The following sections describe how to set up automatic booting,
set and show the default boot device, modify boot parameters, and
create a bootable OpenVMS Alpha system disk using the Writeboot
Setting the System
for Automatic Booting
Alpha computers can boot automatically from a designated boot
device. When you installed the OpenVMS Alpha operating system,
you designated the system disk as the default boot device. “Setting and Showing
Boot Devices” describes how
to change the default boot device.
Alpha computers can boot automatically from the default boot
device under the following conditions:
When you first turn on system power
When system power comes on after a power failure
After you shut down the system (if you enter Y when
the shutdown procedure asks whether an automatic reboot should be
After a bugcheck or system crash
If the system halts under program control
Set the system to boot automatically by performing one of
the following steps:
|IF ...||THEN GO TO...|
Alpha operating system is running
Alpha operating system is not running
Log in to the SYSTEM account.
Enter the following command and press Enter:
Answer the questions displayed by the system. When
the procedure asks whether an automatic reboot should be performed,
press Enter for NO. When the procedure is finished, it displays the following
Halt the system by pressing either Ctrl/P or the Halt button. (See “Halting the System” for more information about how to halt your Alpha computer.)
If you have an SMP system with multiple CPUs, enter
the following command at the console prompt (>>>)
to stop the other CPUs:
Enter the following command to show whether the system
has been set to boot automatically:
The system displays one of the following:
Enter the SET AUTO_ACTION command if you want to change
the automatic booting behavior. HP recommends that AUTO_ACTION
be set to RESTART. This forces the system to attempt to write a
crash dump to the dump file, and after the dump write completes,
the system tries to reboot itself automatically. For example, the
following command sets the system to reboot automatically:
>>> SET AUTO_ACTION RESTART
After you set this variable, HP recommends that you
set the boot device and operating system flags as well, using the
SET BOOTDEF_DEV and SET BOOT_OSFLAGS commands described in the following
Setting Boot Flag
By default, when you boot the operating system, the flags
parameter is set to 0. If you want to define parameters to enable
specific functions during the booting process, use the SET BOOT_OSFLAGS
The following is a list of values you can specify with the
SET BOOT_OSFLAGS command.
|NOTE: HP recommends that you keep
the BOOT_OSFLAGS parameter at the default value 0 unless you have
a specific need to change it (for example, to troubleshoot a system
|Hexadecimal Value||System Response|
a conversational boot (the system displays the SYSBOOT> prompt).
to a running system.
boot procedure at the initial system breakpoint.
a diagnostic bootstrap.
boot procedure at the bootstrap breakpoints.
from secondary bootstrap image.
for the name of the secondary bootstrap file.
system before the secondary bootstrap.
read data error pages as bad.
extensive, detailed debug messages during the boot process.
selected user-oriented messages during the boot process.
The following examples show how to use the SET BOOT_OSFLAGS
The following command specifies the
root directory as 0 and the parameter as 1, which sets the system
to perform a conversational boot from the [SYS0] directory when
you enter the BOOT command:
The following command specifies the root directory
as 1 and the parameter as 0, which sets the system (for example,
the second host in a two-system DSSI OpenVMS Cluster configuration)
to boot from the [SYS1] directory (instead of [SYS0]) when you enter
the BOOT command:
The following example specifies the root directory
as 0 and the parameters as 1, 2, 4, and 20000 (for a total hexadecimal
value of 20007). As a result, when you enter the BOOT command,
the system performs a conversational boot from the [SYS0] directory
with XDELTA, stops at the initial system breakpoint, and displays
relevant user messages.
>>> SET BOOT_OSFLAGS 0,20007
To display the parameters you have just set, use the SHOW
BOOT_OSFLAGS command. For example:
>>> SHOW BOOT_OSFLAGS
BOOT_OSFLAGS = 0,20007
Now that the boot parameters have been set, to boot the system
using the parameters you have specified, simply type BOOT or B at
the prompt (>>>).
Writing a New Boot
The boot block is block 0 of the system disk. It contains
the size and location of the primary bootstrap image (APB.EXE) used
to boot the system. If you suspect that the boot block on your
system disk is invalid, you can use the Writeboot utility (WRITEBOOT.EXE)
to write a new boot block.
The Writeboot utility is copied to your system disk during
the installation procedure. It enables you to create a bootable
OpenVMS Alpha system disk from one that was originally created by
one of the following methods:
A nonimage backup of an Alpha system
disk (possibly corrupting the boot block)
A nonimage restore of an Alpha system disk from
an image save set
The Writeboot utility also enables you to rewrite the boot
block of an OpenVMS Alpha system disk to point to a new version
of the OpenVMS Alpha primary bootstrap file (APB.EXE) that you have
previously copied to the disk. (Note that the file must be contiguous.)
|NOTE: The file must be contiguous and movefile operations on the
file must be disabled. If the file is not contiguous, use the
DCL command COPY/CONTIGUOUS (or similar) to re-create a contiguous
version of the file. To disable movefile operations, use the DCL
command SET FILE/NOMOVE. This prevents bootstrap failures that
could result from the normal and expected operations of disk defragmentation
To start the Writeboot utility, enter the following command:
$ RUN SYS$SYSTEM:WRITEBOOT
The utility prompts you as follows:
Update VAX portion of boot block (default is Y):
Update Alpha portion of boot block (default is Y):
Answer N (NO) to the VAX prompt. If you answer Y (YES) to
update the Alpha boot block, the utility prompts you for the Alpha
Specify device-name:[VMS$COMMON.SYSEXE]APB.EXE in response to this prompt,
where device-name indicates the device on which the system disk is mounted.
The utility writes the specified information to the boot block
on the system disk. For more information, see the HP OpenVMS System Manager's Manual, Volume 1: Essentials.