x86: Support for Fast Reboot

In Oracle Solaris 11 express, the Fast Reboot feature is supported on both the SPARC and x86 platform. The integration of Fast Reboot on the SPARC platform enables the -f option to be used with the reboot command to accelerate the boot process by skipping certain POST tests. On the x86 platform, Fast Reboot implements an in-kernel boot loader that loads the kernel into memory and then switches to that kernel. The firmware and boot loader processes are bypassed, which enables the system to reboot within seconds.

On both the x86 and SPARC platforms, the Fast Reboot feature is managed by SMF and implemented through a boot configuration service, svc:/system/boot-config. The boot-config service provides a means for setting or changing the default boot configuration parameters. When the config/fastreboot_default property is set to true, the system performs a fast reboot automatically, without the need to use the reboot -f command. This property's value is set to false on the SPARC platform and true on the x86 platform. For task-related information, including how to change the default behavior of Fast Reboot on the SPARC platform, see Managing the Boot Configuration Service.

x86: Fast Reboot Feature Enhancements

In this release, the following feature enhancements have been implemented:

• Fast Reboot and Panic Fast Reboot are the default operating mode on the x86 platform. All of the Fast Reboot features that were initially introduced are now enabled by default, without requiring the use of the -f option with the reboot command.

  To facilitate this support, a new boot-config service, svc:/system/boot-config:default, has been introduced. This service consists of the following properties, which are enabled by default.

  • config/fastreboot_default

  • config/fastreboot_onpanic

  For more information about managing the boot-config service, see Managing the Boot Configuration Service.

• Two other key feature enhancements include the following:

  • Capability for fast rebooting a system to the nth entry in the GRUB menu.lst file.

  • Capability for fast rebooting a system to a newly activated BE.

• Support for fast rebooting a system in the GNOME restart dialog

  The restart dialog that is displayed in the GNOME Desktop when you restart your system includes support for fast reboot functionality, as well as a mechanism for switching boot environments. When booting a system, you now have the option of specifying a fast or a slow reboot to any bootable GRUB menu entry through the restart dialog.

  ---

  Note - Only Oracle Solaris boot entries support the fast reboot functionality. For any other boot entries, a slow reboot is automatically initiated.

  ---

For task-related information, see Using Fast Reboot (Task Map).

quiesce Function

The system's capability to bypass the firmware when booting a new OS image has dependencies on the device drivers' implementation of a new device operation entry point, quiesce. On supported drivers, this implementation quiesces a device, so that at completion of the function, the driver no longer generates interrupts or access memory. This implementation also resets the device to a hardware state, from which the device can be correctly configured by the driver's attach routine, without a power cycle of the system or being configured by the firmware. For more information about this functionality, see the quiesce(9E) and dev_ops(9S) man pages.

uadmin Function

The uadmin function, AD_FASTREBOOT, resets the system, thereby enabling the reboot command to bypass the BIOS and the boot loader phases.

---

Caution - Although the uadmin 2 8 command can be used to fast reboot a system. note that when the command is used, neither the boot archive, nor the menu.lst file are updated. For this reason, the reboot or the init 6 command is the preferred method for initiating a fast reboot of a system.

---

For more information, see the uadmin(2)man page.