On Wed, Apr 10, 2019 at 1:00 PM Pat Barron <patbarron@acm.org> wrote:

> Long ago, I could swear I'd read a paper (or a TM, or something) that
> described the process of a Unix system booting.  It presented a timeline
> describing the sequence of how the boot blocks are loaded, the kernel
> is loaded, MMU turned on, etc.
>
> However, other than that, I can't recall a thing about it - can't remember
> the title, the author, or where I found it.  I don't remember if it talked
> about this process on a Bell Labs Unix system, or a BSD system (though it
> had to be one of those - either 7th Edition or BSD).  The timeframe was
> probably mid to late 1980's, though I could be wrong about that.
>
> Does this ring a bell with anyone?  I really wish I could find it again...
>

The book "The Design and Implementation of the 4.3BSD Unix Operating
System" by Leffler et al has a lengthy explanation of booting 4.3BSD on the
VAX towards the beginning of the book. Could that be it? I thought I had a
copy in my office, but don't see it on my bookshelf at the moment. Bach's,
"The Design of the Unix Operating System" contains a brief and very
high-level overview in the chapter on process control, but I recall Leffler
et al having significantly greater detail.

        - Dan C.