File README.IA64 of Package bootcycle

   Boot cycle detection using /etc/init.d/boot.cycle
   =================================================

The package bootcycle provides a boot script which is used
for boot cycle detection to avoid unconditional reboot cycles
of not supervised system.  For this the EFI boot manager
is used.

For boot cycle detection the default boot entry has to be
the built-in EFI Shell of the IA64 system. With this entry
the system is halted at boot up.  To avoid this the script
/etc/init.d/boot.cycle is called to set up an other only once
but default boot entry for the next reboot.
This means that on every successful boot up the only once
entry is chosen for next boot time.  If the system fails
on boot and falls into reboot the halt entry is automatically
used on next try.

To make the EFI Shell to be the default boot item use
efibootmgr, i.e.:

   ia64-host:~ # efibootmgr
   BootNext: 0001
   BootCurrent: 0001
   BootOrder: 0001,0000,0003
   Boot0000* another
   Boot0001* efi
   Boot0003* EFI Shell [Built-in]

This means the boot order is 0001,0000,0003. To make the
EFI Shell to be the default boot item, type in:

   ia64-host:~ # efibootmgr -o 0003,0001,0000

Now edit the boot cycle detection config file

   /etc/sysconfig/bootloader.

and set

   CYCLE_DETECTION="yes"

(the original value is "no").  Set CYCLE_NEXT_ENTRY to the
number of the boot order by efibootmgr.  For above example,
the "Boot0001* efi" is the boot item installed elilo and
we want to boot with, so set

   CYCLE_NEXT_ENTRY="0001"

In other words, after a change of IA64 boot system, the
the boot.cycle has to be called to ensure that the correct
entry will boot up the next time.