xxboot8

Overview

This small program, residing in the reserved sectors at the beginning of the root file system of the system, is responsible for loading the second-stage boot(8) program (typically /boot), which in turn will load the kernel.

When xxboot receives control from the master boot record (MBR), it will print a banner:

OpenBSD MBR

followed by a little twiddler while reading the second-stage boot.

xxboot must be installed by installboot(8).

Files

/usr/mdec/mbr

Master Boot Record block

/usr/mdec/xxboot

primary bootstrap

/boot

secondary bootstrap

/bsd

OpenBSD kernel

/bsd.rd

OpenBSD kernel for installation/recovery

Diagnostics

xxboot will print messages indicating errors as returned from the firmware.