====== Boot Monitor ======
This page describes the NetBSD boot monitor, as used by MINIX 3.

To get a summary of what the it can do, while in it, you can select "Drop to boot prompt" from the menu and type:

<code>
help
</code>

===== Commonly Used Boot Monitor Commands and Options =====

A rundown of oft-used boot monitor commands and options:
| //ctty 0// | Used for serial debugging; parameter selects serial port. |
| //cttybaud=// | Sets serial baud rate. 115200 is recommended. |
| //menu// | Shows the Menu. |
| //ls// | Lists the files present on the root device. |
| //boot// | Boots the kernel. |
| //bootopts=-s// | Enables single-user mode. |
| //load_mods// | Loads specified modules by path; wildcard ("*") searches in the path are accepted. |
| //multiboot// | Boots the kernel with loaded modules; //boot -s// will stop before running optional services. |
| //no_apic=// | <zero> to turn APIC on, <non-zero> to turn it off. There is also //apic_timer_x=<n>//. //acpi=yes// is required with //no_apic=0// |
| //no_smp=// | <zero> to turn SMP on, <non-zero> to turn it off. |
| //pci_debug=1// | Enable PCI driver debug prints. |
| //rootdevname=// | E.g. //c0d0p0s0//; Sets the partition from which to load boot components. |
| //watchdog=// | <non-zero> to turn on the NMI watchdog (kernel lock up detection; also requires //no_apic=0// and //acpi=yes//). |

Some less used options:
| //acpi=yes// | Use the ACPI driver. |
| //ahci=yes// | Use the AHCI driver instead of the "at_wini" IDE driver (experimental!). Many other //ahci=// options are available to help debugging; see the code. |
| //ata_no_dma=1// | Disable DMA. |
| //ata_pci_debug=1// | Enable PCI-related debugging info in at_wini driver. Some other //ata=// options are available to help debugging; see the code. |
| //atapi_dma=1// | Enable ATAPI DMA. |
| //bios_wini=yes// | Use the BIOS driver instead of the "at_wini" IDE driver. |
| //bios_remap_first=1// | Force the boot drive to be remapped as d7; this allows a machine booted from an inserted media (like a faked disk image from CD booting or a USB thumb drive) to retain its normal drive assignation. |
| //console=8003// | Enable 50 lines for the text-mode console. |
| //debug_fkeys=1// | Enable pressing F1..F10 keys to show information about the system on the console. |
| //disable=<daemon>// | Prevent one //daemon// (optional service) to start; useful when debugging, or if some piece of hardware has problems; ''disable=inet'' will prevent the INET network stack to start; ''disable=lwip,lance'' will prevent both the LWIP network stack and the LANCE driver to start. |
| //hz=60// | Set the system heart beat. |
| //label=<label>// | Allows the binding of several configurations in a single image. |
| //memory=<range>// | Describe the installed memory in the computer; useful to override incorrect or faulty detection or to fake a memory-starved machine. |
| //oxpcie=// <hexport> | document me! |
| //rootdev=<device>// | document me! Also //bootdev//, //ramimagedev//, and //ramsize//, described in the monitor(8) manpage. |
| //rs_verbose=1// | Enable debugging of Resurrection Server. |
| //skip_boot_config=1// | Prevents the ''service edit'' operation on the booting processes (??? document me better!) |
| //sticky_alt=1// | Changes the behaviour of the Alt key to match Unix practice (Meta key). |
| //verbose=1// | Enable debugging while loading and starting kernel; verbose=2 is much more verbose. |
| //vm_sanitychecklevel=<n>// | Enable debugging of VM Server. |

Some obsolete options, carried over from MINIX 2; information about them will be found in old manual pages.
| //bus=at// or //bus=mca// | Mainly determine the kind of PIC to use. |
| //processor=586// | Force the detection of a given CPU family. |
| //video=vga// or //video=ega// | No noticeable effects are expected. |
| //XXXETH<n>=// <hardware-dependent> and //XXXETH<n>_EA=// <MAC address> | Allows the setup of non-PnP hardwares, mainly the network cards; all this has been mostly obsoleted by PCI. The actual names of the variables depend on the driver. |