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 }
362 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<mpuio>,<mpuirq>
367 cs89x0_media= [HW,NET]
368 Format: { rj45 | aui | bnc }
370 cyclades= [HW,SERIAL] Cyclades multi-serial port adapter.
373 See header of drivers/s390/block/dasd_devmap.c.
375 db9.dev[2|3]= [HW,JOY] Multisystem joystick support via parallel port
376 (one device per port)
377 Format: <port#>,<type>
378 See also Documentation/input/joystick-parport.txt
380 debug [KNL] Enable kernel debugging (events log level).
383 Format: <area>[,<node>]
384 See also Documentation/networking/decnet.txt.
387 See Documentation/filesystems/devfs/boot-options.
390 Set number of hash buckets for dentry cache.
393 IO parameters + enable/disable command.
395 digiepca= [HW,SERIAL]
396 See drivers/char/README.epca and
397 Documentation/digiepca.txt.
399 dmascc= [HW,AX25,SERIAL] AX.25 Z80SCC driver with DMA
401 Format: <io_dev0>[,<io_dev1>[,..<io_dev32>]]
403 dmasound= [HW,OSS] Sound subsystem buffers
409 earlyprintk= [IA-32, X86-64]
411 earlyprintk=serial[,ttySn[,baudrate]]
413 Append ,keep to not disable it when the real console
416 Only vga or serial at a time, not both.
418 Currently only ttyS0 and ttyS1 are supported.
420 Interaction with the standard serial driver is not
423 The VGA output is eventually overwritten by the real
433 Format: {"of[f]" | "sk[ipmbr]"}
434 See comment in arch/i386/boot/edd.S
437 Format: <id>,<membase>,<irq>
439 eisa_irq_edge= [PARISC,HW]
440 See header of drivers/parisc/eisa.c.
443 See comment before function elanfreq_setup() in
444 arch/i386/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/elanfreq.c.
447 Format: {"as"|"cfq"|"deadline"|"noop"}
448 See Documentation/block/as-iosched.txt
449 and Documentation/block/deadline-iosched.txt for details.
451 enforcing [SELINUX] Set initial enforcing status.
453 See security/selinux/Kconfig help text.
454 0 -- permissive (log only, no denials).
455 1 -- enforcing (deny and log).
457 Value can be changed at runtime via /selinux/enforce.
460 Format: <lineout>[,<micbias>]
461 See also header of sound/oss/es1370.c.
464 Format: <spdif>,[<nomix>,[<amplifier>]]
465 See also header of sound/oss/es1371.c.
467 ether= [HW,NET] Ethernet cards parameters
468 This option is obsoleted by the "netdev=" option, which
469 has equivalent usage. See its documentation for details.
471 eurwdt= [HW,WDT] Eurotech CPU-1220/1410 onboard watchdog.
475 See header of drivers/scsi/fd_mcs.c.
478 See header of drivers/scsi/fdomain.c.
481 See Documentation/floppy.txt.
483 ftape= [HW] Floppy Tape subsystem debugging options.
484 See Documentation/ftape.txt.
487 [HW,JOY] Multisystem joystick and NES/SNES/PSX pad
488 support via parallel port (up to 5 devices per port)
489 Format: <port#>,<pad1>,<pad2>,<pad3>,<pad4>,<pad5>
490 See also Documentation/input/joystick-parport.txt
495 See header of drivers/scsi/gdth.c.
497 gpt [EFI] Forces disk with valid GPT signature but
498 invalid Protective MBR to be treated as GPT.
503 gt96100eth= [NET] MIPS GT96100 Advanced Communication Controller
506 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma16>
510 hashdist= [KNL,NUMA] Large hashes allocated during boot
511 are distributed across NUMA nodes. Defaults on
512 for IA-64, off otherwise.
514 hcl= [IA-64] SGI's Hardware Graph compatibility layer
516 hd= [EIDE] (E)IDE hard drive subsystem geometry
517 Format: <cyl>,<head>,<sect>
519 hd?= [HW] (E)IDE subsystem
520 hd?lun= See Documentation/ide.txt.
522 highmem=nn[KMG] [KNL,BOOT] forces the highmem zone to have an exact
523 size of <nn>. This works even on boxes that have no
524 highmem otherwise. This also works to reduce highmem
525 size on bigger boxes.
528 See Documentation/isdn/README.HiSax.
530 hugepages= [HW,IA-32,IA-64] Maximal number of HugeTLB pages.
532 noirqbalance [IA-32,SMP,KNL] Disable kernel irq balancing
534 i8042.direct [HW] Put keyboard port into non-translated mode
535 i8042.dumbkbd [HW] Pretend that controlled can only read data from
536 keyboard and can not control its state
537 (Don't attempt to blink the leds)
538 i8042.noaux [HW] Don't check for auxiliary (== mouse) port
539 i8042.nomux [HW] Don't check presence of an active multiplexing
541 i8042.nopnp [HW] Don't use ACPIPnP / PnPBIOS to discover KBD/AUX
544 [HW] Frequency with which keyboard LEDs should blink
545 when kernel panics (default is 0.5 sec)
546 i8042.reset [HW] Reset the controller during init and cleanup
547 i8042.unlock [HW] Unlock (ignore) the keylock
551 i8k.force [HW] Activate i8k driver even if SMM BIOS signature
552 does not match list of supported models.
554 [HW] Report power status in /proc/i8k
555 (disabled by default)
556 i8k.restricted [HW] Allow controlling fans only if SYS_ADMIN
559 ibmmcascsi= [HW,MCA,SCSI] IBM MicroChannel SCSI adapter
560 See Documentation/mca.txt.
563 Format: <io>[,<membase>[,<icn_id>[,<icn_id2>]]]
565 ide= [HW] (E)IDE subsystem
566 Format: ide=nodma or ide=doubler or ide=reverse
567 See Documentation/ide.txt.
569 ide?= [HW] (E)IDE subsystem
570 Format: ide?=noprobe or chipset specific parameters.
571 See Documentation/ide.txt.
573 idebus= [HW] (E)IDE subsystem - VLB/PCI bus speed
574 See Documentation/ide.txt.
577 Format: idle=poll or idle=halt
580 Set number of hash buckets for inode cache.
583 See header of drivers/scsi/in2000.c.
587 Run specified binary instead of /sbin/init as init
590 initcall_debug [KNL] Trace initcalls as they are executed. Useful
591 for working out where the kernel is dying during
594 initrd= [BOOT] Specify the location of the initial ramdisk
596 inport.irq= [HW] Inport (ATI XL and Microsoft) busmouse driver
601 io7= [HW] IO7 for Marvel based alpha systems
602 See comment before marvel_specify_io7 in
603 arch/alpha/kernel/core_marvel.c.
606 See Documentation/nfsroot.txt.
608 ip2= [HW] Set IO/IRQ pairs for up to 4 IntelliPort boards
609 See comment before ip2_setup() in drivers/char/ip2.c.
611 ips= [HW,SCSI] Adaptec / IBM ServeRAID controller
612 See header of drivers/scsi/ips.c.
615 Format: <RDP>, <reset>, <pci_scan>, <verbosity>
617 isolcpus= [KNL,SMP] Isolate CPUs from the general scheduler.
618 Format: <cpu number>,...,<cpu number>
619 This option can be used to specify one or more CPUs
620 to isolate from the general SMP balancing and scheduling
621 algorithms. The only way to move a process onto or off
622 an "isolated" CPU is via the CPU affinity syscalls.
623 <cpu number> begins at 0 and the maximum value is
624 "number of CPUs in system - 1".
626 This option is the preferred way to isolate CPUs. The
627 alternative - manually setting the CPU mask of all tasks
628 in the system can cause problems and suboptimal load
629 balancer performance.
632 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<setup>
636 js= [HW,JOY] Analog joystick
637 See Documentation/input/joystick.txt.
641 kstack=N [IA-32, X86-64] Print N words from the kernel stack
646 lapic [IA-32,APIC] Enable the local APIC even if BIOS disabled it.
648 lasi= [HW,SCSI] PARISC LASI driver for the 53c700 chip
649 Format: addr:<io>,irq:<irq>
652 See function print_params() in arch/ia64/sn/kernel/llsc4.c.
654 load_ramdisk= [RAM] List of ramdisks to load from floppy
655 See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
661 logibm.irq= [HW,MOUSE] Logitech Bus Mouse Driver
664 loglevel= All Kernel Messages with a loglevel smaller than the
665 console loglevel will be printed to the console. It can
666 also be changed with klogd or other programs. The
667 loglevels are defined as follows:
669 0 (KERN_EMERG) system is unusable
670 1 (KERN_ALERT) action must be taken immediately
671 2 (KERN_CRIT) critical conditions
672 3 (KERN_ERR) error conditions
673 4 (KERN_WARNING) warning conditions
674 5 (KERN_NOTICE) normal but significant condition
675 6 (KERN_INFO) informational
676 7 (KERN_DEBUG) debug-level messages
678 log_buf_len=n Sets the size of the printk ring buffer, in bytes.
679 Format is n, nk, nM. n must be a power of two. The
680 default is set in kernel config.
682 lp=0 [LP] Specify parallel ports to use, e.g,
683 lp=port[,port...] lp=none,parport0 (lp0 not configured, lp1 uses
684 lp=reset first parallel port). 'lp=0' disables the
685 lp=auto printer driver. 'lp=reset' (which can be
686 specified in addition to the ports) causes
687 attached printers to be reset. Using
688 lp=port1,port2,... specifies the parallel ports
689 to associate lp devices with, starting with
690 lp0. A port specification may be 'none' to skip
691 that lp device, or a parport name such as
692 'parport0'. Specifying 'lp=auto' instead of a
693 port specification list means that device IDs
694 from each port should be examined, to see if
695 an IEEE 1284-compliant printer is attached; if
696 so, the driver will manage that printer.
697 See also header of drivers/char/lp.c.
700 Sets loops_per_jiffy to given constant, thus avoiding
701 time-consuming boot-time autodetection (up to 250 ms per
702 CPU). 0 enables autodetection (default). To determine
703 the correct value for your kernel, boot with normal
704 autodetection and see what value is printed. Note that
705 on SMP systems the preset will be applied to all CPUs,
706 which is likely to cause problems if your CPUs need
707 significantly divergent settings. An incorrect value
708 will cause delays in the kernel to be wrong, leading to
709 unpredictable I/O errors and other breakage. Although
710 unlikely, in the extreme case this might damage your
714 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>
717 Format: <can_queue>,<cmd_per_lun>,<sg_tablesize>,<hostid>,<use_tags>
720 Format: <num_esps>,<disconnect>,<nosync>,<can_queue>,<cmd_per_lun>,<sg_tablesize>,<hostid>,<use_tags>
723 Force the use of a particular machine-vector (machvec) in a generic
724 kernel. Example: machvec=hpzx1_swiotlb
727 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma16>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>,<joystick>
732 max_loop= [LOOP] Maximum number of loopback devices that can
736 maxcpus= [SMP] Maximum number of processors that an SMP kernel
739 max_luns= [SCSI] Maximum number of LUNs to probe
740 Should be between 1 and 2^32-1.
743 [SCSI] Maximum number of LUNs received
744 Should be between 1 and 16384.
746 mca-pentium [BUGS=IA-32]
751 Format: <port>,<irq>,<mitsumi_bug_93_wait>
755 mce [IA-32] Machine Check Exception
757 md= [HW] RAID subsystems devices and level
758 See Documentation/md.txt.
761 Format: <first>,<last>
762 Specifies range of consoles to be captured by the MDA.
764 mem=nn[KMG] [KNL,BOOT] Force usage of a specific amount of memory
765 Amount of memory to be used when the kernel is not able
766 to see the whole system memory or for test.
767 [IA-32] Use together with memmap= to avoid physical
768 address space collisions. Without memmap= PCI devices
769 could be placed at addresses belonging to unused RAM.
771 mem=nopentium [BUGS=IA-32] Disable usage of 4MB pages for kernel
774 memmap=exactmap [KNL,IA-32] Enable setting of an exact
775 E820 memory map, as specified by the user.
776 Such memmap=exactmap lines can be constructed based on
777 BIOS output or other requirements. See the memmap=nn@ss
780 memmap=nn[KMG]@ss[KMG]
781 [KNL] Force usage of a specific region of memory
782 Region of memory to be used, from ss to ss+nn.
784 memmap=nn[KMG]#ss[KMG]
785 [KNL,ACPI] Mark specific memory as ACPI data.
786 Region of memory to be used, from ss to ss+nn.
788 memmap=nn[KMG]$ss[KMG]
789 [KNL,ACPI] Mark specific memory as reserved.
790 Region of memory to be used, from ss to ss+nn.
792 meye.*= [HW] Set MotionEye Camera parameters
793 See Documentation/video4linux/meye.txt.
798 [MOUSE] Maximum time between finger touching and
799 leaving touchpad surface for touch to be considered
800 a tap and be reported as a left button click (for
801 touchpads working in absolute mode only).
803 mousedev.xres= [MOUSE] Horizontal screen resolution, used for devices
804 reporting absolute coordinates, such as tablets
805 mousedev.yres= [MOUSE] Vertical screen resolution, used for devices
806 reporting absolute coordinates, such as tablets
812 Format: <name>,<region-number>,<size>,<offset>
815 Format: <name>,<region-number>[,<base>,<size>,<buswidth>,<altbuswidth>]
818 See drivers/mtd/cmdline.c.
820 mtouchusb.raw_coordinates=
821 [HW] Make the MicroTouch USB driver use raw coordinates ('y', default)
822 or cooked coordinates ('n')
824 n2= [NET] SDL Inc. RISCom/N2 synchronous serial card
827 See header of drivers/scsi/NCR_D700.c.
833 ncr53c400a= [HW,SCSI]
835 ncr53c406a= [HW,SCSI]
839 netdev= [NET] Network devices parameters
840 Format: <irq>,<io>,<mem_start>,<mem_end>,<name>
841 Note that mem_start is often overloaded to mean
842 something different and driver-specific.
845 See Documentation/nfsroot.txt.
847 nfsroot= [NFS] nfs root filesystem for disk-less boxes.
848 See Documentation/nfsroot.txt.
850 nmi_watchdog= [KNL,BUGS=IA-32] Debugging features for SMP kernels
852 no387 [BUGS=IA-32] Tells the kernel to use the 387 maths
853 emulation library even if a 387 maths coprocessor
858 noapic [SMP,APIC] Tells the kernel to not make use of any
859 IOAPICs that may be present in the system.
861 noasync [HW,M68K] Disables async and sync negotiation for
864 nobats [PPC] Do not use BATs for mapping kernel lowmem
865 on "Classic" PPC cores.
869 nodisconnect [HW,SCSI,M68K] Disables SCSI disconnects.
873 noexec [IA-32, X86-64]
874 noexec=on: enable non-executable mappings (default)
875 noexec=off: disable nn-executable mappings
881 no-hlt [BUGS=IA-32] Tells the kernel that the hlt
882 instruction doesn't work correctly and not to
885 nohalt [IA-64] Tells the kernel not to use the power saving
886 function PAL_HALT_LIGHT when idle. This increases
887 power-consumption. On the positive side, it reduces
888 interrupt wake-up latency, which may improve performance
889 in certain environments such as networked servers or
892 noirqdebug [IA-32] Disables the code which attempts to detect and
893 disable unhandled interrupt sources.
895 noisapnp [ISAPNP] Disables ISA PnP code.
897 noinitrd [RAM] Tells the kernel not to load any configured
902 nolapic [IA-32,APIC] Do not enable or use the local APIC.
904 noltlbs [PPC] Do not use large page/tlb entries for kernel
905 lowmem mapping on PPC40x.
907 nomce [IA-32] Machine Check Exception
909 noresidual [PPC] Don't use residual data on PReP machines.
911 noresume [SWSUSP] Disables resume and restore original swap space.
913 no-scroll [VGA] Disables scrollback.
914 This is required for the Braillex ib80-piezo Braille
915 reader made by F.H. Papenmeier (Germany).
919 nosmp [SMP] Tells an SMP kernel to act as a UP kernel.
921 nosync [HW,M68K] Disables sync negotiation for all devices.
923 notsc [BUGS=IA-32] Disable Time Stamp Counter
925 nousb [USB] Disable the USB subsystem
933 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>
936 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<mss_io>,<mpu_io>,<ymode>,<loopback>[,<isapnp>,<multiple]
939 Use timer interrupt instead of performance counters
944 osst= [HW,SCSI] SCSI Tape Driver
945 Format: <buffer_size>,<write_threshold>
946 See also Documentation/scsi/st.txt.
948 panic= [KNL] Kernel behaviour on panic
951 parkbd.port= [HW] Parallel port number the keyboard adapter is
952 connected to, default is 0.
954 parkbd.mode= [HW] Parallel port keyboard adapter mode of operation,
955 0 for XT, 1 for AT (default is AT).
958 parport=0 [HW,PPT] Specify parallel ports. 0 disables.
959 parport=auto Use 'auto' to force the driver to use
960 parport=0xBBB[,IRQ[,DMA]] any IRQ/DMA settings detected (the
961 default is to ignore detected IRQ/DMA
962 settings because of possible
963 conflicts). You can specify the base
964 address, IRQ, and DMA settings; IRQ and
965 DMA should be numbers, or 'auto' (for
966 using detected settings on that
967 particular port), or 'nofifo' (to avoid
968 using a FIFO even if it is detected).
969 Parallel ports are assigned in the
970 order they are specified on the command
971 line, starting with parport0.
974 [HW,PPT] Configure VIA parallel port to
975 operate in specific mode. This is
976 necessary on Pegasos computer where
977 firmware has no options for setting up
978 parallel port mode and sets it to
979 spp. Currently this function knows
981 Format: [spp|ps2|epp|ecp|ecpepp]
984 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma16>,<sb_io>,<sb_irq>,<sb_dma>,<sb_dma16>
987 See header of drivers/scsi/pas16.c.
992 See header of drivers/block/paride/pcd.c.
993 See also Documentation/paride.txt.
995 pci=option[,option...] [PCI] various PCI subsystem options:
996 off [IA-32] don't probe for the PCI bus
997 bios [IA-32] force use of PCI BIOS, don't access
998 the hardware directly. Use this if your machine
999 has a non-standard PCI host bridge.
1000 nobios [IA-32] disallow use of PCI BIOS, only direct
1001 hardware access methods are allowed. Use this
1002 if you experience crashes upon bootup and you
1003 suspect they are caused by the BIOS.
1004 conf1 [IA-32] Force use of PCI Configuration Mechanism 1.
1005 conf2 [IA-32] Force use of PCI Configuration Mechanism 2.
1006 nosort [IA-32] Don't sort PCI devices according to
1007 order given by the PCI BIOS. This sorting is done
1008 to get a device order compatible with older kernels.
1009 biosirq [IA-32] Use PCI BIOS calls to get the interrupt
1010 routing table. These calls are known to be buggy
1011 on several machines and they hang the machine when used,
1012 but on other computers it's the only way to get the
1013 interrupt routing table. Try this option if the kernel
1014 is unable to allocate IRQs or discover secondary PCI
1015 buses on your motherboard.
1016 rom [IA-32] Assign address space to expansion ROMs.
1017 Use with caution as certain devices share address
1018 decoders between ROMs and other resources.
1019 irqmask=0xMMMM [IA-32] Set a bit mask of IRQs allowed to be assigned
1020 automatically to PCI devices. You can make the kernel
1021 exclude IRQs of your ISA cards this way.
1022 lastbus=N [IA-32] Scan all buses till bus #N. Can be useful
1023 if the kernel is unable to find your secondary buses
1024 and you want to tell it explicitly which ones they are.
1025 assign-busses [IA-32] Always assign all PCI bus
1026 numbers ourselves, overriding
1027 whatever the firmware may have
1029 usepirqmask [IA-32] Honor the possible IRQ mask
1030 stored in the BIOS $PIR table. This is
1031 needed on some systems with broken
1032 BIOSes, notably some HP Pavilion N5400
1033 and Omnibook XE3 notebooks. This will
1034 have no effect if ACPI IRQ routing is
1036 noacpi [IA-32] Do not use ACPI for IRQ routing
1037 or for PCI scanning.
1038 routeirq Do IRQ routing for all PCI devices.
1039 This is normally done in pci_enable_device(),
1040 so this option is a temporary workaround
1041 for broken drivers that don't call it.
1043 firmware [ARM] Do not re-enumerate the bus but
1044 instead just use the configuration
1045 from the bootloader. This is currently
1046 used on IXP2000 systems where the
1047 bus has to be configured a certain way
1050 pcmv= [HW,PCMCIA] BadgePAD 4
1053 See Documentation/paride.txt.
1055 pdcchassis= [PARISC,HW] Disable/Enable PDC Chassis Status codes at
1058 See arch/parisc/kernel/pdc_chassis.c
1061 See Documentation/paride.txt.
1064 See Documentation/paride.txt.
1066 pirq= [SMP,APIC] Manual mp-table setup
1067 See Documentation/i386/IO-APIC.txt.
1069 plip= [PPT,NET] Parallel port network link
1070 Format: { parport<nr> | timid | 0 }
1071 See also Documentation/parport.txt.
1077 { on | off | curr | res | no-curr | no-res }
1080 [ISAPNP] Exclude IRQs for the autoconfiguration
1083 [ISAPNP] Exclude DMAs for the autoconfiguration
1085 pnp_reserve_io= [ISAPNP] Exclude I/O ports for the autoconfiguration
1086 Ranges are in pairs (I/O port base and size).
1089 [ISAPNP] Exclude memory regions for the autoconfiguration
1090 Ranges are in pairs (memory base and size).
1092 profile= [KNL] Enable kernel profiling via /proc/profile
1093 { schedule | <number> }
1094 (param: schedule - profile schedule points}
1095 (param: profile step/bucket size as a power of 2 for
1096 statistical time based profiling)
1098 processor.max_cstate= [HW, ACPI]
1099 Limit processor to maximum C-state
1100 max_cstate=9 overrides any DMI blacklist limit.
1102 prompt_ramdisk= [RAM] List of RAM disks to prompt for floppy disk
1104 See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
1106 psmouse.proto= [HW,MOUSE] Highest PS2 mouse protocol extension to
1107 probe for (bare|imps|exps).
1108 psmouse.rate= [HW,MOUSE] Set desired mouse report rate, in reports
1111 [HW,MOUSE] Try to reset the device after so many bad packets
1114 [HW,MOUSE] Set desired mouse resolution, in dpi.
1115 psmouse.smartscroll=
1116 [HW,MOUSE] Controls Logitech smartscroll autorepeat,
1117 0 = disabled, 1 = enabled (default).
1119 pss= [HW,OSS] Personal Sound System (ECHO ESC614)
1120 Format: <io>,<mss_io>,<mss_irq>,<mss_dma>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>
1123 See Documentation/paride.txt.
1125 quiet= [KNL] Disable log messages
1130 See Documentation/md.txt.
1132 ramdisk= [RAM] Sizes of RAM disks in kilobytes [deprecated]
1133 See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
1137 See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
1139 ramdisk_size= [RAM] Sizes of RAM disks in kilobytes
1140 New name for the ramdisk parameter.
1141 See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
1143 reboot= [BUGS=IA-32,BUGS=ARM,BUGS=IA-64] Rebooting mode
1144 Format: <reboot_mode>[,<reboot_mode2>[,...]]
1145 See arch/*/kernel/reboot.c.
1147 reserve= [KNL,BUGS] Force the kernel to ignore some iomem area
1149 resume= [SWSUSP] Specify the partition device for software suspension
1151 rhash_entries= [KNL,NET]
1152 Set number of hash buckets for route cache
1154 riscom8= [HW,SERIAL]
1155 Format: <io_board1>[,<io_board2>[,...<io_boardN>]]
1157 ro [KNL] Mount root device read-only on boot
1159 root= [KNL] Root filesystem
1161 rootdelay= [KNL] Delay (in seconds) to pause before attempting to
1162 mount the root filesystem
1164 rootflags= [KNL] Set root filesystem mount option string
1166 rootfstype= [KNL] Set root filesystem type
1168 rw [KNL] Mount root device read-write on boot
1170 S [KNL] Run init in single mode
1173 See drivers/net/irda/sa1100_ir.c.
1176 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>
1178 sbni= [NET] Granch SBNI12 leased line adapter
1180 sbpcd= [HW,CD] Soundblaster CD adapter
1182 See a comment before function sbpcd_setup() in
1183 drivers/cdrom/sbpcd.c.
1185 sc1200wdt= [HW,WDT] SC1200 WDT (watchdog) driver
1186 Format: <io>[,<timeout>[,<isapnp>]]
1188 scsi_debug_*= [SCSI]
1189 See drivers/scsi/scsi_debug.c.
1191 scsi_default_dev_flags=
1192 [SCSI] SCSI default device flags
1195 scsi_dev_flags= [SCSI] Black/white list entry for vendor and model
1196 Format: <vendor>:<model>:<flags>
1197 (flags are integer value)
1199 scsi_logging= [SCSI]
1201 selinux [SELINUX] Disable or enable SELinux at boot time.
1202 Format: { "0" | "1" }
1203 See security/selinux/Kconfig help text.
1206 Default value is set via kernel config option.
1207 If enabled at boot time, /selinux/disable can be used
1208 later to disable prior to initial policy load.
1210 serialnumber [BUGS=IA-32]
1212 sg_def_reserved_size=
1216 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<sgbase>
1219 Maximal number of shapers.
1222 See header of drivers/scsi/sim710.c.
1228 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>
1229 See header of drivers/cdrom/sjcd.c.
1234 Format: <io1>[,<io2>[,...,<io8>]]
1236 snd-ad1816a= [HW,ALSA]
1238 snd-ad1848= [HW,ALSA]
1240 snd-ali5451= [HW,ALSA]
1242 snd-als100= [HW,ALSA]
1244 snd-als4000= [HW,ALSA]
1246 snd-azt2320= [HW,ALSA]
1248 snd-cmi8330= [HW,ALSA]
1250 snd-cmipci= [HW,ALSA]
1252 snd-cs4231= [HW,ALSA]
1254 snd-cs4232= [HW,ALSA]
1256 snd-cs4236= [HW,ALSA]
1258 snd-cs4281= [HW,ALSA]
1260 snd-cs46xx= [HW,ALSA]
1262 snd-dt019x= [HW,ALSA]
1264 snd-dummy= [HW,ALSA]
1266 snd-emu10k1= [HW,ALSA]
1268 snd-ens1370= [HW,ALSA]
1270 snd-ens1371= [HW,ALSA]
1272 snd-es968= [HW,ALSA]
1274 snd-es1688= [HW,ALSA]
1276 snd-es18xx= [HW,ALSA]
1278 snd-es1938= [HW,ALSA]
1280 snd-es1968= [HW,ALSA]
1282 snd-fm801= [HW,ALSA]
1284 snd-gusclassic= [HW,ALSA]
1286 snd-gusextreme= [HW,ALSA]
1288 snd-gusmax= [HW,ALSA]
1292 snd-ice1712= [HW,ALSA]
1294 snd-intel8x0= [HW,ALSA]
1296 snd-interwave= [HW,ALSA]
1301 snd-korg1212= [HW,ALSA]
1303 snd-maestro3= [HW,ALSA]
1305 snd-mpu401= [HW,ALSA]
1307 snd-mtpav= [HW,ALSA]
1309 snd-nm256= [HW,ALSA]
1311 snd-opl3sa2= [HW,ALSA]
1319 snd-opti93x= [HW,ALSA]
1323 snd-rme32= [HW,ALSA]
1325 snd-rme96= [HW,ALSA]
1327 snd-rme9652= [HW,ALSA]
1333 snd-sbawe= [HW,ALSA]
1335 snd-serial= [HW,ALSA]
1337 snd-sgalaxy= [HW,ALSA]
1339 snd-sonicvibes= [HW,ALSA]
1344 snd-sun-cs4231= [HW,ALSA]
1346 snd-trident= [HW,ALSA]
1348 snd-usb-audio= [HW,ALSA,USB]
1350 snd-via82xx= [HW,ALSA]
1352 snd-virmidi= [HW,ALSA]
1354 snd-wavefront= [HW,ALSA]
1356 snd-ymfpci= [HW,ALSA]
1358 sonicvibes= [HW,OSS]
1362 Format: <io>[,<irq>]
1364 sonypi.*= [HW] Sony Programmable I/O Control Device driver
1365 See Documentation/sonypi.txt
1367 specialix= [HW,SERIAL] Specialix multi-serial port adapter
1368 See Documentation/specialix.txt.
1370 spia_io_base= [HW,MTD]
1376 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>
1378 st= [HW,SCSI] SCSI tape parameters (buffers, etc.)
1379 See Documentation/scsi/st.txt.
1382 See header of drivers/scsi/seagate.c.
1386 Set the STI (builtin display/keyboard on the HP-PARISC
1387 machines) console (graphic card) which should be used
1388 as the initial boot-console.
1389 See also comment in drivers/video/console/sticore.c.
1392 See comment in drivers/video/console/sticore.c.
1395 Format: bpp:<bpp1>[:<bpp2>[:<bpp3>...]]
1397 stram_swap= [HW,M68k]
1399 swiotlb= [IA-64] Number of I/O TLB slabs
1403 sym53c416= [HW,SCSI]
1404 See header of drivers/scsi/sym53c416.c.
1407 See header of drivers/scsi/t128.c.
1411 thash_entries= [KNL,NET]
1412 Set number of hash buckets for TCP connection
1414 time Show timing data prefixed to each printk message line
1416 tipar.timeout= [HW,PPT]
1417 Set communications timeout in tenths of a second
1420 tipar.delay= [HW,PPT]
1421 Set inter-bit delay in microseconds (default 10).
1424 See header of drivers/scsi/seagate.c.
1427 See comment before function dc390_setup() in
1428 drivers/scsi/tmscsim.c.
1432 trix= [HW,OSS] MediaTrix AudioTrix Pro
1433 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<sb_io>,<sb_irq>,<sb_dma>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>
1435 tsdev.xres= [TS] Horizontal screen resolution.
1436 tsdev.yres= [TS] Vertical screen resolution.
1438 turbografx.map[2|3]=
1439 [HW,JOY] TurboGraFX parallel port interface
1440 Format: <port#>,<js1>,<js2>,<js3>,<js4>,<js5>,<js6>,<js7>
1441 See also Documentation/input/joystick-parport.txt
1443 u14-34f= [HW,SCSI] UltraStor 14F/34F SCSI host adapter
1444 See header of drivers/scsi/u14-34f.c.
1452 usb-handoff [HW] Enable early USB BIOS -> OS handoff
1455 [USBHID] The interval which mice are to be polled at.
1457 video= [FB] Frame buffer configuration
1458 See Documentation/fb/modedb.txt.
1460 vga= [BOOT,IA-32] Select a particular video mode
1461 See Documentation/i386/boot.txt and Documentation/svga.txt.
1462 Use vga=ask for menu.
1463 This is actually a boot loader parameter; the value is
1464 passed to the kernel using a special protocol.
1466 vmalloc=nn[KMG] [KNL,BOOT] forces the vmalloc area to have an exact
1467 size of <nn>. This can be used to increase the
1468 minimum size (128MB on x86). It can also be used to
1469 decrease the size and leave more room for directly
1476 waveartist= [HW,OSS]
1477 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>
1480 See header of drivers/scsi/wd33c93.c.
1483 See header of drivers/scsi/wd7000.c.
1486 See Documentation/watchdog/watchdog.txt.
1488 xd= [HW,XT] Original XT pre-IDE (RLL encoded) disks.
1489 xd_geo= See header of drivers/block/xd.c.
1491 xirc2ps_cs= [NET,PCMCIA]
1492 Format: <irq>,<irq_mask>,<io>,<full_duplex>,<do_sound>,<lockup_hack>[,<irq2>[,<irq3>[,<irq4>]]]
1498 The last known update (for 2.4.0) - the changelog was not kept before.
1499 2000-06-?? Mr. Unknown
1501 Update for 2.5.49, description for most of the options introduced,
1502 references to other documentation (C files, READMEs, ..), added S390,
1503 PPC, SPARC, MTD, ALSA and OSS category. Minor corrections and
1505 2002-11-24 Petr Baudis <pasky@ucw.cz>
1506 Randy Dunlap <randy.dunlap@verizon.net>
1510 Add documentation for ALSA options.
1511 Add more DRM drivers.