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EFI Boot Menu

The document provides instructions for customizing the EFI boot menu on Itanium systems to make the boot options more descriptive and understandable. It describes adding custom boot entries for local disks or network boot using the EFI shell. The steps include using ioscan to find disk identifiers, creating bcfg entries to add boot options for local disks, and creating a dbprofile to enable booting from the network/Ignite server. Testing the new boot options is recommended before removing the generic entries created by setboot.

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Bill Hassell
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52 views

EFI Boot Menu

The document provides instructions for customizing the EFI boot menu on Itanium systems to make the boot options more descriptive and understandable. It describes adding custom boot entries for local disks or network boot using the EFI shell. The steps include using ioscan to find disk identifiers, creating bcfg entries to add boot options for local disks, and creating a dbprofile to enable booting from the network/Ignite server. Testing the new boot options is recommended before removing the generic entries created by setboot.

Uploaded by

Bill Hassell
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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EFI boot menu maintenance

Q: I need to customize the EFI boot menu on my Itanium systems so it is easier to understand..

A: The typical entries in the EFI menu can be a bit cryptic and non-descript. Also, the setboot command will add
primary, alternate and HA alternate entries but it can be a challenge to determine the actual hardware path.

(Skip this section if your EFI menu has the EFI Shell available)

NO EFI Shell in menu


The worst case scenario is that your EFI menu has nothing shown, that is, no boot devices and no EFI shell.
But that’s easy to fix, although you have to shutdown your OS and get into the EFI menu. Note that the color and
appearance of the menu may differ slightly, but the built-in labels will be similar:

Select Boot Option Maintenance Menu:

Select Add a Boot Option:

Select Load File [EFI Shell [Built-in]]:


Add a description for this menu item:

And save changes and exit the Boot Maintenance Menu:


Customize boot device – disk LUNs
To change the boot menu defaults for Primary and Alternate, it is recommended to add the custom entries first, test each
one and then remove the generic ones. The generic entries can be created from an Ignite recovery and or the use of
setboot. However, before you start, in HP-UX, use ioscan –kfeC disk to show the full Acpi address for the disk(s).

To create a Primary boot path, select the EFI Shell from the main menu. The EFI code searches for devices and will
display a list of those paths that could be used.

NOTE: If no fs0, fs1, etc devices are shown, you’ll need to use the map and reconnect commands (and possibly other
steps, especially for SAN-based devices) to see the filesystems):

For HP-UX, each filesystem will be labeled fs# where the # starts at 0 and increments. The boot devices will have Part1
listed in the Acpi address.

From the ioscan –kfeC disk command (in HP-UX), pick the fs# for your primary disk by just typing the ID and a
colon, as in fs0:

The fs0:\> prompt is the top of the EFI partition’s filesystem, so you can list the directory with dir:
The location of the EFI boot file for HP-UX is: \efi\hpux
Note that the EFI shell requires DOS-like backslashes (\) for directory separation.
Also, UPPERCASE and lowercase are treated the same in EFI.
Type: cd \efi\hpux and then dir to see the directory contents:

To create a new boot menu choice, use the command bcfg (Boot ConFiG) like this:

Type exit and you’ll see that the hpux.efi file has been added as the first position of the EFI Boot menu:

You can repeat the steps again to add another boot path for fs2: (or other filesystems).
The arrangement of the various boot paths can be adjusted with the Boot Configuration item, as well as removing
Customize boot device – LAN boot
To illustrate a simple lanboot setup, first make a dbprofile for the Ignite server using the EFI shell. You’ll need the
network IP addresses for the server, the netmask, gateway, the client address (or DHCP if setup correctly). Type the
command: dbprofile at the EFI shell prompt. There may an existing dbprofile, but it may not be correct. You can
remove obsolete entries with the dbprofile rm command. Then create a dbprofile like this (use help dbprofile
for details, -dn <name> is whatever ID you want to use):

To create a boot –from-network (lanboot typically used with Ignite/UX) entry,


select Boot Configuration and then Add Boot Entry:

This will display a set of boot items including the LAN port(s). Select the correct NIC card and press Enter.

Add a description for this lanboot entry:


You’ll then see the dbprofile(s) available:

Then save to NRAM:

Then return to the top level menu:

You can test the lanboot without actually restoring anything to the disk. When the loader pauses to ask about the version
of HP-UX, it will also have a return back to the EFI shell prompt:

Now you have a customized boot item for booting from the Ignite/UX server.

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