173 lines
8.1 KiB
Plaintext
173 lines
8.1 KiB
Plaintext
Note: all my original references to 386BSD also refer to freeBSD and NetBSD
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which in some ways are derived from 386BSD. --julian@freebsd.org
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This Boot code is different from the original boot code that came with
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386BSD in that it uses the BIOS to load the kernel and to provide all i/o
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services. The advantage ofthis is that the same boot code exactly, can run
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on any device that is supported by the BIOS. (That's most of them)
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This is important for the 'generic scsi' project because it means we can
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write drivers for new scsi adapters without having to develop an new
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set of boot blocks for each.
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At this point you should read the first part of README.MACH... come back here
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when you have done that:
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In normal operation, when co-existing with other operating systems, the
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following operations occur:
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1/ the BIOS loads the first block of the disk (called the Master Boot Record
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or MBR) and if it has the correct magic numbers, jumps into it:
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2/ The MBR code, looks at the Partition table that is embedded within it,
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to determine which is the partition to boot from. If you install the
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boot manager when FreeBSD is first installed, it will also give you a nice
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menu for switching between operating systems.
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3/ The MBR will load the first record of the selected partition and
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if it has (the same) magic numbers, jumps into it. In 386bsd this is the
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first stage boot, (or boot1) it is represented in /usr/mdec by
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wdboot, asboot and daboot. If the disk has been set up without DOS partitioning
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then this block will be at block zero, and will have been loaded directly by
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the BIOS. This is the usual case with floppies.
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4/ Boot1 will look at block0 (which might be itself if there are no DOS
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partitions) and will find the 386bsd partition,
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Boot 1 also contains a compiled in DOS partition table
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(in case it is at block 0), which contains a 386bsd partition starting
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at 0. This ensures that the same code can work whether or not
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boot1 is at block 0.
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4A/ IF the NAMEBLOCK option is compiled into the bootcode, then the
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boot1 code will load and examine block1 (usually unused) and
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look for a default boot string to use later (if the correct magic number
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is present). If the option NAMEBLOCK_WRITEBACK is also defined, then
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it will zero out that name after finding it, and write the block back,
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having "used up" that name. The block may contain multiple different
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boot strings which will be "used up" one after the other (one per boot)
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They are set using the "nextboot" utility.
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4B/ Using the information found in step 4, regarding the start position
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of the BSD partition, boot1 will load the first 16 sectors of that partition,
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to around 0x10000 (64k) and will jump into it at the appropriate entry point.
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Since boot1 and boot2 were compiled together as one file and then split
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later, boot1 knows the exact position within boot2 of the entry point.
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5/ Boot2 asks the user for a boot device, partition and filename, and then
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loads the MBR of the selected device. This may or may not be the device
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which was originally used to boot the first MBR. The partition table
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of the new MBR is searched for a 386bsd partition, and if one is found,
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that is then in turn searched for the disklabel. This could all be on the
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second disk at this point, if the user selected it. If the user makes no
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actions then a default string will be used.
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If the NAMEBLOCK option is used, then the default string may have been
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loaded from block2. If none was found then a compiled in default will be used.
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6/On finding the disklabel, on the disk the user spacified, boot2 can find
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the correct unix partition within the 386bsd partition, and using cutdown
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filesystem code, look for the file to boot (e.g., 386bsd).
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7/ Boot2 loads this file starting at the location specified by the a.out header,
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(see later) and leaps into it at the location specified in he header.
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if the file does not exist or cannot be loaded, boot2 goes back to step 5.
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386bsd is now running and will hopefully start vm etc. and get to multi-user
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mode.
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##########################################################################
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During all these steps, all i/o is performed using the BIOS. This has a number
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of side effects:
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1/ Since BIOS disk calls are specified in terms of cylinder,head and sector,
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and the BIOS read the disk information from either the CMOS or from some other
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location which is un-available to us, we must use the cyl,head,sec information
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that is given in the MBR, rather than the start address in the MBR, because
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we cannot guarentee that we can corectly calculate C,H,S from the start address.
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Therefore, the C,H,S information in the MBR must be as correct for this boot
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to work as it would be for DOS to boot. For example, adaptec BIOS routines
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assume a layout of 64 heads and 32 sectors giving 1MB per ficticious cylinder.
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You must use these figures to calculate the correct values. Luckily, the DOS
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fdisk program will do all this for you if you tell it to give you a DOS
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partition, and you can change it to a 386BSD partition later. If you use
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no DOS partitioning, then the compiled in table in Boot1 will do just fine.
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If you want to do it by hand remember that BIOS counts sectors starting at 1.
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(cylinders and heads start at 0 (??))
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2/ you cannot overwrite the bottom 4k of ram until you have finished ALL
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bios calls, as BIOS uses this area as scratch memory.
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This is no longer really a problem as we no-longer support loading the kernel
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at location 0.
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3/ Since BIOS runs in REAL mode, and Boot2 runs in protected mode,
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Boot 2 switches back to real mode just before each BIOS call and then
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back to protected mode on each return. Touch this at your peril.!
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#########################################################################
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In answering the prompt from Boot2:
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you can,
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1/ leave it alone. It will boot the indicated file from the first
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partition of the first drive seen by the BIOS (C:)
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If the NAMEBLOCK option is in use, the default name might be taken from block1
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(2nd block) on that drive (the drive on which boot 1 was loaded).
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2/ enter only "-s" to boot the default to single user mode
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3/ enter only a filename (optionally with -s) to boot that kernel,
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4/ enter a whole line of the form shown in the prompt. This allows you to
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boot some other partition, possibly on the second drive, as root.
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##########################################################################
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In the case you have several drives the same type (all scsi or all IDE/ESDI),
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wd(0,a)xxx
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will boot xxx from drive 0, a partition.
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wd(1,a)xxx
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will boot xxx from drive 1, a partition.
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similarly for da and for higher drive numbers (if the BIOS supports them).
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if you have one or more wd drives and one or more scsi drives, then you
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MUST specify the BIOS drive number for booting the scsi drives:
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2:da(0,a)xxx
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will boot xxx from scsi drive 0, a partition, provided `2' is the correct
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BIOS drive number for da0.
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otherwise the following will happen:
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with wd0 and da0, you specify da1 or wd1 to indicate the 2nd drive.
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it boots the kernel correctly, then tells the kernel to use da1 as root.
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you however may not have an da1, and problems arise.
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Whether da or wd is specified to the kernel is read from the disklabel,
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so ensure that all SCSI disks have type SCSI in their disklabel or the
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boot code will assume they are ESDI or IDE. (Remember, because it is
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working through the BIOS it has ho idea what kind of disk it is.
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##########################################################################
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Installing:
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The makefile supplied has a target install which will create the
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files wdboot,bootwd ,daboot and bootda in /usr/mdec.
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BEWARE these will overwrite the existing wdboot and bootwd. (so back
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them up)
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there are also targets wd and da which wil only do one of them
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The commented out targets wd0 and da0 are examples of how to
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load the new bootblocks, however,make sure you change the
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device type and label to suit your drive if you uncomment them.
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(see 'man disklabel')
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If you already have made partitions using the old bootblocks
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these should install painlessly.
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Before you do this ensure you have a booting floppy with correct
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disktab and bootblock files on it so that if it doesn't work, you can
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re-disklabel from the floppy.
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$Id: README.386BSD,v 1.9 1997/02/22 09:30:02 peter Exp $
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