How does QNX v2 boot?

QNX Newsgroups (Archives) comp.os.qnx
1

Does anyone know the procedure with which QNX V2 boots.

For example what files does it read when booting.

The analogy I’m think of is like DOS which will read config.sys and
autoexec.bat, but bay also load drivers files such as himem.sys.

I need to know to make accurate backups of a QNX 2 system and detailed
documentation.

2

Previously, David T wrote in comp.os.qnx:

Does anyone know the procedure with which QNX V2 boots.

For example what files does it read when booting.

The analogy I’m think of is like DOS which will read config.sys and
autoexec.bat, but bay also load drivers files such as himem.sys.

I need to know to make accurate backups of a QNX 2 system and detailed
documentation.

I’ll take a stab at this. Here are the steps as I know them.

  1. First sector of disk (partition loader) is loaded into memory and executed
  2. First sector of partion is loaded into memory and executed
  3. OS loader loads using the file /config/hdisk.cfg which I think
    points to an OS file, a driver file, and optionally an osconfig file.
    Note that hdisk.cfg can’t be backed up. You create it using the
    “boot” command.
  4. OS is started. When initialization is complete it executes a shell
    with a /config/sysinit file, which could be sys.init file. I believe
    that the order that these files are looked for is:

A) sys.init.# # = my node number
B) sys.init.0
C) sys.init

The sys.init file will have commands whose location will
either be show by a full path, or it will be in the /cmds
directory.

To restore a full backup you would have to:
A) Copy all the files back to the hard drive
B) Load any network licenses using the netsize command
C) execute the “boot” command with the proper parameters



Mitchell Schoenbrun --------- maschoen@pobox.com