Boot into HPUX L2000

By root, 15 October, 2011
The other day I got into the situation where I had to boot up a hp-ux OS from L2000 console. For whatever reason, the OS was down and all available option was the console. Even if the internet is full of tutorials and documentation, it was a bit difficult to find a quick way to start the system. On the following I will show you how I did it: 
some@hp>telnet 10.10.10.10
Trying...
Connected to 10.10.10.10.
Escape character is '^]'.
Local flow control off

Service Processor login: root
Service Processor password: 




             Hewlett-Packard Guardian Service Processor

  (c) Copyright Hewlett-Packard Company 1999-2001.  All Rights Reserved.

             9000/800/L2000-44 System Name: xxxx0000


[Read only - use ^Ecf for console write access.]
[size=15]At this point, you have to type 
SHIFT+Ctrl+E c f
in order to get write access to the console. The prompt should change to:[/size] 
[bumped user -  ]
[size=15]Obviously, typing 
help
got me nice information:[/size] 
Main Menu: Enter command or menu > help

---- MAIN Help ---------------------------------------------------------------

     This is the Main menu.  It is the top level menu of commands
     available.  Typing MAin from a submenu returns to the main menu.

     Type DIsplay to show the commands available from this menu.

     Type HElp MAin to display all the submenus and their commands.

     Short Command for MAin      MA
----
Main Menu: Enter command or menu > display

---- Main Menu ---------------------------------------------------------------

     Command                           Description
     -------                           -----------
     BOot [PRI|ALT|<path>]             Boot from specified path
     PAth [PRI|ALT] [<path>]           Display or modify a path
     SEArch [DIsplay|IPL] [<path>]     Search for boot devices

     COnfiguration menu                Displays or sets boot values
     INformation menu                  Displays hardware information
     SERvice menu                      Displays service commands

     DIsplay                           Redisplay the current menu
     HElp [<menu>|<command>]           Display help for menu or command
     RESET                             Restart the system
----
[size=15]Following this information, typing 
BO
I got into a new booting software called ISL:[/size] 
Main Menu: Enter command or menu > BO
Interact with IPL (Y, N, or Cancel)?> Y

Booting... 
Boot IO Dependent Code (IODC) revision 1


HARD Booted.

ISL Revision A.00.38  OCT 26, 1994 

ISL>
[size=15]Of course, this menu was totally unfriendly, every obvious command giving error (e.g. help, exit, quit :D). Googling a little I have found [urlnew=http://www.unixhub.com/docs/hpux/hpux_boot.html]this website[/urlnew] which got me to the right track. There is a lot of useful information there and I am welcome you to read it. So, I proceed with one command that I would never guess, 
[abbr=secondary system loader]hpux[/abbr]
: [/size] 
ISL> hpux

Boot
: disk(0/0/2/0.0.0.0.0.0.0;0)/stand/vmunix
7057408 + 880512 + 3650632 start 0x222468


alloc_pdc_pages: Relocating PDC from 0xf0f0000000 to 0x7fa03000.
gate64: sysvec_vaddr = 0xc0002000 for 1 pages
NOTICE: autofs_link(): File system was registered at index 3.
NOTICE: nfs3_link(): File system was registered at index 5.

    System Console is on the Built-In Serial Interface
HP PCI Mux Device Driver, FILESET PCI-MUX-KRN Version B.11.00.14 PHNE_25489
Copyright (c) 2000 Hewlett-Packard Company
pci_mux0: Driver Enabled for board 1 at HW path (0/4/0/0).
Logical volume 64, 0x3 configured as ROOT
Logical volume 64, 0x2 configured as SWAP
Logical volume 64, 0x2 configured as DUMP
    Swap device table:  (start & size given in 512-byte blocks)
        entry 0 - major is 64, minor is 0x2; start = 0, size = 2097152
Starting the STREAMS daemons-phase 1
Checking root file system.
file system is clean - log replay is not required
Root check done.
Create STCP device files
Starting the STREAMS daemons-phase 2
    B2352B/9245XB HP-UX (B.11.00) #1: Wed Nov  5 22:38:19 PST 1997

Memory Information:
    physical page size = 4096 bytes, logical page size = 4096 bytes
    Physical: 4194304 Kbytes, lockable: 2594524 Kbytes, available: 2993076 Kbytes

/sbin/ioinitrc:

/sbin/bcheckrc:
Checking for LVM volume groups and Activating (if any exist)
Volume group "/dev/vg00" has been successfully changed.
Activated volume group
Volume group "/dev/vg01" has been successfully changed.
Resynchronized volume group /dev/vg00
vxfs fsck: sanity check: root file system OK (mounted read/write)
Checking hfs file systems
Resynchronized volume group /dev/vg01
/sbin/fsclean: /dev/vg00/lvol1 (mounted) ok
HFS file systems are OK, not running fsck
Checking vxfs file systems
/dev/vg00/lvol8 :
vxfs fsck: sanity check: /dev/vg00/lvol8 OK
/dev/vg00/lvol9 :
vxfs fsck: sanity check: /dev/vg00/lvol9 OK
/dev/vg00/lvol10 :
vxfs fsck: sanity check: /dev/vg00/lvol10 OK
/dev/vg01/lvol1 :
vxfs fsck: sanity check: /dev/vg01/lvol1 OK
/dev/vg01/lvol2 :
vxfs fsck: sanity check: /dev/vg01/lvol2 OK
/dev/vg01/lvol4 :
vxfs fsck: sanity check: /dev/vg01/lvol4 OK
/dev/vg01/lvol5 :
vxfs fsck: sanity check: /dev/vg01/lvol5 OK
/dev/vg01/lvol6 :
vxfs fsck: sanity check: /dev/vg01/lvol6 OK
/dev/vg00/lvol3 :
vxfs fsck: sanity check: root file system OK (mounted read/write)
/dev/vg00/lvol4 :
vxfs fsck: sanity check: /dev/vg00/lvol4 OK
/dev/vg00/lvol5 :
vxfs fsck: sanity check: /dev/vg00/lvol5 OK
/dev/vg00/lvol6 :
vxfs fsck: sanity check: /dev/vg00/lvol6 OK
/dev/vg00/lvol7 :
vxfs fsck: sanity check: /dev/vg00/lvol7 OK

(c)Copyright 1983-1997 Hewlett-Packard Co.,  All Rights Reserved.
(c)Copyright 1979, 1980, 1983, 1985-1993 The Regents of the Univ. of California
(c)Copyright 1980, 1984, 1986 Novell, Inc.
(c)Copyright 1986-1992 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
(c)Copyright 1985, 1986, 1988 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(c)Copyright 1989-1993  The Open Software Foundation, Inc.
(c)Copyright 1986 Digital Equipment Corp.
(c)Copyright 1990 Motorola, Inc.
(c)Copyright 1990, 1991, 1992 Cornell University
(c)Copyright 1989-1991 The University of Maryland
(c)Copyright 1988 Carnegie Mellon University
(c)Copyright 1991-1997 Mentat, Inc.
(c)Copyright 1996 Morning Star Technologies, Inc.
(c)Copyright 1996 Progressive Systems, Inc.
(c)Copyright 1997 Isogon Corporation


                           RESTRICTED RIGHTS LEGEND
Use, duplication, or disclosure by the U.S. Government is subject to
restrictions as set forth in sub-paragraph (c)(1)(ii) of the Rights in
Technical Data and Computer Software clause in DFARS 252.227-7013.


                           Hewlett-Packard Company
                           3000 Hanover Street
                           Palo Alto, CA 94304 U.S.A.

Rights for non-DOD U.S. Government Departments and Agencies are as set
forth in FAR 52.227-19(c)(1,2).

/sbin/auto_parms: DHCP access is disabled (see /etc/auto_parms.log)
/sbin/auto_parms[10]: 0^J0: Syntax error
/sbin/rc2.d/S790blmg[91]: grep:  not found.
/sbin/rc2.d/S790blmg[91]: grep:  not found.
/sbin/rc2.d/S790blmg[91]: ps:  not found.
/sbin/rc2.d/S790blmg[139]: expr:  not found.
/sbin/rc2.d/S790blmg[137]: test: Specify a parameter with this command.
/sbin/rc2.d/S790blmg[151]: compress:  not found.
ifconfig: no such interface
/sbin/rc: failed to read row and column info from screen

     HP-UX Start-up in progress
     __________________________

     Configure system crash dumps ............................... OK
     Mount file systems ......................................... OK
     Update kernel and loadable modules ......................... N/A
[size=15]Hooray, the HP-UX was starting the boot sequence. After a bunch of OK and N/A, I finally got the desired login prompt:[/size] 
The system is ready.

GenericSysName [HP Release B.11.00] (see /etc/issue)
Console Login:
Note: whenever you want to switch form System Processor GSP to the Console, you have to type 
CTRL + b
. For example: 
GenericSysName [HP Release B.11.00] (see /etc/issue)
Console Login:

[color=red]<--- Here you can type [b]CTRL + b[/b][/color]

Leaving Console Mode - you may lose write access.
When Console Mode returns, type ^Ecf to get console write access.

GSP Host Name:  gspGZ
GSP> he


HE

==== GSP Help ============================================(Administrator)===
       Hardware Revision 8  Firmware Revision A.01.12 Oct 23 2002,13:53:42

                        GSP Help System

    Enter a command at the help prompt:
           OVerview  : Launch the help overview
           LIst      : Show the list of GSP commands
           <COMMAND> : Enter the command name for help on individual command
           TOPics    : Show all GSP Help topics and commands
           HElp      : Display this screen
           Q         : Quit help
====
GSP HELP: li
li


==== GSP Help ============================================(Administrator)===
AC  : Alert display Configuration       PC  : Remote Power Control
AR  : Automatic System Restart config.  PG  : PaGing parameter setup
CA  : Configure asynch/serial ports     PS  : Power management module Status
CL  : Console Log- view console history RS  : Reset System through RST signal
CO  : COnsole- return to console mode   SDM : Set Display Mode (hex or text)
CSP : Connect to remote Service Proc.   SE  : SEssion- log into the system
DC  : Default Configuration             SL  : Show Logs (chassis code buffer)
DI  : DIsconnect remote or LAN console  SO  : Security options & access control
EL  : Enable/disable LAN access         SS  : System Status of proc. modules
ER  : Enable/disable Remote/modem       TC  : Reset via Transfer of Control
HE  : Display HElp for menu or command  TE  : TEll- send a msg. to other users
IT  : Inactivity Timeout settings       VFP : Virtual Front Panel display
LC  : LAN configuration                 WHO : Display connected GSP users
LS  : LAN Status                        XD  : Diagnostics and/or Reset of GSP
MR  : Modem Reset                       XU  : Upgrade the GSP Firmware
MS  : Modem Status

====
(HE for main help, enter command name, or Q to quit)
GSP HELP: q
q

GSP Host Name:  gspGZ
GSP> co


       CO

Leaving Guardian Service Processor Command Interface and entering
Console mode. Type Ctrl-B to reactivate the GSP Command Interface.
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