Once you have got an IP number you should communicate this to me to update a database and prepare the VME development system to make your card boot from it.

Check the settings of your card

Here we go... It's first boot !

But this is probabely not what you want

A module disk can do it

The next sections describe what files should be on the module disk, and how you can create such a module disk.

You are advised to create all these files in a seperate directory on the VME development system. We will go through them one by one:

password
This file contains username/password combinations and some additional paramaters for each user. This file is used by all processes that allow you to log in to your system (like telnet, ftp, tsmon). Leaving the password blank with a username, will allow you to log in with that username without being asked for a password. Leaving both username and password blank, will alow you to log in simply by hitting <Return> when prompted for a username. In case the password file is found, tsmon is launched (this is the thing that displays the line 1 devices online) at the end of the boot. Hit <Return> to be able to log in. If the password file is not present only the shell is launced at the end of the boot, and you will not be able to log in to your system. You can base your password file on this example (See also OS-9 manual Using Professional OS-9 page 5-24).

.login
This file contains a list of commands executed each time a user logs in (thus not at boot time !). Ususally this is used to set a few environment variables and launch a decent shell. The example (in the last line) launches the tsf shell, the Delphi standard shell that is also used on the fips (See also OS-9 manual Using Professional OS-9 page 5-21).

startup
This file contains a list of commands that are executed once at the end of the boot, just before the shell or tsmon is launched. Networking programs like telnetd and ftpd, that allow you to telnet or ftp into the system are not launched automatically, this typically something you should do in this startup file. Here you can also mount any NFS disks if you need (Note that /dd is now used for the local ram disk, so you have to use another name when mounting a disk, eg. /h0). This file is also the place to put any command to launch your particular applications that you always want to have running. You can base your copy of the startup file on this example (See also OS-9 manual Using Professional OS-9 page 8-17).

motd
Motd is a textfile containing a header (welcome text) that is printed each time you log in to the system. This message could contain a one or two line description on the functionality of the system. This file is not essential.

After you have created all these files it is time to create a module disk. The following section describes how.

• Create a file copyfile (can have any name you like) with a (list of) command(s) to copy all you want onto the module disk (/md0). These can be copy commands like:
  copy -r startup /md0/startup
copy -r password /md0/sys/password
......


  Note that by default the directories /md0/sys and /md0/cmds are created. Creation of any other directories should be done explicitly in the file copyfile. See also this example of such a file. The (system) files errmsg and termcap are by default copied to /md0/sys.

  Note also that the size of the disk is only 32K, If you want to transfer OS-9 modules (loadable files) at boot time, it is better to add them to the user bootfile, this is described later, the module disk should only be used for text files (non-loadable files).

• Create the module disk with the following command:
  $ create_mdisk -r copyfile
this will create a file mdisk_0 in the current directory. The option -r will overwrite mdisk_0 if it already existed (analog to the -r option on the copy command). Use the option -? to see all options on the command.

  Note that for the command to work, the path /dd/delphi/cmds should be in your PATH environment variable.

To see the contents of the created module disk use the command:
$ dir_mdisk
this will give a recursive listing of your module disk.

To see the contents of a file on the created module disk use the command:
$ list_mdisk filename
this will list the file filename, the path should be relative to the module disk (eg.: .login or sys/password etc.).

After having created the file with the module disk mdisk_0 the last step is to create a user bootfile as described in the next section.

Now to create a user bootfile, issue the following commands (or put them in a makefile):
$ merge -z=bootlist >-/dd/tftpboot/os9.node
$ attr /dd/tftpboot/os9.node -pr -a
where:
bootlist is the name of a file listing any additional modules to be loaded at boot time (the file you just created).
node is the node name of your system, with any - replaced by _ (eg. acdel-rifhva becomes acdel_rifhva).

Let's do it again... It's second boot

Thus by customizing the files mentioned above to your needs, it should be rather easy to make your Actis card do what you want at boot time. If you have any questions or requests, don't hesitate to contact me. The following sections cover more specialized topics, a more detailed description on what exactly happens at boot time and instructions on what files you need to make the procedure work on another boot server.

Debugging the boot

• After the boot you have access to the ram disk, in this case you can look at the file /dd/.bootlog (be sure you are super user), this file will list what happened during the boot.
• The boot crashes, so you cannot access the log file. In this case the same information can be displayed on the terminal while booting, using a special bootfile. To prepare such a special bootfile issue the following commands:
  $ copy -r /dd/tftpboot/os9boot /dd/tftpboot/os9boot.node
$ merge /dd/delphi/sbc342/boot/sysgo_isp_deb >+/dd/tftpboot/os9boot.node
$ attr /dd/tftpboot/os9boot.node -pr -a
where:
  node is the node name of the Actis card (again with - replaced by _).
• If you suspect a problem in the execution of your startup file, it might be useful to turn on the trace option: add -t as first line to you startup file. Each line of the startup file will now be echoed before execution.