  The most common choices when using an Interphase controller with a Lark disk drive are:

which diskunix namestandalone name
fixedip0cdk(0,2)
removableip4cdk(0,6)
removableip4ddk(0,3)

When the system is running, it types a “#” prompt.  After doing any file system checks via fsck(1) and setting the date (date(1)), the system can be brought up for standard operation by typing an EOT (control-d) in response to the ’#’ prompt.

DIAGNOSTICS

disk error xx, retry nn - See the Interphase SMD-2180 manual for explanation of the error number. 

FILES

/unix − system code

SEE ALSO

init(8)

BUGS

The PROM monitor still knows the disk by its old name, “dk”, instead of the new name, “ip”.  It is also using the old disk label format and has the partition tables wired into it.  Files to be booted must by in a.out format and must be non-reentrant.  They are loaded in memory at the addressed specified by the entry point in the a.out header and are started by jumping to that address. 

7th Edition  —  7/24/82