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DigiBarn Documents: Teach Xerox 8010 Booting from Wildflower site
Date: 14-May-86 13:57:14
From: XDE-Training:OSBU North:Xerox
Subject: Getting started
This module discusses how to "boot" an 8010 processor. (To boot a machine is to load and start a system on the machine.)
Before you start, you should make sure that you are reading the correct tutorial. There are currently two different machines that can run XDE software: the 8010 and the 6085. If you have an 8010, you should be reading this tutorial; if you have a 6085, you should be reading a separate tutorial, called Teach6085Booting.nsmail. If you don't know which kind of machine you have, you will have to ask someone.
You should also make sure that you have a printed copy of this tutorial before you continue, since the electronic copy will not always be available while you are practicing booting.
In Xerox terminology, a hard disk ("physical volume") is divided into several "logical volumes." There can be up to 10 logical volumes on a physical volume, although there are not usually nearly so many. Obviously, the more logical volumes you have, the less space you have on each of those volumes.
There are three principle systems that you can have on your workstation: ViewPoint, XDE, and InterLisp. Most machines will have XDE and ViewPoint or XDE and InterLisp; unless you have a very large disk (80 Mbytes or more), you probably don't have room for all three.
To find out what logical volumes are on your disk, and how much space is on each of them, find the word Volume: at the right hand side of your Herald Window. This field gives the number of free pages on your CoPilot volume.
Clicking Point over this field cycles through the logical volumes on the disk, and displays the number of free pages on each. Use Point to cycle through the volumes on your disk, so that you have some idea of the names of the volumes and how large they are. For machines running XDE and ViewPoint, the most common configuration is to have the following four volumes:
CoPilot: standard XDE volume for development work Tajo: test volume for new XDE programs User: ViewPoint volume Scavenger: ViewPoint data volume
For now, you don't need to know any more detail about any of these volumes. The next tutorial, TeachCompile-Bind-Run.nsmail discusses the different logical volumes in more detail.
Generally speaking, each logical volume has a bootfile; the bootfile is the file that gains control when you boot the volume. For example, there is a CoPilot bootfile on the logical volume CoPilot: when you boot the CoPilot volume, this bootfile sets up the environment you know as CoPilot. The name of the bootfile or system that the bootfile creates does not have to correspond to the volume name; for example, the ViewPoint bootfile is generally stored on the User volume. It is also possible to use a logical volume just as a data volume, in which case you would not put a bootfile on it. You cannot boot a volume that does not have a logical volume bootfile on it.
Booting a volume will restore it to a pristine state, and will thus cure most software problems. Booting will not destroy any files or mail messages, but any text not saved in a file will be lost.
To boot a logical volume from CoPilot, you use the Boot From: menu, available from the Herald Window. Move your cursor into the Herald and chord to bring up the Boot From: menu. This menu contains the names of the volumes on your workstation, such as Scavenger, User, CoPilot and Tajo. This menu can be used to boot any of the volumes listed. For example, to reboot your CoPilot volume, you would select CoPilot from this list. Try it, and notice that the graphic mouse appears, asking for confirmation of the boot command. Confirm the command with Point; this will reboot CoPilot. (To abort the command, click Adjust instead of Point.)
There are a number of different boot switches available to control certain aspects of booting. The person who set up your machine for you should have specified a set of default boot switches for each bootfile on the machine. Generally speaking, you need quite a bit of experience before you know which boot switches you should use; for now, you should always consult a more experienced user before changing boot switches.
You can also set boot switches for a particular boot by using the Set Switches: command in the Boot From: menu. For now, you shouldn't have to worry about boot switches; the person who set up your machine should have initialized the correct switches.
Consult your XDE User's Guide for a list of available switches and for a complete explanation of the other commands in the Boot From: menu.
Sometimes you will have to boot your machine with a "hard boot" of the entire machine, rather than just doing a software boot of a particular volume. To do this, you will need your boot buttons. The boot buttons are the two buttons beside the maintenance panel on your machine. Locate them. (Note: there is a small door (more like a flap) that covers the maintenance panel. If you do not see the boot buttons, then your door is closed; you will have to find this door and pull it down.) The left button is labelled "B RESET" and the right button is labelled "ALT B."
To do a hardware boot (don't do it yet), press in both buttons, and then release the left one. If you continue to hold in the right button, the maintenance panel numbers should cycle gradually from 0000 to 0010. Each of these numbers represents a different kind of boot. The mapping from number to type of boot varies occasionally from release to release and location to location, so you should check with someone local to find out the mapping. The various boots are referred to as 0 boot, 1 boot, and the like.
When the maintenance panel codes reach the number of the boot that you want, you release the right button, and the boot will be performed. If you make a mistake and pass the number that you want, don't worry about it; the numbers will continue to cycle and you will get another chance.
A 0 boot is the basic boot. It will run hardware diagnostics to make sure your disk is all right, and then it will boot a logical volume. Which logical volume is booted after a hard boot is something that you can specify.
The numbers that display on the maintenance panel during the boot signify that diagnostics are being executed. If there is a difficulty with the boot, these numbers will stop at a number that indicates the nature of the problem. If this should happen during a boot, you will need help.
990 is the normal readout for XDE volumes (CoPilot and Tajo); 8000 is the normal readout for ViewPoint. Any other number usually indicates that something is wrong. (Booting does take a few minutes, so don't panic if a code remains for a little while.)
As mentioned above, each of the numbers from 0 to 9 represents a different kind of boot. These are called "alternate" boots, since the 0 boot is considered the standard boot.
The most common alternate boot is the 1 boot, which is just like the 0 boot except that it does not run hardware diagnostics. Thus, you can use this boot when you want to save time by not running the diagnostics. However, you should not always use a 1 boot; the diagnostics performed in the standard boot are a valuable method of checking to make sure that your machine is healthy. For now, since there is nothing wrong with your machine (hopefully), try doing a 1 boot. Another important alternate boot is booting the Installer from the net. The Installer is a utility for installing and upgrading your system. Find out from someone how to reach the Installer from the net, and then try booting it.
Experiment with the Installer a bit if you like, and then reboot (try a 1 boot) to reach CoPilot again.
Although you can always use booting as a means to get from one volume to another, you don't have to boot every time you want to reach another volume. There is a shorthand way of calling the "debugger" volume which allows you to easily move from one previously booted volume to another. The advantage of using this method is that you will not have to reconstruct your screen each time that you reach a volume; you will be able to leave your desktop as is, much as you do when you invoke DMT.
The CoPilot volume is called a "debugger" volume; it can serve as a debugger for either the Tajo volume or the User volume, but not for both volumes simultaneously. Typically, the Tajo volume has XDE software and the User volume has ViewPoint software. When you are doing XDE development, you will want to have CoPilot as the debugger for Tajo; when you are using ViewPoint or programming for ViewPoint, you will want to have CoPilot serve as the debugger for User.
For the rest of these tutorials, you should set up CoPilot as a debugger for Tajo. To do this, just boot Tajo from the CoPilot Herald Window. This will establish Tajo as the "client volume" for the CoPilot debugger.
To return to CoPilot from Tajo once Tajo has booted, simply type SHIFT-STOP (hold down the SHIFT and STOP keys simultaneously.) This is known as an "interrupt." As you can see, interrupting is not the same thing as booting; it does not affect the state of your CoPilot volume. In particular, you do not have to reconstruct the layout or state of any of your tools.
Once you have booted Tajo for the first time and interrupted, you do not have to reboot to return to Tajo. To reach your previously booted Tajo volume from CoPilot wihout rebooting, you will need to have a debug log on your screen. In CoPilot, the name for this window in the tiny state is "CoPilot 12.0" Find this window now and activate it. To use this window to reach Tajo, you need to type "P" (for Proceed,) and follow with a carriage return. (Note that you must type only P, and not more of the word.) You can Proceed into a volume once you have booted it and interrupted (SHIFT-STOP) out of it.
Type a "p" in the debug log window followed by a carriage return. This will return you to Tajo; once you are in Tajo, SHIFT-STOP back to CoPilot.
You establish a User-Copilot relationship in exactly the same way: boot User from the Herald window to invoke the ViewPoint software and SHIFT-STOP back to CoPilot once User has booted. (Booting User takes about 15 minutes, so you might not want to experiment with it now.)
Once you have booted a client volume (either Tajo or User) from CoPilot, you can reach the client volume by proceeding. If you wish to change the client volume, you need to boot the new client volume from the Herald window.
The above methods can be used to move about between volumes during your normal operation. You do not normally need to boot the new volume each time that you want to go from one volume to another.
You should now feel comfortable with booting a volume from the herald window of a particular volume, and with booting your machine from boot buttons. You should also have a general idea of when you will need to boot a volume and when you can just call the debugger volume.
Hopefully, you now have enough information to enable you to survive the first few occasions on which you will need to boot, but remember that there is more information contained in the XDE User's Guide which you will later need to know.
When you are ready to go on, choose TeachMailSystem.nsmail from the Files: menu.
See Also:
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