DESCRIPTION
Power fail and crash recovery
When the
NetBSD kernel is booted normally (using one of the two methods discussed below), it initializes itself and proceeds to boot the system. An automatic consistency check of the file systems takes place, and unless this fails, the system comes up to multi-user operations. The proper way to shut the system down is with the
shutdown(8) command.
If the system crashes, it will enter the kernel debugger, ddb(4), if it is configured in the kernel. If the debugger is not present, or the debugger is exited, the system will attempt a dump to the configured dump device (which will be automatically recovered with savecore(8) during the next boot cycle). After the dump is complete (successful or not), the system will attempt a reboot.
Booting NetBSD using the bootloader
When a bootable
NetBSD partition is created by means of
installboot(8) and the boot-preference bit in the NVRAM is either invalid or set to
NetBSD , the Atari BIOS will automatically start the
NetBSD bootloader. By default it will load the kernel image
/netbsd and attempts to boot it into multi-user mode. This behaviour can be changed by either keeping the
Alternate or the
Right-Shift key pressed during the boot. When the
Alternate key is pressed, the bootstrap is aborted, causing the BIOS to continue scanning the disks for a bootable partition (this is compatible with AHDI 3.0). Pressing the
Right-Shift key during the boot, causes the boot loader to enter the interactive mode. In interactive mode, the command line looks like:
[OS-type] [boot-path] [boot-options]
Each component of the command can be omitted in which case the defaults indicated will be used.
-
OS-type:
-
-
.netbsd (the default)
-
-
.linux
-
-
.asv
-
-
.tos
-
If something other than .netbsd is specified, control is returned to the BIOS with the boot preference set to the selected type. Due to limitations of the BIOS however, the search for bootblocks is continued rather than restarted.
-
boot-path
-
This gives you the opportunity to boot another kernel, say: /netbsd.old. The default is /netbsd
-
boot-options
-
These options are a subset of the loadbsd(8) options.
-
-a
-
Boot into multi-user mode (the default)
-
-b
-
Prompt for the root file system device, the system crash dump device, and the path to init(8).
-
-d
-
Enter the kernel debugger
-
-q
-
Boot in quiet mode
-
-v
-
Boot in verbose mode
Booting using the loadbsd program
When you want (or have to) start
NetBSD from GEM, you have to use the
loadbsd(8) program that is supplied on the kernel-floppy. The loadbsd command line specification is:
loadbsd [-abdhqstvwDV] [-S amount] [-T amount] kernel-path
Description of options:
-
-a
-
Boot automatically into multi-user mode.
-
-b
-
Prompt for the root file system device, the system crash dump device, and the path to init(8).
-
-d
-
Enter the kernel debugger after booting.
-
-h
-
Print a help screen that tries to explain the same options as mentioned here.
-
-o outputfile
-
Write all output to the file outputfile.
-
-q
-
Boot in quiet mode.
-
-s
-
Tell NetBSD only to use ST compatible RAM.
-
-t
-
Test loading of the kernel but don't start NetBSD.
-
-v
-
Boot in verbose mode.
-
-w
-
Wait for a keypress before exiting loadbsd. This is useful when starting this program under GEM.
-
-D
-
Show debugging output while booting the kernel.
-
-S amount
-
Set the amount of available ST compatible RAM in bytes. Normally this value is set automatically from the values initialized by the BIOS.
-
-T amount
-
Set the amount of available TT compatible RAM in bytes. Normally this value is set automatically from the values initialized by the BIOS.
-
-V
-
Print the version of loadbsd(8) that you are using.
-
kernel-path
-
This is a GEMDOS path specification of the kernel to boot.
Note: Because the loadbsd program can only read kernels from a GEMDOS filesystem, the file /netbsd is usually not the same as the actual kernel booted. This can cause some programs to fail.