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IRIX: system: IRIX: Setting The PROM environment (last edit: 2003-01-05)
troubleshooting on boot
after the reinstall of an sgi o2
on o2 after installin a new irix version from
scratch or upgrading it can happens
a apparently strange thing..
like that
gettin' amber light
gettin' message unable to open
"=pci[0]scsi[0]disk[1]rdisk[0]partition[0]
and gettin' error messages
in that case you must try
resetenv
at the prom prompt (option 5.)
more from man setenv..............
1.3 Environment Variables
This section describes special procedures to customize
certain aspects of the PROM Monitor. Many aspects of the
system startup process can be customized by changing PROM
environment variables. Some of these PROM environment
variables are stored in nonvolatile memory, which retains
its value after the system is powered off. Some common
customizations are described in the sections below. More
information is provided in the prom(1M) manual page.
Environment variables can be changed with the setenv command
in the PROM Command Monitor. To get to the PROM Command
Monitor, first choose ``Stop for System Maintenance'' when
the system is starting in order to get to the System
Maintenance Menu, then choose ``Enter Command Monitor'' by
either clicking on it with the mouse or pressing 5.
1.3.1 Selecting the Console Device Servers and
workstations can be configured to use a terminal connected
to serial port #1 as their console. If a system has a
graphics board, the PROM Monitor uses it as the console if
the console environment variable is set to ``g''; if
graphics aren't installed or the console variable is set to
``d'', the system uses the serial port as the system
console.
To force the console to be the serial port, set the console
variable to ``d'' using the setenv command:
setenv console d
To change the console back to the graphics screen, set the
console variable to ``g'':
setenv console g
Typing init reinitializes the system and forces it to switch
to the selected console device.
1.3.2 Booting From an Alternate Disk There are three
environment variables in the PROM for specifying the device
to boot from. The SystemPartition variable specifies the
location of the device volume header. Its default value is
``dksc(0,1,8),'' which specifies SCSI controller 0, disk 1,
partition 8. The OSLoadPartition variable specifies the
device from which the IRIX kernel should be loaded. The
default value for the OSLoadPartition variable is
``dksc(0,1,0),'' which tells the PROM to look for the kernel
in partition 0 on disk 1 of SCSI controller 0. By
convention, the volume header is always partition 8 on a
disk, and the kernel is always located in partition 0.
The root variable is the third variable that needs to be
changed when selecting a different boot device. The root
variable tells IRIX the name of the device that holds the
root filesystem. Because it is used by IRIX rather than the
PROM, its format is different from that of the
OSLoadPartition and SystemPartition variables. The default
value of root is ``dks0d1s0,'' which specifies that the root
filesystem is stored on partition 0 of disk 1 on SCSI
controller 0.
To boot from disk number two on controller 0, type:
setenv SystemPartition dksc(0,2,8)
setenv OSLoadPartition dksc(0,2,0)
setenv root dks0d2s0
To boot from disk number one on controller 1, type:
setenv SystemPartition dksc(1,1,8)
setenv OSLoadPartition dksc(1,1,0)
setenv root dks1d1s0
Finally, to boot from disk number 3 on controller 2, type:
setenv SystemPartition dksc(2,3,8)
setenv OSLoadPartition dksc(2,3,0)
setenv root dks2d3s0
1.3.3 Starting the System Automatically By default, the
PROM starts the operating system after waiting a brief
period of time each time the system is powered on. If you
do not click on the ``Stop for System Maintenance'' button,
or press the key, the system attempts to start the
operating system by loading it into memory and executing it.
The environment variable autoload can be set to ``yes'' to
enable this feature, or to ``no'' (the default) to inhibit
it. If automatic startup is disabled, the PROM displays the
System Maintenance Menu after running power-on diagnostics.
1.3.4 Booting With Non-Terminal Hardware Failures By
default, the PROM stops and prints a warning message if it
discovers that a component has failed in some manner. In
many cases, however, the failure of a single processor or
bank of memory isn't enough to keep the system from coming
up. If your CHALLENGE/Onyx system is configured with eight
processors, losing one of them is non-fatal. To prevent
such non-fatal hardware problems from stopping the system in
the PROM, you can set the nonstop variable to 1:
setenv nonstop 1
To ensure that the system displays a notification message in
the event of any hardware failures, set nonstop to 0:
setenv nonstop 0
1.3.5 Rebooting Immediately After Crashes Normally, the
system will pause waiting for user intervention after a
system crash. In environments which demand high
availability such a pause may be undesirable. To force the
system to reboot immediately after a panic, set the rebound
environment variable to ``y'' using the PROM's setenv
command:
setenv rebound y
To return to the default behavior of waiting for user
intervention, set rebound to 'n'.
1.3.6 Restoring Defaults The PROM environment variables
can be reset to their factory defaults by issuing the
resetenv command from the PROM Command Monitor. Because
resetenv also resets the netaddr environment variable, you
may wish to note the system's IP address before using this
command.
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