bootconf(4)

NAME

/stand/bootconf — boot device configuration table

DESCRIPTION

This file contains the address and disk layout type of the system's boot devices or lif volumes. It is used by the Software Distributor and HP-UX kernel control scripts (fileset OS-Core.KERN-RUN) to determine how and where to update the initial boot loader. Normally the kernel's checkinstall script queries the system's hardware and creates the file. In rare cases when either the system configuration cannot be automatically determined or additional and/or alternate boot devices should be automatically updated, the administrator must edit the /stand/bootconf file manually.

There is one line in the file for each boot device. Each line contains the following blank-separated fields in the order shown:

disk type

A flag indicating how the file system(s) on the disk are laid out. The flag must be one of the following:

l: Indicates that the root disk is in LVM format. If LVM mirrors are used, then each of the "mirrors" must have its own line.
p: Indicates that the root disk has Series 800-style hard partitions and that the boot volume is is section 6.
w: Indicates that the root disk is in the Release 9.X Series 700-style "whole disk" format with no partitions, but boot and swap space are reserved outside the file system.

device file

The absolute path of the device special file that accesses the physical device where the boot area is located. For LVM root disks, the device special file is the physical volume(s) returned by the vgdisplay -v command. For Series 800 hard partitions, this is the device special file that points to section six of the disk. For Series 700-style "whole disks" this is the device file that references the entire disk.

Blank lines are permitted. Any line beginning with a # is considered to be a comment.

DIAGNOSTICS

The Software Distributor log file /var/adm/sw/swagent.log contains diagnostic messages under the OS-Core.KERN-RUN fileset if the bootconf file is incorrect. Most of the messages are self-explanatory; a few warrant additional explanation:

... is either empty or improperly formatted...: If there are no other messages about bootconf, the file is probably empty. Otherwise, the file is not in the proper format, and the other messages will explain what the problem is.
device file ... does not contain a valid boot LIF ...: The specified device file does not point to a disk where there is a lif which contains the file HPUX.
... has an invalid character in the flag field...: Some character other than #, l, p, or w is in the first field of a line.
... contains contradictory boot LIF types...: As of release 10.0, the boot areas in /stand/bootconf must all be on the same type of disk layout.
... has unrecognized extra characters...: There are characters after the device file specification.

EXAMPLES

The boot area is on an LVM root disk:

# Boot Device configuration file
# This file contains information regarding the location
# of the boot LIF. It is used by the KERN-RUN fileset to
# update the boot kernel.
l /dev/dsk/c2t7d0

The system has LVM mirroring on root (the device files indicate that the system is running on a 9.0 release being prepared for updating to 10.0):

# Boot Device configuration file
# This file contains information regarding the location
# of the boot LIF. It is used by the KERN-RUN fileset to
# update the boot kernel.
l /dev/dsk/c1d0s2
l /dev/dsk/c4d0s2
l /dev/dsk/c5d0s2

The boot area is on a hard partitioned disk:

# Boot Device configuration file
# This File contains information regarding the location
# of the boot LIF. It is used by the KERN-RUN fileset to
# update the boot kernel.
p /dev/dsk/0s0

The boot area is on a whole disk layout:

# Boot Device configuration file
# This File contains information regarding the location
# of the boot LIF. It is used by the KERN-RUN fileset to
# update the boot kernel.
w /dev/dsk/6s0

WARNINGS

All of the boot devices in the file must have the same disk layout.

AUTHOR

bootconf was developed by the Hewlett-Packard Company.

FILES

/stand/bootconf

bootconf(4)

Technical documentation

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