Solaris Systems Administrator’s Guide, Second Edition:Introducing Solaris System Administration

• Use the telinit or init command to shut down a single-user system or to change its run level. The init command changes the run level of the system. The telinit command tells init what run level you want. You can use the commands interchangeably, but telinit is the preferred command. You can use telinit to place the system in power-down state (init 0) or in single-user state (init 1).

NOTE: Use telinit /init and shutdown as the preferred method of changing system state. These programs are the most reliable way to shut down a system because they use a number of rc scripts to kill running processes.

halt

Use the halt command when the system must be stopped immediately and it is acceptable not to warn any current users. The halt command shuts down the system without any delay and does not warn any other users on the system. The halt command does not run the rc shutdown scripts properly and is not the preferred method for shutting down a system.

reboot

Use the reboot command to shut down a system that does not have multiple users to bring it back into multiuser state. The command reboot does not warn users on the system, does not run the rc scripts properly, and is not the preferred method for shutting down a system.

Booting a System

If a system is powered off, turning it on starts the multiuser boot sequence. The following procedures tell you how to boot in different states from the ok PROM prompt. If the PROM prompt is >, type n to display the ok prompt, and then follow the appropriate steps.

NOTE: The PROM prompt description is for SPARC systems.

Booting in Multiuser State

To boot in multiuser state, at the ok PROM prompt, type boot and press Return. The automatic boot procedure starts on the default drive, displaying a series of start-up messages. The system is brought up in multiuser state.

Booting in Single-User State

To boot in single-user state, at the ok PROM prompt, type boot -s and press Return. The system boots to single-user state and prompts you for the root password:

ok boot -s

INIT: SINGLE USER MODE
Type Ctrl-d to proceed with normal start-up,
(or give root password for system maintenance)

Type the root password and press Return.

NOTE: To continue the process and bring the system up in multiuser state, press Control-D.

Booting Interactively

You may boot interactively if you want to make a temporary change to the system file or the kernel. In this way, you can test your changes and recover easily if you have any problems:

1. At the ok PROM prompt, type boot -a and press Return. The boot program prompts you interactively.

2. Press Return to use the default /kernel/unix kernel, or type the name of the kernel to use for booting.

3. Press Return to use the default /etc/system file, or type the name of the system file and press Return.

4. Press Return to use the default modules directory path, or type the default path for the modules directory and press Return.

5. Press Return to use the default root file system. Type ufs for local disk booting or nfs for diskless clients.

6. Press Return to use the default physical name of the root device, or type the device name.

7. Press Return to use the swapfs default swap file system type. ( Note that swapfs is the only permitted swap file system type.)

In the following example, the default choices (shown in square brackets [ ]) were accepted by pressing Return:

ok boot -a
(Hardware configuration messages)
rebooting from -a
Boot device: /sbus/esp@Ø,8ØØØØØ/sd@Ø,Ø File and args: -a
Enter <filename> [/kernel/unix]:
(Copyright notice)
Name of system file [/etc/system]:
Name of default directory for modules [<null string>]:
root filesystem type [ufs]
Enter physical name of root device
[/sbus@1,f8ØØØØØØ/esp@Ø,8ØØØØØ/sd@Ø,Ø:a]:
Swap filesystem type [swapfs]
Configuring network interfaces:  leØ
Hostname: cinderella
(fsck messages)
The system is coming up. Please wait.
(More messages)
cinderella login:

Looking at the Boot Messages

The most recent boot messages are stored in the /var/adm/messages file. To see these messages after you have booted the system, type /usr/sbin/dmesg and press Return. The boot messages are displayed. Or, type more/var /adm/messages and press Return.

NOTE: You cannot view /usr/sbin/dmesg text from a CDE terminal window. If you are running CDE, use more /var/adm/messages to review boot messages. Alternatively, you can open a Command Tool window by typing /usr/openwin/bin/cmdtool& and use that window to view /usr/sbin/dmesg text.

This example shows the contents of the dmesg file:

castle% /usr/sbin/dmesg

Sep 13 10:53
SunOS Release 5.6 Version Generic [UNIX(R) System V Release 4.0]
Copyright (c) 1983-1997, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
pac: enabled - SuperSPARC/SuperCache
cpu0: TI,TMS390Z55 (mid 8 impl 0x0 ver 0x1 clock 50 MHz)
mem = 65536K (0x4000000)
avail mem = 61177856
Ethernet address = 8:0:20:18:69:71
root nexus = SUNW,SPARCstation-
iommu0 at root: obio 0xe0000000
sbus0 at iommu0: obio 0xe0001000
espdma0 at sbus0: SBus slot f 0x400000
esp0:esp-options=0x46
esp0 at espdma0: SBus slot f 0x800000 sparc ipl 4
sd3 at esp0: target 3 lun 0
sd3 is /iommu@f,e0000000/sbus@f,e0001000/espdma@f,400000
/esp@f,800000/sd@3,0
<SEAGATE-ST51080N-0958 cyl 4824 alt 2 hd 4 sec 109>
root on /iommu@f,e0000000/sbus@f,e0001000/espdma@f,400000
/esp@f,800000/sd@3,0:a fstype ufs
obio0 at root
zs0 at obio0: obio 0x100000 sparc ipl 12
zs0 is /obio/zs@0,100000
zs1 at obio0: obio 0x0 sparc ipl 12
zs1 is /obio/zs@0,0
cgsix0 at sbus0: SBus slot 3 0x0 SBus level 5 sparc ipl 9
cgsix0 is /iommu@f,e0000000/sbus@f,e0001000/cgsix@3,0
cgsix0: screen 1152x900, single buffered, 1M mappable, rev 8
cpu 0 initialization complete - online
dump on /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s1 size 112036K
castle%

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