1 Kernel initialisation parameters on ARM Linux
2 ---------------------------------------------
4 The following document describes the kernel initialisation parameter
5 structure, otherwise known as 'struct param_struct' which is used
6 for most ARM Linux architectures.
8 This structure is used to pass initialisation parameters from the
9 kernel loader to the Linux kernel proper, and may be short lived
10 through the kernel initialisation process. As a general rule, it
11 should not be referenced outside of arch/arm/kernel/setup.c:setup_arch().
13 There are a lot of parameters listed in there, and they are described
18 This parameter must be set to the page size of the machine, and
19 will be checked by the kernel.
23 This is the total number of pages of memory in the system. If
24 the memory is banked, then this should contain the total number
25 of pages in the system.
27 If the system contains separate VRAM, this value should not
28 include this information.
32 This is now obsolete, and should not be used.
36 Various kernel flags, including:
37 bit 0 - 1 = mount root read only
39 bit 2 - 0 = load ramdisk
40 bit 3 - 0 = prompt for ramdisk
44 major/minor number pair of device to mount as the root filesystem.
49 These two together describe the character size of the dummy console,
50 or VGA console character size. They should not be used for any other
53 It's generally a good idea to set these to be either standard VGA, or
54 the equivalent character size of your fbcon display. This then allows
55 all the bootup messages to be displayed correctly.
60 This describes the character position of cursor on VGA console, and
61 is otherwise unused. (should not used for other console types, and
62 should not be used for other purposes).
66 MEMC chip control register for Acorn Archimedes and Acorn A5000
67 based machines. May be used differently by different architectures.
71 Default sound setting on Acorn machines. May be used differently by
72 different architectures.
76 Number of ADFS/MFM disks. May be used differently by different
82 These are now obsolete, and should not be used.
86 Number of pages in each bank of the systems memory (used for RiscPC).
87 This is intended to be used on systems where the physical memory
88 is non-contiguous from the processors point of view.
92 Number of pages in VRAM (used on Acorn RiscPC). This value may also
93 be used by loaders if the size of the video RAM can't be obtained
99 This describes the kernel virtual start address and size of the
104 Start address in sectors of the ramdisk image on a floppy disk.
108 system revision number.
113 system 64-bit serial number
117 The speed of the external oscillator to the 21285 (footbridge),
118 which control's the speed of the memory bus, timer & serial port.
119 Depending upon the speed of the cpu its value can be between
120 0-66 MHz. If no params are passed or a value of zero is passed,
121 then a value of 50 Mhz is the default on 21285 architectures.
125 These are now obsolete, and should not be used.
129 Kernel command line parameters. Details can be found elsewhere.