SPARC systems have three different types of boot commands available,
depending on the version of the system's console PROM. Systems with a PROM
version less than 2.0 use what is known as the "old" style boot command,
while systems whose PROM is at version 2.0 or greater can use either the
old or the new style boot commands or only new style commands.
If your SPARC system's console prompt is ok, then your system
is in new command mode, and can use the new style boot command. In addition,
UltraSPARC systems,
featuring a third type of PROM (IEEE 1275), have a command mode very similar
to the new style, but some commands have been added or changed,
for example, the .attributes
command (which displays information about the current PROM node)
has been renamed to .properties.
In general, it's preferable to use the new style boot command if your system supports it and you can choose. Of course, it's possible to use the old style boot command, but you'll need to know a bit more about your hardware configuration. An excellent reference on older Sun hardware in general (and the old-style boot commands in particular) is The Sun Hardware Reference, by James W. Birdsall.
In general, the new style boot command is boot, followed by a
descriptive device name (such as floppy, cdrom, or
net).
The old style boot command is b, followed by a device specifier in
the form:
xx(a,b,c)Where
xx is used to specify the device type (such as sd for
SCSI disks), a is the controller number, b is the device's
unit number, and c is the partition number. Please refer to
The Sun Hardware Reference if you have an older SPARC system,
and get additional information on its boot command syntax.