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 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 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
162 acpi_generic_hotkey [HW,ACPI]
163 Allow consolidated generic hotkey driver to
164 over-ride platform specific driver.
165 See also Documentation/acpi-hotkey.txt.
168 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>
169 See also Documentation/sound/oss/AD1816.
172 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<type>
178 See header of drivers/scsi/advansys.c.
180 advwdt= [HW,WDT] Advantech WDT
181 Format: <iostart>,<iostop>
183 aedsp16= [HW,OSS] Audio Excel DSP 16
184 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<mss_io>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>
185 See also header of sound/oss/aedsp16.c.
188 See Documentation/scsi/aha152x.txt.
191 Format: <portbase>[,<buson>,<busoff>[,<dmaspeed>]]
194 See Documentation/scsi/aic7xxx.txt.
197 See Documentation/scsi/aic79xx.txt.
200 Format: <host-scsi-id>,<target-scsi-id>,<max-rate>,<max-offset>
201 See also header of drivers/scsi/AM53C974.c.
203 amijoy.map= [HW,JOY] Amiga joystick support
204 Map of devices attached to JOY0DAT and JOY1DAT
206 See also Documentation/kernel/input/joystick.txt
208 analog.map= [HW,JOY] Analog joystick and gamepad support
209 Specifies type or capabilities of an analog joystick
210 connected to one of 16 gameports
211 Format: <type1>,<type2>,..<type16>
213 apc= [HW,SPARC] Power management functions (SPARCstation-4/5 + deriv.)
215 Disable APC CPU standby support. SPARCstation-Fox does
216 not play well with APC CPU idle - disable it if you have
217 APC and your system crashes randomly.
219 apic= [APIC,i386] Change the output verbosity whilst booting
220 Format: { quiet (default) | verbose | debug }
221 Change the amount of debugging information output
222 when initialising the APIC and IO-APIC components.
224 apm= [APM] Advanced Power Management
225 See header of arch/i386/kernel/apm.c.
230 arcrimi= [HW,NET] ARCnet - "RIM I" (entirely mem-mapped) cards
231 Format: <io>,<irq>,<nodeID>
235 atarimouse= [HW,MOUSE] Atari Mouse
237 atascsi= [HW,SCSI] Atari SCSI
239 atkbd.extra= [HW] Enable extra LEDs and keys on IBM RapidAccess,
240 EzKey and similar keyboards
242 atkbd.reset= [HW] Reset keyboard during initialization
244 atkbd.set= [HW] Select keyboard code set
245 Format: <int> (2 = AT (default) 3 = PS/2)
247 atkbd.scroll= [HW] Enable scroll wheel on MS Office and similar
250 atkbd.softraw= [HW] Choose between synthetic and real raw mode
251 Format: <bool> (0 = real, 1 = synthetic (default))
254 [HW] Use software keyboard repeat
258 awe= [HW,OSS] AWE32/SB32/AWE64 wave table synth
259 Format: <io>,<memsize>,<isapnp>
261 aztcd= [HW,CD] Aztech CD268 CDROM driver
262 Format: <io>,0x79 (?)
264 baycom_epp= [HW,AX25]
267 baycom_par= [HW,AX25] BayCom Parallel Port AX.25 Modem
269 See header of drivers/net/hamradio/baycom_par.c.
271 baycom_ser_fdx= [HW,AX25] BayCom Serial Port AX.25 Modem (Full Duplex Mode)
272 Format: <io>,<irq>,<mode>[,<baud>]
273 See header of drivers/net/hamradio/baycom_ser_fdx.c.
275 baycom_ser_hdx= [HW,AX25] BayCom Serial Port AX.25 Modem (Half Duplex Mode)
276 Format: <io>,<irq>,<mode>
277 See header of drivers/net/hamradio/baycom_ser_hdx.c.
279 blkmtd_device= [HW,MTD]
285 bttv.card= [HW,V4L] bttv (bt848 + bt878 based grabber cards)
286 bttv.radio= Most important insmod options are available as kernel args too.
287 bttv.pll= See Documentation/video4linux/bttv/Insmod-options
288 bttv.tuner= and Documentation/video4linux/bttv/CARDLIST
291 See drivers/scsi/BusLogic.c, comment before function
292 BusLogic_ParseDriverOptions().
294 c101= [NET] Moxa C101 synchronous serial card
296 cachesize= [BUGS=IA-32] Override level 2 CPU cache size detection.
297 Sometimes CPU hardware bugs make them report the cache
298 size incorrectly. The kernel will attempt work arounds
299 to fix known problems, but for some CPUs it is not
300 possible to determine what the correct size should be.
301 This option provides an override for these situations.
304 Format: <io>,<irq>[,PAS]
305 See header of drivers/cdrom/cdu31a.c.
307 chandev= [HW,NET] Generic channel device initialisation
309 checkreqprot [SELINUX] Set initial checkreqprot flag value.
310 Format: { "0" | "1" }
311 See security/selinux/Kconfig help text.
312 0 -- check protection applied by kernel (includes any implied execute protection).
313 1 -- check protection requested by application.
314 Default value is set via a kernel config option.
315 Value can be changed at runtime via /selinux/checkreqprot.
317 clock= [BUGS=IA-32, HW] gettimeofday timesource override.
318 Forces specified timesource (if avaliable) to be used
319 when calculating gettimeofday(). If specicified timesource
320 is not avalible, it defaults to PIT.
321 Format: { pit | tsc | cyclone | pmtmr }
323 hpet= [IA-32,HPET] option to disable HPET and use PIT.
327 Format: { auto | [<io>,][<irq>] }
329 com20020= [HW,NET] ARCnet - COM20020 chipset
330 Format: <io>[,<irq>[,<nodeID>[,<backplane>[,<ckp>[,<timeout>]]]]]
332 com90io= [HW,NET] ARCnet - COM90xx chipset (IO-mapped buffers)
335 com90xx= [HW,NET] ARCnet - COM90xx chipset (memory-mapped buffers)
336 Format: <io>[,<irq>[,<memstart>]]
338 condev= [HW,S390] console device
341 console= [KNL] Output console device and options.
343 tty<n> Use the virtual console device <n>.
346 Use the specified serial port. The options are of
347 the form "bbbbpn", where "bbbb" is the baud rate,
348 "p" is parity ("n", "o", or "e"), and "n" is bits.
351 See also Documentation/serial-console.txt.
353 uart,io,<addr>[,options]
354 uart,mmio,<addr>[,options]
355 Start an early, polled-mode console on the 8250/16550
356 UART at the specified I/O port or MMIO address,
357 switching to the matching ttyS device later. The
358 options are the same as for ttyS, above.
360 cpcihp_generic= [HW,PCI] Generic port I/O CompactPCI driver
361 Format: <first_slot>,<last_slot>,<port>,<enum_bit>[,<debug>]
364 Format: { parport<nr> | auto | none }
366 crashkernel=nn[KMG]@ss[KMG]
367 [KNL] Reserve a chunk of physical memory to
368 hold a kernel to switch to with kexec on panic.
371 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<mpuio>,<mpuirq>
376 cs89x0_media= [HW,NET]
377 Format: { rj45 | aui | bnc }
379 cyclades= [HW,SERIAL] Cyclades multi-serial port adapter.
382 See header of drivers/s390/block/dasd_devmap.c.
384 db9.dev[2|3]= [HW,JOY] Multisystem joystick support via parallel port
385 (one device per port)
386 Format: <port#>,<type>
387 See also Documentation/input/joystick-parport.txt
389 debug [KNL] Enable kernel debugging (events log level).
392 Format: <area>[,<node>]
393 See also Documentation/networking/decnet.txt.
396 See Documentation/filesystems/devfs/boot-options.
399 Set number of hash buckets for dentry cache.
402 IO parameters + enable/disable command.
404 digiepca= [HW,SERIAL]
405 See drivers/char/README.epca and
406 Documentation/digiepca.txt.
408 dmascc= [HW,AX25,SERIAL] AX.25 Z80SCC driver with DMA
410 Format: <io_dev0>[,<io_dev1>[,..<io_dev32>]]
412 dmasound= [HW,OSS] Sound subsystem buffers
418 earlyprintk= [IA-32, X86-64]
420 earlyprintk=serial[,ttySn[,baudrate]]
422 Append ,keep to not disable it when the real console
425 Only vga or serial at a time, not both.
427 Currently only ttyS0 and ttyS1 are supported.
429 Interaction with the standard serial driver is not
432 The VGA output is eventually overwritten by the real
442 Format: {"of[f]" | "sk[ipmbr]"}
443 See comment in arch/i386/boot/edd.S
446 Format: <id>,<membase>,<irq>
448 eisa_irq_edge= [PARISC,HW]
449 See header of drivers/parisc/eisa.c.
452 See comment before function elanfreq_setup() in
453 arch/i386/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/elanfreq.c.
456 Format: {"as"|"cfq"|"deadline"|"noop"}
457 See Documentation/block/as-iosched.txt
458 and Documentation/block/deadline-iosched.txt for details.
460 Specifies physical address of start of kernel core image
462 See Documentation/kdump.txt for details.
464 enforcing [SELINUX] Set initial enforcing status.
466 See security/selinux/Kconfig help text.
467 0 -- permissive (log only, no denials).
468 1 -- enforcing (deny and log).
470 Value can be changed at runtime via /selinux/enforce.
473 Format: <lineout>[,<micbias>]
474 See also header of sound/oss/es1370.c.
477 Format: <spdif>,[<nomix>,[<amplifier>]]
478 See also header of sound/oss/es1371.c.
480 ether= [HW,NET] Ethernet cards parameters
481 This option is obsoleted by the "netdev=" option, which
482 has equivalent usage. See its documentation for details.
484 eurwdt= [HW,WDT] Eurotech CPU-1220/1410 onboard watchdog.
488 See header of drivers/scsi/fd_mcs.c.
491 See header of drivers/scsi/fdomain.c.
494 See Documentation/floppy.txt.
496 ftape= [HW] Floppy Tape subsystem debugging options.
497 See Documentation/ftape.txt.
500 [HW,JOY] Multisystem joystick and NES/SNES/PSX pad
501 support via parallel port (up to 5 devices per port)
502 Format: <port#>,<pad1>,<pad2>,<pad3>,<pad4>,<pad5>
503 See also Documentation/input/joystick-parport.txt
508 See header of drivers/scsi/gdth.c.
510 gpt [EFI] Forces disk with valid GPT signature but
511 invalid Protective MBR to be treated as GPT.
516 gt96100eth= [NET] MIPS GT96100 Advanced Communication Controller
519 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma16>
523 hashdist= [KNL,NUMA] Large hashes allocated during boot
524 are distributed across NUMA nodes. Defaults on
525 for IA-64, off otherwise.
527 hcl= [IA-64] SGI's Hardware Graph compatibility layer
529 hd= [EIDE] (E)IDE hard drive subsystem geometry
530 Format: <cyl>,<head>,<sect>
532 hd?= [HW] (E)IDE subsystem
533 hd?lun= See Documentation/ide.txt.
535 highmem=nn[KMG] [KNL,BOOT] forces the highmem zone to have an exact
536 size of <nn>. This works even on boxes that have no
537 highmem otherwise. This also works to reduce highmem
538 size on bigger boxes.
541 See Documentation/isdn/README.HiSax.
543 hugepages= [HW,IA-32,IA-64] Maximal number of HugeTLB pages.
545 noirqbalance [IA-32,SMP,KNL] Disable kernel irq balancing
547 i8042.direct [HW] Put keyboard port into non-translated mode
548 i8042.dumbkbd [HW] Pretend that controlled can only read data from
549 keyboard and can not control its state
550 (Don't attempt to blink the leds)
551 i8042.noaux [HW] Don't check for auxiliary (== mouse) port
552 i8042.nomux [HW] Don't check presence of an active multiplexing
554 i8042.nopnp [HW] Don't use ACPIPnP / PnPBIOS to discover KBD/AUX
557 [HW] Frequency with which keyboard LEDs should blink
558 when kernel panics (default is 0.5 sec)
559 i8042.reset [HW] Reset the controller during init and cleanup
560 i8042.unlock [HW] Unlock (ignore) the keylock
564 i8k.ignore_dmi [HW] Continue probing hardware even if DMI data
565 indicates that the driver is running on unsupported
567 i8k.force [HW] Activate i8k driver even if SMM BIOS signature
568 does not match list of supported models.
570 [HW] Report power status in /proc/i8k
571 (disabled by default)
572 i8k.restricted [HW] Allow controlling fans only if SYS_ADMIN
575 ibmmcascsi= [HW,MCA,SCSI] IBM MicroChannel SCSI adapter
576 See Documentation/mca.txt.
579 Format: <io>[,<membase>[,<icn_id>[,<icn_id2>]]]
581 ide= [HW] (E)IDE subsystem
582 Format: ide=nodma or ide=doubler or ide=reverse
583 See Documentation/ide.txt.
585 ide?= [HW] (E)IDE subsystem
586 Format: ide?=noprobe or chipset specific parameters.
587 See Documentation/ide.txt.
589 idebus= [HW] (E)IDE subsystem - VLB/PCI bus speed
590 See Documentation/ide.txt.
593 Format: idle=poll or idle=halt
596 Set number of hash buckets for inode cache.
599 See header of drivers/scsi/in2000.c.
603 Run specified binary instead of /sbin/init as init
606 initcall_debug [KNL] Trace initcalls as they are executed. Useful
607 for working out where the kernel is dying during
610 initrd= [BOOT] Specify the location of the initial ramdisk
612 inport.irq= [HW] Inport (ATI XL and Microsoft) busmouse driver
617 io7= [HW] IO7 for Marvel based alpha systems
618 See comment before marvel_specify_io7 in
619 arch/alpha/kernel/core_marvel.c.
622 See Documentation/nfsroot.txt.
624 ip2= [HW] Set IO/IRQ pairs for up to 4 IntelliPort boards
625 See comment before ip2_setup() in drivers/char/ip2.c.
627 ips= [HW,SCSI] Adaptec / IBM ServeRAID controller
628 See header of drivers/scsi/ips.c.
631 When an interrupt is not handled search all handlers
632 for it. Intended to get systems with badly broken
636 When an interrupt is not handled search all handlers
637 for it. Also check all handlers each timer
638 interrupt. Intended to get systems with badly broken
642 Format: <RDP>, <reset>, <pci_scan>, <verbosity>
644 isolcpus= [KNL,SMP] Isolate CPUs from the general scheduler.
645 Format: <cpu number>,...,<cpu number>
646 This option can be used to specify one or more CPUs
647 to isolate from the general SMP balancing and scheduling
648 algorithms. The only way to move a process onto or off
649 an "isolated" CPU is via the CPU affinity syscalls.
650 <cpu number> begins at 0 and the maximum value is
651 "number of CPUs in system - 1".
653 This option is the preferred way to isolate CPUs. The
654 alternative - manually setting the CPU mask of all tasks
655 in the system can cause problems and suboptimal load
656 balancer performance.
659 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<setup>
663 js= [HW,JOY] Analog joystick
664 See Documentation/input/joystick.txt.
668 kstack=N [IA-32, X86-64] Print N words from the kernel stack
673 lapic [IA-32,APIC] Enable the local APIC even if BIOS disabled it.
675 lasi= [HW,SCSI] PARISC LASI driver for the 53c700 chip
676 Format: addr:<io>,irq:<irq>
679 See function print_params() in arch/ia64/sn/kernel/llsc4.c.
681 load_ramdisk= [RAM] List of ramdisks to load from floppy
682 See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
688 logibm.irq= [HW,MOUSE] Logitech Bus Mouse Driver
691 loglevel= All Kernel Messages with a loglevel smaller than the
692 console loglevel will be printed to the console. It can
693 also be changed with klogd or other programs. The
694 loglevels are defined as follows:
696 0 (KERN_EMERG) system is unusable
697 1 (KERN_ALERT) action must be taken immediately
698 2 (KERN_CRIT) critical conditions
699 3 (KERN_ERR) error conditions
700 4 (KERN_WARNING) warning conditions
701 5 (KERN_NOTICE) normal but significant condition
702 6 (KERN_INFO) informational
703 7 (KERN_DEBUG) debug-level messages
705 log_buf_len=n Sets the size of the printk ring buffer, in bytes.
706 Format is n, nk, nM. n must be a power of two. The
707 default is set in kernel config.
709 lp=0 [LP] Specify parallel ports to use, e.g,
710 lp=port[,port...] lp=none,parport0 (lp0 not configured, lp1 uses
711 lp=reset first parallel port). 'lp=0' disables the
712 lp=auto printer driver. 'lp=reset' (which can be
713 specified in addition to the ports) causes
714 attached printers to be reset. Using
715 lp=port1,port2,... specifies the parallel ports
716 to associate lp devices with, starting with
717 lp0. A port specification may be 'none' to skip
718 that lp device, or a parport name such as
719 'parport0'. Specifying 'lp=auto' instead of a
720 port specification list means that device IDs
721 from each port should be examined, to see if
722 an IEEE 1284-compliant printer is attached; if
723 so, the driver will manage that printer.
724 See also header of drivers/char/lp.c.
727 Sets loops_per_jiffy to given constant, thus avoiding
728 time-consuming boot-time autodetection (up to 250 ms per
729 CPU). 0 enables autodetection (default). To determine
730 the correct value for your kernel, boot with normal
731 autodetection and see what value is printed. Note that
732 on SMP systems the preset will be applied to all CPUs,
733 which is likely to cause problems if your CPUs need
734 significantly divergent settings. An incorrect value
735 will cause delays in the kernel to be wrong, leading to
736 unpredictable I/O errors and other breakage. Although
737 unlikely, in the extreme case this might damage your
741 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>
744 Format: <can_queue>,<cmd_per_lun>,<sg_tablesize>,<hostid>,<use_tags>
747 Format: <num_esps>,<disconnect>,<nosync>,<can_queue>,<cmd_per_lun>,<sg_tablesize>,<hostid>,<use_tags>
750 Force the use of a particular machine-vector (machvec) in a generic
751 kernel. Example: machvec=hpzx1_swiotlb
754 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma16>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>,<joystick>
759 max_loop= [LOOP] Maximum number of loopback devices that can
763 maxcpus= [SMP] Maximum number of processors that an SMP kernel
766 max_addr=[KMG] [KNL,BOOT,ia64] All physical memory greater than or
767 equal to this physical address is ignored.
769 max_luns= [SCSI] Maximum number of LUNs to probe
770 Should be between 1 and 2^32-1.
773 [SCSI] Maximum number of LUNs received
774 Should be between 1 and 16384.
776 mca-pentium [BUGS=IA-32]
781 Format: <port>,<irq>,<mitsumi_bug_93_wait>
785 mce [IA-32] Machine Check Exception
787 md= [HW] RAID subsystems devices and level
788 See Documentation/md.txt.
791 Format: <first>,<last>
792 Specifies range of consoles to be captured by the MDA.
794 mem=nn[KMG] [KNL,BOOT] Force usage of a specific amount of memory
795 Amount of memory to be used when the kernel is not able
796 to see the whole system memory or for test.
797 [IA-32] Use together with memmap= to avoid physical
798 address space collisions. Without memmap= PCI devices
799 could be placed at addresses belonging to unused RAM.
801 mem=nopentium [BUGS=IA-32] Disable usage of 4MB pages for kernel
804 memmap=exactmap [KNL,IA-32] Enable setting of an exact
805 E820 memory map, as specified by the user.
806 Such memmap=exactmap lines can be constructed based on
807 BIOS output or other requirements. See the memmap=nn@ss
810 memmap=nn[KMG]@ss[KMG]
811 [KNL] Force usage of a specific region of memory
812 Region of memory to be used, from ss to ss+nn.
814 memmap=nn[KMG]#ss[KMG]
815 [KNL,ACPI] Mark specific memory as ACPI data.
816 Region of memory to be used, from ss to ss+nn.
818 memmap=nn[KMG]$ss[KMG]
819 [KNL,ACPI] Mark specific memory as reserved.
820 Region of memory to be used, from ss to ss+nn.
822 meye.*= [HW] Set MotionEye Camera parameters
823 See Documentation/video4linux/meye.txt.
828 [MOUSE] Maximum time between finger touching and
829 leaving touchpad surface for touch to be considered
830 a tap and be reported as a left button click (for
831 touchpads working in absolute mode only).
833 mousedev.xres= [MOUSE] Horizontal screen resolution, used for devices
834 reporting absolute coordinates, such as tablets
835 mousedev.yres= [MOUSE] Vertical screen resolution, used for devices
836 reporting absolute coordinates, such as tablets
842 Format: <name>,<region-number>,<size>,<offset>
845 Format: <name>,<region-number>[,<base>,<size>,<buswidth>,<altbuswidth>]
848 See drivers/mtd/cmdline.c.
850 mtouchusb.raw_coordinates=
851 [HW] Make the MicroTouch USB driver use raw coordinates ('y', default)
852 or cooked coordinates ('n')
854 n2= [NET] SDL Inc. RISCom/N2 synchronous serial card
857 See header of drivers/scsi/NCR_D700.c.
863 ncr53c400a= [HW,SCSI]
865 ncr53c406a= [HW,SCSI]
869 netdev= [NET] Network devices parameters
870 Format: <irq>,<io>,<mem_start>,<mem_end>,<name>
871 Note that mem_start is often overloaded to mean
872 something different and driver-specific.
875 See Documentation/nfsroot.txt.
877 nfsroot= [NFS] nfs root filesystem for disk-less boxes.
878 See Documentation/nfsroot.txt.
880 nmi_watchdog= [KNL,BUGS=IA-32] Debugging features for SMP kernels
882 no387 [BUGS=IA-32] Tells the kernel to use the 387 maths
883 emulation library even if a 387 maths coprocessor
888 noapic [SMP,APIC] Tells the kernel to not make use of any
889 IOAPICs that may be present in the system.
891 noasync [HW,M68K] Disables async and sync negotiation for
894 nobats [PPC] Do not use BATs for mapping kernel lowmem
895 on "Classic" PPC cores.
899 nodisconnect [HW,SCSI,M68K] Disables SCSI disconnects.
903 noexec [IA-32, X86-64]
904 noexec=on: enable non-executable mappings (default)
905 noexec=off: disable nn-executable mappings
911 no-hlt [BUGS=IA-32] Tells the kernel that the hlt
912 instruction doesn't work correctly and not to
915 nohalt [IA-64] Tells the kernel not to use the power saving
916 function PAL_HALT_LIGHT when idle. This increases
917 power-consumption. On the positive side, it reduces
918 interrupt wake-up latency, which may improve performance
919 in certain environments such as networked servers or
922 noirqdebug [IA-32] Disables the code which attempts to detect and
923 disable unhandled interrupt sources.
925 noisapnp [ISAPNP] Disables ISA PnP code.
927 noinitrd [RAM] Tells the kernel not to load any configured
932 nolapic [IA-32,APIC] Do not enable or use the local APIC.
934 noltlbs [PPC] Do not use large page/tlb entries for kernel
935 lowmem mapping on PPC40x.
937 nomce [IA-32] Machine Check Exception
939 noresidual [PPC] Don't use residual data on PReP machines.
941 noresume [SWSUSP] Disables resume and restore original swap space.
943 no-scroll [VGA] Disables scrollback.
944 This is required for the Braillex ib80-piezo Braille
945 reader made by F.H. Papenmeier (Germany).
949 nosmp [SMP] Tells an SMP kernel to act as a UP kernel.
951 nosync [HW,M68K] Disables sync negotiation for all devices.
953 notsc [BUGS=IA-32] Disable Time Stamp Counter
955 nousb [USB] Disable the USB subsystem
963 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>
966 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<mss_io>,<mpu_io>,<ymode>,<loopback>[,<isapnp>,<multiple]
969 Use timer interrupt instead of performance counters
974 osst= [HW,SCSI] SCSI Tape Driver
975 Format: <buffer_size>,<write_threshold>
976 See also Documentation/scsi/st.txt.
978 panic= [KNL] Kernel behaviour on panic
981 parkbd.port= [HW] Parallel port number the keyboard adapter is
982 connected to, default is 0.
984 parkbd.mode= [HW] Parallel port keyboard adapter mode of operation,
985 0 for XT, 1 for AT (default is AT).
988 parport=0 [HW,PPT] Specify parallel ports. 0 disables.
989 parport=auto Use 'auto' to force the driver to use
990 parport=0xBBB[,IRQ[,DMA]] any IRQ/DMA settings detected (the
991 default is to ignore detected IRQ/DMA
992 settings because of possible
993 conflicts). You can specify the base
994 address, IRQ, and DMA settings; IRQ and
995 DMA should be numbers, or 'auto' (for
996 using detected settings on that
997 particular port), or 'nofifo' (to avoid
998 using a FIFO even if it is detected).
999 Parallel ports are assigned in the
1000 order they are specified on the command
1001 line, starting with parport0.
1004 [HW,PPT] Configure VIA parallel port to
1005 operate in specific mode. This is
1006 necessary on Pegasos computer where
1007 firmware has no options for setting up
1008 parallel port mode and sets it to
1009 spp. Currently this function knows
1010 686a and 8231 chips.
1011 Format: [spp|ps2|epp|ecp|ecpepp]
1014 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma16>,<sb_io>,<sb_irq>,<sb_dma>,<sb_dma16>
1017 See header of drivers/scsi/pas16.c.
1022 See header of drivers/block/paride/pcd.c.
1023 See also Documentation/paride.txt.
1025 pci=option[,option...] [PCI] various PCI subsystem options:
1026 off [IA-32] don't probe for the PCI bus
1027 bios [IA-32] force use of PCI BIOS, don't access
1028 the hardware directly. Use this if your machine
1029 has a non-standard PCI host bridge.
1030 nobios [IA-32] disallow use of PCI BIOS, only direct
1031 hardware access methods are allowed. Use this
1032 if you experience crashes upon bootup and you
1033 suspect they are caused by the BIOS.
1034 conf1 [IA-32] Force use of PCI Configuration Mechanism 1.
1035 conf2 [IA-32] Force use of PCI Configuration Mechanism 2.
1036 nosort [IA-32] Don't sort PCI devices according to
1037 order given by the PCI BIOS. This sorting is done
1038 to get a device order compatible with older kernels.
1039 biosirq [IA-32] Use PCI BIOS calls to get the interrupt
1040 routing table. These calls are known to be buggy
1041 on several machines and they hang the machine when used,
1042 but on other computers it's the only way to get the
1043 interrupt routing table. Try this option if the kernel
1044 is unable to allocate IRQs or discover secondary PCI
1045 buses on your motherboard.
1046 rom [IA-32] Assign address space to expansion ROMs.
1047 Use with caution as certain devices share address
1048 decoders between ROMs and other resources.
1049 irqmask=0xMMMM [IA-32] Set a bit mask of IRQs allowed to be assigned
1050 automatically to PCI devices. You can make the kernel
1051 exclude IRQs of your ISA cards this way.
1052 pirqaddr=0xAAAAA [IA-32] Specify the physical address
1053 of the PIRQ table (normally generated
1054 by the BIOS) if it is outside the
1055 F0000h-100000h range.
1056 lastbus=N [IA-32] Scan all buses till bus #N. Can be useful
1057 if the kernel is unable to find your secondary buses
1058 and you want to tell it explicitly which ones they are.
1059 assign-busses [IA-32] Always assign all PCI bus
1060 numbers ourselves, overriding
1061 whatever the firmware may have
1063 usepirqmask [IA-32] Honor the possible IRQ mask
1064 stored in the BIOS $PIR table. This is
1065 needed on some systems with broken
1066 BIOSes, notably some HP Pavilion N5400
1067 and Omnibook XE3 notebooks. This will
1068 have no effect if ACPI IRQ routing is
1070 noacpi [IA-32] Do not use ACPI for IRQ routing
1071 or for PCI scanning.
1072 routeirq Do IRQ routing for all PCI devices.
1073 This is normally done in pci_enable_device(),
1074 so this option is a temporary workaround
1075 for broken drivers that don't call it.
1077 firmware [ARM] Do not re-enumerate the bus but
1078 instead just use the configuration
1079 from the bootloader. This is currently
1080 used on IXP2000 systems where the
1081 bus has to be configured a certain way
1084 pcmv= [HW,PCMCIA] BadgePAD 4
1087 See Documentation/paride.txt.
1089 pdcchassis= [PARISC,HW] Disable/Enable PDC Chassis Status codes at
1092 See arch/parisc/kernel/pdc_chassis.c
1095 See Documentation/paride.txt.
1098 See Documentation/paride.txt.
1100 pirq= [SMP,APIC] Manual mp-table setup
1101 See Documentation/i386/IO-APIC.txt.
1103 plip= [PPT,NET] Parallel port network link
1104 Format: { parport<nr> | timid | 0 }
1105 See also Documentation/parport.txt.
1111 { on | off | curr | res | no-curr | no-res }
1114 [ISAPNP] Exclude IRQs for the autoconfiguration
1117 [ISAPNP] Exclude DMAs for the autoconfiguration
1119 pnp_reserve_io= [ISAPNP] Exclude I/O ports for the autoconfiguration
1120 Ranges are in pairs (I/O port base and size).
1123 [ISAPNP] Exclude memory regions for the autoconfiguration
1124 Ranges are in pairs (memory base and size).
1126 profile= [KNL] Enable kernel profiling via /proc/profile
1127 { schedule | <number> }
1128 (param: schedule - profile schedule points}
1129 (param: profile step/bucket size as a power of 2 for
1130 statistical time based profiling)
1132 processor.max_cstate= [HW, ACPI]
1133 Limit processor to maximum C-state
1134 max_cstate=9 overrides any DMI blacklist limit.
1136 prompt_ramdisk= [RAM] List of RAM disks to prompt for floppy disk
1138 See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
1140 psmouse.proto= [HW,MOUSE] Highest PS2 mouse protocol extension to
1141 probe for (bare|imps|exps|lifebook|any).
1142 psmouse.rate= [HW,MOUSE] Set desired mouse report rate, in reports
1145 [HW,MOUSE] Try to reset the device after so many bad packets
1148 [HW,MOUSE] Set desired mouse resolution, in dpi.
1149 psmouse.smartscroll=
1150 [HW,MOUSE] Controls Logitech smartscroll autorepeat,
1151 0 = disabled, 1 = enabled (default).
1153 pss= [HW,OSS] Personal Sound System (ECHO ESC614)
1154 Format: <io>,<mss_io>,<mss_irq>,<mss_dma>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>
1157 See Documentation/paride.txt.
1159 quiet= [KNL] Disable log messages
1164 See Documentation/md.txt.
1166 ramdisk= [RAM] Sizes of RAM disks in kilobytes [deprecated]
1167 See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
1171 See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
1173 ramdisk_size= [RAM] Sizes of RAM disks in kilobytes
1174 New name for the ramdisk parameter.
1175 See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
1179 Run specified binary instead of /init from the ramdisk,
1180 used for early userspace startup. See initrd.
1182 reboot= [BUGS=IA-32,BUGS=ARM,BUGS=IA-64] Rebooting mode
1183 Format: <reboot_mode>[,<reboot_mode2>[,...]]
1184 See arch/*/kernel/reboot.c.
1186 reserve= [KNL,BUGS] Force the kernel to ignore some iomem area
1188 resume= [SWSUSP] Specify the partition device for software suspension
1190 rhash_entries= [KNL,NET]
1191 Set number of hash buckets for route cache
1193 riscom8= [HW,SERIAL]
1194 Format: <io_board1>[,<io_board2>[,...<io_boardN>]]
1196 ro [KNL] Mount root device read-only on boot
1198 root= [KNL] Root filesystem
1200 rootdelay= [KNL] Delay (in seconds) to pause before attempting to
1201 mount the root filesystem
1203 rootflags= [KNL] Set root filesystem mount option string
1205 rootfstype= [KNL] Set root filesystem type
1207 rw [KNL] Mount root device read-write on boot
1209 S [KNL] Run init in single mode
1212 See drivers/net/irda/sa1100_ir.c.
1215 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>
1217 sbni= [NET] Granch SBNI12 leased line adapter
1219 sbpcd= [HW,CD] Soundblaster CD adapter
1221 See a comment before function sbpcd_setup() in
1222 drivers/cdrom/sbpcd.c.
1224 sc1200wdt= [HW,WDT] SC1200 WDT (watchdog) driver
1225 Format: <io>[,<timeout>[,<isapnp>]]
1227 scsi_debug_*= [SCSI]
1228 See drivers/scsi/scsi_debug.c.
1230 scsi_default_dev_flags=
1231 [SCSI] SCSI default device flags
1234 scsi_dev_flags= [SCSI] Black/white list entry for vendor and model
1235 Format: <vendor>:<model>:<flags>
1236 (flags are integer value)
1238 scsi_logging= [SCSI]
1240 selinux [SELINUX] Disable or enable SELinux at boot time.
1241 Format: { "0" | "1" }
1242 See security/selinux/Kconfig help text.
1245 Default value is set via kernel config option.
1246 If enabled at boot time, /selinux/disable can be used
1247 later to disable prior to initial policy load.
1249 serialnumber [BUGS=IA-32]
1251 sg_def_reserved_size=
1255 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<sgbase>
1258 Maximal number of shapers.
1261 See header of drivers/scsi/sim710.c.
1267 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>
1268 See header of drivers/cdrom/sjcd.c.
1273 Format: <io1>[,<io2>[,...,<io8>]]
1275 snd-ad1816a= [HW,ALSA]
1277 snd-ad1848= [HW,ALSA]
1279 snd-ali5451= [HW,ALSA]
1281 snd-als100= [HW,ALSA]
1283 snd-als4000= [HW,ALSA]
1285 snd-azt2320= [HW,ALSA]
1287 snd-cmi8330= [HW,ALSA]
1289 snd-cmipci= [HW,ALSA]
1291 snd-cs4231= [HW,ALSA]
1293 snd-cs4232= [HW,ALSA]
1295 snd-cs4236= [HW,ALSA]
1297 snd-cs4281= [HW,ALSA]
1299 snd-cs46xx= [HW,ALSA]
1301 snd-dt019x= [HW,ALSA]
1303 snd-dummy= [HW,ALSA]
1305 snd-emu10k1= [HW,ALSA]
1307 snd-ens1370= [HW,ALSA]
1309 snd-ens1371= [HW,ALSA]
1311 snd-es968= [HW,ALSA]
1313 snd-es1688= [HW,ALSA]
1315 snd-es18xx= [HW,ALSA]
1317 snd-es1938= [HW,ALSA]
1319 snd-es1968= [HW,ALSA]
1321 snd-fm801= [HW,ALSA]
1323 snd-gusclassic= [HW,ALSA]
1325 snd-gusextreme= [HW,ALSA]
1327 snd-gusmax= [HW,ALSA]
1331 snd-ice1712= [HW,ALSA]
1333 snd-intel8x0= [HW,ALSA]
1335 snd-interwave= [HW,ALSA]
1340 snd-korg1212= [HW,ALSA]
1342 snd-maestro3= [HW,ALSA]
1344 snd-mpu401= [HW,ALSA]
1346 snd-mtpav= [HW,ALSA]
1348 snd-nm256= [HW,ALSA]
1350 snd-opl3sa2= [HW,ALSA]
1358 snd-opti93x= [HW,ALSA]
1362 snd-rme32= [HW,ALSA]
1364 snd-rme96= [HW,ALSA]
1366 snd-rme9652= [HW,ALSA]
1372 snd-sbawe= [HW,ALSA]
1374 snd-serial= [HW,ALSA]
1376 snd-sgalaxy= [HW,ALSA]
1378 snd-sonicvibes= [HW,ALSA]
1383 snd-sun-cs4231= [HW,ALSA]
1385 snd-trident= [HW,ALSA]
1387 snd-usb-audio= [HW,ALSA,USB]
1389 snd-via82xx= [HW,ALSA]
1391 snd-virmidi= [HW,ALSA]
1393 snd-wavefront= [HW,ALSA]
1395 snd-ymfpci= [HW,ALSA]
1397 sonicvibes= [HW,OSS]
1401 Format: <io>[,<irq>]
1403 sonypi.*= [HW] Sony Programmable I/O Control Device driver
1404 See Documentation/sonypi.txt
1406 specialix= [HW,SERIAL] Specialix multi-serial port adapter
1407 See Documentation/specialix.txt.
1409 spia_io_base= [HW,MTD]
1415 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>
1417 st= [HW,SCSI] SCSI tape parameters (buffers, etc.)
1418 See Documentation/scsi/st.txt.
1421 See header of drivers/scsi/seagate.c.
1425 Set the STI (builtin display/keyboard on the HP-PARISC
1426 machines) console (graphic card) which should be used
1427 as the initial boot-console.
1428 See also comment in drivers/video/console/sticore.c.
1431 See comment in drivers/video/console/sticore.c.
1434 Format: bpp:<bpp1>[:<bpp2>[:<bpp3>...]]
1436 stram_swap= [HW,M68k]
1438 swiotlb= [IA-64] Number of I/O TLB slabs
1442 sym53c416= [HW,SCSI]
1443 See header of drivers/scsi/sym53c416.c.
1446 See header of drivers/scsi/t128.c.
1450 thash_entries= [KNL,NET]
1451 Set number of hash buckets for TCP connection
1453 time Show timing data prefixed to each printk message line
1455 tipar.timeout= [HW,PPT]
1456 Set communications timeout in tenths of a second
1459 tipar.delay= [HW,PPT]
1460 Set inter-bit delay in microseconds (default 10).
1463 See header of drivers/scsi/seagate.c.
1466 See comment before function dc390_setup() in
1467 drivers/scsi/tmscsim.c.
1471 trix= [HW,OSS] MediaTrix AudioTrix Pro
1472 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<sb_io>,<sb_irq>,<sb_dma>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>
1474 tsdev.xres= [TS] Horizontal screen resolution.
1475 tsdev.yres= [TS] Vertical screen resolution.
1477 turbografx.map[2|3]=
1478 [HW,JOY] TurboGraFX parallel port interface
1479 Format: <port#>,<js1>,<js2>,<js3>,<js4>,<js5>,<js6>,<js7>
1480 See also Documentation/input/joystick-parport.txt
1482 u14-34f= [HW,SCSI] UltraStor 14F/34F SCSI host adapter
1483 See header of drivers/scsi/u14-34f.c.
1491 usb-handoff [HW] Enable early USB BIOS -> OS handoff
1494 [USBHID] The interval which mice are to be polled at.
1496 video= [FB] Frame buffer configuration
1497 See Documentation/fb/modedb.txt.
1499 vga= [BOOT,IA-32] Select a particular video mode
1500 See Documentation/i386/boot.txt and Documentation/svga.txt.
1501 Use vga=ask for menu.
1502 This is actually a boot loader parameter; the value is
1503 passed to the kernel using a special protocol.
1505 vmalloc=nn[KMG] [KNL,BOOT] forces the vmalloc area to have an exact
1506 size of <nn>. This can be used to increase the
1507 minimum size (128MB on x86). It can also be used to
1508 decrease the size and leave more room for directly
1515 waveartist= [HW,OSS]
1516 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>
1519 See header of drivers/scsi/wd33c93.c.
1522 See header of drivers/scsi/wd7000.c.
1525 See Documentation/watchdog/watchdog.txt.
1527 xd= [HW,XT] Original XT pre-IDE (RLL encoded) disks.
1528 xd_geo= See header of drivers/block/xd.c.
1530 xirc2ps_cs= [NET,PCMCIA]
1531 Format: <irq>,<irq_mask>,<io>,<full_duplex>,<do_sound>,<lockup_hack>[,<irq2>[,<irq3>[,<irq4>]]]
1537 The last known update (for 2.4.0) - the changelog was not kept before.
1538 2000-06-?? Mr. Unknown
1540 Update for 2.5.49, description for most of the options introduced,
1541 references to other documentation (C files, READMEs, ..), added S390,
1542 PPC, SPARC, MTD, ALSA and OSS category. Minor corrections and
1544 2002-11-24 Petr Baudis <pasky@ucw.cz>
1545 Randy Dunlap <randy.dunlap@verizon.net>
1549 Add documentation for ALSA options.
1550 Add more DRM drivers.