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4.28. Itanium Systems — Booting Your Machine and Post-Installation Setup

This section describes how to boot your Itanium into Red Hat Enterprise Linux and how to set your EFI console variables so that Red Hat Enterprise Linux is automatically booted when the machine is powered on.
After you reboot your system at the end of the installation program, type the following command to boot into Red Hat Enterprise Linux: 
elilo
After you type elilo, the default kernel listed in the /boot/efi/elilo.conf configuration file is loaded. (The first kernel listed in the file is the default.)
If you want to load a different kernel, type the label name of the kernel from the file /boot/efi/elilo.conf after the elilo command. For example, to load the kernel named linux, type: 
elilo linux
If you do not know the names of the installed kernels, you can view the /boot/efi/elilo.conf file in EFI with the following instructions:
  1. At the Shell> prompt, change devices to the system partition (mounted as /boot/efi in Linux). For example, if fs0 is the system boot partition, type fs0: at the EFI Shell prompt.
  2. Type ls at the fs0:\> to make sure you are in the correct partition.
  3. Then type: 
    Shell>type elilo.conf
    This command displays the contents of the configuration file. Each stanza contains a line beginning with label followed by a label name for that kernel. The label name is what you type after elilo to boot the different kernels.

4.28.1. Post-Installation Boot Loader Options

In addition to specifying a kernel to load, you can also enter other boot options such as single for single user mode or mem=1024M to force Red Hat Enterprise Linux to use 1024 MB of memory. To pass options to the boot loader, enter the following at the EFI Shell prompt (replace linux with the label name of the kernel you want to boot and option with the boot options you want to pass to the kernel): 
elilo linux option

4.28.2. Booting Red Hat Enterprise Linux Automatically

After installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux you can type elilo and any boot options at the EFI Shell prompt each time you wish to boot your Itanium system. However, if you wish to configure your system to boot into Red Hat Enterprise Linux automatically, you need to configure the EFI Boot Manager.
To configure the EFI Boot Manager (may vary slightly depending on your hardware):
  1. Boot the Itanium system and choose Boot option maintenance menu from the EFI Boot Manager menu.
  2. Choose Add a Boot Option from the Main Menu.
  3. Select the system partition that is mounted as /boot/efi/ in Linux.
  4. Select the elilo.efi file.
  5. At the Enter New Description: prompt, type Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, or any name that you want to appear on the EFI Boot Manager menu.
  6. At the Enter Boot Option Data Type: prompt, enter N for No Boot Option if you do not want to pass options to the ELILO boot loader. This option works for most cases. If you want to pass options to the boot loader, you can configure it in the /boot/efi/elilo.conf configuration file instead.
  7. Answer Yes to the Save changes to NVRAM prompt. This returns you to the EFI Boot Maintenance Manager menu.
  8. Next, you want to make the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 menu item the default. A list of boot options appears. Move the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 menu item up to the top of the list by selecting it with the arrow keys and pressing the u key to move it up the list. You can move items down the list by selecting it and pressing the d key. After changing the boot order, choose Save changes to NVRAM. Choose Exit to return to the Main Menu.
  9. Optionally, you can change the boot timeout value by choosing Set Auto Boot TimeOut => Set Timeout Value from the Main Menu.
  10. Return to the EFI Boot Manager by selecting Exit.

4.28.2.1. Using a Startup Script

It is recommended that you configure the ELILO Boot Manager to boot Red Hat Enterprise Linux automatically. However, if you require additional commands to be executed before starting the ELILO boot loader, you can create a startup script named startup.nsh. The last command should be elilo to boot into Linux.
The startup.nsh script should be in the /boot/efi partition (/boot/efi/startup.nsh) and contain the following text: 
echo -off your set of commands elilo
If you want to pass options to the boot loader (refer to Section 4.28.1, “Post-Installation Boot Loader Options”) add them after elilo.
You can either create this file after booting into Red Hat Enterprise Linux or use the editor built into the EFI shell. To use the EFI shell, at the Shell> prompt, change devices to the system partition (mounted as /boot/efi in Linux). For example, if fs0 is the system boot partition, type fs0: at the EFI Shell prompt. Type ls to make sure you are in the correct partition. Then type edit startup.nsh. Type the contents of the file and save it.
The next time the system boots, EFI detects the startup.nsh file and use it to boot the system. To stop EFI from loading the file, type Ctrl+c . This aborts the process, and returns you to the EFI shell prompt.
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