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 state 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 DCHP, 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 suspension 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 }
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] ACPI will balance active IRQs
129 acpi_irq_nobalance [HW,ACPI] ACPI will not move active IRQs (default)
132 acpi_irq_pci= [HW,ACPI] If irq_balance, Clear listed IRQs for use by PCI
133 Format: <irq>,<irq>...
135 acpi_irq_isa= [HW,ACPI] If irq_balance, Mark listed IRQs used by ISA
136 Format: <irq>,<irq>...
138 acpi_osi= [HW,ACPI] empty param disables _OSI
140 acpi_serialize [HW,ACPI] force serialization of AML methods
142 acpi_skip_timer_override [HW,ACPI]
143 Recognize and ignore IRQ0/pin2 Interrupt Override.
144 For broken nForce2 BIOS resulting in XT-PIC timer.
146 acpi_dbg_layer= [HW,ACPI]
148 Each bit of the <int> indicates an acpi debug layer,
149 1: enable, 0: disable. It is useful for boot time
150 debugging. After system has booted up, it can be set
151 via /proc/acpi/debug_layer.
153 acpi_dbg_level= [HW,ACPI]
155 Each bit of the <int> indicates an acpi debug level,
156 1: enable, 0: disable. It is useful for boot time
157 debugging. After system has booted up, it can be set
158 via /proc/acpi/debug_level.
160 acpi_fake_ecdt [HW,ACPI] Workaround failure due to BIOS lacking ECDT
163 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>
164 See also Documentation/sound/oss/AD1816.
167 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<type>
173 See header of drivers/scsi/advansys.c.
175 advwdt= [HW,WDT] Advantech WDT
176 Format: <iostart>,<iostop>
178 aedsp16= [HW,OSS] Audio Excel DSP 16
179 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<mss_io>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>
180 See also header of sound/oss/aedsp16.c.
183 See Documentation/scsi/aha152x.txt.
186 Format: <portbase>[,<buson>,<busoff>[,<dmaspeed>]]
189 See Documentation/scsi/aic7xxx.txt.
192 See Documentation/scsi/aic79xx.txt.
195 Format: <host-scsi-id>,<target-scsi-id>,<max-rate>,<max-offset>
196 See also header of drivers/scsi/AM53C974.c.
198 amijoy.map= [HW,JOY] Amiga joystick support
199 Map of devices attached to JOY0DAT and JOY1DAT
201 See also Documentation/kernel/input/joystick.txt
203 analog.map= [HW,JOY] Analog joystick and gamepad support
204 Specifies type or capabilities of an analog joystick
205 connected to one of 16 gameports
206 Format: <type1>,<type2>,..<type16>
208 apc= [HW,SPARC] Power management functions (SPARCstation-4/5 + deriv.)
210 Disable APC CPU standby support. SPARCstation-Fox does
211 not play well with APC CPU idle - disable it if you have
212 APC and your system crashes randomly.
214 apic= [APIC,i386] Change the output verbosity whilst booting
215 Format: { quiet (default) | verbose | debug }
216 Change the amount of debugging information output
217 when initialising the APIC and IO-APIC components.
219 apm= [APM] Advanced Power Management
220 See header of arch/i386/kernel/apm.c.
225 arcrimi= [HW,NET] ARCnet - "RIM I" (entirely mem-mapped) cards
226 Format: <io>,<irq>,<nodeID>
230 atarimouse= [HW,MOUSE] Atari Mouse
232 atascsi= [HW,SCSI] Atari SCSI
234 atkbd.extra= [HW] Enable extra LEDs and keys on IBM RapidAccess,
235 EzKey and similar keyboards
237 atkbd.reset= [HW] Reset keyboard during initialization
239 atkbd.set= [HW] Select keyboard code set
240 Format: <int> (2 = AT (default) 3 = PS/2)
242 atkbd.scroll= [HW] Enable scroll wheel on MS Office and similar
245 atkbd.softraw= [HW] Choose between synthetic and real raw mode
246 Format: <bool> (0 = real, 1 = synthetic (default))
249 [HW] Use software keyboard repeat
253 awe= [HW,OSS] AWE32/SB32/AWE64 wave table synth
254 Format: <io>,<memsize>,<isapnp>
256 aztcd= [HW,CD] Aztech CD268 CDROM driver
257 Format: <io>,0x79 (?)
259 baycom_epp= [HW,AX25]
262 baycom_par= [HW,AX25] BayCom Parallel Port AX.25 Modem
264 See header of drivers/net/hamradio/baycom_par.c.
266 baycom_ser_fdx= [HW,AX25] BayCom Serial Port AX.25 Modem (Full Duplex Mode)
267 Format: <io>,<irq>,<mode>[,<baud>]
268 See header of drivers/net/hamradio/baycom_ser_fdx.c.
270 baycom_ser_hdx= [HW,AX25] BayCom Serial Port AX.25 Modem (Half Duplex Mode)
271 Format: <io>,<irq>,<mode>
272 See header of drivers/net/hamradio/baycom_ser_hdx.c.
274 blkmtd_device= [HW,MTD]
280 bttv.card= [HW,V4L] bttv (bt848 + bt878 based grabber cards)
281 bttv.radio= Most important insmod options are available as kernel args too.
282 bttv.pll= See Documentation/video4linux/bttv/Insmod-options
283 bttv.tuner= and Documentation/video4linux/bttv/CARDLIST
286 See drivers/scsi/BusLogic.c, comment before function
287 BusLogic_ParseDriverOptions().
289 c101= [NET] Moxa C101 synchronous serial card
291 cachesize= [BUGS=IA-32] Override level 2 CPU cache size detection.
292 Sometimes CPU hardware bugs make them report the cache
293 size incorrectly. The kernel will attempt work arounds
294 to fix known problems, but for some CPUs it is not
295 possible to determine what the correct size should be.
296 This option provides an override for these situations.
299 Format: <io>,<irq>[,PAS]
300 See header of drivers/cdrom/cdu31a.c.
302 chandev= [HW,NET] Generic channel device initialisation
304 checkreqprot [SELINUX] Set initial checkreqprot flag value.
305 Format: { "0" | "1" }
306 See security/selinux/Kconfig help text.
307 0 -- check protection applied by kernel (includes any implied execute protection).
308 1 -- check protection requested by application.
309 Default value is set via a kernel config option.
310 Value can be changed at runtime via /selinux/checkreqprot.
312 clock= [BUGS=IA-32, HW] gettimeofday timesource override.
313 Forces specified timesource (if avaliable) to be used
314 when calculating gettimeofday(). If specicified timesource
315 is not avalible, it defaults to PIT.
316 Format: { pit | tsc | cyclone | pmtmr }
318 hpet= [IA-32,HPET] option to disable HPET and use PIT.
322 Format: { auto | [<io>,][<irq>] }
324 com20020= [HW,NET] ARCnet - COM20020 chipset
325 Format: <io>[,<irq>[,<nodeID>[,<backplane>[,<ckp>[,<timeout>]]]]]
327 com90io= [HW,NET] ARCnet - COM90xx chipset (IO-mapped buffers)
330 com90xx= [HW,NET] ARCnet - COM90xx chipset (memory-mapped buffers)
331 Format: <io>[,<irq>[,<memstart>]]
333 condev= [HW,S390] console device
336 console= [KNL] Output console device and options.
338 tty<n> Use the virtual console device <n>.
341 Use the specified serial port. The options are of
342 the form "bbbbpn", where "bbbb" is the baud rate,
343 "p" is parity ("n", "o", or "e"), and "n" is bits.
346 See also Documentation/serial-console.txt.
348 uart,io,<addr>[,options]
349 uart,mmio,<addr>[,options]
350 Start an early, polled-mode console on the 8250/16550
351 UART at the specified I/O port or MMIO address,
352 switching to the matching ttyS device later. The
353 options are the same as for ttyS, above.
355 cpcihp_generic= [HW,PCI] Generic port I/O CompactPCI driver
356 Format: <first_slot>,<last_slot>,<port>,<enum_bit>[,<debug>]
359 Format: { parport<nr> | auto | none }
361 crashkernel=nn[KMG]@ss[KMG]
362 [KNL] Reserve a chunk of physical memory to
363 hold a kernel to switch to with kexec on panic.
366 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<mpuio>,<mpuirq>
371 cs89x0_media= [HW,NET]
372 Format: { rj45 | aui | bnc }
374 cyclades= [HW,SERIAL] Cyclades multi-serial port adapter.
377 See header of drivers/s390/block/dasd_devmap.c.
379 db9.dev[2|3]= [HW,JOY] Multisystem joystick support via parallel port
380 (one device per port)
381 Format: <port#>,<type>
382 See also Documentation/input/joystick-parport.txt
384 debug [KNL] Enable kernel debugging (events log level).
387 Format: <area>[,<node>]
388 See also Documentation/networking/decnet.txt.
391 See Documentation/filesystems/devfs/boot-options.
394 Set number of hash buckets for dentry cache.
397 IO parameters + enable/disable command.
399 digiepca= [HW,SERIAL]
400 See drivers/char/README.epca and
401 Documentation/digiepca.txt.
403 dmascc= [HW,AX25,SERIAL] AX.25 Z80SCC driver with DMA
405 Format: <io_dev0>[,<io_dev1>[,..<io_dev32>]]
407 dmasound= [HW,OSS] Sound subsystem buffers
413 earlyprintk= [IA-32, X86-64]
415 earlyprintk=serial[,ttySn[,baudrate]]
417 Append ,keep to not disable it when the real console
420 Only vga or serial at a time, not both.
422 Currently only ttyS0 and ttyS1 are supported.
424 Interaction with the standard serial driver is not
427 The VGA output is eventually overwritten by the real
437 Format: {"of[f]" | "sk[ipmbr]"}
438 See comment in arch/i386/boot/edd.S
441 Format: <id>,<membase>,<irq>
443 eisa_irq_edge= [PARISC,HW]
444 See header of drivers/parisc/eisa.c.
447 See comment before function elanfreq_setup() in
448 arch/i386/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/elanfreq.c.
451 Format: {"as"|"cfq"|"deadline"|"noop"}
452 See Documentation/block/as-iosched.txt
453 and Documentation/block/deadline-iosched.txt for details.
455 Specifies physical address of start of kernel core image
457 See Documentation/kdump.txt for details.
459 enforcing [SELINUX] Set initial enforcing status.
461 See security/selinux/Kconfig help text.
462 0 -- permissive (log only, no denials).
463 1 -- enforcing (deny and log).
465 Value can be changed at runtime via /selinux/enforce.
468 Format: <lineout>[,<micbias>]
469 See also header of sound/oss/es1370.c.
472 Format: <spdif>,[<nomix>,[<amplifier>]]
473 See also header of sound/oss/es1371.c.
475 ether= [HW,NET] Ethernet cards parameters
476 This option is obsoleted by the "netdev=" option, which
477 has equivalent usage. See its documentation for details.
479 eurwdt= [HW,WDT] Eurotech CPU-1220/1410 onboard watchdog.
483 See header of drivers/scsi/fd_mcs.c.
486 See header of drivers/scsi/fdomain.c.
489 See Documentation/floppy.txt.
491 ftape= [HW] Floppy Tape subsystem debugging options.
492 See Documentation/ftape.txt.
495 [HW,JOY] Multisystem joystick and NES/SNES/PSX pad
496 support via parallel port (up to 5 devices per port)
497 Format: <port#>,<pad1>,<pad2>,<pad3>,<pad4>,<pad5>
498 See also Documentation/input/joystick-parport.txt
503 See header of drivers/scsi/gdth.c.
505 gpt [EFI] Forces disk with valid GPT signature but
506 invalid Protective MBR to be treated as GPT.
511 gt96100eth= [NET] MIPS GT96100 Advanced Communication Controller
514 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma16>
518 hashdist= [KNL,NUMA] Large hashes allocated during boot
519 are distributed across NUMA nodes. Defaults on
520 for IA-64, off otherwise.
522 hcl= [IA-64] SGI's Hardware Graph compatibility layer
524 hd= [EIDE] (E)IDE hard drive subsystem geometry
525 Format: <cyl>,<head>,<sect>
527 hd?= [HW] (E)IDE subsystem
528 hd?lun= See Documentation/ide.txt.
530 highmem=nn[KMG] [KNL,BOOT] forces the highmem zone to have an exact
531 size of <nn>. This works even on boxes that have no
532 highmem otherwise. This also works to reduce highmem
533 size on bigger boxes.
536 See Documentation/isdn/README.HiSax.
538 hugepages= [HW,IA-32,IA-64] Maximal number of HugeTLB pages.
540 noirqbalance [IA-32,SMP,KNL] Disable kernel irq balancing
542 i8042.direct [HW] Put keyboard port into non-translated mode
543 i8042.dumbkbd [HW] Pretend that controlled can only read data from
544 keyboard and can not control its state
545 (Don't attempt to blink the leds)
546 i8042.noaux [HW] Don't check for auxiliary (== mouse) port
547 i8042.nomux [HW] Don't check presence of an active multiplexing
549 i8042.nopnp [HW] Don't use ACPIPnP / PnPBIOS to discover KBD/AUX
552 [HW] Frequency with which keyboard LEDs should blink
553 when kernel panics (default is 0.5 sec)
554 i8042.reset [HW] Reset the controller during init and cleanup
555 i8042.unlock [HW] Unlock (ignore) the keylock
559 i8k.ignore_dmi [HW] Continue probing hardware even if DMI data
560 indicates that the driver is running on unsupported
562 i8k.force [HW] Activate i8k driver even if SMM BIOS signature
563 does not match list of supported models.
565 [HW] Report power status in /proc/i8k
566 (disabled by default)
567 i8k.restricted [HW] Allow controlling fans only if SYS_ADMIN
570 ibmmcascsi= [HW,MCA,SCSI] IBM MicroChannel SCSI adapter
571 See Documentation/mca.txt.
574 Format: <io>[,<membase>[,<icn_id>[,<icn_id2>]]]
576 ide= [HW] (E)IDE subsystem
577 Format: ide=nodma or ide=doubler or ide=reverse
578 See Documentation/ide.txt.
580 ide?= [HW] (E)IDE subsystem
581 Format: ide?=noprobe or chipset specific parameters.
582 See Documentation/ide.txt.
584 idebus= [HW] (E)IDE subsystem - VLB/PCI bus speed
585 See Documentation/ide.txt.
588 Format: idle=poll or idle=halt
591 Set number of hash buckets for inode cache.
594 See header of drivers/scsi/in2000.c.
598 Run specified binary instead of /sbin/init as init
601 initcall_debug [KNL] Trace initcalls as they are executed. Useful
602 for working out where the kernel is dying during
605 initrd= [BOOT] Specify the location of the initial ramdisk
607 inport.irq= [HW] Inport (ATI XL and Microsoft) busmouse driver
612 io7= [HW] IO7 for Marvel based alpha systems
613 See comment before marvel_specify_io7 in
614 arch/alpha/kernel/core_marvel.c.
617 See Documentation/nfsroot.txt.
619 ip2= [HW] Set IO/IRQ pairs for up to 4 IntelliPort boards
620 See comment before ip2_setup() in drivers/char/ip2.c.
622 ips= [HW,SCSI] Adaptec / IBM ServeRAID controller
623 See header of drivers/scsi/ips.c.
626 When an interrupt is not handled search all handlers
627 for it. Intended to get systems with badly broken
631 When an interrupt is not handled search all handlers
632 for it. Also check all handlers each timer
633 interrupt. Intended to get systems with badly broken
637 Format: <RDP>, <reset>, <pci_scan>, <verbosity>
639 isolcpus= [KNL,SMP] Isolate CPUs from the general scheduler.
640 Format: <cpu number>,...,<cpu number>
641 This option can be used to specify one or more CPUs
642 to isolate from the general SMP balancing and scheduling
643 algorithms. The only way to move a process onto or off
644 an "isolated" CPU is via the CPU affinity syscalls.
645 <cpu number> begins at 0 and the maximum value is
646 "number of CPUs in system - 1".
648 This option is the preferred way to isolate CPUs. The
649 alternative - manually setting the CPU mask of all tasks
650 in the system can cause problems and suboptimal load
651 balancer performance.
654 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<setup>
658 js= [HW,JOY] Analog joystick
659 See Documentation/input/joystick.txt.
663 kstack=N [IA-32, X86-64] Print N words from the kernel stack
668 lapic [IA-32,APIC] Enable the local APIC even if BIOS disabled it.
670 lasi= [HW,SCSI] PARISC LASI driver for the 53c700 chip
671 Format: addr:<io>,irq:<irq>
674 See function print_params() in arch/ia64/sn/kernel/llsc4.c.
676 load_ramdisk= [RAM] List of ramdisks to load from floppy
677 See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
683 logibm.irq= [HW,MOUSE] Logitech Bus Mouse Driver
686 loglevel= All Kernel Messages with a loglevel smaller than the
687 console loglevel will be printed to the console. It can
688 also be changed with klogd or other programs. The
689 loglevels are defined as follows:
691 0 (KERN_EMERG) system is unusable
692 1 (KERN_ALERT) action must be taken immediately
693 2 (KERN_CRIT) critical conditions
694 3 (KERN_ERR) error conditions
695 4 (KERN_WARNING) warning conditions
696 5 (KERN_NOTICE) normal but significant condition
697 6 (KERN_INFO) informational
698 7 (KERN_DEBUG) debug-level messages
700 log_buf_len=n Sets the size of the printk ring buffer, in bytes.
701 Format is n, nk, nM. n must be a power of two. The
702 default is set in kernel config.
704 lp=0 [LP] Specify parallel ports to use, e.g,
705 lp=port[,port...] lp=none,parport0 (lp0 not configured, lp1 uses
706 lp=reset first parallel port). 'lp=0' disables the
707 lp=auto printer driver. 'lp=reset' (which can be
708 specified in addition to the ports) causes
709 attached printers to be reset. Using
710 lp=port1,port2,... specifies the parallel ports
711 to associate lp devices with, starting with
712 lp0. A port specification may be 'none' to skip
713 that lp device, or a parport name such as
714 'parport0'. Specifying 'lp=auto' instead of a
715 port specification list means that device IDs
716 from each port should be examined, to see if
717 an IEEE 1284-compliant printer is attached; if
718 so, the driver will manage that printer.
719 See also header of drivers/char/lp.c.
722 Sets loops_per_jiffy to given constant, thus avoiding
723 time-consuming boot-time autodetection (up to 250 ms per
724 CPU). 0 enables autodetection (default). To determine
725 the correct value for your kernel, boot with normal
726 autodetection and see what value is printed. Note that
727 on SMP systems the preset will be applied to all CPUs,
728 which is likely to cause problems if your CPUs need
729 significantly divergent settings. An incorrect value
730 will cause delays in the kernel to be wrong, leading to
731 unpredictable I/O errors and other breakage. Although
732 unlikely, in the extreme case this might damage your
736 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>
739 Format: <can_queue>,<cmd_per_lun>,<sg_tablesize>,<hostid>,<use_tags>
742 Format: <num_esps>,<disconnect>,<nosync>,<can_queue>,<cmd_per_lun>,<sg_tablesize>,<hostid>,<use_tags>
745 Force the use of a particular machine-vector (machvec) in a generic
746 kernel. Example: machvec=hpzx1_swiotlb
749 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma16>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>,<joystick>
754 max_loop= [LOOP] Maximum number of loopback devices that can
758 maxcpus= [SMP] Maximum number of processors that an SMP kernel
761 max_luns= [SCSI] Maximum number of LUNs to probe
762 Should be between 1 and 2^32-1.
765 [SCSI] Maximum number of LUNs received
766 Should be between 1 and 16384.
768 mca-pentium [BUGS=IA-32]
773 Format: <port>,<irq>,<mitsumi_bug_93_wait>
777 mce [IA-32] Machine Check Exception
779 md= [HW] RAID subsystems devices and level
780 See Documentation/md.txt.
783 Format: <first>,<last>
784 Specifies range of consoles to be captured by the MDA.
786 mem=nn[KMG] [KNL,BOOT] Force usage of a specific amount of memory
787 Amount of memory to be used when the kernel is not able
788 to see the whole system memory or for test.
789 [IA-32] Use together with memmap= to avoid physical
790 address space collisions. Without memmap= PCI devices
791 could be placed at addresses belonging to unused RAM.
793 mem=nopentium [BUGS=IA-32] Disable usage of 4MB pages for kernel
796 memmap=exactmap [KNL,IA-32] Enable setting of an exact
797 E820 memory map, as specified by the user.
798 Such memmap=exactmap lines can be constructed based on
799 BIOS output or other requirements. See the memmap=nn@ss
802 memmap=nn[KMG]@ss[KMG]
803 [KNL] Force usage of a specific region of memory
804 Region of memory to be used, from ss to ss+nn.
806 memmap=nn[KMG]#ss[KMG]
807 [KNL,ACPI] Mark specific memory as ACPI data.
808 Region of memory to be used, from ss to ss+nn.
810 memmap=nn[KMG]$ss[KMG]
811 [KNL,ACPI] Mark specific memory as reserved.
812 Region of memory to be used, from ss to ss+nn.
814 meye.*= [HW] Set MotionEye Camera parameters
815 See Documentation/video4linux/meye.txt.
820 [MOUSE] Maximum time between finger touching and
821 leaving touchpad surface for touch to be considered
822 a tap and be reported as a left button click (for
823 touchpads working in absolute mode only).
825 mousedev.xres= [MOUSE] Horizontal screen resolution, used for devices
826 reporting absolute coordinates, such as tablets
827 mousedev.yres= [MOUSE] Vertical screen resolution, used for devices
828 reporting absolute coordinates, such as tablets
834 Format: <name>,<region-number>,<size>,<offset>
837 Format: <name>,<region-number>[,<base>,<size>,<buswidth>,<altbuswidth>]
840 See drivers/mtd/cmdline.c.
842 mtouchusb.raw_coordinates=
843 [HW] Make the MicroTouch USB driver use raw coordinates ('y', default)
844 or cooked coordinates ('n')
846 n2= [NET] SDL Inc. RISCom/N2 synchronous serial card
849 See header of drivers/scsi/NCR_D700.c.
855 ncr53c400a= [HW,SCSI]
857 ncr53c406a= [HW,SCSI]
861 netdev= [NET] Network devices parameters
862 Format: <irq>,<io>,<mem_start>,<mem_end>,<name>
863 Note that mem_start is often overloaded to mean
864 something different and driver-specific.
867 See Documentation/nfsroot.txt.
869 nfsroot= [NFS] nfs root filesystem for disk-less boxes.
870 See Documentation/nfsroot.txt.
872 nmi_watchdog= [KNL,BUGS=IA-32] Debugging features for SMP kernels
874 no387 [BUGS=IA-32] Tells the kernel to use the 387 maths
875 emulation library even if a 387 maths coprocessor
880 noapic [SMP,APIC] Tells the kernel to not make use of any
881 IOAPICs that may be present in the system.
883 noasync [HW,M68K] Disables async and sync negotiation for
886 nobats [PPC] Do not use BATs for mapping kernel lowmem
887 on "Classic" PPC cores.
891 nodisconnect [HW,SCSI,M68K] Disables SCSI disconnects.
895 noexec [IA-32, X86-64]
896 noexec=on: enable non-executable mappings (default)
897 noexec=off: disable nn-executable mappings
903 no-hlt [BUGS=IA-32] Tells the kernel that the hlt
904 instruction doesn't work correctly and not to
907 nohalt [IA-64] Tells the kernel not to use the power saving
908 function PAL_HALT_LIGHT when idle. This increases
909 power-consumption. On the positive side, it reduces
910 interrupt wake-up latency, which may improve performance
911 in certain environments such as networked servers or
914 noirqdebug [IA-32] Disables the code which attempts to detect and
915 disable unhandled interrupt sources.
917 noisapnp [ISAPNP] Disables ISA PnP code.
919 noinitrd [RAM] Tells the kernel not to load any configured
924 nolapic [IA-32,APIC] Do not enable or use the local APIC.
926 noltlbs [PPC] Do not use large page/tlb entries for kernel
927 lowmem mapping on PPC40x.
929 nomce [IA-32] Machine Check Exception
931 noresidual [PPC] Don't use residual data on PReP machines.
933 noresume [SWSUSP] Disables resume and restore original swap space.
935 no-scroll [VGA] Disables scrollback.
936 This is required for the Braillex ib80-piezo Braille
937 reader made by F.H. Papenmeier (Germany).
941 nosmp [SMP] Tells an SMP kernel to act as a UP kernel.
943 nosync [HW,M68K] Disables sync negotiation for all devices.
945 notsc [BUGS=IA-32] Disable Time Stamp Counter
947 nousb [USB] Disable the USB subsystem
955 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>
958 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<mss_io>,<mpu_io>,<ymode>,<loopback>[,<isapnp>,<multiple]
961 Use timer interrupt instead of performance counters
966 osst= [HW,SCSI] SCSI Tape Driver
967 Format: <buffer_size>,<write_threshold>
968 See also Documentation/scsi/st.txt.
970 panic= [KNL] Kernel behaviour on panic
973 parkbd.port= [HW] Parallel port number the keyboard adapter is
974 connected to, default is 0.
976 parkbd.mode= [HW] Parallel port keyboard adapter mode of operation,
977 0 for XT, 1 for AT (default is AT).
980 parport=0 [HW,PPT] Specify parallel ports. 0 disables.
981 parport=auto Use 'auto' to force the driver to use
982 parport=0xBBB[,IRQ[,DMA]] any IRQ/DMA settings detected (the
983 default is to ignore detected IRQ/DMA
984 settings because of possible
985 conflicts). You can specify the base
986 address, IRQ, and DMA settings; IRQ and
987 DMA should be numbers, or 'auto' (for
988 using detected settings on that
989 particular port), or 'nofifo' (to avoid
990 using a FIFO even if it is detected).
991 Parallel ports are assigned in the
992 order they are specified on the command
993 line, starting with parport0.
996 [HW,PPT] Configure VIA parallel port to
997 operate in specific mode. This is
998 necessary on Pegasos computer where
999 firmware has no options for setting up
1000 parallel port mode and sets it to
1001 spp. Currently this function knows
1002 686a and 8231 chips.
1003 Format: [spp|ps2|epp|ecp|ecpepp]
1006 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma16>,<sb_io>,<sb_irq>,<sb_dma>,<sb_dma16>
1009 See header of drivers/scsi/pas16.c.
1014 See header of drivers/block/paride/pcd.c.
1015 See also Documentation/paride.txt.
1017 pci=option[,option...] [PCI] various PCI subsystem options:
1018 off [IA-32] don't probe for the PCI bus
1019 bios [IA-32] force use of PCI BIOS, don't access
1020 the hardware directly. Use this if your machine
1021 has a non-standard PCI host bridge.
1022 nobios [IA-32] disallow use of PCI BIOS, only direct
1023 hardware access methods are allowed. Use this
1024 if you experience crashes upon bootup and you
1025 suspect they are caused by the BIOS.
1026 conf1 [IA-32] Force use of PCI Configuration Mechanism 1.
1027 conf2 [IA-32] Force use of PCI Configuration Mechanism 2.
1028 nosort [IA-32] Don't sort PCI devices according to
1029 order given by the PCI BIOS. This sorting is done
1030 to get a device order compatible with older kernels.
1031 biosirq [IA-32] Use PCI BIOS calls to get the interrupt
1032 routing table. These calls are known to be buggy
1033 on several machines and they hang the machine when used,
1034 but on other computers it's the only way to get the
1035 interrupt routing table. Try this option if the kernel
1036 is unable to allocate IRQs or discover secondary PCI
1037 buses on your motherboard.
1038 rom [IA-32] Assign address space to expansion ROMs.
1039 Use with caution as certain devices share address
1040 decoders between ROMs and other resources.
1041 irqmask=0xMMMM [IA-32] Set a bit mask of IRQs allowed to be assigned
1042 automatically to PCI devices. You can make the kernel
1043 exclude IRQs of your ISA cards this way.
1044 pirqaddr=0xAAAAA [IA-32] Specify the physical address
1045 of the PIRQ table (normally generated
1046 by the BIOS) if it is outside the
1047 F0000h-100000h range.
1048 lastbus=N [IA-32] Scan all buses till bus #N. Can be useful
1049 if the kernel is unable to find your secondary buses
1050 and you want to tell it explicitly which ones they are.
1051 assign-busses [IA-32] Always assign all PCI bus
1052 numbers ourselves, overriding
1053 whatever the firmware may have
1055 usepirqmask [IA-32] Honor the possible IRQ mask
1056 stored in the BIOS $PIR table. This is
1057 needed on some systems with broken
1058 BIOSes, notably some HP Pavilion N5400
1059 and Omnibook XE3 notebooks. This will
1060 have no effect if ACPI IRQ routing is
1062 noacpi [IA-32] Do not use ACPI for IRQ routing
1063 or for PCI scanning.
1064 routeirq Do IRQ routing for all PCI devices.
1065 This is normally done in pci_enable_device(),
1066 so this option is a temporary workaround
1067 for broken drivers that don't call it.
1069 firmware [ARM] Do not re-enumerate the bus but
1070 instead just use the configuration
1071 from the bootloader. This is currently
1072 used on IXP2000 systems where the
1073 bus has to be configured a certain way
1076 pcmv= [HW,PCMCIA] BadgePAD 4
1079 See Documentation/paride.txt.
1081 pdcchassis= [PARISC,HW] Disable/Enable PDC Chassis Status codes at
1084 See arch/parisc/kernel/pdc_chassis.c
1087 See Documentation/paride.txt.
1090 See Documentation/paride.txt.
1092 pirq= [SMP,APIC] Manual mp-table setup
1093 See Documentation/i386/IO-APIC.txt.
1095 plip= [PPT,NET] Parallel port network link
1096 Format: { parport<nr> | timid | 0 }
1097 See also Documentation/parport.txt.
1103 { on | off | curr | res | no-curr | no-res }
1106 [ISAPNP] Exclude IRQs for the autoconfiguration
1109 [ISAPNP] Exclude DMAs for the autoconfiguration
1111 pnp_reserve_io= [ISAPNP] Exclude I/O ports for the autoconfiguration
1112 Ranges are in pairs (I/O port base and size).
1115 [ISAPNP] Exclude memory regions for the autoconfiguration
1116 Ranges are in pairs (memory base and size).
1118 profile= [KNL] Enable kernel profiling via /proc/profile
1119 { schedule | <number> }
1120 (param: schedule - profile schedule points}
1121 (param: profile step/bucket size as a power of 2 for
1122 statistical time based profiling)
1124 processor.max_cstate= [HW, ACPI]
1125 Limit processor to maximum C-state
1126 max_cstate=9 overrides any DMI blacklist limit.
1128 prompt_ramdisk= [RAM] List of RAM disks to prompt for floppy disk
1130 See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
1132 psmouse.proto= [HW,MOUSE] Highest PS2 mouse protocol extension to
1133 probe for (bare|imps|exps|lifebook|any).
1134 psmouse.rate= [HW,MOUSE] Set desired mouse report rate, in reports
1137 [HW,MOUSE] Try to reset the device after so many bad packets
1140 [HW,MOUSE] Set desired mouse resolution, in dpi.
1141 psmouse.smartscroll=
1142 [HW,MOUSE] Controls Logitech smartscroll autorepeat,
1143 0 = disabled, 1 = enabled (default).
1145 pss= [HW,OSS] Personal Sound System (ECHO ESC614)
1146 Format: <io>,<mss_io>,<mss_irq>,<mss_dma>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>
1149 See Documentation/paride.txt.
1151 quiet= [KNL] Disable log messages
1156 See Documentation/md.txt.
1158 ramdisk= [RAM] Sizes of RAM disks in kilobytes [deprecated]
1159 See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
1163 See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
1165 ramdisk_size= [RAM] Sizes of RAM disks in kilobytes
1166 New name for the ramdisk parameter.
1167 See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
1169 reboot= [BUGS=IA-32,BUGS=ARM,BUGS=IA-64] Rebooting mode
1170 Format: <reboot_mode>[,<reboot_mode2>[,...]]
1171 See arch/*/kernel/reboot.c.
1173 reserve= [KNL,BUGS] Force the kernel to ignore some iomem area
1175 resume= [SWSUSP] Specify the partition device for software suspension
1177 rhash_entries= [KNL,NET]
1178 Set number of hash buckets for route cache
1180 riscom8= [HW,SERIAL]
1181 Format: <io_board1>[,<io_board2>[,...<io_boardN>]]
1183 ro [KNL] Mount root device read-only on boot
1185 root= [KNL] Root filesystem
1187 rootdelay= [KNL] Delay (in seconds) to pause before attempting to
1188 mount the root filesystem
1190 rootflags= [KNL] Set root filesystem mount option string
1192 rootfstype= [KNL] Set root filesystem type
1194 rw [KNL] Mount root device read-write on boot
1196 S [KNL] Run init in single mode
1199 See drivers/net/irda/sa1100_ir.c.
1202 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>
1204 sbni= [NET] Granch SBNI12 leased line adapter
1206 sbpcd= [HW,CD] Soundblaster CD adapter
1208 See a comment before function sbpcd_setup() in
1209 drivers/cdrom/sbpcd.c.
1211 sc1200wdt= [HW,WDT] SC1200 WDT (watchdog) driver
1212 Format: <io>[,<timeout>[,<isapnp>]]
1214 scsi_debug_*= [SCSI]
1215 See drivers/scsi/scsi_debug.c.
1217 scsi_default_dev_flags=
1218 [SCSI] SCSI default device flags
1221 scsi_dev_flags= [SCSI] Black/white list entry for vendor and model
1222 Format: <vendor>:<model>:<flags>
1223 (flags are integer value)
1225 scsi_logging= [SCSI]
1227 selinux [SELINUX] Disable or enable SELinux at boot time.
1228 Format: { "0" | "1" }
1229 See security/selinux/Kconfig help text.
1232 Default value is set via kernel config option.
1233 If enabled at boot time, /selinux/disable can be used
1234 later to disable prior to initial policy load.
1236 serialnumber [BUGS=IA-32]
1238 sg_def_reserved_size=
1242 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<sgbase>
1245 Maximal number of shapers.
1248 See header of drivers/scsi/sim710.c.
1254 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>
1255 See header of drivers/cdrom/sjcd.c.
1260 Format: <io1>[,<io2>[,...,<io8>]]
1262 snd-ad1816a= [HW,ALSA]
1264 snd-ad1848= [HW,ALSA]
1266 snd-ali5451= [HW,ALSA]
1268 snd-als100= [HW,ALSA]
1270 snd-als4000= [HW,ALSA]
1272 snd-azt2320= [HW,ALSA]
1274 snd-cmi8330= [HW,ALSA]
1276 snd-cmipci= [HW,ALSA]
1278 snd-cs4231= [HW,ALSA]
1280 snd-cs4232= [HW,ALSA]
1282 snd-cs4236= [HW,ALSA]
1284 snd-cs4281= [HW,ALSA]
1286 snd-cs46xx= [HW,ALSA]
1288 snd-dt019x= [HW,ALSA]
1290 snd-dummy= [HW,ALSA]
1292 snd-emu10k1= [HW,ALSA]
1294 snd-ens1370= [HW,ALSA]
1296 snd-ens1371= [HW,ALSA]
1298 snd-es968= [HW,ALSA]
1300 snd-es1688= [HW,ALSA]
1302 snd-es18xx= [HW,ALSA]
1304 snd-es1938= [HW,ALSA]
1306 snd-es1968= [HW,ALSA]
1308 snd-fm801= [HW,ALSA]
1310 snd-gusclassic= [HW,ALSA]
1312 snd-gusextreme= [HW,ALSA]
1314 snd-gusmax= [HW,ALSA]
1318 snd-ice1712= [HW,ALSA]
1320 snd-intel8x0= [HW,ALSA]
1322 snd-interwave= [HW,ALSA]
1327 snd-korg1212= [HW,ALSA]
1329 snd-maestro3= [HW,ALSA]
1331 snd-mpu401= [HW,ALSA]
1333 snd-mtpav= [HW,ALSA]
1335 snd-nm256= [HW,ALSA]
1337 snd-opl3sa2= [HW,ALSA]
1345 snd-opti93x= [HW,ALSA]
1349 snd-rme32= [HW,ALSA]
1351 snd-rme96= [HW,ALSA]
1353 snd-rme9652= [HW,ALSA]
1359 snd-sbawe= [HW,ALSA]
1361 snd-serial= [HW,ALSA]
1363 snd-sgalaxy= [HW,ALSA]
1365 snd-sonicvibes= [HW,ALSA]
1370 snd-sun-cs4231= [HW,ALSA]
1372 snd-trident= [HW,ALSA]
1374 snd-usb-audio= [HW,ALSA,USB]
1376 snd-via82xx= [HW,ALSA]
1378 snd-virmidi= [HW,ALSA]
1380 snd-wavefront= [HW,ALSA]
1382 snd-ymfpci= [HW,ALSA]
1384 sonicvibes= [HW,OSS]
1388 Format: <io>[,<irq>]
1390 sonypi.*= [HW] Sony Programmable I/O Control Device driver
1391 See Documentation/sonypi.txt
1393 specialix= [HW,SERIAL] Specialix multi-serial port adapter
1394 See Documentation/specialix.txt.
1396 spia_io_base= [HW,MTD]
1402 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>
1404 st= [HW,SCSI] SCSI tape parameters (buffers, etc.)
1405 See Documentation/scsi/st.txt.
1408 See header of drivers/scsi/seagate.c.
1412 Set the STI (builtin display/keyboard on the HP-PARISC
1413 machines) console (graphic card) which should be used
1414 as the initial boot-console.
1415 See also comment in drivers/video/console/sticore.c.
1418 See comment in drivers/video/console/sticore.c.
1421 Format: bpp:<bpp1>[:<bpp2>[:<bpp3>...]]
1423 stram_swap= [HW,M68k]
1425 swiotlb= [IA-64] Number of I/O TLB slabs
1429 sym53c416= [HW,SCSI]
1430 See header of drivers/scsi/sym53c416.c.
1433 See header of drivers/scsi/t128.c.
1437 thash_entries= [KNL,NET]
1438 Set number of hash buckets for TCP connection
1440 time Show timing data prefixed to each printk message line
1442 tipar.timeout= [HW,PPT]
1443 Set communications timeout in tenths of a second
1446 tipar.delay= [HW,PPT]
1447 Set inter-bit delay in microseconds (default 10).
1450 See header of drivers/scsi/seagate.c.
1453 See comment before function dc390_setup() in
1454 drivers/scsi/tmscsim.c.
1458 trix= [HW,OSS] MediaTrix AudioTrix Pro
1459 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<sb_io>,<sb_irq>,<sb_dma>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>
1461 tsdev.xres= [TS] Horizontal screen resolution.
1462 tsdev.yres= [TS] Vertical screen resolution.
1464 turbografx.map[2|3]=
1465 [HW,JOY] TurboGraFX parallel port interface
1466 Format: <port#>,<js1>,<js2>,<js3>,<js4>,<js5>,<js6>,<js7>
1467 See also Documentation/input/joystick-parport.txt
1469 u14-34f= [HW,SCSI] UltraStor 14F/34F SCSI host adapter
1470 See header of drivers/scsi/u14-34f.c.
1478 usb-handoff [HW] Enable early USB BIOS -> OS handoff
1481 [USBHID] The interval which mice are to be polled at.
1483 video= [FB] Frame buffer configuration
1484 See Documentation/fb/modedb.txt.
1486 vga= [BOOT,IA-32] Select a particular video mode
1487 See Documentation/i386/boot.txt and Documentation/svga.txt.
1488 Use vga=ask for menu.
1489 This is actually a boot loader parameter; the value is
1490 passed to the kernel using a special protocol.
1492 vmalloc=nn[KMG] [KNL,BOOT] forces the vmalloc area to have an exact
1493 size of <nn>. This can be used to increase the
1494 minimum size (128MB on x86). It can also be used to
1495 decrease the size and leave more room for directly
1502 waveartist= [HW,OSS]
1503 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>
1506 See header of drivers/scsi/wd33c93.c.
1509 See header of drivers/scsi/wd7000.c.
1512 See Documentation/watchdog/watchdog.txt.
1514 xd= [HW,XT] Original XT pre-IDE (RLL encoded) disks.
1515 xd_geo= See header of drivers/block/xd.c.
1517 xirc2ps_cs= [NET,PCMCIA]
1518 Format: <irq>,<irq_mask>,<io>,<full_duplex>,<do_sound>,<lockup_hack>[,<irq2>[,<irq3>[,<irq4>]]]
1524 The last known update (for 2.4.0) - the changelog was not kept before.
1525 2000-06-?? Mr. Unknown
1527 Update for 2.5.49, description for most of the options introduced,
1528 references to other documentation (C files, READMEs, ..), added S390,
1529 PPC, SPARC, MTD, ALSA and OSS category. Minor corrections and
1531 2002-11-24 Petr Baudis <pasky@ucw.cz>
1532 Randy Dunlap <randy.dunlap@verizon.net>
1536 Add documentation for ALSA options.
1537 Add more DRM drivers.