NAME
dosboot
- boot NetBSD/i386 from DOS
SYNOPSIS
dosboot
[-u]
[-c command]
[-i]
[path[ -adqsv]]
DESCRIPTION
dosboot
is an
MS-DOS
program. It is a boot loader for
NetBSD/i386
designed to permit
NetBSD
to be booted directly from
MS-DOS.
By default, it boots a file with
name
NETBSD
in the current
MS-DOS
directory.
dosboot
shares common code with the standard boot loader,
boot(8).
The recognized options are:
- -u
-
Boot from a UFS filesystem instead of an
MS-DOS
filesystem.
- -c
-
Execute
command
(see below).
- -i
-
Enter interactive mode.
dosboot
will present a prompt, allowing input of commands (see below).
path
-
Specifies the kernel file. In
MS-DOS
mode (default) a normal
MS-DOS
filename (with or without drive specification) is accepted.
In UFS mode (after
-u
or after a
mode ufs
command), a path in a
NetBSD
filesystem
is expected. By default, the file is looked up in partition 'a' of
the first harddisk. Another device or partition can be specified
by prepending a block device name in terms of
NetBSD,
followed
by a colon (see
boot(8)
and examples).
- -adqsv
-
Flags passed to the kernel, see
boot(8).
The commands accepted after the
-c
flag or in interactive mode are:
- Xo boot
-
[device]:
[filename]
[-1234abcdmqsvxz]
Boot
NetBSD.
See
boot
in
boot(8)
for full details.
- dev[ device]
-
Set the default device and partition for subsequent filesystem operations.
Without an operand, print the current setting.
This setting doesn't apply to
MS-DOS
mode.
- help
-
Print an overview about commands and arguments.
- ls[
path
] -
Print a directory listing of
path
,
containing inode number, filename and file type. This command works in
UFS mode only. path can contain a device specification.
- mode fstype
-
Switch filesystem type;
fstype
should be one of
dos
or
ufs.
- quit
-
Leave the
dosboot
program and exit to
MS-DOS.
dosboot
is also installed in the
release(7)
hierarchy, under
installation/misc/dosboot.com
.
FILES
/usr/mdec/dosboot.com
EXAMPLES
To boot a
NetBSD
kernel located on
MS-DOS
drive D, one would issue:
-
dosboot D:\NODOS\NETBSD
To boot from a
NetBSD
floppy into single user mode, type e.g.:
-
dosboot -u fd0a:netbsd -s
SEE ALSO
release(7),
boot(8),
w95boot(8)
HISTORY
The
NetBSD/i386
dosboot
command first appeared in
NetBSD1.3.
BUGS
dosboot
assumes that the processor is in real mode at startup. It does not work
well in the presence of
MS-DOS
extenders and memory managers.
dosboot
does not run directly under
Windows 95.
See
w95boot(8)
for a method of starting
NetBSD
from
Windows 95
using dosboot.
In UFS mode, files can only be loaded from devices known to the BIOS.
The device names do not necessarily comply with the names later
used by the booted
NetBSD
kernel.
In
MS-DOS
mode, no useful boot device specification is passed to
NetBSD.
It is necessary to have the root device hardwired into the kernel
configuration or to enter it manually.