SunOS man pages : firmware (1)
Maintenance Commands firmware(1M)
NAME
firmware - bootable firmware programs and firmware commands
DESCRIPTION
Between the time most computers are turned on and the boot
program is loaded to bootstrap the machine, the computer is
in an operating state known as the firmware state. In the
firmware state, a small program in non-volatile memory is
running on the machine, and the user can perform certain
system operations usually unavailable from single- or
multi-user operating states.
There are two basic kinds of firmware operations: running
firmward commands and running bootable programs.
Running firmware commands
These commands include commands for displaying the
Equipped Device Table, performing a system memory
dump, displaying the firmware version, creating a
floppy key, and so forth. These commands are executed
by the firmware program.
Running bootable programs
These programs include the operating system and other
bootable programs (for example, a program to fill the
Equipped Device Table). These programs are located in
the /stand file system. When a bootable program is
requested from firmware, the firmware program loads
and executes the program, passing control of the sys-
tem to the bootable program.
Some firmware programs, allow you to request the configura-
tion of a new bootable operating system from firmware by
specifying the name of a configuration file (usually
/stand/system) as the name of the program to boot; see
system(4).
See the hardware guide that accompanies your computer for
descriptions of the firmware commands and programs available
with your machine.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes:
____________________________________________________________
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
| Architecture | SPARC |
|_____________________________|_____________________________|
SunOS 5.8 Last change: 3 Jul 1990 1
Maintenance Commands firmware(1M)
SEE ALSO
system(4), attributes(5)
Writing FCode 3.x Programs
WARNINGS
The firmware program typically does not know if a requested
program is bootable or not; requesting a program that is
not bootable from firmware can lead to unpredictable
results.
SunOS 5.8 Last change: 3 Jul 1990 2
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