Booting an Operating System
5-21
AlphaBIOS allows multiple versions of the Windows NT operating system to be
installed. A primary operating system is designated during installation (see Section
8.9) as the default. The action taken before booting proceeds depends upon the setting
of three AlphaBIOS options from the CMOS Setup and Advanced CMOS Setup
screens.
Table 5-4 Auto Start and Auto Start Count Options
Auto Start Setting
Action Taken
Disabled
The AlphaBIOS firmware stops at the boot screen until you
type something. There are four possibilities:
•
Enter — The primary operating system is booted, or a
screen asking for Startup Password is displayed (see
Section 5.5.3.)
•
Arrow key and Enter — You can select another operating
system to be booted using the arrow keys, and then press
Enter to boot that operating system. A screen asking for
Startup Password may be displayed first, as described in
Section 5.5.3.
•
F2 — Enter AlphaBIOS Setup Mode (see Chapter 8), or
a screen asking for Setup or Startup Password is displayed
(see Section 5.5.3.)
•
Ctrl/Alt/Delete — Pressing these keys simultaneously or
pressing the Reset button (on 8200 systems) or turning the
keyswitch to Reset (on 8400 systems) restarts the system.
NOTE: What happens at this point depends on the setting
of the auto_action environment variable, as
discussed in Section 5.5.1. If auto_action is set
to boot, you can reach the SRM console by
pressing the Secure button in (8200) or turning
the keyswitch to Secure (8400) before AlphaBIOS
is automatically started. The system will then
display the SRM console prompt. At this point,
restore the Secure button to out (8200) or return
the keyswitch to Enable (8400) so that you can
enter an SRM console command.
Enabled
The AlphaBIOS firmware displays the boot screen for the
number of seconds specified with the Auto Start Count
option. During this time, you can perform any of the actions
described above, or simply wait until the time specified by the
Auto Start Count option expires and the system boots.
