Managing Sun OpenBoot Parameters and

commands
Learn to access, display and set sun openboot parameters on a Sun servers and workstation
for input output port , boot , security , diagnostics & more.
The firmware in Sun’s boot PROM is called OpenBoot. The main features of openboot are –
initial program loading , & debugging features to assist kernel debugging. OpenBoot supports
plug-in device drivers which are written in language Forth. This plug in feature allows Sun or
any third-party vendors to develop new boot devices but without making any changes to boot
PROM.

Accessing the openboot

Openboot console can be accessed by any of the following means. Be careful not to do this
on a live system as you might end up in rebooting the server .

1. System Reboot – if auto-boot is not set to true rebooted system returns to OK> prompt
which is openboot prompt

2. Pressing the keys L1 and A or STOP A , at the same time will bring you to the
OpenBoot system. You will see the display Type b (boot), c (continued), or n (new command
mode) > Typing b boots the operating system . Typing c resumes the execution of a halted
program.

Typing n gets you to the Forth monitor, and the prompt will change to ok.

Following paragraphs gives a list of Openboot parameters & commands

General Parameters
printenv

Display all variables and current values.

setenv

Set variable to the given value.

set-default

Reset the value of variable to the factory default.

set-defaults

Reset variable values to the factory defaults.

input/output Parameters
input-device=keyboard

Input device used at power-on ( keyboard, ttya, or ttyb).

keyboard-click?=false

enable or disable , default to disable keyboard click sound

keymap:
For custom keyboards

output-device=screen

Output device used at power-on (screen, ttya, or ttyb).

ansi-terminal?=true

controls the behavior of the terminal emulator. The value false causes the terminal emulator
to stop interpreting ANSI escape sequences resulting in echoing them to the output device.

screen-#columns=80

screen-#rows=34
Columns and Rows of display screen.

Boot Parameters
auto-boot?=true

System directly boots without stopping at OK> after power on.

boot-command=boot

command passed on to auto boot if true.

boot-file:

File for booting Solaris , default is empty string .This variable contains the default boot
arguments that are used when OpenBoot is not in diagnostic mode.

boot-device=disk net

Device to boot from , multiple devices can be specified using spaces .Other devices will be
selected if first device fails.

Network Parameters
tpe-link-test?=true

Tests the UTP Ethernet port link and flashes error messages if there is no network link.

local-mac-address?=false

Use the system’s MAC address instead of network card’s MAC address .

Diagnostics Parameters
diag-switch?=false

If true system runs in diagnostic mode.

diag-file:

default diagnostic mode boot arguments file from which to boot if diag-switch? is true.

diag-device=net

booting device in diagnostic mode.

diag-level=max

Level for diagnostics information , can be min , max and minus.

There may be additional platform specific values. If set to off, POST is not called. The
default value is platform-dependent.

Diagnostics
banner

this command shows the following systems hardware information : Model, architecture,
processor, keyboard, openboot version, Serial no. Ethernet address & host id.

test floppy

test floppy disk drive

test net

test network loop backs

test scsi

test scsi interface

test-all

test for all devices with self test method

watch-clock

Show ticks of real-time clock

watch-net

Monitor network broadcast packets

watch-net-all

Monitor broadcast packets on all net interfaces

probe-scsi

Show attached SCSI devices

probe-scsi-all

Show attached SCSI devices for all host adapters- internal & external.

NVram
use-nvramrc?=false

If true , execute commands in NVRAMRC during sys- tem start-up. Defaults to false .
nvramrc
Displays contents of NVRAM

Security
security-mode=none

Firmware security level (options: none, command , or full). If set to command or full, system
will prompt for PROM security password.
Security password setting when security mode is command or full.

security-#badlogins=0

No. of bad security login .

password
Set security-password
sets the security password for openboot

SCSI
scsi-initiator-id=7

SCSI bus address of host adapter, range 0-7. Used in shared scsi storage envornment.
Bus

pcia-probe-list=1,2,3,4
pcib-probe-list=1,2,3
sbus-probe-list=2,0,1,3

Order to probe pci and sbus buses for devices.

Ports Parameters
ttyb-rts-dtr-off=false

If true, operating system does not assert rts (request-to-send) and dtr (data-transfer-ready) on
ttyb.

ttyb-ignore-cd=true

If true, operating system ignores carrier-detect on ttyb.

ttya-rts-dtr-off=false

If true, operating system does not assert rts (request-to-send) and dtr (data-transfer-ready) on
serial management port.

ttya-ignore-cd=true

If true, operating system ignores carrier-detect on ttyb.

ttyb-mode=9600,8,n,1,-

ttyb (baud rate, number of bits, parity, number of stops, handshake).

ttya-mode =9600,8,n,1,-

Serial management port (baud rate, bits, parity, stop, handshake). The serial management port
only works at the default values.

oem
oem-logo=false
oem-logo?=false

If true, uses custom OEM logo (else, uses Sun

logo , (enabled by oem-logo?
true) )

oem-banner?=false
oem-banner=false

Custom OEM banner (enabled by oem-banner?

true)
mfg-mode=off

Device Alias Parameters

Shows the properties of alias devices

ok>show-devs
ok cd /pci@1f,4000/scsi@3
ok .properties
ok ls
f00809d8 tape
f007ecdc disk
ok .speed
CPU Speed : 200.00MHz
UPA Speed : 100.00MHz
PCI Bus A : 66Mhz
PCI Bus B : 33Mhz

Useful openboot commands at OK prompt.

nvedit

Start nvramrc line editor using a temporary edit buffer

use-nvramrc? If this variable is true , Contents of nvramrc is executed automatically when set
using setenv command

nvrun

Execute the contents of nvedit edit buffer

nvstore

Save the contents of the nvedit buffer into NVRAM

nvrecover
Recover nvramrc after a set-defaults

nvalias

Edit nvramrc to include devalias called ‘name’

nvunalias

Edit nvramrc to remove devalias called ‘name’

Key Sequences
if the PROM security is on key Sequences commands are disabled. If your system has full
security enabled, you cannot apply any of the suggested commands unless you have the
password to get to the ok prompt.
Stop – Bypass POST. This command does not depend on security-mode. (Note: some
systems bypass POST as a default; in such cases, use Stop-D to start POST.)
Stop-A Abort.
Stop-D – Enter diagnostic mode (set diag-switch? to true).
Stop-F – Enter Forth on TTYA instead of probing. Use exit to continue with the initialization
sequence. Useful if hardware is broken.
Stop-N Reset NVRAM contents to default values.