7–6 Alpha 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 tran sf ers 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 li sted. Then control passes
to the first successfully booted image. In a list, always enter network
devices last because network bootstraps terminate only if a fata l erro r
occurs or if an image is successfully loaded.
The -flags option can pass additional information to the operating
system about the boot that you are requesting. On an OpenVMS
system, the -flags option specifies the system root number and
boot flags. If you do not specify a boot flag qualifier, the defaul t boot
flag’s value specified by the boot_osflags environment variable is
used.
The -protocols option 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 possi ble 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 c hange
the corresponding environment variable.
See the Environment Variables for Alpha SRM Console Commands
section in this chapter for more information about environment
variables.