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Kernel Parameters
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The following is a consolidated list of the kernel parameters as implemented
(mostly) by the __setup() macro and sorted into English Dictionary order
(defined as ignoring all punctuation and sorting digits before letters in a
case insensitive manner), and with descriptions where known.
Module parameters for loadable modules are specified only as the
parameter name with optional '=' and value as appropriate, such as:
modprobe usbcore blinkenlights=1
Module parameters for modules that are built into the kernel image
are specified on the kernel command line with the module name plus
'.' plus parameter name, with '=' and value if appropriate, such as:
usbcore.blinkenlights=1
This document may not be entirely up to date and comprehensive. The command
"modinfo -p ${modulename}" shows a current list of all parameters of a loadable
module. Loadable modules, after being loaded into the running kernel, also
reveal their parameters in /sys/module/${modulename}/parameters/. Some of these
parameters may be changed at runtime by the command
"echo -n ${value} > /sys/module/${modulename}/parameters/${parm}".
The parameters listed below are only valid if certain kernel build options were
enabled and if respective hardware is present. The text in square brackets at
the beginning of each description states the restrictions within which a
parameter is applicable:
AGP AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) is enabled.
ALSA ALSA sound support is enabled.
APIC APIC support is enabled.
APM Advanced Power Management support is enabled.
BLACKFIN Blackfin architecture is enabled.
DRM Direct Rendering Management support is enabled.
EDD BIOS Enhanced Disk Drive Services (EDD) is enabled
EFI EFI Partitioning (GPT) is enabled
EIDE EIDE/ATAPI support is enabled.
FB The frame buffer device is enabled.
HW Appropriate hardware is enabled.
IA-64 IA-64 architecture is enabled.
IOSCHED More than one I/O scheduler is enabled.
IP_PNP IP DHCP, BOOTP, or RARP is enabled.
ISAPNP ISA PnP code is enabled.
ISDN Appropriate ISDN support is enabled.
JOY Appropriate joystick support is enabled.
LIBATA Libata driver is enabled
LP Printer support is enabled.
LOOP Loopback device support is enabled.
M68k M68k architecture is enabled.
These options have more detailed description inside of
Documentation/m68k/kernel-options.txt.
MCA MCA bus support is enabled.
MDA MDA console support is enabled.
MOUSE Appropriate mouse support is enabled.
MSI Message Signaled Interrupts (PCI).
MTD MTD (Memory Technology Device) support is enabled.
NET Appropriate network support is enabled.
NUMA NUMA support is enabled.
GENERIC_TIME The generic timeofday code is enabled.
NFS Appropriate NFS support is enabled.
OSS OSS sound support is enabled.
PV_OPS A paravirtualized kernel is enabled.
PARIDE The ParIDE (parallel port IDE) subsystem is enabled.
PARISC The PA-RISC architecture is enabled.
PCI PCI bus support is enabled.
PCMCIA The PCMCIA subsystem is enabled.
PNP Plug & Play support is enabled.
PPC PowerPC architecture is enabled.
PPT Parallel port support is enabled.
PS2 Appropriate PS/2 support is enabled.
RAM RAM disk support is enabled.
ROOTPLUG The example Root Plug LSM is enabled.
S390 S390 architecture is enabled.
SCSI Appropriate SCSI support is enabled.
A lot of drivers has their options described inside of
Documentation/scsi/.
SECURITY Different security models are enabled.
SELINUX SELinux support is enabled.
SERIAL Serial support is enabled.
SH SuperH architecture is enabled.
SMP The kernel is an SMP kernel.
SPARC Sparc architecture is enabled.
TS Appropriate touchscreen support is enabled.
USB USB support is enabled.
USBHID USB Human Interface Device support is enabled.
V4L Video For Linux support is enabled.
VGA The VGA console has been enabled.
VT Virtual terminal support is enabled.
WDT Watchdog support is enabled.
XT IBM PC/XT MFM hard disk support is enabled.
X86-32 X86-32, aka i386 architecture is enabled.
X86-64 X86-64 architecture is enabled.
More X86-64 boot options can be found in
Documentation/x86_64/boot-options.txt .
In addition, the following text indicates that the option:
BUGS= Relates to possible processor bugs on the said processor.
KNL Is a kernel start-up parameter.
BOOT Is a boot loader parameter.
Parameters denoted with BOOT are actually interpreted by the boot
loader, and have no meaning to the kernel directly.
Do not modify the syntax of boot loader parameters without extreme
need or coordination with <Documentation/i386/boot.txt>.
There are also arch-specific kernel-parameters not documented here.
See for example <Documentation/x86_64/boot-options.txt>.
Note that ALL kernel parameters listed below are CASE SENSITIVE, and that
a trailing = on the name of any parameter states that that parameter will
be entered as an environment variable, whereas its absence indicates that
it will appear as a kernel argument readable via /proc/cmdline by programs
running once the system is up.
The number of kernel parameters is not limited, but the length of the
complete command line (parameters including spaces etc.) is limited to
a fixed number of characters. This limit depends on the architecture
and is between 256 and 4096 characters. It is defined in the file
./include/asm/setup.h as COMMAND_LINE_SIZE.
acpi= [HW,ACPI,X86-64,i386]
Advanced Configuration and Power Interface
Format: { force | off | ht | strict | noirq }
force -- enable ACPI if default was off
off -- disable ACPI if default was on
noirq -- do not use ACPI for IRQ routing
ht -- run only enough ACPI to enable Hyper Threading
strict -- Be less tolerant of platforms that are not
See also Documentation/power/pm.txt, pci=noacpi
acpi_apic_instance= [ACPI, IOAPIC]
Format: <int>
2: use 2nd APIC table, if available
1,0: use 1st APIC table
Format: { s3_bios, s3_mode, s3_beep, old_ordering }
See Documentation/power/video.txt for s3_bios and s3_mode.
s3_beep is for debugging; it makes the PC's speaker beep
as soon as the kernel's real-mode entry point is called.
old_ordering causes the ACPI 1.0 ordering of the _PTS
control method, wrt putting devices into low power
states, to be enforced (the ACPI 2.0 ordering of _PTS is
used by default).
acpi_sci= [HW,ACPI] ACPI System Control Interrupt trigger mode
acpi_irq_balance [HW,ACPI]
ACPI will balance active IRQs
default in APIC mode
acpi_irq_nobalance [HW,ACPI]
ACPI will not move active IRQs (default)
default in PIC mode
acpi_irq_pci= [HW,ACPI] If irq_balance, clear listed IRQs for
use by PCI
acpi_irq_isa= [HW,ACPI] If irq_balance, mark listed IRQs used by ISA
acpi_no_auto_ssdt [HW,ACPI] Disable automatic loading of SSDT
acpi_os_name= [HW,ACPI] Tell ACPI BIOS the name of the OS
Format: To spoof as Windows 98: ="Microsoft Windows"
acpi_osi= [HW,ACPI] Modify list of supported OS interface strings
acpi_osi="string1" # add string1 -- only one string
acpi_osi="!string2" # remove built-in string2
acpi_osi= # disable all strings
acpi_serialize [HW,ACPI] force serialization of AML methods
acpi_skip_timer_override [HW,ACPI]
Recognize and ignore IRQ0/pin2 Interrupt Override.
For broken nForce2 BIOS resulting in XT-PIC timer.
acpi_use_timer_override [HW,ACPI}
Use timer override. For some broken Nvidia NF5 boards
that require a timer override, but don't have
HPET
Each bit of the <int> indicates an ACPI debug layer,
via /sys/module/acpi/parameters/debug_layer.
CONFIG_ACPI_DEBUG must be enabled for this to produce any output.
Available bits (add the numbers together) to enable debug output
for specific parts of the ACPI subsystem:
0x01 utilities 0x02 hardware 0x04 events 0x08 tables
0x10 namespace 0x20 parser 0x40 dispatcher
0x80 executer 0x100 resources 0x200 acpica debugger
0x400 os services 0x800 acpica disassembler.
The number can be in decimal or prefixed with 0x in hex.
Warning: Many of these options can produce a lot of
output and make your system unusable. Be very careful.
acpi.debug_level= [HW,ACPI]
Each bit of the <int> indicates an ACPI debug level,
1: enable, 0: disable. It is useful for boot time
debugging. After system has booted up, it can be set
via /sys/module/acpi/parameters/debug_level.
CONFIG_ACPI_DEBUG must be enabled for this to produce any output.
Available bits (add the numbers together) to enable different
debug output levels of the ACPI subsystem:
0x01 error 0x02 warn 0x04 init 0x08 debug object
0x10 info 0x20 init names 0x40 parse 0x80 load
0x100 dispatch 0x200 execute 0x400 names 0x800 operation region
0x1000 bfield 0x2000 tables 0x4000 values 0x8000 objects
0x10000 resources 0x20000 user requests 0x40000 package.
The number can be in decimal or prefixed with 0x in hex.
Warning: Many of these options can produce a lot of
output and make your system unusable. Be very careful.
acpi_pm_good [X86-32,X86-64]
Override the pmtimer bug detection: force the kernel
to assume that this machine's pmtimer latches its value
and always returns good values.
agp= [AGP]
{ off | try_unsupported }
off: disable AGP support
try_unsupported: try to drive unsupported chipsets
(may crash computer or cause data corruption)
Chuck Ebbert
committed
enable_timer_pin_1 [i386,x86-64]
Enable PIN 1 of APIC timer
Can be useful to work around chipset bugs
(in particular on some ATI chipsets).
Chuck Ebbert
committed
The kernel tries to set a reasonable default.
disable_timer_pin_1 [i386,x86-64]
Disable PIN 1 of APIC timer
Can be useful to work around chipset bugs.
ad1848= [HW,OSS]
Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<type>
advansys= [HW,SCSI]
See header of drivers/scsi/advansys.c.
advwdt= [HW,WDT] Advantech WDT
Format: <iostart>,<iostop>
aedsp16= [HW,OSS] Audio Excel DSP 16
Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<mss_io>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>
See also header of sound/oss/aedsp16.c.
aha152x= [HW,SCSI]
See Documentation/scsi/aha152x.txt.
aha1542= [HW,SCSI]
Format: <portbase>[,<buson>,<busoff>[,<dmaspeed>]]
aic7xxx= [HW,SCSI]
See Documentation/scsi/aic7xxx.txt.
aic79xx= [HW,SCSI]
See Documentation/scsi/aic79xx.txt.
amd_iommu= [HW,X86-84]
Pass parameters to the AMD IOMMU driver in the system.
Possible values are:
isolate - enable device isolation (each device, as far
as possible, will get its own protection
domain)
amd_iommu_size= [HW,X86-64]
Define the size of the aperture for the AMD IOMMU
driver. Possible values are:
'32M', '64M' (default), '128M', '256M', '512M', '1G'
amijoy.map= [HW,JOY] Amiga joystick support
Map of devices attached to JOY0DAT and JOY1DAT
Format: <a>,<b>
See also Documentation/kernel/input/joystick.txt
analog.map= [HW,JOY] Analog joystick and gamepad support
Specifies type or capabilities of an analog joystick
connected to one of 16 gameports
Format: <type1>,<type2>,..<type16>
apc= [HW,SPARC]
Power management functions (SPARCstation-4/5 + deriv.)
Format: noidle
Disable APC CPU standby support. SPARCstation-Fox does
not play well with APC CPU idle - disable it if you have
APC and your system crashes randomly.
apic= [APIC,i386] Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller
Change the output verbosity whilst booting
Format: { quiet (default) | verbose | debug }
Change the amount of debugging information output
when initialising the APIC and IO-APIC components.
See header of arch/x86/kernel/apm_32.c.
arcrimi= [HW,NET] ARCnet - "RIM I" (entirely mem-mapped) cards
Format: <io>,<irq>,<nodeID>
ataflop= [HW,M68k]
atarimouse= [HW,MOUSE] Atari Mouse
atascsi= [HW,SCSI] Atari SCSI
atkbd.extra= [HW] Enable extra LEDs and keys on IBM RapidAccess,
EzKey and similar keyboards
atkbd.reset= [HW] Reset keyboard during initialization
atkbd.set= [HW] Select keyboard code set
Format: <int> (2 = AT (default), 3 = PS/2)
atkbd.scroll= [HW] Enable scroll wheel on MS Office and similar
keyboards
atkbd.softraw= [HW] Choose between synthetic and real raw mode
Format: <bool> (0 = real, 1 = synthetic (default))
atkbd.softrepeat= [HW]
Use software keyboard repeat
autotest [IA64]
baycom_epp= [HW,AX25]
Format: <io>,<mode>
baycom_par= [HW,AX25] BayCom Parallel Port AX.25 Modem
Format: <io>,<mode>
See header of drivers/net/hamradio/baycom_par.c.
baycom_ser_fdx= [HW,AX25]
BayCom Serial Port AX.25 Modem (Full Duplex Mode)
Format: <io>,<irq>,<mode>[,<baud>]
See header of drivers/net/hamradio/baycom_ser_fdx.c.
baycom_ser_hdx= [HW,AX25]
BayCom Serial Port AX.25 Modem (Half Duplex Mode)
Format: <io>,<irq>,<mode>
See header of drivers/net/hamradio/baycom_ser_hdx.c.
boot_delay= Milliseconds to delay each printk during boot.
Values larger than 10 seconds (10000) are changed to
no delay (0).
Format: integer
bttv.card= [HW,V4L] bttv (bt848 + bt878 based grabber cards)
bttv.radio= Most important insmod options are available as
kernel args too.
bttv.pll= See Documentation/video4linux/bttv/Insmod-options
bttv.tuner= and Documentation/video4linux/bttv/CARDLIST
BusLogic= [HW,SCSI]
See drivers/scsi/BusLogic.c, comment before function
BusLogic_ParseDriverOptions().
c101= [NET] Moxa C101 synchronous serial card
cachesize= [BUGS=X86-32] Override level 2 CPU cache size detection.
Sometimes CPU hardware bugs make them report the cache
size incorrectly. The kernel will attempt work arounds
to fix known problems, but for some CPUs it is not
possible to determine what the correct size should be.
This option provides an override for these situations.
security= [SECURITY] Choose a security module to enable at boot.
If this boot parameter is not specified, only the first
security module asking for security registration will be
loaded. An invalid security module name will be treated
as if no module has been chosen.
capability.disable=
[SECURITY] Disable capabilities. This would normally
be used only if an alternative security model is to be
configured. Potentially dangerous and should only be
used if you are entirely sure of the consequences.
ccw_timeout_log [S390]
See Documentation/s390/CommonIO for details.
cgroup_disable= [KNL] Disable a particular controller
Format: {name of the controller(s) to disable}
{Currently supported controllers - "memory"}
checkreqprot [SELINUX] Set initial checkreqprot flag value.
Format: { "0" | "1" }
See security/selinux/Kconfig help text.
0 -- check protection applied by kernel (includes
any implied execute protection).
1 -- check protection requested by application.
Default value is set via a kernel config option.
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