Compaq 164SX user manual 6Alpha SRM Console Firmware

Basic Alpha SRM Console Command Descriptions

Description

The boot command initializes the processor, loads a program image from the specified boot device, and transfers control to that image. If you do not specify a boot device in the command line, the default boot device is used. The default boot device is determined by the value of the bootdef_dev environment variable.

If you specify a list of devices, a bootstrap is attempted from each device in the order in which the device is listed. Then control passes to the first successfully booted image. In a list, always enter network devices last because network bootstraps terminate only if a fatal error occurs or if an image is successfully loaded.

The -flagsoption can pass additional information to the operating system about the boot that you are requesting. On an OpenVMS system, the -flagsoption specifies the system root number and boot flags. If you do not specify a boot flag qualifier, the default boot flag’s value specified by the boot_osflags environment variable is used.

The -protocolsoption allows selection of either the DECnet MOP or the TCP/IP BOOTP network protocols. The keywords mop and bootp are valid arguments for this option. It is possible to set the default protocol for a port by setting the environment variable ewa0_protocols or era0_protocols to the appropriate protocol.

Explicitly stating the boot flags or the boot device overrides the current default value for the current boot request, but does not change the corresponding environment variable.

See the Environment Variables for Alpha SRM Console Commands section in this chapter for more information about environment variables.

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