Wiki code for Flag day: new boot sparc - PSARC 2006/525

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1: == Flag day: new boot sparc - PSARC 2006/525
2: 
3: {{{
4: 
5: Date: Fri, 07 Dec 2007 16:17:39 -0800
6: From: Jan Setje-Eilers <setje at jurassic dot eng dot sun dot com>
7: To: on-all at eng dot sun dot com, onnv-gate at onnv dot eng dot sun dot com
8: Subject: Flag day: new boot sparc - PSARC 2006/525
9: 
10: This Flag-day message is required reading for everyone who develops
11: on SPARC or maintains a SPARC build machine.
12: 
13: The putback of:
14: 
15: 	6521412 PSARC 2006/525: new boot sparc
16: 
17: Brings dboot, ramdisk-based booting and the ramdisk miniroot to SPARC.
18: 
19: The dboot and ramdisk-based booting are enabling technologies for zfs
20: boot, fix the boot scratch memory issue once and for all, and with
21: modern HBAs boot significantly faster. The ramdisk miniroot
22: unifies the miniroot for CD, DVD, net and wanboot installs. It saves
23: ~70Mb on the first CD.
24: 
25: It does not (and never intended to) deliver GRUB on SPARC. OBP continues
26: to be used to select boot options, the boot device and file to boot.
27: 
28: Information for all developers
29: ~------------------------------
30: 
31: BFU has been updated to support new boot sparc. You must use an
32: updated BFU from the gate as of this putback. BFU’ing backwards from
33: these bits works for us, but is subject to the usual caveat that doing
34: so is never supported.
35: 
36: Cap-Eye Install should not be used across this putback. Users do so at
37: their own risk. Use of Cap-Eye Install after a BFU or upgrade will
38: work as it does on x86 today. Install will now include the Installed
39: kernel in filelist.ramdisk in /etc/boot/solaris so that the Installed
40: kernel is included in the boot_archive.
41: 
42: Information for build machine maintainers
43: ~-----------------------------------------
44: 
45: BFU constructs a new generic.boot cpio archive on sparc.  You must
46: either build with the ’t’ flag or update SUNWonbld (specifically mkbfu)
47: after the nightly is built to be able to create this archive.  A build
48: of a new boot sparc workspace with an older mkbfu will result in cpio
49: archives which do not boot.
50: 
51: Additional information
52: ~----------------------
53: 
54: The stand-alone failsafe can be booted by running
55: 
56: 	boot -F failsafe
57: 
58: at the ok prompt. The failsafe runs entirely out of the ram-based
59: disk image and can be used to repair an inconsistent boot-archive
60: or some other damage.
61: 
62: BFU has been updated to install a known working failsafe archive
63: on the first BFU of a set of new boot sparc archives.
64: 
65: The ramdisk based miniroot is packed and unpacked with
66: root_archive(1m). Only a new-boot sparc system can pack or unpack the
67: compressed version of the miniroot. If pack is run on a pre new-boot
68: sparc system, it will produce an uncompressed image which will work as
69: long as the systems loading it have sufficient memory to load and run
70: from the larger ramdisk.
71: 
72: Boot performance: New boot sparc changes the workload performed during
73: boot. Rather than reading bits and pieces during boot, a single larger
74: boot_archive is loaded and then booted. Some HBA firmware does a better
75: job of loading a large chunk of data (the boot_archive) from disk
76: than others. In short, mpt and fas are now faster, qlc is neutral, glm
77: and isp are slower and ide depends on the drive speed.
78: 
79: Any bugs should be filed under solaris/kernel/boot.
80: 
81: We can be contacted via nb-sparc at sun dot com .
82: 
83: - The new-boot SPARC team
84: 
85: }}}
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