Auto-Boot Options

OpenBoot provides for an NVRAM controlled switch called auto-boot?, which controls whether OBP will automatically boot the operating system after each reset. The default for Sun platforms is true.

If a system fails power-on diagnostics, then auto-boot? is ignored and the system does not boot unless the user does it manually. This behavior is obviously not acceptable for a degraded boot scenario, so the Ultra 450 OBP provides a second NVRAM-controlled switch called auto-boot-on-error?. This switch controls whether the system will attempt a degraded boot when a subsystem failure is detected. Both the auto-boot? and auto-boot-on-error? switches must be set to true to enable a degraded boot.

ok setenv auto-boot-on-error? true

The default setting for auto-boot-on-error? is false. Therefore, the system will not attempt a degraded boot unless you change this setting to true. In addition, the system will not attempt a degraded boot in response to any fatal unrecoverable error, even if degraded booting is enabled. An example of a fatal unrecoverable error is when all of the system's CPUs have been disabled, either by failing POST or as a result of a manual user override.