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authorJacob McDonnell <jacob@jacobmcdonnell.com>2026-04-26 16:38:00 -0400
committerJacob McDonnell <jacob@jacobmcdonnell.com>2026-04-26 16:38:00 -0400
commit97d5c458cfa039d857301e1ca7d5af3beb37131d (patch)
treeb460cd850d0537eb71806ba30358840377b27688 /static/plan9-4e/man8/booting.8
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+.TH BOOTING 8
+.SH NAME
+booting \- bootstrapping procedures
+.SH SYNOPSIS
+none
+.SH DESCRIPTION
+This manual page collects the incantations required to bootstrap Plan 9 machines.
+Some of the information here is specific to the installation at Bell Labs;
+some is generic.
+.PP
+If a CPU server is up, BOOTP/DHCP and TFTP will run from there;
+if not, the necessary files and services must be available on a separate machine,
+such as a Unix system, to use these protocols for bootstrapping.
+.PP
+Be sure to read
+.IR boot (8)
+to understand what happens after the kernel is loaded.
+.SS Terminals
+To bootstrap a diskless terminal or a CPU server, a file server must be running.
+PCs can boot from a floppy disk or any FAT16 partition.
+On all the terminals, typing two control-T's followed by a lower-case
+.B r
+reboots the machine;
+other methods of rebooting are mentioned for some machines.
+.SS PCs
+To boot a PC, it is necessary to get
+.B /386/9load
+loaded into memory.
+There are many ways to do this. A Plan 9 boot floppy prepared by
+.B format
+(see
+.IR prep (8))
+will load
+.B 9load
+when the PC is reset or powered on.
+Other methods are described in
+.IR 9load (8).
+.B 9load
+then locates and loads a Plan 9 kernel, using configuration information
+from the file
+.B plan9.ini
+stored in the
+.B 9fat
+configuration partition or on a DOS file system.
+See
+.IR 9load (8)
+for details.
+.PP
+Once the kernel is booted, it behaves like the others.
+See
+.IR boot (8)
+for details.
+.SS Alpha PCs
+Alpha PCs must be booted via TFTP using the SRM console.
+If the system has ARC firmware instead, SRM may be downloaded from
+.IP
+.EX
+http://www.compaq.com/
+.EE
+.PP
+You must configure the SRM firmware to load the file
+.BR /alpha/bootalphapc .
+The following commands may be used (replace
+.B ewa0
+with the name of your ethernet device, if different):
+.IP
+.EX
+set boot_reset ON
+set boot_file /alpha/bootalphapc
+set bootdef_dev ewa0
+set ewa0_inet_init bootp
+set ewa0_protocols BOOTP
+.EE
+.PP
+This secondary bootstrap program will first load the file
+.BR /alpha/conf/ <IP-address>
+(substituting the IP address of the system as obtained via bootp).
+This file is expected to be in
+.IR plan9.ini (8)
+format (the file
+.B /alpha/conf/10.0.0.2
+may be used as a template).
+It then loads the kernel via tftp, using the value of
+.B bootfile
+to tell it which file to load; this should be
+.B /alpha/9apc
+for terminals.
+.SS CPU Servers
+The Plan 9 CPU servers are multi-user, so they do not request a user name
+when booting.
+On the CPU servers, typing a control-P on the console reboots the machine.
+.SS PC CPU Server
+Proceed as for the PC terminal, but load
+.B /386/9pccpu
+or
+.BR /386/9pccpudisk .
+.SS Alpha PC CPU Server
+Proceed as for the Alpha PC terminal, but use
+.B /alpha/9apccpu
+as the value of
+.BR bootfile .
+.SS SGI Challenge multiprocessor CPU Server
+The Challenge ROM monitor can boot from the Ethernet.
+To boot from the Ethernet, type
+.IP
+.EX
+.B bootp()/mips/9ch
+.EE
+.PP
+or use the ROM command
+.B setenv
+to set the variable
+.B bootfile
+to that same string and type
+.BR boot .
+To load a different file, tell
+.B bootp
+which file to load,
+and to force the download to come from a particular system,
+.BR bootp()system:file .
+Any arguments after
+.B bootp()file
+are passed to
+.BR /boot .
+If you are running a Plan 9
+.SM BOOTP
+server (see
+.IR dhcpd (8)),
+the file name can be omitted and the
+file specified by the
+.B bootf
+parameter for the machine in
+.BR /lib/ndb
+will be downloaded by default.
+.PP
+Once the kernel is loaded,
+it prompts for the Ethernet
+protocol to use to reach the root file server; request the default.
+.PP
+.SS File servers
+The CPU servers and terminals run essentially the same program, but
+the Plan 9 file servers run a distinct system.
+The file servers accept only the commands described in
+.IR fs (8)
+on their consoles.
+.SS PC File Server
+Boot the PC file server like a regular PC, loading the appropriate file system kernel.
+.SH "SEE ALSO"
+.IR 9load (8),
+.IR boot (8),
+.IR fs (8),
+.IR init (8),
+.IR plan9.ini (8)
+.SH SOURCE
+Sources for the various boot programs are under
+.BR /sys/src/boot .
+.SH BUGS
+The file server should be able to boot from its own disk.