PXEGRUB & OpenSolaris Legacy

pxegrub

PXEGRUB & OpenSolaris Legacy

OpenSolaris traditionally was netbooted using PXEGRUB. The procedure was to copy the boot framework from the OpenSolaris ISO to /tftpboot and symlink /tftpboot/I86PC.Solaris_11-XXX/grub/pxegrub to /tftpboot/nbp.SUNW.i86pc. The grub menu would be found in /tftboot/boot/grub/menu.lst.

Booting SmartOS using PXEGRUB is now obsolete. You certainly can do it if you wish, particularly for compatibility with existing deployments, but we strongly recommend using iPXE for all new deployments.

For those who insist on using GRUB, here is an example GRUB menu.lst:

default=0
timeout=5

title SmartOS Live 64-bit
kernel /smartos/20121004T212912Z/platform/i86pc/kernel/amd64/unix
module /smartos/20121004T212912Z/platform/i86pc/amd64/boot_archive

title Live 64-bit +kmdb
  kernel /smartos/20121004T212912Z/platform/i86pc/kernel/amd64/unix -kd
  module /smartos/20121004T212912Z/platform/i86pc/amd64/boot_archive

title Live 64-bit Serial (ttyb)
  kernel /smartos/20121004T212912Z/platform/i86pc/kernel/amd64/unix -B console=ttyb,ttyb-mode="115200,8,n,1,-"
  module /smartos/20121004T212912Z/platform/i86pc/amd64/boot_archive

title Live 64-bit Serial (ttyb) +kmdb
  kernel /smartos/20121004T212912Z/platform/i86pc/kernel/amd64/unix -kd -B console=ttyb,ttyb-mode="115200,8,n,1,-"
  module /smartos/20121004T212912Z/platform/i86pc/amd64/boot_archive

title Live 64-bit Serial (ttya)
  kernel /smartos/20121004T212912Z/platform/i86pc/kernel/amd64/unix -B console=ttya,ttya-mode="115200,8,n,1,-"
  module /smartos/20121004T212912Z/platform/i86pc/amd64/boot_archive

title Live 64-bit Serial (ttya) +kmdb
  kernel /smartos/20121004T212912Z/platform/i86pc/kernel/amd64/unix -kd -B console=ttya,ttya-mode="115200,8,n,1,-"
  module /smartos/20121004T212912Z/platform/i86pc/amd64/boot_archive

title Live 64-bit Rescue (no importing zpool)
  kernel /smartos/20121004T212912Z/platform/i86pc/kernel/amd64/unix -B noimport=true
  module /smartos/20121004T212912Z/platform/i86pc/amd64/boot_archive

Kernel Boot Options

Several parameters can and should be passed to the "unix" kernel. These would be comma-delimited following "-B", as seen in examples above.

    smartos=: If set true and /usbkey/shadow is present, it will use the root password within /usbkey/shadow
    root_shadow=: A root password hash as would be found in /etc/shadow. If present, and "smartos=" is not present, this will override the default platform password in /usbkey/shadow
    hostname=: Set the hostname
    noimport=true: Don't import the Zpool
    standalone=true: Used only by Smart Data Center
    headnode=true: Used only by Smart Data Center

Other options to know about are:

    console=ttya,ttya-mode="115200,8,n,1,-": Console redirection to ttya (COM1)
    console=ttyb,ttyb-mode="115200,8,n,1,-": Console redirection to ttyb (COM2)
    console=text: Console is directed to local keyboard and monitoring. This is the default behavior.
    -kd: Enable the Kernel Debugger (KMDB); this is typically only used for debugging drivers
    -v: Verbose boot