NAME
boot32 —
Bootloader for
NetBSD/acorn32
SYNOPSIS
*boot32 |
[-acdqsv]
[root=rootdir]
[file] |
DESCRIPTION
boot32 is a program that runs under RISC OS and launches the
NetBSD/acorn32 kernel. It needs to be installed in a
RISC OS filesystem and given file type FFA (Module). The kernel it is to load
also needs to be stored in a RISC OS filesystem.
It takes the following standard
NetBSD options, which
set flags in the
boothowto variable in the booted kernel
(see
boothowto(9)). Not
all flags may be effective.
-
-
- -a
- (
RB_ASKNAME
) Cause the kernel to
prompt the user for the name of the device containing the root filesystem.
This also causes boot32 to prompt for the name of the
kernel to be loaded.
-
-
- -s
- (
RB_SINGLE
) Cause the kernel to ask
init to boot into single-user mode.
-
-
- -d
- (
RB_KDB
) Cause the kernel to enter
the kernel debugger as soon as possible.
-
-
- -c
- (
RB_USERCONF
) Enter the in-kernel
device configuration manager before attaching any devices.
-
-
- -q
- (
AB_QUIET
) Cause the kernel to emit
fewer messages than normal while starting up.
-
-
- -v
- (
AB_VERBOSE
) Cause the kernel to
emit more messages than normal while starting up.
boot32 attempts to load the kernel from the RISC OS file
specified as
file, or from
netbsd if
file is not specified. The file must be an ELF image,
and may have been compressed using
gzip(1).
Use as a module
boot32 is implemented as a RISC OS relocatable module. It can
be loaded into memory by running ‘
*RMLoad
boot32
’. After this,
NetBSD can be booted
by running ‘
*boot32
’ as usual, but the
command will be handled by the module.
It should also be possible to arrange for
boot32 to be loaded
from ROM (e.g., from the ROM on an expansion card), in which case
NetBSD could be made to boot automatically by making
boot32 the configured language using
‘
*Configure Language
’.
Screen display
When it starts up,
boot32 displays the number of 4 kilobyte
memory pages it has been delegated by RISC-OS and gives a summary about the
memory map as reported by RISC-OS followed by a table of physical memory
ranges available to the bootloader. All this information is mainly for
bughunting booting problems.
It then checks its internal structures and kicks out RISC-OS, relocates all
memory pages loaded in to their final destinations and kickstarts
boot32.
FILES
-
-
- /usr/mdec/boot32,ffa
- The location of boot32 in the
NetBSD filesystem.
SEE ALSO
gzip(1),
reboot(2),
ddb(4),
userconf(4),
init(8),
boothowto(9)
HISTORY
boot32 was introduced in
NetBSD 1.6 as
a replacement for the original
NetBSD/arm32
bootloader, which was written in BBC BASIC.
BUGS
boot32 cannot load kernels from a
NetBSD filesystem.