1 February 2003 Kernel Parameters v2.5.59
4 The following is a consolidated list of the kernel parameters as implemented
5 (mostly) by the __setup() macro and sorted into English Dictionary order
6 (defined as ignoring all punctuation and sorting digits before letters in a
7 case insensitive manner), and with descriptions where known.
9 Module parameters for loadable modules are specified only as the
10 parameter name with optional '=' and value as appropriate, such as:
12 modprobe usbcore blinkenlights=1
14 Module parameters for modules that are built into the kernel image
15 are specified on the kernel command line with the module name plus
16 '.' plus parameter name, with '=' and value if appropriate, such as:
18 usbcore.blinkenlights=1
20 The text in square brackets at the beginning of the description states the
21 restrictions on the kernel for the said kernel parameter to be valid. The
22 restrictions referred to are that the relevant option is valid if:
24 ACPI ACPI support is enabled.
25 ALSA ALSA sound support is enabled.
26 APIC APIC support is enabled.
27 APM Advanced Power Management support is enabled.
28 AX25 Appropriate AX.25 support is enabled.
29 CD Appropriate CD support is enabled.
30 DEVFS devfs support is enabled.
31 DRM Direct Rendering Management support is enabled.
32 EDD BIOS Enhanced Disk Drive Services (EDD) is enabled
33 EFI EFI Partitioning (GPT) is enabled
34 EIDE EIDE/ATAPI support is enabled.
35 FB The frame buffer device is enabled.
36 HW Appropriate hardware is enabled.
37 IA-32 IA-32 aka i386 architecture is enabled.
38 IA-64 IA-64 architecture is enabled.
39 IOSCHED More than one I/O scheduler is enabled.
40 IP_PNP IP DHCP, BOOTP, or RARP is enabled.
41 ISAPNP ISA PnP code is enabled.
42 ISDN Appropriate ISDN support is enabled.
43 JOY Appropriate joystick support is enabled.
44 LP Printer support is enabled.
45 LOOP Loopback device support is enabled.
46 M68k M68k architecture is enabled.
47 These options have more detailed description inside of
48 Documentation/m68k/kernel-options.txt.
49 MCA MCA bus support is enabled.
50 MDA MDA console support is enabled.
51 MOUSE Appropriate mouse support is enabled.
52 MTD MTD support is enabled.
53 NET Appropriate network support is enabled.
54 NUMA NUMA support is enabled.
55 NFS Appropriate NFS support is enabled.
56 OSS OSS sound support is enabled.
57 PARIDE The ParIDE subsystem is enabled.
58 PARISC The PA-RISC architecture is enabled.
59 PCI PCI bus support is enabled.
60 PCMCIA The PCMCIA subsystem is enabled.
61 PNP Plug & Play support is enabled.
62 PPC PowerPC architecture is enabled.
63 PPT Parallel port support is enabled.
64 PS2 Appropriate PS/2 support is enabled.
65 RAM RAM disk support is enabled.
66 S390 S390 architecture is enabled.
67 SCSI Appropriate SCSI support is enabled.
68 A lot of drivers has their options described inside of
70 SELINUX SELinux support is enabled.
71 SERIAL Serial support is enabled.
72 SMP The kernel is an SMP kernel.
73 SPARC Sparc architecture is enabled.
74 SWSUSP Software suspend is enabled.
75 TS Appropriate touchscreen support is enabled.
76 USB USB support is enabled.
77 USBHID USB Human Interface Device support is enabled.
78 V4L Video For Linux support is enabled.
79 VGA The VGA console has been enabled.
80 VT Virtual terminal support is enabled.
81 WDT Watchdog support is enabled.
82 XT IBM PC/XT MFM hard disk support is enabled.
83 X86-64 X86-64 architecture is enabled.
84 More X86-64 boot options can be found in
85 Documentation/x86_64/boot-options.txt .
87 In addition, the following text indicates that the option:
89 BUGS= Relates to possible processor bugs on the said processor.
90 KNL Is a kernel start-up parameter.
91 BOOT Is a boot loader parameter.
93 Parameters denoted with BOOT are actually interpreted by the boot
94 loader, and have no meaning to the kernel directly.
95 Do not modify the syntax of boot loader parameters without extreme
96 need or coordination with <Documentation/i386/boot.txt>.
98 Note that ALL kernel parameters listed below are CASE SENSITIVE, and that
99 a trailing = on the name of any parameter states that that parameter will
100 be entered as an environment variable, whereas its absence indicates that
101 it will appear as a kernel argument readable via /proc/cmdline by programs
102 running once the system is up.
104 53c7xx= [HW,SCSI] Amiga SCSI controllers
105 See header of drivers/scsi/53c7xx.c.
106 See also Documentation/scsi/ncr53c7xx.txt.
108 acpi= [HW,ACPI] Advanced Configuration and Power Interface
109 Format: { force | off | ht | strict | noirq }
110 force -- enable ACPI if default was off
111 off -- disable ACPI if default was on
112 noirq -- do not use ACPI for IRQ routing
113 ht -- run only enough ACPI to enable Hyper Threading
114 strict -- Be less tolerant of platforms that are not
115 strictly ACPI specification compliant.
117 See also Documentation/pm.txt, pci=noacpi
119 acpi_sleep= [HW,ACPI] Sleep options
120 Format: { s3_bios, s3_mode }
121 See Documentation/power/video.txt
123 acpi_sci= [HW,ACPI] ACPI System Control Interrupt trigger mode
124 Format: { level | edge | high | low }
126 acpi_irq_balance [HW,ACPI]
127 ACPI will balance active IRQs
130 acpi_irq_nobalance [HW,ACPI]
131 ACPI will not move active IRQs (default)
134 acpi_irq_pci= [HW,ACPI] If irq_balance, clear listed IRQs for
136 Format: <irq>,<irq>...
138 acpi_irq_isa= [HW,ACPI] If irq_balance, mark listed IRQs used by ISA
139 Format: <irq>,<irq>...
141 acpi_osi= [HW,ACPI] empty param disables _OSI
143 acpi_serialize [HW,ACPI] force serialization of AML methods
145 acpi_skip_timer_override [HW,ACPI]
146 Recognize and ignore IRQ0/pin2 Interrupt Override.
147 For broken nForce2 BIOS resulting in XT-PIC timer.
149 acpi_dbg_layer= [HW,ACPI]
151 Each bit of the <int> indicates an ACPI debug layer,
152 1: enable, 0: disable. It is useful for boot time
153 debugging. After system has booted up, it can be set
154 via /proc/acpi/debug_layer.
156 acpi_dbg_level= [HW,ACPI]
158 Each bit of the <int> indicates an ACPI debug level,
159 1: enable, 0: disable. It is useful for boot time
160 debugging. After system has booted up, it can be set
161 via /proc/acpi/debug_level.
163 acpi_fake_ecdt [HW,ACPI] Workaround failure due to BIOS lacking ECDT
165 acpi_generic_hotkey [HW,ACPI]
166 Allow consolidated generic hotkey driver to
167 override platform specific driver.
168 See also Documentation/acpi-hotkey.txt.
170 enable_timer_pin_1 [i386,x86-64]
171 Enable PIN 1 of APIC timer
172 Can be useful to work around chipset bugs
173 (in particular on some ATI chipsets).
174 The kernel tries to set a reasonable default.
176 disable_timer_pin_1 [i386,x86-64]
177 Disable PIN 1 of APIC timer
178 Can be useful to work around chipset bugs.
181 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>
182 See also Documentation/sound/oss/AD1816.
185 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<type>
191 See header of drivers/scsi/advansys.c.
193 advwdt= [HW,WDT] Advantech WDT
194 Format: <iostart>,<iostop>
196 aedsp16= [HW,OSS] Audio Excel DSP 16
197 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<mss_io>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>
198 See also header of sound/oss/aedsp16.c.
201 See Documentation/scsi/aha152x.txt.
204 Format: <portbase>[,<buson>,<busoff>[,<dmaspeed>]]
207 See Documentation/scsi/aic7xxx.txt.
210 See Documentation/scsi/aic79xx.txt.
212 amijoy.map= [HW,JOY] Amiga joystick support
213 Map of devices attached to JOY0DAT and JOY1DAT
215 See also Documentation/kernel/input/joystick.txt
217 analog.map= [HW,JOY] Analog joystick and gamepad support
218 Specifies type or capabilities of an analog joystick
219 connected to one of 16 gameports
220 Format: <type1>,<type2>,..<type16>
223 Power management functions (SPARCstation-4/5 + deriv.)
225 Disable APC CPU standby support. SPARCstation-Fox does
226 not play well with APC CPU idle - disable it if you have
227 APC and your system crashes randomly.
229 apic= [APIC,i386] Change the output verbosity whilst booting
230 Format: { quiet (default) | verbose | debug }
231 Change the amount of debugging information output
232 when initialising the APIC and IO-APIC components.
234 apm= [APM] Advanced Power Management
235 See header of arch/i386/kernel/apm.c.
240 arcrimi= [HW,NET] ARCnet - "RIM I" (entirely mem-mapped) cards
241 Format: <io>,<irq>,<nodeID>
245 atarimouse= [HW,MOUSE] Atari Mouse
247 atascsi= [HW,SCSI] Atari SCSI
249 atkbd.extra= [HW] Enable extra LEDs and keys on IBM RapidAccess,
250 EzKey and similar keyboards
252 atkbd.reset= [HW] Reset keyboard during initialization
254 atkbd.set= [HW] Select keyboard code set
255 Format: <int> (2 = AT (default), 3 = PS/2)
257 atkbd.scroll= [HW] Enable scroll wheel on MS Office and similar
260 atkbd.softraw= [HW] Choose between synthetic and real raw mode
261 Format: <bool> (0 = real, 1 = synthetic (default))
263 atkbd.softrepeat= [HW]
264 Use software keyboard repeat
268 awe= [HW,OSS] AWE32/SB32/AWE64 wave table synth
269 Format: <io>,<memsize>,<isapnp>
271 aztcd= [HW,CD] Aztech CD268 CDROM driver
272 Format: <io>,0x79 (?)
274 baycom_epp= [HW,AX25]
277 baycom_par= [HW,AX25] BayCom Parallel Port AX.25 Modem
279 See header of drivers/net/hamradio/baycom_par.c.
281 baycom_ser_fdx= [HW,AX25]
282 BayCom Serial Port AX.25 Modem (Full Duplex Mode)
283 Format: <io>,<irq>,<mode>[,<baud>]
284 See header of drivers/net/hamradio/baycom_ser_fdx.c.
286 baycom_ser_hdx= [HW,AX25]
287 BayCom Serial Port AX.25 Modem (Half Duplex Mode)
288 Format: <io>,<irq>,<mode>
289 See header of drivers/net/hamradio/baycom_ser_hdx.c.
291 blkmtd_device= [HW,MTD]
297 bttv.card= [HW,V4L] bttv (bt848 + bt878 based grabber cards)
298 bttv.radio= Most important insmod options are available as
300 bttv.pll= See Documentation/video4linux/bttv/Insmod-options
301 bttv.tuner= and Documentation/video4linux/bttv/CARDLIST
304 See drivers/scsi/BusLogic.c, comment before function
305 BusLogic_ParseDriverOptions().
307 c101= [NET] Moxa C101 synchronous serial card
309 cachesize= [BUGS=IA-32] Override level 2 CPU cache size detection.
310 Sometimes CPU hardware bugs make them report the cache
311 size incorrectly. The kernel will attempt work arounds
312 to fix known problems, but for some CPUs it is not
313 possible to determine what the correct size should be.
314 This option provides an override for these situations.
317 Format: <io>,<irq>[,PAS]
318 See header of drivers/cdrom/cdu31a.c.
320 chandev= [HW,NET] Generic channel device initialisation
322 checkreqprot [SELINUX] Set initial checkreqprot flag value.
323 Format: { "0" | "1" }
324 See security/selinux/Kconfig help text.
325 0 -- check protection applied by kernel (includes
326 any implied execute protection).
327 1 -- check protection requested by application.
328 Default value is set via a kernel config option.
329 Value can be changed at runtime via
330 /selinux/checkreqprot.
332 clock= [BUGS=IA-32,HW] gettimeofday timesource override.
333 Forces specified timesource (if avaliable) to be used
334 when calculating gettimeofday(). If specicified
335 timesource is not avalible, it defaults to PIT.
336 Format: { pit | tsc | cyclone | pmtmr }
338 hpet= [IA-32,HPET] option to disable HPET and use PIT.
342 Format: { auto | [<io>,][<irq>] }
344 com20020= [HW,NET] ARCnet - COM20020 chipset
346 <io>[,<irq>[,<nodeID>[,<backplane>[,<ckp>[,<timeout>]]]]]
348 com90io= [HW,NET] ARCnet - COM90xx chipset (IO-mapped buffers)
352 ARCnet - COM90xx chipset (memory-mapped buffers)
353 Format: <io>[,<irq>[,<memstart>]]
355 condev= [HW,S390] console device
358 console= [KNL] Output console device and options.
360 tty<n> Use the virtual console device <n>.
363 Use the specified serial port. The options are of
364 the form "bbbbpn", where "bbbb" is the baud rate,
365 "p" is parity ("n", "o", or "e"), and "n" is bits.
368 See also Documentation/serial-console.txt.
370 uart,io,<addr>[,options]
371 uart,mmio,<addr>[,options]
372 Start an early, polled-mode console on the 8250/16550
373 UART at the specified I/O port or MMIO address,
374 switching to the matching ttyS device later. The
375 options are the same as for ttyS, above.
377 cpcihp_generic= [HW,PCI] Generic port I/O CompactPCI driver
379 <first_slot>,<last_slot>,<port>,<enum_bit>[,<debug>]
382 Format: { parport<nr> | auto | none }
384 crashkernel=nn[KMG]@ss[KMG]
385 [KNL] Reserve a chunk of physical memory to
386 hold a kernel to switch to with kexec on panic.
389 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<mpuio>,<mpuirq>
394 cs89x0_media= [HW,NET]
395 Format: { rj45 | aui | bnc }
397 cyclades= [HW,SERIAL] Cyclades multi-serial port adapter.
400 See header of drivers/s390/block/dasd_devmap.c.
402 db9.dev[2|3]= [HW,JOY] Multisystem joystick support via parallel port
403 (one device per port)
404 Format: <port#>,<type>
405 See also Documentation/input/joystick-parport.txt
407 debug [KNL] Enable kernel debugging (events log level).
410 Format: <area>[,<node>]
411 See also Documentation/networking/decnet.txt.
414 See Documentation/filesystems/devfs/boot-options.
417 Set number of hash buckets for dentry cache.
420 IO parameters + enable/disable command.
422 digiepca= [HW,SERIAL]
423 See drivers/char/README.epca and
424 Documentation/digiepca.txt.
426 dmascc= [HW,AX25,SERIAL] AX.25 Z80SCC driver with DMA
428 Format: <io_dev0>[,<io_dev1>[,..<io_dev32>]]
430 dmasound= [HW,OSS] Sound subsystem buffers
436 earlyprintk= [IA-32,X86-64]
438 earlyprintk=serial[,ttySn[,baudrate]]
440 Append ",keep" to not disable it when the real console
443 Only vga or serial at a time, not both.
445 Currently only ttyS0 and ttyS1 are supported.
447 Interaction with the standard serial driver is not
450 The VGA output is eventually overwritten by the real
460 Format: {"of[f]" | "sk[ipmbr]"}
461 See comment in arch/i386/boot/edd.S
464 Format: <id>,<membase>,<irq>
466 eisa_irq_edge= [PARISC,HW]
467 See header of drivers/parisc/eisa.c.
470 See comment before function elanfreq_setup() in
471 arch/i386/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/elanfreq.c.
474 Format: {"as" | "cfq" | "deadline" | "noop"}
475 See Documentation/block/as-iosched.txt and
476 Documentation/block/deadline-iosched.txt for details.
479 Specifies physical address of start of kernel core
481 See Documentation/kdump.txt for details.
483 enforcing [SELINUX] Set initial enforcing status.
485 See security/selinux/Kconfig help text.
486 0 -- permissive (log only, no denials).
487 1 -- enforcing (deny and log).
489 Value can be changed at runtime via /selinux/enforce.
492 Format: <lineout>[,<micbias>]
493 See also header of sound/oss/es1370.c.
496 Format: <spdif>,[<nomix>,[<amplifier>]]
497 See also header of sound/oss/es1371.c.
499 ether= [HW,NET] Ethernet cards parameters
500 This option is obsoleted by the "netdev=" option, which
501 has equivalent usage. See its documentation for details.
503 eurwdt= [HW,WDT] Eurotech CPU-1220/1410 onboard watchdog.
507 See header of drivers/scsi/fd_mcs.c.
510 See header of drivers/scsi/fdomain.c.
513 See Documentation/floppy.txt.
515 ftape= [HW] Floppy Tape subsystem debugging options.
516 See Documentation/ftape.txt.
519 [HW,JOY] Multisystem joystick and NES/SNES/PSX pad
520 support via parallel port (up to 5 devices per port)
521 Format: <port#>,<pad1>,<pad2>,<pad3>,<pad4>,<pad5>
522 See also Documentation/input/joystick-parport.txt
527 See header of drivers/scsi/gdth.c.
529 gpt [EFI] Forces disk with valid GPT signature but
530 invalid Protective MBR to be treated as GPT.
535 gt96100eth= [NET] MIPS GT96100 Advanced Communication Controller
538 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma16>
542 hashdist= [KNL,NUMA] Large hashes allocated during boot
543 are distributed across NUMA nodes. Defaults on
544 for IA-64, off otherwise.
545 Format: 0 | 1 (for off | on)
547 hcl= [IA-64] SGI's Hardware Graph compatibility layer
549 hd= [EIDE] (E)IDE hard drive subsystem geometry
550 Format: <cyl>,<head>,<sect>
552 hd?= [HW] (E)IDE subsystem
553 hd?lun= See Documentation/ide.txt.
555 highmem=nn[KMG] [KNL,BOOT] forces the highmem zone to have an exact
556 size of <nn>. This works even on boxes that have no
557 highmem otherwise. This also works to reduce highmem
558 size on bigger boxes.
561 See Documentation/isdn/README.HiSax.
563 hugepages= [HW,IA-32,IA-64] Maximal number of HugeTLB pages.
565 noirqbalance [IA-32,SMP,KNL] Disable kernel irq balancing
567 i8042.direct [HW] Put keyboard port into non-translated mode
568 i8042.dumbkbd [HW] Pretend that controlled can only read data from
569 keyboard and can not control its state
570 (Don't attempt to blink the leds)
571 i8042.noaux [HW] Don't check for auxiliary (== mouse) port
572 i8042.nokbd [HW] Don't check/create keyboard port
573 i8042.nomux [HW] Don't check presence of an active multiplexing
575 i8042.nopnp [HW] Don't use ACPIPnP / PnPBIOS to discover KBD/AUX
578 [HW] Frequency with which keyboard LEDs should blink
579 when kernel panics (default is 0.5 sec)
580 i8042.reset [HW] Reset the controller during init and cleanup
581 i8042.unlock [HW] Unlock (ignore) the keylock
585 i8k.ignore_dmi [HW] Continue probing hardware even if DMI data
586 indicates that the driver is running on unsupported
588 i8k.force [HW] Activate i8k driver even if SMM BIOS signature
589 does not match list of supported models.
591 [HW] Report power status in /proc/i8k
592 (disabled by default)
593 i8k.restricted [HW] Allow controlling fans only if SYS_ADMIN
596 ibmmcascsi= [HW,MCA,SCSI] IBM MicroChannel SCSI adapter
597 See Documentation/mca.txt.
600 Format: <io>[,<membase>[,<icn_id>[,<icn_id2>]]]
602 ide= [HW] (E)IDE subsystem
603 Format: ide=nodma or ide=doubler or ide=reverse
604 See Documentation/ide.txt.
606 ide?= [HW] (E)IDE subsystem
607 Format: ide?=noprobe or chipset specific parameters.
608 See Documentation/ide.txt.
610 idebus= [HW] (E)IDE subsystem - VLB/PCI bus speed
611 See Documentation/ide.txt.
614 Format: idle=poll or idle=halt
617 Set number of hash buckets for inode cache.
620 See header of drivers/scsi/in2000.c.
624 Run specified binary instead of /sbin/init as init
627 initcall_debug [KNL] Trace initcalls as they are executed. Useful
628 for working out where the kernel is dying during
631 initrd= [BOOT] Specify the location of the initial ramdisk
633 inport.irq= [HW] Inport (ATI XL and Microsoft) busmouse driver
638 io7= [HW] IO7 for Marvel based alpha systems
639 See comment before marvel_specify_io7 in
640 arch/alpha/kernel/core_marvel.c.
643 See Documentation/nfsroot.txt.
645 ip2= [HW] Set IO/IRQ pairs for up to 4 IntelliPort boards
646 See comment before ip2_setup() in drivers/char/ip2.c.
648 ips= [HW,SCSI] Adaptec / IBM ServeRAID controller
649 See header of drivers/scsi/ips.c.
652 When an interrupt is not handled search all handlers
653 for it. Intended to get systems with badly broken
657 When an interrupt is not handled search all handlers
658 for it. Also check all handlers each timer
659 interrupt. Intended to get systems with badly broken
663 Format: <RDP>,<reset>,<pci_scan>,<verbosity>
665 isolcpus= [KNL,SMP] Isolate CPUs from the general scheduler.
666 Format: <cpu number>,...,<cpu number>
667 This option can be used to specify one or more CPUs
668 to isolate from the general SMP balancing and scheduling
669 algorithms. The only way to move a process onto or off
670 an "isolated" CPU is via the CPU affinity syscalls.
671 <cpu number> begins at 0 and the maximum value is
672 "number of CPUs in system - 1".
674 This option is the preferred way to isolate CPUs. The
675 alternative -- manually setting the CPU mask of all
676 tasks in the system -- can cause problems and
677 suboptimal load balancer performance.
680 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<setup>
684 js= [HW,JOY] Analog joystick
685 See Documentation/input/joystick.txt.
689 kstack=N [IA-32,X86-64] Print N words from the kernel stack
694 lapic [IA-32,APIC] Enable the local APIC even if BIOS
697 lasi= [HW,SCSI] PARISC LASI driver for the 53c700 chip
698 Format: addr:<io>,irq:<irq>
700 llsc*= [IA64] See function print_params() in
701 arch/ia64/sn/kernel/llsc4.c.
703 load_ramdisk= [RAM] List of ramdisks to load from floppy
704 See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
710 logibm.irq= [HW,MOUSE] Logitech Bus Mouse Driver
713 loglevel= All Kernel Messages with a loglevel smaller than the
714 console loglevel will be printed to the console. It can
715 also be changed with klogd or other programs. The
716 loglevels are defined as follows:
718 0 (KERN_EMERG) system is unusable
719 1 (KERN_ALERT) action must be taken immediately
720 2 (KERN_CRIT) critical conditions
721 3 (KERN_ERR) error conditions
722 4 (KERN_WARNING) warning conditions
723 5 (KERN_NOTICE) normal but significant condition
724 6 (KERN_INFO) informational
725 7 (KERN_DEBUG) debug-level messages
727 log_buf_len=n Sets the size of the printk ring buffer, in bytes.
728 Format: { n | nk | nM }
729 n must be a power of two. The default size
730 is set in the kernel config file.
732 lp=0 [LP] Specify parallel ports to use, e.g,
733 lp=port[,port...] lp=none,parport0 (lp0 not configured, lp1 uses
734 lp=reset first parallel port). 'lp=0' disables the
735 lp=auto printer driver. 'lp=reset' (which can be
736 specified in addition to the ports) causes
737 attached printers to be reset. Using
738 lp=port1,port2,... specifies the parallel ports
739 to associate lp devices with, starting with
740 lp0. A port specification may be 'none' to skip
741 that lp device, or a parport name such as
742 'parport0'. Specifying 'lp=auto' instead of a
743 port specification list means that device IDs
744 from each port should be examined, to see if
745 an IEEE 1284-compliant printer is attached; if
746 so, the driver will manage that printer.
747 See also header of drivers/char/lp.c.
750 Sets loops_per_jiffy to given constant, thus avoiding
751 time-consuming boot-time autodetection (up to 250 ms per
752 CPU). 0 enables autodetection (default). To determine
753 the correct value for your kernel, boot with normal
754 autodetection and see what value is printed. Note that
755 on SMP systems the preset will be applied to all CPUs,
756 which is likely to cause problems if your CPUs need
757 significantly divergent settings. An incorrect value
758 will cause delays in the kernel to be wrong, leading to
759 unpredictable I/O errors and other breakage. Although
760 unlikely, in the extreme case this might damage your
764 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>
766 mac5380= [HW,SCSI] Format:
767 <can_queue>,<cmd_per_lun>,<sg_tablesize>,<hostid>,<use_tags>
769 mac53c9x= [HW,SCSI] Format:
770 <num_esps>,<disconnect>,<nosync>,<can_queue>,<cmd_per_lun>,<sg_tablesize>,<hostid>,<use_tags>
772 machvec= [IA64] Force the use of a particular machine-vector
773 (machvec) in a generic kernel.
774 Example: machvec=hpzx1_swiotlb
776 mad16= [HW,OSS] Format:
777 <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma16>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>,<joystick>
782 max_loop= [LOOP] Maximum number of loopback devices that can
786 maxcpus= [SMP] Maximum number of processors that an SMP kernel
789 max_addr=[KMG] [KNL,BOOT,ia64] All physical memory greater than or
790 equal to this physical address is ignored.
792 max_luns= [SCSI] Maximum number of LUNs to probe.
793 Should be between 1 and 2^32-1.
796 [SCSI] Maximum number of LUNs received.
797 Should be between 1 and 16384.
799 mca-pentium [BUGS=IA-32]
804 Format: <port>,<irq>,<mitsumi_bug_93_wait>
808 mce [IA-32] Machine Check Exception
810 md= [HW] RAID subsystems devices and level
811 See Documentation/md.txt.
814 Format: <first>,<last>
815 Specifies range of consoles to be captured by the MDA.
817 mem=nn[KMG] [KNL,BOOT] Force usage of a specific amount of memory
818 Amount of memory to be used when the kernel is not able
819 to see the whole system memory or for test.
820 [IA-32] Use together with memmap= to avoid physical
821 address space collisions. Without memmap= PCI devices
822 could be placed at addresses belonging to unused RAM.
824 mem=nopentium [BUGS=IA-32] Disable usage of 4MB pages for kernel
827 memmap=exactmap [KNL,IA-32] Enable setting of an exact
828 E820 memory map, as specified by the user.
829 Such memmap=exactmap lines can be constructed based on
830 BIOS output or other requirements. See the memmap=nn@ss
833 memmap=nn[KMG]@ss[KMG]
834 [KNL] Force usage of a specific region of memory
835 Region of memory to be used, from ss to ss+nn.
837 memmap=nn[KMG]#ss[KMG]
838 [KNL,ACPI] Mark specific memory as ACPI data.
839 Region of memory to be used, from ss to ss+nn.
841 memmap=nn[KMG]$ss[KMG]
842 [KNL,ACPI] Mark specific memory as reserved.
843 Region of memory to be used, from ss to ss+nn.
845 meye.*= [HW] Set MotionEye Camera parameters
846 See Documentation/video4linux/meye.txt.
851 [MOUSE] Maximum time between finger touching and
852 leaving touchpad surface for touch to be considered
853 a tap and be reported as a left button click (for
854 touchpads working in absolute mode only).
856 mousedev.xres= [MOUSE] Horizontal screen resolution, used for devices
857 reporting absolute coordinates, such as tablets
858 mousedev.yres= [MOUSE] Vertical screen resolution, used for devices
859 reporting absolute coordinates, such as tablets
865 Format: <name>,<region-number>,<size>,<offset>
867 MTD_Region= [MTD] Format:
868 <name>,<region-number>[,<base>,<size>,<buswidth>,<altbuswidth>]
871 See drivers/mtd/cmdline.c.
873 mtouchusb.raw_coordinates=
874 [HW] Make the MicroTouch USB driver use raw coordinates
875 ('y', default) or cooked coordinates ('n')
877 n2= [NET] SDL Inc. RISCom/N2 synchronous serial card
880 See header of drivers/scsi/NCR_D700.c.
886 ncr53c400a= [HW,SCSI]
888 ncr53c406a= [HW,SCSI]
892 netdev= [NET] Network devices parameters
893 Format: <irq>,<io>,<mem_start>,<mem_end>,<name>
894 Note that mem_start is often overloaded to mean
895 something different and driver-specific.
896 This usage is only documented in each driver source
900 See Documentation/nfsroot.txt.
902 nfsroot= [NFS] nfs root filesystem for disk-less boxes.
903 See Documentation/nfsroot.txt.
905 nmi_watchdog= [KNL,BUGS=IA-32] Debugging features for SMP kernels
907 no387 [BUGS=IA-32] Tells the kernel to use the 387 maths
908 emulation library even if a 387 maths coprocessor
913 noapic [SMP,APIC] Tells the kernel to not make use of any
914 IOAPICs that may be present in the system.
916 noasync [HW,M68K] Disables async and sync negotiation for
919 nobats [PPC] Do not use BATs for mapping kernel lowmem
920 on "Classic" PPC cores.
924 nodisconnect [HW,SCSI,M68K] Disables SCSI disconnects.
928 noexec [IA-32,X86-64]
929 noexec=on: enable non-executable mappings (default)
930 noexec=off: disable nn-executable mappings
936 no-hlt [BUGS=IA-32] Tells the kernel that the hlt
937 instruction doesn't work correctly and not to
940 nohalt [IA-64] Tells the kernel not to use the power saving
941 function PAL_HALT_LIGHT when idle. This increases
942 power-consumption. On the positive side, it reduces
943 interrupt wake-up latency, which may improve performance
944 in certain environments such as networked servers or
947 noirqdebug [IA-32] Disables the code which attempts to detect and
948 disable unhandled interrupt sources.
950 noisapnp [ISAPNP] Disables ISA PnP code.
952 noinitrd [RAM] Tells the kernel not to load any configured
957 nolapic [IA-32,APIC] Do not enable or use the local APIC.
959 noltlbs [PPC] Do not use large page/tlb entries for kernel
960 lowmem mapping on PPC40x.
962 nomce [IA-32] Machine Check Exception
964 noresidual [PPC] Don't use residual data on PReP machines.
966 noresume [SWSUSP] Disables resume and restores original swap
969 no-scroll [VGA] Disables scrollback.
970 This is required for the Braillex ib80-piezo Braille
971 reader made by F.H. Papenmeier (Germany).
975 nosmp [SMP] Tells an SMP kernel to act as a UP kernel.
977 nosync [HW,M68K] Disables sync negotiation for all devices.
979 notsc [BUGS=IA-32] Disable Time Stamp Counter
981 nousb [USB] Disable the USB subsystem
989 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>
991 opl3sa2= [HW,OSS] Format:
992 <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<mss_io>,<mpu_io>,<ymode>,<loopback>[,<isapnp>,<multiple]
995 Use timer interrupt instead of performance counters
1000 osst= [HW,SCSI] SCSI Tape Driver
1001 Format: <buffer_size>,<write_threshold>
1002 See also Documentation/scsi/st.txt.
1004 panic= [KNL] Kernel behaviour on panic
1007 parkbd.port= [HW] Parallel port number the keyboard adapter is
1008 connected to, default is 0.
1010 parkbd.mode= [HW] Parallel port keyboard adapter mode of operation,
1011 0 for XT, 1 for AT (default is AT).
1014 parport= [HW,PPT] Specify parallel ports. 0 disables.
1015 Format: { 0 | auto | 0xBBB[,IRQ[,DMA]] }
1016 Use 'auto' to force the driver to use any
1017 IRQ/DMA settings detected (the default is to
1018 ignore detected IRQ/DMA settings because of
1019 possible conflicts). You can specify the base
1020 address, IRQ, and DMA settings; IRQ and DMA
1021 should be numbers, or 'auto' (for using detected
1022 settings on that particular port), or 'nofifo'
1023 (to avoid using a FIFO even if it is detected).
1024 Parallel ports are assigned in the order they
1025 are specified on the command line, starting
1028 parport_init_mode= [HW,PPT]
1029 Configure VIA parallel port to operate in
1030 a specific mode. This is necessary on Pegasos
1031 computer where firmware has no options for setting
1032 up parallel port mode and sets it to spp.
1033 Currently this function knows 686a and 8231 chips.
1034 Format: [spp|ps2|epp|ecp|ecpepp]
1036 pas2= [HW,OSS] Format:
1037 <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma16>,<sb_io>,<sb_irq>,<sb_dma>,<sb_dma16>
1040 See header of drivers/scsi/pas16.c.
1045 See header of drivers/block/paride/pcd.c.
1046 See also Documentation/paride.txt.
1048 pci=option[,option...] [PCI] various PCI subsystem options:
1049 off [IA-32] don't probe for the PCI bus
1050 bios [IA-32] force use of PCI BIOS, don't access
1051 the hardware directly. Use this if your machine
1052 has a non-standard PCI host bridge.
1053 nobios [IA-32] disallow use of PCI BIOS, only direct
1054 hardware access methods are allowed. Use this
1055 if you experience crashes upon bootup and you
1056 suspect they are caused by the BIOS.
1057 conf1 [IA-32] Force use of PCI Configuration
1059 conf2 [IA-32] Force use of PCI Configuration
1061 nosort [IA-32] Don't sort PCI devices according to
1062 order given by the PCI BIOS. This sorting is
1063 done to get a device order compatible with
1065 biosirq [IA-32] Use PCI BIOS calls to get the interrupt
1066 routing table. These calls are known to be buggy
1067 on several machines and they hang the machine
1068 when used, but on other computers it's the only
1069 way to get the interrupt routing table. Try
1070 this option if the kernel is unable to allocate
1071 IRQs or discover secondary PCI buses on your
1073 rom [IA-32] Assign address space to expansion ROMs.
1074 Use with caution as certain devices share
1075 address decoders between ROMs and other
1077 irqmask=0xMMMM [IA-32] Set a bit mask of IRQs allowed to be
1078 assigned automatically to PCI devices. You can
1079 make the kernel exclude IRQs of your ISA cards
1081 pirqaddr=0xAAAAA [IA-32] Specify the physical address
1082 of the PIRQ table (normally generated
1083 by the BIOS) if it is outside the
1084 F0000h-100000h range.
1085 lastbus=N [IA-32] Scan all buses thru bus #N. Can be
1086 useful if the kernel is unable to find your
1087 secondary buses and you want to tell it
1088 explicitly which ones they are.
1089 assign-busses [IA-32] Always assign all PCI bus
1090 numbers ourselves, overriding
1091 whatever the firmware may have done.
1092 usepirqmask [IA-32] Honor the possible IRQ mask stored
1093 in the BIOS $PIR table. This is needed on
1094 some systems with broken BIOSes, notably
1095 some HP Pavilion N5400 and Omnibook XE3
1096 notebooks. This will have no effect if ACPI
1097 IRQ routing is enabled.
1098 noacpi [IA-32] Do not use ACPI for IRQ routing
1099 or for PCI scanning.
1100 routeirq Do IRQ routing for all PCI devices.
1101 This is normally done in pci_enable_device(),
1102 so this option is a temporary workaround
1103 for broken drivers that don't call it.
1104 firmware [ARM] Do not re-enumerate the bus but instead
1105 just use the configuration from the
1106 bootloader. This is currently used on
1107 IXP2000 systems where the bus has to be
1108 configured a certain way for adjunct CPUs.
1110 pcmv= [HW,PCMCIA] BadgePAD 4
1113 See Documentation/paride.txt.
1115 pdcchassis= [PARISC,HW] Disable/Enable PDC Chassis Status codes at
1118 See arch/parisc/kernel/pdc_chassis.c
1121 See Documentation/paride.txt.
1124 See Documentation/paride.txt.
1126 pirq= [SMP,APIC] Manual mp-table setup
1127 See Documentation/i386/IO-APIC.txt.
1129 plip= [PPT,NET] Parallel port network link
1130 Format: { parport<nr> | timid | 0 }
1131 See also Documentation/parport.txt.
1137 { on | off | curr | res | no-curr | no-res }
1140 [ISAPNP] Exclude IRQs for the autoconfiguration
1143 [ISAPNP] Exclude DMAs for the autoconfiguration
1145 pnp_reserve_io= [ISAPNP] Exclude I/O ports for the autoconfiguration
1146 Ranges are in pairs (I/O port base and size).
1149 [ISAPNP] Exclude memory regions for the
1151 Ranges are in pairs (memory base and size).
1153 profile= [KNL] Enable kernel profiling via /proc/profile
1154 Format: [schedule,]<number>
1155 Param: "schedule" - profile schedule points.
1156 Param: <number> - step/bucket size as a power of 2 for
1157 statistical time based profiling.
1159 processor.max_cstate= [HW,ACPI]
1160 Limit processor to maximum C-state
1161 max_cstate=9 overrides any DMI blacklist limit.
1163 prompt_ramdisk= [RAM] List of RAM disks to prompt for floppy disk
1165 See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
1167 psmouse.proto= [HW,MOUSE] Highest PS2 mouse protocol extension to
1168 probe for; one of (bare|imps|exps|lifebook|any).
1169 psmouse.rate= [HW,MOUSE] Set desired mouse report rate, in reports
1171 psmouse.resetafter= [HW,MOUSE]
1172 Try to reset the device after so many bad packets
1175 [HW,MOUSE] Set desired mouse resolution, in dpi.
1176 psmouse.smartscroll=
1177 [HW,MOUSE] Controls Logitech smartscroll autorepeat.
1178 0 = disabled, 1 = enabled (default).
1180 pss= [HW,OSS] Personal Sound System (ECHO ESC614)
1182 <io>,<mss_io>,<mss_irq>,<mss_dma>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>
1185 See Documentation/paride.txt.
1187 quiet= [KNL] Disable log messages
1192 See Documentation/md.txt.
1194 ramdisk= [RAM] Sizes of RAM disks in kilobytes [deprecated]
1195 See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
1197 ramdisk_blocksize= [RAM]
1198 See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
1200 ramdisk_size= [RAM] Sizes of RAM disks in kilobytes
1201 New name for the ramdisk parameter.
1202 See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
1206 Run specified binary instead of /init from the ramdisk,
1207 used for early userspace startup. See initrd.
1209 reboot= [BUGS=IA-32,BUGS=ARM,BUGS=IA-64] Rebooting mode
1210 Format: <reboot_mode>[,<reboot_mode2>[,...]]
1211 See arch/*/kernel/reboot.c.
1213 reserve= [KNL,BUGS] Force the kernel to ignore some iomem area
1216 Specify the partition device for software suspend
1218 rhash_entries= [KNL,NET]
1219 Set number of hash buckets for route cache
1221 riscom8= [HW,SERIAL]
1222 Format: <io_board1>[,<io_board2>[,...<io_boardN>]]
1224 ro [KNL] Mount root device read-only on boot
1226 root= [KNL] Root filesystem
1228 rootdelay= [KNL] Delay (in seconds) to pause before attempting to
1229 mount the root filesystem
1231 rootflags= [KNL] Set root filesystem mount option string
1233 rootfstype= [KNL] Set root filesystem type
1235 rw [KNL] Mount root device read-write on boot
1237 S [KNL] Run init in single mode
1240 See drivers/net/irda/sa1100_ir.c.
1243 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>
1245 sbni= [NET] Granch SBNI12 leased line adapter
1247 sbpcd= [HW,CD] Soundblaster CD adapter
1249 See a comment before function sbpcd_setup() in
1250 drivers/cdrom/sbpcd.c.
1252 sc1200wdt= [HW,WDT] SC1200 WDT (watchdog) driver
1253 Format: <io>[,<timeout>[,<isapnp>]]
1255 scsi_debug_*= [SCSI]
1256 See drivers/scsi/scsi_debug.c.
1258 scsi_default_dev_flags=
1259 [SCSI] SCSI default device flags
1262 scsi_dev_flags= [SCSI] Black/white list entry for vendor and model
1263 Format: <vendor>:<model>:<flags>
1264 (flags are integer value)
1266 scsi_logging= [SCSI]
1268 selinux [SELINUX] Disable or enable SELinux at boot time.
1269 Format: { "0" | "1" }
1270 See security/selinux/Kconfig help text.
1273 Default value is set via kernel config option.
1274 If enabled at boot time, /selinux/disable can be used
1275 later to disable prior to initial policy load.
1277 serialnumber [BUGS=IA-32]
1279 sg_def_reserved_size= [SCSI]
1282 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<sgbase>
1285 Maximal number of shapers.
1288 See header of drivers/scsi/sim710.c.
1294 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>
1295 See header of drivers/cdrom/sjcd.c.
1300 Format: <io1>[,<io2>[,...,<io8>]]
1302 snd-ad1816a= [HW,ALSA]
1304 snd-ad1848= [HW,ALSA]
1306 snd-ali5451= [HW,ALSA]
1308 snd-als100= [HW,ALSA]
1310 snd-als4000= [HW,ALSA]
1312 snd-azt2320= [HW,ALSA]
1314 snd-cmi8330= [HW,ALSA]
1316 snd-cmipci= [HW,ALSA]
1318 snd-cs4231= [HW,ALSA]
1320 snd-cs4232= [HW,ALSA]
1322 snd-cs4236= [HW,ALSA]
1324 snd-cs4281= [HW,ALSA]
1326 snd-cs46xx= [HW,ALSA]
1328 snd-dt019x= [HW,ALSA]
1330 snd-dummy= [HW,ALSA]
1332 snd-emu10k1= [HW,ALSA]
1334 snd-ens1370= [HW,ALSA]
1336 snd-ens1371= [HW,ALSA]
1338 snd-es968= [HW,ALSA]
1340 snd-es1688= [HW,ALSA]
1342 snd-es18xx= [HW,ALSA]
1344 snd-es1938= [HW,ALSA]
1346 snd-es1968= [HW,ALSA]
1348 snd-fm801= [HW,ALSA]
1350 snd-gusclassic= [HW,ALSA]
1352 snd-gusextreme= [HW,ALSA]
1354 snd-gusmax= [HW,ALSA]
1358 snd-ice1712= [HW,ALSA]
1360 snd-intel8x0= [HW,ALSA]
1362 snd-interwave= [HW,ALSA]
1367 snd-korg1212= [HW,ALSA]
1369 snd-maestro3= [HW,ALSA]
1371 snd-mpu401= [HW,ALSA]
1373 snd-mtpav= [HW,ALSA]
1375 snd-nm256= [HW,ALSA]
1377 snd-opl3sa2= [HW,ALSA]
1385 snd-opti93x= [HW,ALSA]
1389 snd-rme32= [HW,ALSA]
1391 snd-rme96= [HW,ALSA]
1393 snd-rme9652= [HW,ALSA]
1399 snd-sbawe= [HW,ALSA]
1401 snd-serial= [HW,ALSA]
1403 snd-sgalaxy= [HW,ALSA]
1405 snd-sonicvibes= [HW,ALSA]
1410 snd-sun-cs4231= [HW,ALSA]
1412 snd-trident= [HW,ALSA]
1414 snd-usb-audio= [HW,ALSA,USB]
1416 snd-via82xx= [HW,ALSA]
1418 snd-virmidi= [HW,ALSA]
1420 snd-wavefront= [HW,ALSA]
1422 snd-ymfpci= [HW,ALSA]
1424 sonicvibes= [HW,OSS]
1428 Format: <io>[,<irq>]
1430 sonypi.*= [HW] Sony Programmable I/O Control Device driver
1431 See Documentation/sonypi.txt
1433 specialix= [HW,SERIAL] Specialix multi-serial port adapter
1434 See Documentation/specialix.txt.
1436 spia_io_base= [HW,MTD]
1442 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>
1444 st= [HW,SCSI] SCSI tape parameters (buffers, etc.)
1445 See Documentation/scsi/st.txt.
1448 See header of drivers/scsi/seagate.c.
1452 Set the STI (builtin display/keyboard on the HP-PARISC
1453 machines) console (graphic card) which should be used
1454 as the initial boot-console.
1455 See also comment in drivers/video/console/sticore.c.
1458 See comment in drivers/video/console/sticore.c.
1461 Format: bpp:<bpp1>[:<bpp2>[:<bpp3>...]]
1463 swiotlb= [IA-64] Number of I/O TLB slabs
1467 sym53c416= [HW,SCSI]
1468 See header of drivers/scsi/sym53c416.c.
1471 See header of drivers/scsi/t128.c.
1475 thash_entries= [KNL,NET]
1476 Set number of hash buckets for TCP connection
1478 time Show timing data prefixed to each printk message line
1480 tipar.timeout= [HW,PPT]
1481 Set communications timeout in tenths of a second
1484 tipar.delay= [HW,PPT]
1485 Set inter-bit delay in microseconds (default 10).
1488 See header of drivers/scsi/seagate.c.
1491 See comment before function dc390_setup() in
1492 drivers/scsi/tmscsim.c.
1496 trix= [HW,OSS] MediaTrix AudioTrix Pro
1498 <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<sb_io>,<sb_irq>,<sb_dma>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>
1500 tsdev.xres= [TS] Horizontal screen resolution.
1501 tsdev.yres= [TS] Vertical screen resolution.
1503 turbografx.map[2|3]= [HW,JOY]
1504 TurboGraFX parallel port interface
1506 <port#>,<js1>,<js2>,<js3>,<js4>,<js5>,<js6>,<js7>
1507 See also Documentation/input/joystick-parport.txt
1509 u14-34f= [HW,SCSI] UltraStor 14F/34F SCSI host adapter
1510 See header of drivers/scsi/u14-34f.c.
1519 [USBHID] The interval which mice are to be polled at.
1521 video= [FB] Frame buffer configuration
1522 See Documentation/fb/modedb.txt.
1524 vga= [BOOT,IA-32] Select a particular video mode
1525 See Documentation/i386/boot.txt and
1526 Documentation/svga.txt.
1527 Use vga=ask for menu.
1528 This is actually a boot loader parameter; the value is
1529 passed to the kernel using a special protocol.
1531 vmalloc=nn[KMG] [KNL,BOOT] Forces the vmalloc area to have an exact
1532 size of <nn>. This can be used to increase the
1533 minimum size (128MB on x86). It can also be used to
1534 decrease the size and leave more room for directly
1541 waveartist= [HW,OSS]
1542 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>
1545 See header of drivers/scsi/wd33c93.c.
1548 See header of drivers/scsi/wd7000.c.
1551 See Documentation/watchdog/watchdog.txt.
1553 xd= [HW,XT] Original XT pre-IDE (RLL encoded) disks.
1554 xd_geo= See header of drivers/block/xd.c.
1556 xirc2ps_cs= [NET,PCMCIA]
1558 <irq>,<irq_mask>,<io>,<full_duplex>,<do_sound>,<lockup_hack>[,<irq2>[,<irq3>[,<irq4>]]]
1561 ______________________________________________________________________
1564 2000-06-?? Mr. Unknown
1565 The last known update (for 2.4.0) - the changelog was not kept before.
1567 2002-11-24 Petr Baudis <pasky@ucw.cz>
1568 Randy Dunlap <randy.dunlap@verizon.net>
1569 Update for 2.5.49, description for most of the options introduced,
1570 references to other documentation (C files, READMEs, ..), added S390,
1571 PPC, SPARC, MTD, ALSA and OSS category. Minor corrections and
1574 2005-10-19 Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@xenotime.net>
1575 Lots of typos, whitespace, some reformatting.
1579 Add documentation for ALSA options.
1580 Add more DRM drivers.