Copyright (c) 2002 The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.
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This code is derived from software contributed to The NetBSD Foundation
by Luke Mewburn of Wasabi Systems.
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.Dd April 4, 2002 .Dt INSTALLBOOT 8 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm installboot .Nd install disk bootstrap software . .Sh SYNOPSIS .Nm "" .Op Fl nv k -words .Op Fl m Ar machine .Ek k -words .Op Fl o Ar options .Ek k -words .Op Fl t Ar fstype .Ek k -words .Op Fl b Ar bno .Ek .Ar filesystem .Ar bootstrap .Nm "" .Fl c .Op Fl nv k -words .Op Fl m Ar machine .Ek k -words .Op Fl o Ar options .Ek k -words .Op Fl t Ar fstype .Ek .Ar filesystem . .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Nm utility installs and removes .Nx disk bootstrap software. .Nm can install .Ar bootstrap into .Ar filesystem , or disable an existing bootstrap in .Ar filesystem .
p Generally, .Nx disk bootstrap software consists of two parts: a .Dq primary bootstrap program usually written into the disklabel area of the disk by .Nm "" , and a .Dq secondary bootstrap program that usually resides in a file system on the disk.
p When booting, the primary bootstrap program is loaded and invoked by the machine's PROM or BIOS. After receiving control of the system it loads and runs the secondary bootstrap program, which in turn loads and runs the kernel. The secondary bootstrap may allow control over various boot parameters passed to the kernel.
p To make a disk bootable, copy the secondary bootstrap (usually
a /usr/mdec/boot. Ns Sy MACHINE ) to the root directory of the first file system on the disk. .Nx Ns Tn /pmax requires this file system to start at block 0 of the disk. Then use .Nm to install the primary bootstrap program (usually
a /usr/mdec/bootxx. Ns Sy <fs> ) into the disk's raw partition
o usually .Dq c but .Dq d on platforms such as .Sy i386 . ..
c .
p The options recognized by .Nm are as follows: . l -tag -width "foobar" . t Fl b Ar bno Install .Ar bootstrap at block number .Ar bno instead of the default location for the machine and file system type. . t Fl c Clear (remove) any existing bootstrap instead of installing one. . t Fl m Ar machine Use .Ar machine as the target machine type. The default machine is determined from .Xr uname 3 and then .Ev MACHINE .
p The following machines are currently supported by .Nm "" : d -ragged -offset indent .Sy alpha , .Sy pmax , .Sy vax .Ed . . t Fl n Do not write to .Ar filesystem . . t Fl o Ar options Machine specific .Nm options, comma separated.
p Supported options are (with the machines for they are valid in brackets): . l -tag -offset indent -width alphasum . t Sy alphasum .Em [ alpha ] Recalculate and restore the Alpha checksum. This is the default for .Nx Ns Tn /alpha . . t Sy append .Em [ pmax , .Em vax ] Append .Ar bootstrap to the end of .Ar filesystem , which must be a regular file in this case. . t Sy sunsum .Em [ pmax , .Em vax ] Recalculate and restore the Sun and .Nx Ns Tn /sparc compatible checksum. .Em Note : The existing .Nx Ns Tn /sparc disklabel should use no more than 4 partitions. .El . t Fl t Ar fstype Use .Ar fstype as the type of .Ar filesystem . The default operation is to attempt to auto-detect this setting. . t Fl v Verbose operation. .El
p .Nm exits 0 on success, and \*[Gt]0 if an error occurs. . .Sh ENVIRONMENT .Nm uses the following environment variables: . l -tag -width "MACHINE" . t Ev MACHINE Default value for .Ar machine , overriding the result from .Xr uname 3 . . .El . .Sh FILES Most NetBSD ports will contain variations of the following files:
p l -tag -width /usr/mdec/boot.$MACHINE . t Pa /usr/mdec/bootxx_ Ns Sy <fs> Primary bootstrap for file system .Sy <fs> . Installed into the bootstrap area of the file system by .Nm "" . . t Pa /usr/mdec/boot. Ns Sy MACHINE Secondary bootstrap for machine type .Sy MACHINE . This should be installed into the file system before .Nm is run. . t Pa /boot. Ns Sy MACHINE Installed copy of secondary bootstrap for machine type .Sy MACHINE . . t Pa /boot Installed copy of secondary bootstrap. Searched for by the primary bootstrap if
a /boot. Ns Sy MACHINE
is not found.
.
.El
.
.
.Sh EXAMPLES
.if t .ne 4
Install the Berkeley Fast File System primary bootstrap on to disk sd0:
.D1 Ic installboot /dev/rsd0c /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffs
p Remove the primary bootstrap from disk wd1: .Dl Ic installboot -c /dev/rwd1c .Ss NetBSD/pmax examples Install the ISO 9660 primary bootstrap in the file
a /tmp/cd-image : .Dl Ic installboot -m pmax /tmp/cd-image /usr/mdec/bootxx_cd9660
p Make an ISO 9660 filesystem in the file
a /tmp/cd-image and install the ISO 9660 primary bootstrap in the filesystem, where the source directory for the ISO 9660 filesystem contains a kernel, the primary bootstrap
a bootxx_cd9660 and the secondary bootstrap
a boot.pmax : .Dl Ic mkisofs -o /tmp/cd-image -a -l -v iso-source-dir .Dl ... .Dl 48 51 iso-source-dir/bootxx_cd9660 .Dl ... .Dl Ic installboot -b `expr 48 \e* 4` /tmp/cd-image /usr/mdec/bootxx_cd9660 . .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr uname 3 , .Xr boot 8 , .Xr disklabel 8 , .Xr init 8 . .Sh HISTORY This implementation of .Nm appeared in .Nx 1.6 . . .Sh AUTHORS The machine independent portion of this implementation of .Nm was written by Luke Mewburn. The following people contributed to the various machine dependent back-ends: Simon Burge (pmax), Chris Demetriou (alpha), Ross Harvey (alpha), Matt Thomas (vax). . .Sh BUGS There are not currently primary bootstraps to support all file systems types which are capable of being the root file system. .Ss NetBSD/pmax bugs The .Nx Ns Tn /pmax secondary bootstrap program can only load kernels from file systems starting at the beginning of disks.
p The size of primary bootstrap programs is restricted to 7.5KB, even though some file systems (e.g. ISO 9660) are able to accommodate larger ones.
Indexes created Thu Oct 02 14:10:14 GMT 2025