From owner-freebsd-current Sat Jun 26 13:56:50 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from ceia.nordier.com (c1-63-dbn.dial-up.net [196.34.155.63]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7161D14D4E for ; Sat, 26 Jun 1999 13:56:23 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from rnordier@nordier.com) Received: (from rnordier@localhost) by ceia.nordier.com (8.8.7/8.6.12) id WAA10146; Sat, 26 Jun 1999 22:55:23 +0200 (SAST) From: Robert Nordier Message-Id: <199906262055.WAA10146@ceia.nordier.com> Subject: Re: boot -P AND autoboot possible? In-Reply-To: <37749B46.E2CB5F82@gorean.org> from Doug at "Jun 26, 1999 02:20:06 am" To: Doug@gorean.org (Doug) Date: Sat, 26 Jun 1999 22:55:17 +0200 (SAST) Cc: sheldonh@uunet.co.za (Sheldon Hearn), freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL54 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > > > I can submit patches for the man page(s) if I can get a grip on what's > > > happening where (and when). :-/ What I'd really like to see is a > > > chronological listing, like: > > > > I think you're reading the wrong manpage. I've just had a look at > > loader(8) and can't really see what you'd want to improve. Can you > > confirm that your loader.8 DESCRIPTION starts with > > > > "The program called loader is the third stage of FreeBSD's > > three stage bootstrap. > > Yes, that's the one, but as you point out here we're already talking about > the third stage. The problem is (as I mentioned in my request) /boot.config > bypasses this stage. Various parts of the new loader are well documented, > but there is no overall picture of how the various parts fit together. The proper place for -P is /boot.config. I'm not sure where you got the impression that "/boot.config necessarily bypasses loader", but this isn't the case. The boot(8) man page reads: By default, a three-stage bootstrap is employed, and control is automatically passed from the boot blocks (bootstrap stages one and two) to a separate third-stage bootstrap program, loader. This third stage provides more sophisticated control over the booting process than it is possible to achieve in the boot blocks, which are constrained by occupying limited fixed space on a given disk or slice. However, it is possible to dispense with the third stage altogether, either by specifying a kernel name in the boot block parameter file, /boot.config, or by hitting a key during a brief pause (while one of the characters -, \, |, or / is displayed) before loader is invoked. Booting will also be attempted at stage two, if the third stage cannot be loaded. -- Robert Nordier To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message