System Administration Commands kernel(1M)
NAME
kernel - UNIX system executable file containing basic
operating system services
SYNOPSIS
kernel-name [-asrvx] [-m smfoptions] [-i altinit]
DESCRIPTION
The operating system image, or kernel, is the collection of
software comprising the image files (unix and genunix) and
the modules loaded at any instant in time. The system will
not function without a kernel to control it.
The kernel is loaded by the boot(1M) command in a machine-
specific way. The kernel may be loaded from disk, CD-ROM, or
DVD (diskfull boot) or over the network (diskless boot). In
either case, the directories under /platform and /kernel
must be readable and must contain executable code which is
able to perform the required kernel service. If the -a flag
is given, the user is able to supply different pathnames for
the default locations of the kernel and modules. See
boot(1M) for more information on loading a specific kernel.
The moddir variable contains a list of module directories
separated by whitespace. moddir can be set in the
/etc/system file. The minimal default is:
/platform/platform-name/kernel /kernel /usr/kernel
This default can be supplemented by a specific platform. It
is common for many SPARC systems to override the default
path with:
/platform/platform-name/kernel:/platform/hardware-class-name\
/kernel:/kernel:/usr/kernel
where platform-name can be found using the -i option of
uname(1), and hardware-class-name can be found using the -m
option of uname(1).
The kernel configuration can be controlled using the
/etc/system file (see system(4)).
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System Administration Commands kernel(1M)
genunix is the platform-independent component of the base
kernel.
OPTIONS
The following options are supported:
-a
Asks the user for configuration information, such as
where to find the system file, where to mount root, and
even override the name of the kernel itself. Default
responses will be contained in square brackets ([ ]),
and the user may simply enter RETURN to use the default
response (note that RETURN is labeled ENTER on some key-
boards). To help repair a damaged /etc/system file,
enter /dev/null at the prompt that asks for the pathname
of the system configuration file. See system(4).
-i altinit
Select an alternative executable to be the primordial
process. altinit must be a valid path to an executable.
The default primordial process is init(1M).
-m smfoptions
The smfoptions include two categories of options to
control booting behavior of the service management
facility: recovery options and messages options.
Message options determine the type and amount of mes-
sages that smf(5) displays during boot. Service options
determine the services which are used to boot the sys-
tem.
Recovery options
debug
Prints standard per-service output and all
svc.startd messages to log.
milestone=[milestone]
Boot with some SMF services temporarily disabled, as
indicated by milestone. milestone can be "none",
"single-user", "multi-user", "multi-user-server", or
"all". See the milestone subcommand of svcadm(1M).
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System Administration Commands kernel(1M)
Messages options
quiet
Prints standard per-service output and error mes-
sages requiring administrative intervention.
verbose
Prints standard per-service output with more infor-
mational messages.
-r
Reconfiguration boot. The system will probe all attached
hardware devices and configure the logical namespace in
/dev. See adddrv(1M) and remdrv(1M) for additional
information about maintaining device drivers.
-s
Boots only to init level 's'. See init(1M).
-v
Boots with verbose messages enabled. If this flag is not
given, the messages are still printed, but the output is
directed to the system logfile. See syslogd(1M).
-x
Does not boot in clustered mode. This option only has an
effect when a version of Sun Cluster software that sup-
ports this option has been installed.
EXAMPLES
See boot(1M) for examples and instructions on how to boot.
FILES
/kernel
Contains kernel components common to all platforms
within a particular instruction set that are needed for
booting the system. of the core image file.
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System Administration Commands kernel(1M)
/platform/platform-name/kernel
The platform-specific kernel components.
/platform/hardware-class-name/kernel
The kernel components specific to this hardware class.
/usr/kernel
Contains kernel components common to all platforms
within a particular instruction set.
The directories in this section can potentially contain the
following subdirectories:
drv
Loadable device drivers
exec
The modules that execute programs stored in various file
formats.
fs
File system modules
misc
Miscellaneous system-related modules
sched
Operating system schedulers
strmod
System V STREAMS loadable modules
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sys
Loadable system calls
SPARC
cpu
Processor specific modules
tod
Time-Of-Day hardware interface modules
As only 64-bit SPARC platforms are supported, all SPARC exe-
cutable modules are contained within sparcv9 directories in
the directories listed above.
x86
mach
x86 hardware support
Modules comprising the 32-bit x86 kernel are contained in
the above directories, with the 64-bit x86 kernel components
contained within amd64 subdirectories.
ATRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attri-
butes:
ATRIBUTE TYPE ATRIBUTE VALUE
Availability SUNWcar, SUNWcarx
SEE ALSO
uname(1), isainfo(1), adddrv(1M), boot(1M), init(1M),
kadb(1M), remdrv(1M), savecore(1M), svc.startd(1M),
svcadm(1M), syslogd(1M), system(4), attributes(5), smf(5),
devfs(7FS)
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SPARC Only
monitor(1M)
DIAGNOSTICS
The kernel gives various warnings and error messages. If the
kernel detects an unrecoverable fault, it will panic or
halt.
NOTES
Reconfiguration boot will, by design, not remove /dev
entries for some classes of devices that have been physi-
cally removed from the system.
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