1 .\" $NetBSD: newbtconf.8,v 1.18 2004/08/31 17:08:06 uwe Exp $
2 .\" $DragonFly: src/sbin/newbtconf/newbtconf.8,v 1.5 2008/02/17 19:51:53 swildner Exp $
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35 .Nd multiple boot-up configurations
46 is used to set up the system in such a way that the user is offered a
47 selection of environments in which to boot the system up into.
48 The most obvious application being for laptops to provide a network
49 and non-network environment after a successful boot into multi-user mode.
51 In order to accomplish this task, the files usually associated with
52 establishing the current system's running configuration are replaced with
53 symbolic links which are adjusted with each boot to point to the appropriate
54 file for the desired run-time environment.
55 This is accomplished by directing all of the symbolic links through a
56 directory which itself is a symbolic link
57 .Pq Pa /etc/etc.current ,
58 to the destination files.
59 At each bootup, the selection made changes which directory
63 Through doing this and reloading
68 been established, the resulting run-time configuration is effectively
69 controlled without the need to directly edit any files.
70 The default boot-up environment is selected by manually directing which
71 configuration directory
79 is not automatically updated.
83 only has one boot-up configuration - that set in the
86 In order to initialize the system for operating in a
87 manner which supports multiple boot configurations,
89 must be run with an argument of
91 This will create two symbolic links
96 .Pa /etc/etc.network .
97 The following files are all moved into
98 that directory and symbolic links put in their place, in
101 .Pa /etc/etc.current/\*[Lt]filename\*[Gt] :
102 .Bd -literal -offset indent
118 To test that this has been performed correctly, reboot your system into
120 After the kernel has autoconfigured and tty flags have been set,
121 a prompt should appear, preceded by the following like, looking like this:
124 Which configuration [network] ?
127 The []'s are used to indicate the default configuration, which can be
128 selected by just pressing return.
129 If there were other configurations available at this stage, you would
130 have 30 seconds to enter that name and press
132 .Ss Multiple Configurations
133 Once an initial configuration has been set up, we can proceed to set up further
134 run time environments.
135 This is done by invoking
137 with the name of the new configuration to be created.
138 By default, this step
139 will use the current configuration files as the basis for this setup unless
140 a second parameter is given - that of the configuration to use as the basis
142 Upon completion, a new directory,
143 .Pa /etc/etc.\*[Lt]newname\*[Gt] ,
144 will have been created,
145 priming the directory with the appropriate files for editing.
146 For example, if we do
149 it would create a directory named
151 and copy all the files from
154 Upon rebooting, we should see:
157 Which configuration [network] ?
160 To set up the system for booting into the
162 configuration, the files in
166 If you wanted to make
168 the default configuration when booting, you
169 would need delete the symbolic link
171 and create a new symbolic link (with the same name) to
173 Booting up after having made such a change would
174 result in the following being displayed:
177 Which configuration [nonet] ?
180 Assuming that we performed the above command successfully, in order to
181 successfully configure
183 to not configure interfaces (or generate no
184 errors from attempting to do so), the following settings (at least) should
186 .Pa /etc/etc.nonet/rc.conf :
192 Of course other networking services, such as NTP, routed, etc, are all
195 In general, the only setting that should be
197 is syslogd, and perhaps cron (if your cron scripts don't
198 need the network) or screenblank/wscons (if applicable).
199 Other actions such as deleting any NFS mounts from
200 .Pa /etc/etc.nonet/fstab
201 would also need to be undertaken.
202 .Ss Reverting multiple boot configurations
203 Multiple boot configurations can be deactivated by running
207 All the symlinks mentioned above are then removed and the files they point to
208 are copied to their default place.
209 This effectively makes the currently selected
210 configuration the only one active.
215 are also removed so upon rebooting no configuration selection menu is
217 Note that the previously created configurations (in
218 .Pa /etc/etc.\*[Lt]name\*[Gt] )
221 .Bl -tag -width /etc/mrouted.current -compact
222 .It Pa /etc/etc.current
223 Symbolic link to current config directory.
224 .It Pa /etc/etc.default
225 Symbolic link to default config directory.
227 .It Pa /etc/defaultdomain
228 These files all become symbolic links.
229 .It Pa /etc/dntpd.conf
231 .It Pa /etc/ifconfig.*
232 .It Pa /etc/inetd.conf
233 .It Pa /etc/mrouted.conf
237 .It Pa /etc/nsswitch.conf
239 .It Pa /etc/rc.conf.d
240 .It Pa /etc/resolv.conf
248 program first appeared in
252 This shell script was written by
254 .Aq darrenr@NetBSD.org
255 with initial input from
258 on how to approach this problem.
260 It presently does not display a count down timer whilst waiting for input
261 to select which configuration and nor does it abort said timer when a key
264 The management of the overall collection of multiple configurations is much
265 more manual than it ought to be.
266 A general system configuration tool needs to be written to ease their