How to Boot a System Interactively

Booting a system interactively is useful if you need to specify an alternate kernel or the /etc/system file during the boot process because the original file is damaged or the system will not boot. Use the following procedure to boot a system interactively.

The following procedure describes how to specify an alternate /etc/system file during an interactive boot of a system that has only one boot environment. Alternatively, you can boot an alternative boot environment.

1. Make backup copies of the /etc/system and boot/solaris/filelist.ramdisk files, then add the etc/system.bak file name to the /boot/solaris/filelist.ramdisk file.

   # cp /etc/system /etc/system.bak
   # cp /boot/solaris/filelist.ramdisk /boot/solaris/filelist.ramdisk.orig
   # echo "etc/system.bak" >> /boot/solaris/filelist.ramdisk

2. Depending on the platform, do one of the following:
   • For SPARC platforms:
     1. Bring the system to the ok PROM prompt.

        # init 0

     2. Boot the system interactively.

        ok boot -a

   • For x86 platforms:
     1. Perform a standard reboot of the system.

        # reboot -p

     2. When the GRUB menu is displayed, select the boot entry that you want to boot interactively, then type e to edit the entry.
     3. Type –a at the end of the $multiboot line.
     4. To exit the GRUB edit menu and boot the entry you just edited, press Control-X. If you have a system with UEFI firmware, and you are not using a serial console, pressing F10 also boots the entry.
3. When prompted for the alternate file system, specify the backup file that you created, the press Return. For example:

   Name of system file [etc/system]: /etc/system.bak

   Pressing Return without providing any information accepts the system defaults.

4. At the Retire store prompt, press Return or specify /dev/null to bypass.

   ---

   Note - The /etc/devices/retire_store file is the backing store for devices that are retired by the Fault Management Architecture (FMA). The system no longer uses these devices. You can provide an alternate file for /etc/devices/retire_store, if necessary. However, for recovery purposes, specifying /dev/null is the most useful choice to boot the system without respecting the contents of the /etc/devices/retire_store file.

   ---

5. After the system has booted, correct the problem with the /etc/system file.
6. Reboot the system.

   # reboot

In the following example, the system defaults (shown in square brackets []) are accepted.

# init 0
# svc.startd: The system is coming down.  Please wait.
svc.startd: 121 system services are now being stopped.
Apr 22 00:34:25 system-28 syslogd: going down on signal 15
svc.startd: Killing user processes.
umount: /home busy
Apr 22 06:34:37 The system is down.  Shutdown took 18 seconds.
syncing file systems... done
Program terminated
{11} ok boot -a

SC Alert: Host System has Reset

Sun Fire T200, No Keyboard
Copyright (c) 1998, 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
OpenBoot 4.30.4.d, 16256 MB memory available, Serial #74139288.
Ethernet address 0:14:4f:6b:46:98, Host ID: 846b4698.

Boot device: /pci@780/pci@0/pci@9/scsi@0/disk@0,0:a  File and args: -a
Name of system file [/etc/system]:  /etc/system.bak
SunOS Release 5.11 Version 11.2 64-bit
Copyright (c) 1983, 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Retire store [/etc/devices/retire_store] (/dev/null to bypass): Press Return


system-28 console login:

In the following example, an x86 based system is booted interactively.

root@system-04:~# reboot -p
Apr 23 15:37:04 system-04 reboot: initiated by user1 on /dev/consoleTerminated
system-04% syncing file systems... done
rebooting...
.
.
.LSI Corporation MPT SAS BIOS
MPTBIOS-6.26.00.00 (2008.10.14)
Copyright 2000-2008 LSI Corporation.

Initializing..|Press F2 to runS POPUP  (CTRL+P on Remote Keyboard)
Press F12 to boot from the network (CTRL+N on Remote Keyboard)
System Memory : 8.0 GB , Inc.
Auto-Detecting Pri Master..ATAPI CDROM                              0078
            Ultra DMA Mode-2 
GNU GRUB  version 1.99,5.11.0.175.1.0.0.14.0

 ****************************************************************************
 *Oracle Solaris 11.2                                                       *
 *                                                                          *
 *                                                                          *
 *                                                                          *
 *                                                                          *
 *                                                                          *
 *                                                                          *
 *                                                                          *
 *                                                                          *
 *                                                                          *
 *                                                                          *
 *                                                                          *
 *                                                                          *
 ****************************************************************************

      Use the * and * keys to select which entry is highlighted.
      Press enter to boot the selected OS, 'e' to edit the commands
      before booting or 'c' for a command-line.

 GNU GRUB  version 1.99,5.11.0.175.1.0.0.15.1

 +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 | setparams 'Oracle Solaris 11.2'                                          |
 |                                                                          |
 | insmod part_msdos                                                        |
 | insmod part_sunpc                                                        |
 | insmod part_gpt                                                          |
 | insmod zfs                                                               |
 | search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root cd03199c4187a7d7                 |
 | zfs-bootfs /ROOT/s11u2/@/ zfs_bootfs                                     |
 | set kern=/platform/i86pc/kernel/amd64/unix                               |
 | echo -n "Loading ${root}/ROOT/s11u2/@$kern: "                            |
 | $multiboot /ROOT/s11u2/@/$kern $kern -B $zfs_bootfs -a                   |
 | set gfxpayload="1024x768x32;1024x768x16;800x600x16;640x480x16;640x480x1\ |
 +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+

      Minimum Emacs-like screen editing is supported. TAB lists
      completions. Press Ctrl-x or F10 to boot, Ctrl-c or F2 for
      a command-line or ESC to discard edits and return to the GRUB menu.

 Booting a command list

Loading hd0,msdos1,sunpc1/ROOT/s11u2/@/platform/i86pc/kernel/amd64/unix: 0
%...done.
Loading hd0,msdos1,sunpc1/ROOT/s11u2/@/platform/i86pc/amd64/boot_archive:
0%...
.
.
.
Name of system file [/etc/system]:  /etc/system.bak
SunOS Release 5.11 Version 11.s 64-bit
Copyright (c) 1983, 2014, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.: 0
Retire store [/etc/devices/retire_store] (/dev/null to bypass): Press Return 

NOTICE: kmem_io_2G arena created
Hostname: system-04

system-04 console login: