From owner-freebsd-hackers Wed Oct 28 22:40:17 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id WAA11163 for freebsd-hackers-outgoing; Wed, 28 Oct 1998 22:40:17 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from spinner.netplex.com.au (spinner.netplex.com.au [202.12.86.3]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id WAA11150 for ; Wed, 28 Oct 1998 22:40:08 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from peter@netplex.com.au) Received: from spinner.netplex.com.au (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by spinner.netplex.com.au (8.9.1/8.9.1/Spinner) with ESMTP id OAA04511; Thu, 29 Oct 1998 14:38:41 +0800 (WST) (envelope-from peter@spinner.netplex.com.au) Message-Id: <199810290638.OAA04511@spinner.netplex.com.au> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0.2 2/24/98 To: Chuck Robey cc: Mike Smith , Stephen Hocking-Senior Programmer PGS Tensor Perth , hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: The new bootloader - how do you set it up? In-reply-to: Your message of "Thu, 29 Oct 1998 01:04:50 EST." Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 14:38:40 +0800 From: Peter Wemm Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Chuck Robey wrote: > On Wed, 28 Oct 1998, Mike Smith wrote: > > > > Can someone give me a pointer? I'm still running an a.out kernel on a sys tem > > > that was installed from a 3.0 snapshot CD and has been kept upto date via cvs > > > since. > > > > make world > > > > followed by > > > > disklabel -B -b /boot/boot1 -s /boot/boot2 > > > > will upgrade you completely. The visible parts of the new loader are > > in /boot/loader, and are updated by 'make world'. I'll also mention that this is jumping in at the deep end. You can shortcut and do this: echo "/boot/loader" > /boot.config as an intermediate step and test that. This will cause the existing bootblocks to load the 3rd stage boot loader by default instead of /kernel - but you are not yet committed. You still have the old boot: prompt and can load /kernel.aout explicitly. The command that Mike has given puts the new boot *blocks* on the disk which are not strictly necessary to use the /boot/loader boot loader. You can actually test the new bootloader out by explicitly typing in /boot/loader at the existing boot: prompt. > Excuse me (I'm worried about doing something inordinately dumb), just to > verify, if I do that line above, after a buildworld/installworld, and > then build a new kernel with KERNFORMAT set to elf, and install it, I > should be running ok, right? All my newly regenned lkms will keep on > humming fine, same obj files that powered the aout kernel, right? If you build an ELF kernel, you throw out the lkm's. They are a.out only, because it depends on the a.out 'ld' command. Instead you can use the src/ sys/modules stuff with kldload/kldunload and/or loading them at boot time via the /boot/loader command prompt or the /boot/loader.conf script. One of my machines has: peter@overcee[2:34pm]~src-240> cat /boot/boot.conf load kernel load nfs.ko autoboot 10 This makes the boot loader pull in the kernel and the nfs module, then autoboot in 10 seconds unless it's aborted for further adjustments. > If I get an answer here, I'll go ahead and take the next step (gulp!) If you keep an a.out kernel handy, and use the old (existing) bootblocks to activate /boot/loader, you need not commit until you know it all works to your satisfaction. I use it for all of my machines here. If you have got Really Old (tm) bootblocks (eg: 2.1.x or old 2.2.x vintage), you may like to update to the current a.out bootblocks first. The older bootblocks do not understand /boot.config Cheers, -Peter To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message