DYNIX/ptx V4.4.10 and Layered Products Software Installation Release Notes: Boot the Operating System and Specify Devices


Appendix A
Boot the Operating System and Specify Devices


Requirements for Booting

The following information is needed to boot the system under normal conditions:

When you install DYNIX/ptx V4.4, a boot-time configuration file will be created for you. It will specify the location of both the primary swap device and the device naming database.

Also, the permanent and temporary bootstrings will be set to point to the root device on which the V4.4 software was installed.

To boot the system from run level 0, click the Boot button on SCI-based systems, or type bh at the monitor prompt on CSM-based systems.

For detailed information about booting the system, refer to the DYNIX/ptx System Administration Guide. Also review the boot(4), physpath(8), and unix(8) man pages.


Physical Path Specifiers

A physical path specifier indicates the physical hardware path to a local SCSI device. The path can be derived by tracing the cabling from the device to the main system bus. The dumpconf -b device command can also be used on a system running V4.4 to determine the physical path specifier for a particular device.

Physical path specifiers are used to locate devices at boot time before the device naming database is available. When booting from the CD-ROM to install software, you must specify a physical path for both the CD-ROM device and the swap device.

A physical path specifier consists of a string of tokens that represent links in the physical path. (The tokens used depend on the system architecture.) Each token can be followed by optional arguments that are enclosed in parentheses. The parentheses must be entered even if no arguments are specified, such as quad(). Individual token arguments must be separated by commas; the arguments default to zero if they are not specified.


Physical Path Specifiers for IBM xSeries 430 and NUMA-Q 2000 Systems

Only local SCSI devices connected to a PCI controller can be specified with physical paths. To specify a partition on a SCSI disk, use this syntax:

quad(quad_number)pci(slot,function)scsi(target,lun)disk(slice,offset,length)

The components of the physical path are as follows:

The following example specifies the second partition on a disk located at SCSI target ID 4, LUN 0, on PCI slot 0 of Quad 0:

quad(0)pci(0,0)scsi(4,0)disk(2,0)

All arguments having a value of zero can be eliminated; however, for readability we suggest that you retain the first zero:

quad(0)pci(0)scsi(4)disk(2)

Physical Path Specifiers for Symmetry Systems

Only local SCSI devices connected to the HPSE portion of the CSM can be specified with physical paths. To specify a partition on a SCSI disk, use this syntax:

slic(slic_ID,bus_number)scsi(target,lun)disk(slice,offset,length)

The components of the physical path are as follows:

The following example specifies the second partition on a disk located at SCSI target ID 5, lun 0, on a CSM (HPSE controller) at slic ID 2:

slic(2)scsi(5,0)disk(2,0)

The zeros can be eliminated, allowing this specification to be abbreviated as follows:

slic(2)scsi(5)disk(2)

Boot-Time Configuration File

The boot-time configuration file, /etc/system/boot, must reside in the root filesystem and specifies the location of the primary swap partition and the device naming database. When you install V4.4, it will be created automatically for you. Following is an example of the file:

#
# boot-time configuration file
#
set primaryswap = sd0s1
set ndb = /etc/system/ndb


Specify Devices From the CSM Monitor

Physical path specifiers cannot be used to specify devices when performing the following activities from Level-B of the monitor:

When performing these actions, use the following syntax to specify devices:

dd(u,p)filename
dd
A two-character name that specifies the type of the device.
u
The unit number. A decimal or hex number that identifies the location of the device.
p
A number that specifies the partition containing the file of interest.
filename
The path from the root directory of the filesystem in the specified partition to the file of interest.

SCSI Disk Device (qd)

For the qd device, the unit number u is specified in hex as 0xBBbbSSLL. The variables have the following meanings:

BB
QCIC board number. On CSM-based systems, the HPSE board is always referred to as qcic 0.
bb
SCSI channel (or bus) number on board BB.
SS
SCSI ID of the device.
LL
LUN. This value is always zero.

For example, the device at SCSI ID 3 on channel 1 of the first QCIC board is identified as 0x00010300. You can omit any leading zeros; the previous value can be expressed as 0x10300.

As another example, the value 0x200 refers to the device located on channel 0, SCSI ID 2, on the CSM board.


CD-ROM Device (qc)

The stand-alone boot program and the CSM firmware consider the CD-ROM device to be a qc device; the name specifies that the device is located on a QCIC channel. (The operating system considers the CD-ROM to be a cd device.)

When referring to the qc device, calculate u in the same manner as the qd device. For example, if the qc device is at SCSI ID 5, use qc(0x500,0)stand/CCSformat to boot the CCSformat program on the base operating system CD-ROM.