TH BOOTING 8
SH NAME
booting \- bootstrapping procedures
SH SYNOPSIS
none
SH DESCRIPTION
This manual page collects the incantations required to bootstrap Plan 9 machines.
Some of the information here is specific to the installation at Bell Labs;
some is generic.
PP
If a CPU server is up, BOOTP/DHCP and TFTP will run from there;
if not, the necessary files and services must be available on a separate machine,
such as a Unix system, to use these protocols for bootstrapping.
PP
Be sure to read
IR boot (8)
to understand what happens after the kernel is loaded.
SS Terminals
To bootstrap a diskless terminal or a CPU server, a file server must be running.
PCs can boot from a floppy disk or any FAT16 partition.
On all the terminals, typing two control-T's followed by a lower-case
B r
reboots the machine;
other methods of rebooting are mentioned for some machines.
SS PCs
To boot a PC, it is necessary to get
B /386/9load
loaded into memory.
There are many ways to do this.  A Plan 9 boot floppy prepared by
B format
(see
IR prep (8))
will load
B 9load
when the PC is reset or powered on.
Other methods are described in
IR 9load (8).
B 9load
then locates and loads a Plan 9 kernel, using configuration information
from the file
B plan9.ini
stored in the
B 9fat
configuration partition or on a DOS file system.
See
IR 9load (8)
for details.
PP
Once the kernel is booted, it behaves like the others.
See
IR boot (8)
for details.
SS Alpha PCs
Alpha PCs must be booted via TFTP using the SRM console.
If the system has ARC firmware instead, SRM may be downloaded from
IP
EX
http://www.compaq.com/
EE
PP
You must configure the SRM firmware to load the file
BR /alpha/bootalphapc .
The following commands may be used (replace
B ewa0
with the name of your ethernet device, if different):
IP
EX
set boot_reset ON
set boot_file /alpha/bootalphapc
set bootdev_def ewa0
set ewa0_inet_init bootp
set ewa0_protocols BOOTP
EE
PP
This secondary bootstrap program will first load the file
BR /alpha/conf/ <IP-address>
(substituting the IP address of the system as obtained via bootp).
This file is expected to be in
IR plan9.ini (8)
format (the file
B /alpha/conf/10.0.0.2
may be used as a template).
It then loads the kernel via tftp, using the value of
B bootfile
to tell it which file to load; this should be
B /alpha/9apc
for terminals.
SS CPU Servers
The Plan 9 CPU servers are multi-user, so they do not request a user name
when booting.
On the CPU servers, typing a control-P on the console reboots the machine.
SS PC CPU Server
Proceed as for the PC terminal, but load
B /386/9pccpu
or
BR /386/9pccpudisk .
SS Alpha PC CPU Server
Proceed as for the Alpha PC terminal, but use
B /alpha/9apccpu
as the value of
BR bootfile .
SS SGI Challenge multiprocessor CPU Server
The Challenge ROM monitor can boot from the Ethernet.
To boot from the Ethernet, type
IP
EX
B bootp()/mips/9ch
EE
PP
or use the ROM command
B setenv
to set the variable
B bootfile
to that same string and type
BR boot .
To load a different file, tell
B bootp
which file to load,
and to force the download to come from a particular system,
BR bootp()system:file .
Any arguments after
B bootp()file
are passed to
BR /boot .
If you are running a Plan 9
SM BOOTP
server (see
IR dhcpd (8)),
the file name can be omitted and the
file specified by the
B bootf
parameter for the machine in
BR /lib/ndb
will be downloaded by default.
PP
Once the kernel is loaded,
it prompts for the Ethernet
protocol to use to reach the root file server; request the default.
PP
SS File servers
The CPU servers and terminals run essentially the same program, but
the Plan 9 file servers run a distinct system.
The file servers accept only the commands described in
IR fs (8)
on their consoles.
SS PC File Server
Boot the PC file server like a regular PC, loading the appropriate file system kernel.
SH "SEE ALSO"
IR 9load (8),
IR boot (8),
IR fs (8),
IR init (8),
IR plan9.ini (8)
SH SOURCE
Sources for the various boot programs are under
BR /sys/src/boot .
SH BUGS
The file server should be able to boot from its own disk.

You are viewing proxied material from sdf.org. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.