# monitor(8)

    NAME
         monitor, edparams - load and start Minix, modify boot parameters

    SYNOPSIS
         /boot
         edparams device [command ...]
         boot.com virdisk [command ...]

    DESCRIPTION
         This text describes the Boot Monitor, a  boot  time  interactive  program
         designed  not  only to load and start Minix, its most important task, but
         to also provide an  interface  to  configure  Minix  and  to  boot  other
         operating systems.

         The monitor is controlled with an environment that is modeled  after  the
         Bourne  shell.  This environment is filled at startup with default values
         that depend on the machine the monitor is running on and the  environment
         settings  saved  into  the boot parameters sector (the second sector on a
         device).  When the  environment  is  loaded,  the  monitor  executes  the
         function named main, which by default starts a simple menu.

         The environment can be manipulated at boot time from the monitor  prompt,
         but  may  also  be  edited  using  edparams  on a given device.  Edparams
         simulates the monitor as much  as  it  can,  echoing  commands  it  can't
         execute  between  brackets.  It can also be used in Makefiles and scripts
         by giving it commands as arguments.

         The DOS version of the monitor, usually named boot.com under  DOS,  boots
         Minix  from  a "DOS virtual disk".  Boot.com is a simple COM program that
         interprets a DOS file as a disk, loads a Minix  kernel  from  the  active
         partition  in  the same way as the BIOS based monitor, and executes it to
         start Minix.  All the monitor commands function in the same  way,  except
         for  the boot command, it can only load Minix.  The monitor grabs as much
         free memory as it can for Minix to work in, as the memory variable shows.
         Further  details  on  how  to  run  Minix  under DOS, Windows 95, or even
         Windows NT are written down in dosminix(8).

    COMMANDS
         The monitor is best described by the commands you can  type  to  the  '>'
         prompt.  This is known as the "monitor mode".  You can enter this mode by
         hitting the Escape key.  These are the monitor commands:

         name = [device] value

              Set environment variable.
              Changes the value of name to value.  The optional word device  marks
              name  as  being  subject to device translation.  (See the section on
              devices.)  These (name, value) pairs are passed to  the  kernel  who
              uses  them  to  configure  itself.   These  variables  are passed by
              default:
              rootdev
                   This is the device used as your root device.  It is by  default
                   set   to   ram,  which  means  that  the  device  specified  by
                   ramimagedev will be loaded into the RAM disk and used as  root.
                   If you change this variable then a physical device will be used
                   as root, and the RAM disk will be uninitialized  and  have  the
                   size specified by ramsize.

              ramimagedev
                   Describes the device to use  to  initialize  the  RAM  disk  if
                   rootdev  is  set  to  ram.   It's  by default set to bootdev, a
                   special name for the device the monitor booted from.

              ramsize
                   The size of the RAM disk.  If the RAM disk is used for the root
                   file  system  then  the  root  file  system is stretched out to
                   ramsize if possible.

              processor
                   Set by default to 86, 186, 286, 386, 486, ...  depending on the
                   hardware  you  have.  You can set it to a smaller value to test
                   your kernel in a more limited environment.

              bus
                   The type of system bus, either xt, at  or  mca.   This  answers
                   basic  questions  like: "How many interrupt controllers and how
                   to initialize?"  Or: "Does the keyboard have LEDs?"

              memory
                   List of memory free for use by Minix.  It is a comma  separated
                   list  of base:size pairs denoting the byte offsets and sizes of
                   free  memory  in  hexadecimal.   800:925E0,100000:F00000  is  a
                   typical  example of about 585K starting at 2K, and 15M starting
                   at 1M.  (The first 2K are BIOS parameters and the 53K under the
                   640K boundary is the monitor itself.)  The very last number you
                   can play with if you know what you are doing.  Either  increase
                   it if the monitor has it wrong, or decrease it to test if Minix
                   still runs with less memory then normal.

              video
                   Describes capabilities of the VDU:  mda, cga, ega or vga.

              chrome
                   Either color or mono.

              c0
                   By default at (AT compatibles), bios (XT or PS/2),  or  dosfile
                   (running  under  DOS).   The  c0 variable binds a driver to the
                   first controller, i.e. the /dev/c0* devices.  The monitor  sets
                   c0  to a suitable default, so that most machines can find their
                   disk.

              console
                   If set to a hexadecimal value makes the monitor  set  the  BIOS
                   video mode to this value when the screen is cleared by echo \c,
                   usually from the leader or trailer function.  This  allows  the
                   use  of  video modes with more rows or colums than the standard
                   80x25 mode.  If you add  8000  to  the  mode  number  then  the
                   monitor  will  try  to  put  the video card into 8x8 pixel font
                   mode.  This means that a 25 row mode will change  to  50  rows.
                   Try  8007  (mono)  or 8003 (color).  More parameters may follow
                   the mode number that are of interest to the console driver, see
                   boot(8).   Warning:  Not  all  monitors  can  handle all of the
                   modes, some may  generate  frequencies  that  can  damage  your
                   monitor.  Read the manual of card and monitor for details.  The
                   8x8 font trick is perfectly safe however.

              dosfile-d0
                   Set by the DOS version of  the  monitor  to  the  name  of  the
                   virtual  disk,  i.e.  the virdisk argument as shown above.  The
                   "dosfile" driver will use this as the name of the file  to  use
                   as a disk.

              Two variables are only used by the monitor,  even  though  they  are
              passed to the kernel too:

              image
                   The name of the file containing the kernel  image,  by  default
                   minix.   If  it  refers  to a directory however then the newest
                   file inside the directory is chosen to  be  the  kernel  image.
                   The  names inside /minix/ are best set to the Minix version you
                   are using, which looks good when the monitor prints  its  name.
                   Rules for pretty printing image names:

                        A '/' or '_' is changed to a space.

                        The first letter is changed from lowercase to uppercase.

                        An 'r' if followed by a digit changes to " revision ".

              label
                   If set then only processes marked with this label or without  a
                   label are loaded from the image.

              Installboot -boot will create functions to select images and labels.
              These functions will set label and image and echo what you selected.
              The two numbers separated by a colon used as an image name tell  the
              starting sector and sector count of the image on disk.

         name() command
              Define function.
              Functions may be used to bundle a set of commands, so that  you  can
              easily  boot  Minix  with a different set of parameters then normal.
              E.g.

                   ram() { rootdev=ram; boot }

              will allow you to run Minix with  the  root  device  on  RAM  for  a
              change,  if you normally use a real device as root.  There are three
              predefined functions, leader, with default  value  an  echo  command
              that  shows  the  monitor's startup banner, main, with default value
              menu, and trailer, with default value  a  command  that  clears  the
              screen.   The  monitor  executes  leader;main at startup to show the
              banner message and a menu.  The trailer function  is  executed  just
              before  Minix is started.  These three functions can be redefined as
              you please.

         name(key) command
              Define kernel selecting function.
              The menu command uses functions like these to add  menu  entries  to
              select  a  different  kernel  from  a  boot disk.  Installboot -boot
              produces these functions when the images are labeled.  The label  AT
              would give:

                   AT(a) {label=AT;image=42:626;echo AT kernel selected;menu}

              With the menu option:

                   a       Select AT kernel

              Typing a will then execute the AT function above.

         name(key,text) command
              User defined menu option.
              This variant may be used to make any menu entry you like:

                   dos(d,Boot MS-DOS) boot d0p0

              Text may be anything, even parentheses if they match.

         name
              Call function.
              If name is a user defined function then its value  is  expanded  and
              executed  in  place  of  name.   Try  a  recursive  one  like 'rec()
              {rec;xx}' one day.  You can see the monitor run out  of  space  with
              nice messages about using chmem(1) to increase it's heap.

         boot [-opts]
         boot device
              Boot Minix or another O.S.
              Without an argument, boot will load  and  execute  the  Minix  image
              named  by the image variable.  With options the variable bootopts is
              first set to -opts before Minix is started,  and  unset  when  Minix
              returns.   With  a  device  argument,  boot loads the boot sector of
              device into memory and  jumps  to  it,  starting  another  operating
              system.   You  would  normally use partitions on the first hard disk
              for this command (d0p[0-3]), using d0 will also work  (choosing  the
              active  partition).   One  can  also boot devices on the second hard
              disk (d1, d1p[0-3]) if the bootstrap writer  did  not  hardwire  the
              disk number to disk 0.
              Some Operating Systems can only be booted from the active partition,
              if  you  use a '*', e.g.  boot *d0p2, then partition 2 is first made
              active.  You'll then need to use

                   installboot -m /dev/c0d0 /usr/mdec/jumpboot keys

              with  keys  chosen  so  that  Minix  is  booted  at  startup.   (See
              installboot(8).)

         delay [msec]
              Delay (500 msec default).
              Fast booting speed was one of the objectives when this  program  was
              created,  so  a  hard  disk  boot usually takes only a fraction of a
              second.  If you need some time (to  hit  Escape,  or  stare  at  the
              numbers) you can use delay to make the monitor pause for a specified
              number of milliseconds.

         echo word ...
              Print these words.
              Used to display messages, like the startup  banner.   Echo  normally
              prints  the  words  with spaces in between and a newline at the end.
              Echo understands special '\' escape sequences as follows:

                   \       (At the end) Don't print a newline.
                   \n      Print a newline.
                   \v      Print the monitor's version numbers.
                   \c      Clear the screen.
                   \w      Wait until a RETURN is typed
                   \\      Print a backslash.

         ls [directory]
              List contents of a directory.
              Useful when looking for kernel images.

         menu
              Menu driven startup.
              This command allows you to execute functions defined with a key.  If
              no  menu  functions  have  been  defined then menu will use this one
              hidden built-in function:

                   *(=,Start Minix) boot

              Kernel selecting functions only add new options to this set, but  if
              you define a two argument function yourself then the above one is no
              longer shown, allowing you to customize the menu  completely.   Your
              first function definition should therefore be one that starts Minix.

              Menu entries are shown in the same order as set shows them.  If  you
              don't like the order then you have to unset the functions and retype
              them in the proper order.

              If you  type  a  key  then  a  scheduled  trap  is  killed  and  the
              appropriate  menu  function  is  executed.  If you need more time to
              choose then hit the spacebar.  A key not on the menu  also  kills  a
              trap, but does nothing more.

         save
              Save environment.
              This will save all the  environment  variables  and  functions  with
              nondefault  values to the parameter sector (the second sector on the
              boot device), so they are automatically set the next time  you  boot
              the monitor.

         set
              Show environment.
              Show the current values of the environment variables and  functions.
              Default  values  are  shown  between parentheses to distinguish them
              from values that were explicitly set.

         trap msec function
              Schedule function.
              Schedules a function to be executed after msec  milliseconds.   Only
              the  monitor  mode cannot be interrupted, a scheduled trap is killed
              when the prompt is printed.  Example:

                   main() {trap 10000 boot; menu}

              This gives you 10 seconds to choose a menu option  before  Minix  is
              booted.

         unset name ...
              Unset environment variables.
              Removes the named variables and functions from the environment,  and
              sets  special  variables back to their default values.  This is also
              the only way to remove the "device name translation" property from a
              variable.

         exit
              Exit the monitor.
              Reboot the machine, exit to Minix or exit to DOS as appropriate.

         { command; ... }
              Bundle commands.
              Treat a number of commands as a single command.  Used  for  function
              definitions when a function body must contain more than one command.

    DEVICES
         The Minix kernel can't do anything with device names, so they have to  be
         translated  to device numbers before they are passed to the kernel.  This
         number is found under the st_rdev field (see stat(2)) of the file on  the
         boot  file  system.   The  monitor will look for the device file with the
         working directory set to '/dev'.  If it can't find the device  name  then
         it will translate names like 'ram', 'fd1', 'c0d1p0', 'c1d0p2s0', and even
         the obsolete 'hd2a' to what it itself thinks the numbers should be.

         The special name bootdev is translated to the name of the  device  booted
         from,  like 'fd0', or 'c0d0p1s0', and then searched for in /dev.  Bootdev
         can only be translated to a device for the first controller, and only  if
         the  disks  on  that controller are numbered without "gaps".  (The master
         device on the second IDE channel is always d2 on Minix.   The  BIOS  will
         call it disk 0, 1, or 2 depending on the number of disks on the first IDE
         channel.)

         Controller numbers are meaningless to the BIOS, so everything is  assumed
         to be attached to controller 0.  You can omit c0 for device names, and it
         is best to always omit c0 for the boot command, and  to  always  use  the
         full name for variables passed to Minix.

    EXTENSIONS
         A few extensions have been made to this program for kernel hackers.  They
         may  be triggered by setting bits in the flags word in the kernel startup
         code (the mpx file.)  The flag bits are:

         0x0001    Call kernel in 386 mode.

         0x0002    Do not make space for the bss areas of processes other then the
                   kernel.

         0x0004    Use the stack size set by chmem(1).

         0x0008    Load MM, FS, etc. into extended memory.

         0x0010    No need to patch process sizes into the kernel.

         0x0020    The kernel can return to the monitor on halt or reboot.

         0x0040    Offer generic BIOS support instead of just INT 13 (disk I/O).

         0x0080    Pass memory lists for free and used memory (processes).

         0x0100    Kernel returns monitor code  on  shutdown  in  boot  parameters
                   array.

    SEE ALSO
         controller(4), installboot(8), usage(8), boot(8), dosminix(8).

    BUGS
         The delay command will hang forever on the original IBM PC (not the XT!).
         Not that it matters, as everything takes forever on that box.

         By redefining leader one can easily hide the identity of this program.

    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
         Earl Chew, for the inspiration his ShoeLace package provided,  unless  he
         wants  to  file  a  "look  and  feel"  suit against me, then I will say I
         modeled it after the Sun ROM boot monitor, which is also true.

    AUTHOR
         Kees J. Bot (kjb@cs.vu.nl)