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6.4 Sun PROM

6.4.1 Bootstrap Procedures

For Sun Microsystems hardware you can interact with the PROM monitor at any time by holding down the STOP key (the L1 key on older keyboards) and pressing the "a" key. If you're using a terminal keyboard you can use the "break" key.

The PROM monitor boot commands come in two forms: "old" style, with a ">" prompt; and "new" style with a "ok" prompt. The "new" style came in about the time the SPARC chip was first introduced, and the newer PROMs have both. On the latter you can get to the "new" style from the "old" by typing "n <return>".

The general form to specify the boot device is:

>b device(controller#,unit#,file#)pathname args

or

ok boot device(controller#,unit#,file#)pathname args

where the controller# is the host bus adapter # (always 0 if you only have one SCSI bus), the unit# is the tape drive or disk drive #, and file# is the partition on the drive or file on the tape. The pathname is the path to the kernel, and possible arguments include:

s boot to single user mode only

a ask for configuration information, i.e. root and swap devices and system file

r reconfigure the system based on currently connected hardware devices (Solaris 2.X only)

At the ">" prompt the boot command is "b", while at the "ok" prompt it is "boot".

The default boot device can be configured in the EEPROM to allow:

>b -or- ok boot

Single user:

>b -s -or- ok boot -s

Boot from network:

>b le()

Boot a specific kernel from disk, e.g. for the kernel, vmunix:

>b sd(0,0,0)vmunix


Unix System Administration - 8 AUG 1996
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