HPCBOOT(8) BSD System Manager's Manual HPCBOOT(8)NAME
hpcboot -- load and boot kernel from Windows CE
SYNOPSIS
hpcboot.exe
DESCRIPTION
hpcboot is a program that runs on Windows CE. It loads and executes the specified NetBSD kernel. hpcboot supports hpcarm, hpcmips, and
hpcsh ports.
Click on the ``Boot'' button to start the boot process with selected options. Click on the ``Cancel'' button to exit hpcboot.
``Kernel'' Tab
On this tab you can select the kernel to boot and options to pass to the kernel.
Directory
In this combobox you specify the ``current'' directory. The kernel and miniroot image pathnames are taken to be relative to this direc-
tory.
hpcboot can load kernel and miniroot from FAT and UFS filesystems, and via HTTP.
Kernel
In this text field you specify the name of the kernel to load. Kernels compressed with gzip(1) are supported.
Model
Select your H/PC model in this combobox.
Root File System
This group of controls lets you specify the desired root file system type. You can select wd(4), sd(4), md(4), and NFS root.
If you select md(4) memory disk root file system, you should specify the path name of the file system image in the text field below.
Miniroot images compressed with gzip(1) are supported.
Kernel Boot Flags
This group of controls is used to pass boot flags to the kernel.
``Option'' Tab
On this tab you can specify miscellaneous options that mostly control the hpcboot program itself.
Auto Boot
If this option is selected hpcboot will automatically boot NetBSD after the specified timeout.
Reverse Video
Tells kernel if it should use the framebuffer in reverse video mode.
Pause Before Boot
If selected, a warning dialog will be presented before anything is done, right after the ``Boot'' button is pressed.
Load Debug Info
This option currently does nothing.
Safety Message
If selected, a warning dialog will be presented after the kernel has been loaded and prepared to be started. This will be your last
chance to cancel the boot.
Extra Kernel Options
In this text field you can specify additional options to pass to the kernel.
``Console'' Tab
This tab gets its name from the big text area that hpcboot uses as the ``console'' to report its progress.
Save To File
If checked, the progress log will be sent to the specified file instead.
``Checkboxes Anonymous''
The row of 8 checkboxes controls debugging options for hpcboot itself. They control the bits of an internal variable, the leftmost
checkbox being the 7th bit.
``Buttons Anonymous''
The buttons ``a'' to ``d'' control 4 ``hooks'' a developer might want to use during hpcboot development.
SEE ALSO kloader(4), boot(8)HISTORY
The hpcboot utility first appeared in NetBSD 1.6.
BUGS
hpcboot reads the entire kernel image at once, and requires enough free area on the main memory.
BSD April 3, 2004 BSD
Check Out this Related Man Page
BOOT.CFG(5) BSD File Formats Manual BOOT.CFG(5)NAME
boot.cfg -- configuration file for /boot
DESCRIPTION
The file /boot.cfg is used to alter the behaviour of the standard boot loader described in boot(8). Configuration changes include setting
the timeout, choosing a console device, altering the banner text and displaying a menu allowing boot commands to be easily chosen. If a
boot.cfg file is not present, the system will boot as normal.
FILE FORMAT
The format of the file is a series of lines containing keyword/value pairs separated by an equals sign ('='). There should be no whitespace
surrounding the equals sign. Lines beginning with a hash ('#') are comments and will be ignored.
Some keywords can be present multiple times in the file to define additional items. Such keywords are noted below.
banner (may be present multiple times) The text from banner lines is displayed instead of the standard welcome text by the boot loader. Up
to 10 lines can be defined. No special character sequences are recognised, so to specify a blank line, a banner line with no value
should be given.
clear If nonzero, clear the screen before printing the banner. If zero, do not clear the screen (the default).
consdev Changes the console device to that specified in the value. Valid values are any of those that could be specified at the normal boot
prompt with the consdev command.
default Used to specify the default menu item which will be chosen in the case of Return being pressed or the timeout timer reaching zero.
The value is the number of the menu item as displayed. As described above, the menu items are counted from 1 in the order listed in
boot.cfg. If not specified, the default value will be option 1, i.e. the first item.
format Changes how the menu options are displayed. Should be set to one of 'a' for automatic, 'l' for letters and 'n' for numbers. If set
to automatic (the default), menu options will be displayed numerically unless there are more than 9 options and the timeout is
greater than zero. If there are more than 9 options with a timeout greater than zero and the format is set to number, only the
first 9 options will be available.
load Used to load kernel modules, which will be passed on to the kernel for initialization during early boot. The argument is either the
complete path and file name of the module to be loaded, or a symbolic module name. When the argument is not an absolute path, the
boot loader will first attempt to load /stand/<machine>/<kernel_version>/modules/<name>/<name>.kmod. If that file does not exist,
it will then attempt to load /<name>. May be used as many times as needed.
menu (may be present multiple times) Used to define a menu item to be displayed to the end-user at boot time which allows a series of
boot commands to be run without further typing. The value consists of the required menu text, followed by a colon (':') and then
the desired command(s). Multiple commands can be specified separated by a semi-colon. If the specified menu text is empty (the
colon appears immediately after the equals sign), then the displayed menu text is the same as the command. For example:
menu=Boot normally:boot
menu=Boot single-user:boot -s
menu=Boot with module foo:load /foo.kmod;boot
menu=Boot with serial console:consdev com0;boot
menu=:boot hd1a:netbsd -as
Each menu item will be prefixed by an ascending number when displayed, i.e. the order in the boot.cfg file is important.
Each command is executed just as though the user had typed it in and so can be any valid command that would be accepted at the nor-
mal boot prompt. In addition, ``prompt'' can be used to drop to the normal boot prompt.
timeout If the value is greater than zero, this specifies the time in seconds that the boot loader will wait for the end-user to choose a
menu item. During the countdown period, they may press Return to choose the default option or press a number key corresponding to a
menu option. If any other key is pressed, the countdown will stop and the user will be prompted to choose a menu option with no
further time limit. If the timeout value is set to zero, the default option will be booted immediately. If the timeout value is
negative or is not a number, there will be no time limit for the user to choose an option.
userconf
Passes a userconf(4) command to the kernel at boot time .
rndseed Takes the path to a random-seed file as written by the -S flag to rndctl(8) as an argument. This file is used to seed the kernel
entropy pool rnd(9) very early in kernel startup, so that high quality randomness is available to all kernel modules. This argument
should be supplied before any ``load'' commands that may load executable modules.
EXAMPLES
Here is an example boot.cfg file:
banner=Welcome to NetBSD
banner==================
banner=
banner=Please choose an option from the following menu:
menu=Boot normally:boot
menu=Boot single-user:boot -s
menu=Boot from second disk:boot hd1a:
menu=Boot with module foo:load /foo.kmod;boot
menu=Boot with modules foo and bar:load /foo.kmod;load /bar.kmod;boot
menu=Boot Xen with 256MB for dom0:load /netbsd-XEN3_DOM0 console=pc;multiboot /usr/pkg/xen3-kernel/xen.gz dom0_mem=256M
menu=Boot Xen with 256MB for dom0 (serial):load /netbsd-XEN3_DOM0 console=com0;multiboot /usr/pkg/xen3-kernel/xen.gz dom0_mem=256M console=com1 com1=115200,8n1
menu=Boot Xen with dom0 in single-user mode:load /netbsd-XEN3_DOM0 -s;multiboot /usr/pkg/xen3-kernel/xen.gz dom0_mem=256M
menu=Go to command line (advanced users only):prompt
clear=1
timeout=-1
default=1
userconf disable ehci*
# Always load ramdisk module
load=/miniroot.kmod
N.B. Xen counts serial ports from com1 upwards, but NetBSD counts from com0, so the appropriate device name must be used. Please see the Xen
with serial console example above.
This will clear the screen and display:
Welcome to NetBSD
=================
Please choose an option from the following menu:
1. Boot normally
2. Boot single-user
3. Boot from second disk
4. Boot with module foo
5. Boot with modules foo and bar
6. Boot Xen with 256 MB for dom0
7. Boot Xen with 256 MB for dom0 (serial)
8. Boot Xen with dom0 in single-user mode
9. Go to command line (advanced users only)
Option [1]:
It will then wait for the user to type 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9 followed by Return. Pressing Return by itself will run option 1. There
will be no timeout.
SEE ALSO boot(8), boothowto(9)HISTORY
The boot.cfg file appeared in NetBSD 5.0.
AUTHORS
The boot.cfg extensions to boot(8) were written by Stephen Borrill <sborrill@NetBSD.org>.
BUGS
Support for boot.cfg is currently for NetBSD/i386 and NetBSD/amd64 only. It is hoped that its use will be extended to other appropriate
ports that use the boot(8) interface.
BSD November 28, 2011 BSD