Booting

The Solaris 7 boot process makes system administration easier. Some of the major changes include:

• The kernel is self-configuring so you no longer need to rebuild it manually.

• Kernel memory consumption is reduced because devices load automatically when first opened.

• File systems are checked only when necessary, improving boot time.

• The boot block can read UNIX file systems, eliminating boot errors when the boot program moves.

• Third-party bootable devices are supported.

• Secondary boot programs, ufsboot and inetboot, have been modified to read CacheFS file systems. This new booting capability enables Solstice AutoClient^TM systems to boot more quickly and with less impact on network resources.

• The SunOS release 4 fastboot command is available only on Solaris 7 systems that have the SunOS/BSD Source Compatibility Package installed. The fastboot command is obsolete in Solaris 7 systems because file systems are only checked if the file system state is identified as not clean.

• The SunOS release 4 halt and reboot commands have shutdown(1M) and init(1M) equivalents in the SunOS release 5.7 software.

In the Solaris 7 operating environment, the shutdown and init commands are the preferred way to halt, shut down, or reboot your system. While the reboot command is available in the Solaris 7 operating environment, it brings the system down quickly without shutting down services in an orderly way. Table 8-1 shows the SunOS release 5.7 commands that replace SunOS release 4 commands.

Table 8-1 SunOS release 5.7 Replacements for reboot and fastboot

SunOS Release 4Command	SunOS Release 5.7 Command Replacement
reboot	shutdown -i 6, init 6
fastboot	boot, init 6

boot Command Changes

The SunOS release 5.7 software has these additional options for the boot command:

• Type boot -r when you add new hardware or alter its location. This option creates the physical and logical device names, with the logical device name linked to the physical device name.

• Type boot -v when you want to see all the system bootup messages; the default is to boot silently. The messages are always stored in the /var/adm/messages file.

• Type boot -a when you want to be prompted for the name of an alternate kernel, /etc/system file, or path name for kernel module directories.

Booting From the PROM

Be aware of these changes when booting from the PROM:

• The PROM loads bootblk from the disk. This file is similar to the previous SunOS release 4 boot block except that it is specific to the UFS file system.

  As in the SunOS release 4 software, you need to use installboot(1M) to install boot blocks on a partition to be used for booting.

• bootblk opens the boot device and, using the file system you specify, finds and loads ufsboot.

• The boot PROM loads the kernel, /kernel/genunix, after ufsboot is loaded into memory. SunOS release 4 systems used /vmunix; however, in the SunOS release 5.7 software the /kernel directory contains all platform-independent kernel modules, including unix, needed to boot the system.

• The kernel, in turn, loads other drivers, such as esp, from the /kernel/drv directory. These drivers had to be built as part of the SunOS release 4 kernel but can be dynamically loaded in SunOS release 5.7 systems when they are needed.

• The /sbin/init command generates processes to set up the system based on the directions in /etc/inittab. The next section describes the run levels that init uses.

Summary of Boot Differences

Table 8-2 summarizes booting differences.

Table 8-2 Booting Differences

SunOS release 4	SunOS release 5.7	Feature
bootsd	bootblk	Now loads ufsboot from disk
boot program	ufsboot	Now loads unix from disk
/vmunix	/kernel/genunix	Bootable kernel image
boot.sun4c.sunos.4.1	inetboot	Mounts and copies unix from network
rc.boot rc.single	/etc/rcS	Mounts /usr and checks file systems
rc.local	/etc/rc2 /etc/rc3	System config scripts
/etc/config	modload /etc/system	Customizes system kernel, loads modules as needed
PROM monitor, single user, multiuser	Run states 0 - 6, and S	System run levels
/dev/sd1g	/dev/dsk/c0t1d0s6	More descriptive logical device names. See "Device Naming Conventions".
MAKEDEV	boot -r, add_drv	Makes device nodes