ChorusOS man pages section 1M: System Management Utilities

bootAgent(1M)

NAME | DESCRIPTION | ATTRIBUTES | DIAGNOSTICS

NAME

bootAgent- describes the available modules for loading and bootstrapping a ChorusOS system image

DESCRIPTION

A boot agent is a modular piece of code that groups together some protocols/drivers and a parameter interpreter used by bootMonitor(1M). The bootAgent is executed by the bootMonitor according to the bootConfig(1M).

The following boot agents are available to load and boot your system image from different sources:

RARP: from a RARP/BOOTP boot server
TFTP: from a TFTPboot server
DHCP: from a DHCP boot server
DISK: from a disk
FLASH: from a flash device
NVRAM: from an nvram device
CONS: bootstrap another agent by reading parameters from the console

Network Agents User Interface

The boot agents that load images through the network will first search for an ethernet adapter. If one is found the following message will be displayed and this interface will be used.

Searching for adapter...
         Unit: 0  device name: smc1660-0
         Using unit 0

If several adapters are found, the agents will prompt the user to choose one. This prompt automatically times out and if an adapter was not selected in time the first adapter is automatically selected. The following prompt is shown:

Searching for adapters...
         Unit: 0  device name: smc1660-0
         Unit: 1  device name: ne2000-0

         Several adapters have been detected
         Please choose one unit: ...1
         Using unit 1

In this example, the "1" key was entered after 3 seconds. The adapter 1 was then used. The timeout period is 5 seconds.

RARP Agent Configuration

This boot agent acts as a RARP (Reverse Address Resolution Protocol) client for getting the Internet address from a RARP server (rarpd).

For information on how to set up a RARP server see "Setting Up a Boot Server" in ChorusOS 5.0 Installation Guide.

When the agent gets the address it acts as a BOOTP client (Bootstrap Protocol) for getting the boot configuration from a BOOTP server (bootpd).

The information that the RARP boot agent obtains, from the BOOTP server, is:

the target IP address (mandatory)
the boot server IP address (optional, default is BOOTP)
the boot filename (optional, default is the target IP address in hexadecimal)

Please, contact your system administrator to set up a BOOTP server.

RARP Agent Parameters

Because of the cooperation of RARP/BOOTP, this agent does not require any parameters through bootConfig.

In order to call it from the CONS bootAgent enter the following at the CONS bootAgent prompt.:

ChOS> RARP

RARP Configuration File

The RARP boot agent works without a configuration file. However using one is more flexible than directly loading a boot file. It implies a second TFTP load, to get the bootable system image, and also allows you to choose a boot server and the name of the boot file without requiring the intervention of system administrators.

The name of the file that RARP boot agent tries to load, using TFTP requests on the RARP server, is built from the target IP address in hexadecimal. For example, if the target IP address is 204.216.27.18 then the filename is CCD81B12.ChorusOS.5.0. If this file does not exist, then RARP boot agent tries to load the CCD81B12 file. The server location of this file depends on how the TFTP daemon started. The file usually resides in the /tftpboot directory.

RARP Configuration Parameters

The following parameters are recognized by the bootMonitor

BOOTSERVER=string: This is the Internet address of the remote system containing the boot file required. The Internet address should be in quad decimal dotted notation.
BOOTFILE=filename: This specifies the name of the boot file required. If the remote TFTP daemon is running with a specified "base" directory, this name is referenced on the server relative to this directory. For example, BOOTFILE=chorus would correspond to /tftpboot/chorus on a server running UNIX with the tftpd base directory set to /tftpboot. If the TFTP daemon on the remote server is not running with a specified base directory, the file name must be fully specified and all directories leading to the file must be accessible to any user. For example, BOOTFILE=/home/kernels/chorus would correspond to /home/kernels/chorus on the server running UNIX. Both /home, and /home/kernels would need public read and execute permissions, and the file /home/kernels/chorus would need public read permission.

Each configuration parameter must begin on a new line. White space is ignored up to the first non-white space of the parameter value, after which all characters are taken as part of the value. A line containing a "#" in the first column is considered a comment.

TFTP Agent Configuration

The TFTP boot agent is a TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol) client for reading files from a TFTP server (tftpd) .

Please contact your system administrator to set up a TFTP server.

TFTP Agent Parameters

The TFTP boot agent decodes several parameters that can be set through bootConfig or given with the CONS boot agent prompt:

s=server_ip_addr: This specifies the Internet address of the server in quad decimal dotted notation.
y=target_ip_addr: This specifies the Internet address of the target in quad decimal dotted notation.
f=sysimage_filename: This specifies the name of the system image file to be loaded from the server and booted on the target.

Example 1 Configuring a TFTP boot agent via bootConfig

configurator -setenv BOOTCONF=TFTP s=10.0.0.1 y=10.0.0.2 f=chorus.bmon

DHCP Agent Configuration

The DHCP boot agent is a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) client for getting configuration parameters from a DHCP server. The configuration data can be any information that the administrator needs to be established. However, the DHCP boot agent only uses the IP address, TFTP server and the system image file name.

Please contact your system administrator to set up a TFTP server.

DHCP Agent Parameters

The DHCP boot agent decodes the following parameters, either from bootConfig or through the CONS boot agent prompt:

s=server_ip_addr: This specifies the Internet address of the server in quad decimal dotted notation.
f=sysimage_filename: This specifies the name of the system image file to be loaded from the server and booted on the target.
r=retry_on_failure: This specifies whether the bootMonitor retries on failure. It is specified by a boolean value.

Example 2 Configuring a DHCP boot agent via CONS boot agent

ChOS> DHCP s=10.0.0.1 f=chorus.bmon r=1

DISK Agent Configuration

The disk boot agent is an IDE floppy/disk driver enabling ChorusOS bootMonitor to get a system image from a disk or floppy device. This system image is loaded in memory and run.

In order to prepare and write the image on disk/floppy use the cbfs(1CC) utility.

DISK Agent Parameters

The DISK boot agent decodes a linear boot configuration entry with no named parameters. The format of this configuration is the following (see cbfs for examples):

DISK disk_device_path first_sect_nr size_in_sect

In order to invoke the disk boot agent from the CONS boot agent prompt, use the same kind of entry.

FLASH Agent Configuration

The FLASH boot agent is a flash device driver that reads the system image from a memory chip in order to load and run it.

In order to prepare and write the image on flash use the cbfs utility.

FLASH Agent Parameters

The FLASH boot agent decodes a linear boot configuration entry with no named parameters. The format of this configuration is the following (see cbfs for examples):

FLASH flash_device_path image_start_addr image_size_bytes

To invoke flash boot agent from the CONS boot agent prompt, use the same kind of entry.

NVRAM Configuration

The NVRAM boot agent is a nvram device driver mapping which loads a system image that is located in a non-volatile memory chip chunk.

In order to prepare and write the image in nvram use the cbfs utility.

NVRAM Parameters

There are no parameters specified to the NVRAM boot agent as it uses the property attached to the device node in order to determine the available memory chunks for this device and to find which contain a system image.

CONS Agent Configuration

The CONS agent gives the user a prompt on the console in order to read a boot configuration. This boot entry is then parsed and passed on to the corresponding boot agent. There is no particular configuration for this agent. You should be aware that it is the default boot agent which means that if no boot configuration is available this agent will be triggered as a fallback.

CONS Agent Parameters

The console boot agent has line editing capabilities and supports a history (in case of error in boot entry). Some hot keys are used for this purpose:

TAB: display the list of available boot agents
?: display a help message
BS: erase the last character entered
ENTER: validate the entry
Ctrl-Z: or "reboot" to reboot target
Ctrl-D: delete current character
Ctrl-B: go to beginning of line
Ctrl-E: go to end of line
Ctrl-P: recall previous entry
Ctrl-N: recall next entry
Ctrl-K: kill end of line to ring
Ctrl-Y: yank kill ring
Up-arr: recall previous entry*
Dn-arr: recall next entry*
L-arr: previous character*
R-arr: next character*

(*): These keys may not work on all terminals.

ATTRIBUTES

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

ATTRIBUTE TYPE	ATTRIBUTE VALUE
Interface Stability	Evolving

DIAGNOSTICS

In case of the failure of a boot agent (at loading or when starting the system image), the agent displays a diagnostic message and terminates. The default boot agent (CONS) is then triggered.

ChorusOS 5.0 Last Revised December 2001

NAME | DESCRIPTION | ATTRIBUTES | DIAGNOSTICS