BOOT(8)

NAME
boot - system bootstrapping procedures

DESCRIPTION
This document provides information on using common features in the NetBSD boot loader.

  Interactive mode
In interactive mode, the boot loader will present a prompt, allowing input of these commands:

boot
    [device:] [filename] [-acdqsv] The default device will be set to the disk that the boot loader was loaded from. To boot from an alternate disk, the full name of the device should be given at the prompt. device is of the form xd [N[x]] where xd is the device from which to boot, N is the unit number, and x is the partition letter.

    The following list of supported devices may vary from installation to installation:

    hd  Hard disks.
    fd  Floppy drives.

    The default filename is netbsd; if the boot loader fails to successfully open that image, it then tries netbsd.gz (expected to be a kernel image compressed by gzip), followed by netbsd.old, netbsd.old.gz, onetbsd, and finally onetbsd.gz. Alternate system images can be loaded by just specifying the name of the image.

    Options are:

    -a  Prompt for the root file system device, the system crash dump device, and the path to init(8).

    -c  Bring the system up into the device configuration manager. From here the device locators can be tuned to the hardware; see userconf(4).

    -d  Bring the system up in debug mode. Here it waits for a kernel debugger connect; see ddb(4).

    -q  Boot the system in quiet mode.

    -s  Bring the system up in single-user mode.

    -v  Boot the system in verbose mode.

consdev dev
    Immediately switch the console to the specified device dev and reprint the banner. dev must be one of pc, com0, com1, com2, com3, com0kbd, com1kbd, com2kbd, com3kbd, or auto. See Console Selection Policy in boot_console(8).

dev [device]
    Set the default drive and partition for subsequent filesystem operations. Without an argument, print the current setting. device is of the form specified in boot.

help
    Print an overview about commands and arguments.

ls [path]
    Print a directory listing of path, containing inode number, filename, and file type. path can contain a device specification.

quit
    Reboot the system.

In an emergency, the bootstrap methods described in the NetBSD installation notes for the specific architecture can be used.

FILES
/boot
    boot program code loaded by the primary bootstrap
/netbsd
    system code
/netbsd.gz
    gzip-compressed system code
/usr/mdec/boot
    master copy of the boot program (copy to /boot)
/usr/mdec/bootxx_fstype
    primary bootstrap for filesystem type fstype, copied to the start of the NetBSD partition by installboot(8).

SEE ALSO
ddb(4), userconf(4), boot_console(8), halt(8), installboot(8), reboot(8), shutdown(8)

Any filename specified after the boot options, e.g.:

    boot -d netbsd.test

is ignored, and the default kernel is booted.