Entering the BOOT_ADMIN management tool isn't that awful:

Once you have the 'BOOT_ADMIN>' prompt, you can pat yourself on the back: you are in BOOT_ADMIN mode!

As it has been said before, the prompt can differ between machines. On recent ones, for instance, it looks like that:

Main Menu: Enter command or menu >
					

BOOT_ADMIN is an early boot subsystem (a Boot Console Handler, as said before) where you can execute a limited set of commands. You should find here everything you need to know about them.

All HP-PA systems have a BCH. The display can be different but the idea remains the same. That's why the following list is not complete but consistent enough. Another important thing is that for each command, you have a shorter way to invoke it. You can see the shortcut shown as uppercase letters in the command name. Full names will be used in this section.

There are two ways to deal with the graphic console. If you think about bug-reporting any trouble, you must know how to differentiate both. First, the STI console is the classical video text console, like VGA on a common PC for example. This name is due to the fact that each PA-RISC box with graphical capabilities features the Standard Text Interface (STI) which defines some standardized ways to access the video memory. The other graphic console is the well known framebuffer console (which on HP-PA uses STI in a special manner, hence the name STIfb). In this case, when booting, you will see a characteristic little penguin appearing on the top-left corner. This is the easiest way to differentiate the two graphic modes.

Obviously, if you can use graphic console, it is the easiest way to proceed. Nevertheless, you must be sure that your hardware is supported.

The serial console is a good way to obtain all console messages, including the BCH ones. It is very useful for bug reports, as its output can be easily dumped. Moreover, most of the PA-RISC servers can only be managed with serial console.

Here is the procedure to setup serial console support.

It might prove useful that you learn how to manage the console mode on a PA-RISC box. The following section will explain the various operations regarding console modes.

First things first: when should you walk this way?

At an earlier stage of the PA/Linux project, the lifimage was very useful. In fact, simply putting this file in a boot server tree allows you to boot your PA box using the boot lan instruction without any further involvement (see Section 3, “Booting from network”). The main advantage of a RAMDISK is that it unpacks its own file system in RAM, and therefore is completely independent of the machine I/O capabilities (hard drives, etc). The main drawback is that you have to build your own RAMDISK if you have memory constraints or need some customized files. Now, let's see how to obtain a lifimage with RAMDISK.

We assume you got the latest source of the PA/Linux kernel tree (to which we'll refer below as the "linux/ directory"), and that you are somewhat familiar with kernel configuration. Check Section 2, “Kernel configuration” for PA-RISC specific options. Mainly, you will need a (cross-)compiler, the linux/ directory and the PALO package installed. If you do not have it, run as root apt-get install palo. Everything can also be found at http://www.parisc-linux.org/. Go through the kernel configuration step. Then, run make palo and if PALO is installed, the following message should appear at the end of the compilation:

A generic palo config file (./palo.conf) has been created for you.
You should check it and re-run "make palo".
WARNING: the "lifimage" file is now placed in this directory by default!
					

So, edit the palo.conf file:

# This a generic Palo configuration file.  For more information about how
# it works try 'palo -?'.
#
# Most people using 'make palo' want a bootable file, usable for
# network or tape booting for example.
--init-tape=lifimage
--recoverykernel=vmlinux

########## Pick your ROOT here! ##########
# You need at least one 'root='!
#
# If you want a root ramdisk, use the next 2 lines
#   (Edit the ramdisk image name!!!!)
--ramdisk=ram-disk-image-file
--commandline=0/vmlinux HOME=/ root=/dev/ram initrd=0/ramdisk

# If you want NFS root, use the following command line (Edit the HOSTNAME!!!)
#--commandline=0/vmlinux HOME=/ root=/dev/nfs nfsroot=HOSTNAME ip=bootp

# If you have root on a disk partition, use this (Edit the partition name!!!)
#--commandline=0/vmlinux HOME=/ root=/dev/sda1
					

As you can see, the RAMDISK mode is the default. The string ram-disk-image-file should give to PALO the path of your RAMDISK file. You shouldn't change anything else to this file. After editing palo.conf, you can run make palo again. The result, a lifimage file, is waiting for you in the linux/ directory.

This method is widely used because the kernel and the file system are directly accessible on your boot server. It is also very easy to test a new kernel. You just have to generate the kernel and put it in the correct directory. When starting up, the PA box will boot the new kernel by typing boot lan in BOOT_ADMIN. Finally, it is the only way to go for systems which I/O devices are not supported (such as E class, by the writing of this document).

Enabling NFSROOT support is easier than RAMDISK. You have to edit palo.conf to specify the boot server IP address instead of the string HOSTNAME. For instance, if your server has 10.10.10.2 as its IP address, then the palo.conf file should contain:

# This a generic Palo configuration file.  For more information about how
# it works try 'palo -?'.
#
# Most people using 'make palo' want a bootable file, usable for
# network or tape booting for example.
--init-tape=lifimage
--recoverykernel=vmlinux

########## Pick your ROOT here! ##########
# You need at least one 'root='!
#
# If you want a root ramdisk, use the next 2 lines
#   (Edit the ramdisk image name!!!!)
#--ramdisk=ram-disk-image-file
#--commandline=0/vmlinux HOME=/ root=/dev/ram initrd=0/ramdisk

# If you want NFS root, use the following command line (Edit the HOSTNAME!!!)
--commandline=0/vmlinux HOME=/ root=/dev/nfs nfsroot=10.10.10.2 ip=bootp

# If you have root on a disk partition, use this (Edit the partition name!!!)
#--commandline=0/vmlinux HOME=/ root=/dev/sda1
					

If you have another IP, this field must be filled in with the correct data. You shouldn't change anything else to this file. After having properly configured palo.conf, you can go into the linux/ directory and issue a make palo. The result, a lifimage file, is as usual waiting for you in the linux/ directory.

For advanced details on NFSROOT management, take a look at Bibliography for the appropriate HOWTOs.

After installing the PALO package, a copy of the default palo.conf can be found at /usr/share/doc/palo/palo.conf. We will explain here how to customize it to fit your needs.

To setup a bootable hard disk, you have to partition it properly (that is, if you want to use it as your primary boot device). This implies that this step can only be achieved either if you have already booted a minimal system on your PA-RISC box (from CD or network, see Chapter 4, Available boot solutions), or if you intend to prepare your hard disk using another computer than the target one (which can be useful to unpack and setup a downloaded file system for a slow box, for example). The point of this HOWTO is not to teach you how to use fdisk and friends, so here are the few things you HAVE TO know:

In fact, this third usage of PALO is the most common as the default /etc/palo.conf makes it easy to configure.

bash# fdisk -l /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda: 133 heads, 62 sectors, 1017 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 8246 * 512 bytes

	 Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *         1         4     16461   f0  Linux/PA-RISC boot
/dev/sda2             5        34    123690   82  Linux swap
/dev/sda3            35       277   1001889   83  Linux
					

# The following arguments are set up for booting from /dev/sda, specifically
# mounting partition 3 as root, and using /boot/vmlinux as both the
# recovery kernel, and the default dynamically-booted kernel.
--recoverykernel=/boot/vmlinux
--init-partitioned=/dev/sda
--commandline=3/boot/vmlinux root=/dev/sda3
						

bash# fdisk -l /dev/sda

Disk /dev/sda: 133 heads, 62 sectors, 1017 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 8246 * 512 bytes

	 Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *         1        26    100461   f0  Linux/PA-RISC boot
/dev/sda2            27        36    123690   82  Linux swap
/dev/sda3            37       277    917889   83  Linux
					

[user@machine ~/dir]> palo --format-as=N --init-partitioned=target_disk
					

[user@machine ~/dir]> palo --format-as=3 --init-partitioned=/dev/sda
					

# The following arguments are set up for booting from /dev/sda, specifically
# mounting partition 3 as root and booting the vmlinux file in /dev/sda1, palo
# partition formatted as ext3.
--update-partitioned=/dev/sda --format-as=3
--commandline=1/vmlinux root=/dev/sda3
						

You have setup everything, rebooted your box, and suddenly you want to change something to the kernel boot arguments, or even boot another kernel. Damn it! How could you, now that the box is booting? Well, stay calm and relax, have a deep breath, we have the solution! Unfortunately, by the time you'll learn about it, your box will have finished booting ;o)

First, you must learn how to interact with PALO during the startup sequence. You have to enter BOOT_ADMIN, as explained in Section 1.1, “Entering the BOOT_ADMIN interface”. For some old models (up to 712 or so), you must add the ipl (or isl) string to your boot command in the BOOT_ADMIN console:

BOOT_ADMIN> boot pri ipl

On most PA-RISC boxes, the system will ask you if you want to interact with IPL anyway. You just have to answer "y" and hit Enter. You will then end up to PALO configuration display, with the list of all parameters and their corresponding numbers.

You just have to enter the number corresponding to the parameter you want to change. Hit Enter, modify it and validate the changes by hitting Enter again. The system will redisplay the new list. This modification is not permanent^[5]! If you want to add a supplementary parameter, select any one and write yours on the editing line, beginning with a space:

<#>    edit the numbered field
'b'    boot with this command line
'r'    restore command line
'l'    list dir
? 0
3/boot/vmlinux initrd=3/initrd.img
						

After validation, the list will count one more parameter. If you want to delete one, select it and erase the complete entry. You will see that the list counts one less parameter.

For more informations about PALO, please take look at the PALO README. You can find a copy of this file after having installed the palo package in /usr/share/doc/palo/README.html. This HOWTO section is mostly inspired from the above file, written by Paul Bame.

After switching your workstation on, a message on the console will tell you that the workstation is about to start automatically the boot sequence, except if you hold the Esc key to stop the auto-booting process. This is a very difficult step: you must hold the Esc key down ;o)

There are a few different ways to get access to BOOT_ADMIN (see Section 1.1, “Entering the BOOT_ADMIN interface”). If you have an old box, you will see an information message displayed, where the workstation's firmware tells you that it will start searching for all bootable devices, or that you can break this by holding down the Esc key. This is the same procedure as just mentioned, you must press the Esc key.

As usual, on some machines you might then get a menu where you should press the a key followed by Enter. You are now facing the deadly 'BOOT_ADMIN>' prompt :^). First, we will turn off auto boot process by entering the following lines:

BOOT_ADMIN> auto boot off

then hit Enter to validate. This will prevent the box from further attempts at auto-booting. In other words, you won't have to stop the boot process with Esc, it will stop on its own on subsequent reboots and wait for your instructions.

Now, you must tell the system from which boot device you would like to boot. If it's a hard drive, it must have a 'f0' partition at the beginning (see Chapter 4, Available boot solutions).

In this example, the old kernel is vmlinux and the new one is vmlinux-2.4.17-pa3. The chosen SCSI boot device is designed by: SCSI.X.0, where X is the SCSI-ID of the disk you want to boot from^[6]. e.g.:

BOOT_ADMIN> boot SCSI.5.0

At the end of the previous command line, you must add the IPL token if you have a HP 9000/7xx system to specify that you want to interact with IPL. If you have a more recent hardware, the system will ask if you want to interact with IPL anyway:

Interact with IPL (Y or N)?>

Say Y and hit Enter. Now, you can manually configure the PALO boot parameters. A new menu is displayed, where you can configure on line '0' (selected by default) the boot partition number, and the path of your boot kernel.

Here is the complete session log of a A500 serial console output, taken from PALO version 1.5. You can find in Section 1, “A500 Session dump using PALO 0.97” a session log with an older version of palo, such as the one that can be found on Debian 3.0 install disks.

Main Menu: Enter command or menu > bo scsi.5.0
Interact with IPL (Y, N, or Cancel)?> y

Booting...
Boot IO Dependent Code (IODC) revision 1


HARD Booted.
palo ipl 1.5 root@c3k Fri May 14 16:17:38 MDT 2004
Skipping extended partition 6 - beyond reach of IPL

Partition Start(MB) End(MB) Id Type
1               1      31   f0 Palo
2              32     153   83 ext2
3             154    1107   82 swap
5            1108    5875   83 ext2

PALO(F0) partition contains:
    0/vmlinux64 5279419 bytes @ 0x44000

Information: No console specified on kernel command line. This is normal.
PALO will choose the console currently used by firmware (serial).
Current command line:
2/vmlinux root=/dev/sdb5 HOME=/ console=ttyS0 TERM=vt102
 0: 2/vmlinux
 1: root=/dev/sdb5
 2: HOME=/
 3: console=ttyS0
 4: TERM=vt102

<#>    edit the numbered field
'b'    boot with this command line
'r'    restore command line
'l'    list dir
? 0
2/vmlinux-2.6-cvs initrd=2/initrd.img-cvs
Current command line:
2/vmlinux-2.6-cvs initrd=2/initrd.img-cvs root=/dev/sdb5 HOME=/ console=ttyS0 TERM=vt102
 0: 2/vmlinux-2.6-cvs
 1: initrd=2/initrd.img-cvs
 2: root=/dev/sdb5
 3: HOME=/
 4: console=ttyS0
 5: TERM=vt102

<#>    edit the numbered field
'b'    boot with this command line
'r'    restore command line
'l'    list dir
? 1

Current command line:
2/vmlinux-2.6-cvs  root=/dev/sdb5 HOME=/ console=ttyS0 TERM=vt102
 0: 2/vmlinux-2.6-cvs
 1: root=/dev/sdb5
 2: HOME=/
 3: console=ttyS0
 4: TERM=vt102

<#>    edit the numbered field
'b'    boot with this command line
'r'    restore command line
'l'    list dir
? b
					

PALO was first setup to boot the kernel file vmlinux located on the second partition of the SCSI device ID 5 LUN 0. (We know this since we have asked BOOT_ADMIN to boot on this device). But we wanted another kernel this time. We have pressed the Enter key (to validate the default choice '0') and modified the text to match our needs, here vmlinux-2.6-cvs. We have also added an initrd=2/initrd.img-cvs argument to the command line. We have validated our changes by hitting the Enter key. Finally we have decided that we didn't want this additional argument, so we have selected it and erased it. At the end it asked again which field we wanted to edit, we just typed 'b' instead of any number and hit Enter to boot our new kernel.

That's it! PALO has no more secrets for you :-)

Please note that though Section 3.3, “Using rboot” deals with RBOOT only, two different implementations of the BOOTP protocol are detailed in Section 3.4, “Using dhcp/tftp” and Section 3.5, “Using bootp/tftp”. We detail these two because we can, but if you need to use the BOOTP protocol, you will have to choose one.

We will see here how to setup a DHCP server to handle BOOTP requests (since PA-RISC box use BOOTP, unless they need RBOOT, as mentioned above).

[user@machine ~/dir]> apt-get install dhcp tftpd
					

Here we are. We assume that you've done everything outlined above, your network boot server is on the same physical subnet as your PA-RISC machine, you've got a bootable PA/Linux kernel lifimage on your boot server, and you're willing to give it a try. If everything is ready (including you!), the following procedure will introduce you to the joy of network booting your PA box into Linux.

Since Debian was the first distribution to support PA-RISC architecture, if you want to use the Super Cow powers, you need to have some basic knowledge about the Debian packaging system. We will explain here how to quickly get a gcc compiler ready on your PA-RISC box. If you are not using Debian, well, we're afraid we can't do much for you: you will have to transpose what is said below to your distribution. We will assume you know how to use

If you are using your own PA-RISC box, you only need the good old GCC compiler. You can install the required tools to build a kernel by issuing:

[user@machine ~/dir]> apt-get install build-essential libncurses5-dev
				

Essentially, this will install everything you need to build a kernel (and even a bit more). This boils down to binutils, gcc, libc-dev, make, fileutils and libncurses5-dev.

When this is done, you can proceed to the kernel settings.

In this kernel build method, everything depends on the architecture of your building machine. If you want to compile your own toolchain, there is a slightly out-of-date HOWTO ([O'Donell 2002]). Otherwise, we assume you can either find a cross-compiler package for your build host, or make one by yourself.

[user@machine ~/dir]> apt-get install gcc-3.3-hppa64 binutils-hppa64
					

As you can see, menus specifically concerned by PA-RISC hardware are not that numerous, but there are lots of dependencies between them. Now, you must configure the kernel accordingly to what you plan to use this box for. Here is a list of some menus you should be going through to configure additional functionalities you might want:

When you're done with it, save your kernel configuration. Everything is written in the .config file. You should back it up because make distclean will remove it. At this stage, you can do make dep vmlinux and if everything goes fine, you will have a new kernel in a couple of minutes.

Here follows brief information about specific hardware configurations.

As you can see, menus specifically concerned by PA-RISC hardware are not that numerous, and everything else is much generic by now. Still, you must configure the kernel accordingly to what you plan to use this box for and what features you want supported. Many other drivers are found in their respective submenus, such as SCSI, with the Zalon, Lasi SCSI and SYM2 drivers being there, or the Framebuffer devices (STI) in the Graphics Support menu, or the sound drivers (Harmony and AD1889) in the Sound menu. Help is often provided, feel free to look at it.