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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.
AX25 Appropriate AX.25 support 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-32 IA-32 aka i386 architecture 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.
S390 S390 architecture is enabled.
SCSI Appropriate SCSI support is enabled.
A lot of drivers has their options described inside of
Documentation/scsi/.
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.
X86-64 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
strictly ACPI specification compliant.
See also Documentation/pm.txt, pci=noacpi
acpi_apic_instance= [ACPI, IOAPIC]
Format: <int>
2: use 2nd APIC table, if available
1,0: use 1st APIC table
acpi_sleep= [HW,ACPI] Sleep options
Format: { s3_bios, s3_mode }
See Documentation/power/video.txt
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_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,
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_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_fake_ecdt [HW,ACPI] Workaround failure due to BIOS lacking ECDT
acpi_pm_good [IA-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.
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.
apm= [APM] Advanced Power Management
See header of arch/i386/kernel/apm.c.
applicom= [HW]
Format: <mem>,<irq>
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.
blkmtd_device= [HW,MTD]
blkmtd_erasesz=
blkmtd_ro=
blkmtd_bs=
blkmtd_count=
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=IA-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.
chandev= [HW,NET] Generic channel device initialisation
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.
Value can be changed at runtime via
/selinux/checkreqprot.
clock= [BUGS=IA-32, HW] gettimeofday clocksource override.
[Deprecated]
Forces specified clocksource (if available) to be used
when calculating gettimeofday(). If specified
clocksource is not available, it defaults to PIT.
clocksource= [GENERIC_TIME] Override the default clocksource
Format: <string>
Override the default clocksource and use the clocksource
with the name specified.
Some clocksource names to choose from, depending on
the platform:
[all] jiffies (this is the base, fallback clocksource)
[ACPI] acpi_pm
[ARM] imx_timer1,OSTS,netx_timer,mpu_timer2,
pxa_timer,timer3,32k_counter,timer0_1
[AVR32] avr32
[IA-32] pit,hpet,tsc,vmi-timer;
scx200_hrt on Geode; cyclone on IBM x440
[MIPS] MIPS
[PARISC] cr16
[S390] tod
[SH] SuperH
[SPARC64] tick
[X86-64] hpet,tsc
code_bytes [IA32] How many bytes of object code to print in an
oops report.
Range: 0 - 8192
Default: 64
disable_8254_timer
enable_8254_timer
[IA32/X86_64] Disable/Enable interrupt 0 timer routing
over the 8254 in addition to over the IO-APIC. The
kernel tries to set a sensible default.
hpet= [IA-32,HPET] option to disable HPET and use PIT.
Format: disable
com20020= [HW,NET] ARCnet - COM20020 chipset
Format:
<io>[,<irq>[,<nodeID>[,<backplane>[,<ckp>[,<timeout>]]]]]
com90io= [HW,NET] ARCnet - COM90xx chipset (IO-mapped buffers)
Format: <io>[,<irq>]
com90xx= [HW,NET]
ARCnet - COM90xx chipset (memory-mapped buffers)
Format: <io>[,<irq>[,<memstart>]]
condev= [HW,S390] console device
conmode=
console= [KNL] Output console device and options.
tty<n> Use the virtual console device <n>.
ttyS<n>[,options]
the form "bbbbpnf", where "bbbb" is the baud rate,
"p" is parity ("n", "o", or "e"), "n" is number of
bits, and "f" is flow control ("r" for RTS or
omit it). Default is "9600n8".
See Documentation/serial-console.txt for more
information. See
Documentation/networking/netconsole.txt for an
alternative.
uart[8250],io,<addr>[,options]
uart[8250],mmio,<addr>[,options]
Start an early, polled-mode console on the 8250/16550
UART at the specified I/O port or MMIO address,
switching to the matching ttyS device later. The
options are the same as for ttyS, above.
earlycon= [KNL] Output early console device and options.
uart[8250],io,<addr>[,options]
uart[8250],mmio,<addr>[,options]
Start an early, polled-mode console on the 8250/16550
UART at the specified I/O port or MMIO address.
The options are the same as for ttyS, above.
cpcihp_generic= [HW,PCI] Generic port I/O CompactPCI driver
Format:
<first_slot>,<last_slot>,<port>,<enum_bit>[,<debug>]
cpia_pp= [HW,PPT]
Format: { parport<nr> | auto | none }
crashkernel=nn[KMG]@ss[KMG]
[KNL] Reserve a chunk of physical memory to
hold a kernel to switch to with kexec on panic.
cs4232= [HW,OSS]
Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<mpuio>,<mpuirq>
cs89x0_dma= [HW,NET]
Format: <dma>
cs89x0_media= [HW,NET]
Format: { rj45 | aui | bnc }
cyclades= [HW,SERIAL] Cyclades multi-serial port adapter.
See header of drivers/s390/block/dasd_devmap.c.
db9.dev[2|3]= [HW,JOY] Multisystem joystick support via parallel port
(one device per port)
Format: <port#>,<type>
See also Documentation/input/joystick-parport.txt
debug [KNL] Enable kernel debugging (events log level).
debug_locks_verbose=
[KNL] verbose self-tests
Format=<0|1>
Print debugging info while doing the locking API
self-tests.
We default to 0 (no extra messages), setting it to
1 will print _a lot_ more information - normally
only useful to kernel developers.
decnet= [HW,NET]
Format: <area>[,<node>]
See also Documentation/networking/decnet.txt.
default_blu= [VT]
Format: <blue0>,<blue1>,<blue2>,...,<blue15>
Change the default blue palette of the console.
This is a 16-member array composed of values
ranging from 0-255.
default_grn= [VT]
Format: <green0>,<green1>,<green2>,...,<green15>
Change the default green palette of the console.
This is a 16-member array composed of values
ranging from 0-255.
default_red= [VT]
Format: <red0>,<red1>,<red2>,...,<red15>
Change the default red palette of the console.
This is a 16-member array composed of values
ranging from 0-255.
default_utf8= [VT]
Format=<0|1>
Set system-wide default UTF-8 mode for all tty's.
Default is 0 and by setting to 1, it enables UTF-8
mode for all newly opened or allocated terminals.
dhash_entries= [KNL]
Set number of hash buckets for dentry cache.
digi= [HW,SERIAL]
IO parameters + enable/disable command.
digiepca= [HW,SERIAL]
See drivers/char/README.epca and
Documentation/digiepca.txt.
dmascc= [HW,AX25,SERIAL] AX.25 Z80SCC driver with DMA
support available.
Format: <io_dev0>[,<io_dev1>[,..<io_dev32>]]
dmasound= [HW,OSS] Sound subsystem buffers
dscc4.setup= [NET]
dtc3181e= [HW,SCSI]
earlyprintk= [IA-32,X86-64,SH]
earlyprintk=vga
earlyprintk=serial[,ttySn[,baudrate]]
Append ",keep" to not disable it when the real console
takes over.
Only vga or serial at a time, not both.
Currently only ttyS0 and ttyS1 are supported.
Interaction with the standard serial driver is not
very good.
The VGA output is eventually overwritten by the real
console.
eata= [HW,SCSI]
ec_intr= [HW,ACPI] ACPI Embedded Controller interrupt mode
Format: <int>
0: polling mode
non-0: interrupt mode (default)
eda= [HW,PS2]
edb= [HW,PS2]
edd= [EDD]
Format: {"of[f]" | "sk[ipmbr]"}
See comment in arch/i386/boot/edd.S
Format: <id>,<membase>,<irq>
eisa_irq_edge= [PARISC,HW]
See header of drivers/parisc/eisa.c.
elanfreq= [IA-32]
See comment before function elanfreq_setup() in
arch/i386/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/elanfreq.c.
elevator= [IOSCHED]
Format: {"anticipatory" | "cfq" | "deadline" | "noop"}
See Documentation/block/as-iosched.txt and
Documentation/block/deadline-iosched.txt for details.
elfcorehdr= [IA-32, X86_64]
Specifies physical address of start of kernel core
image elf header. Generally kexec loader will
pass this option to capture kernel.
See Documentation/kdump/kdump.txt for details.
enforcing [SELINUX] Set initial enforcing status.
Format: {"0" | "1"}
See security/selinux/Kconfig help text.
0 -- permissive (log only, no denials).
1 -- enforcing (deny and log).
Default value is 0.
Value can be changed at runtime via /selinux/enforce.
es1371= [HW,OSS]
Format: <spdif>,[<nomix>,[<amplifier>]]
See also header of sound/oss/es1371.c.
ether= [HW,NET] Ethernet cards parameters
This option is obsoleted by the "netdev=" option, which
has equivalent usage. See its documentation for details.
eurwdt= [HW,WDT] Eurotech CPU-1220/1410 onboard watchdog.
Format: <io>[,<irq>]
failslab=
fail_page_alloc=
fail_make_request=[KNL]
General fault injection mechanism.
Format: <interval>,<probability>,<space>,<times>
See also /Documentation/fault-injection/.
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fd_mcs= [HW,SCSI]
See header of drivers/scsi/fd_mcs.c.
fdomain= [HW,SCSI]
See header of drivers/scsi/fdomain.c.
floppy= [HW]
See Documentation/floppy.txt.
gamecon.map[2|3]=
[HW,JOY] Multisystem joystick and NES/SNES/PSX pad
support via parallel port (up to 5 devices per port)
Format: <port#>,<pad1>,<pad2>,<pad3>,<pad4>,<pad5>
See also Documentation/input/joystick-parport.txt
gamma= [HW,DRM]
gdth= [HW,SCSI]
See header of drivers/scsi/gdth.c.
gpt [EFI] Forces disk with valid GPT signature but
invalid Protective MBR to be treated as GPT.
gvp11= [HW,SCSI]
hashdist= [KNL,NUMA] Large hashes allocated during boot
are distributed across NUMA nodes. Defaults on
for IA-64, off otherwise.
hcl= [IA-64] SGI's Hardware Graph compatibility layer
hd= [EIDE] (E)IDE hard drive subsystem geometry
Format: <cyl>,<head>,<sect>
hd?= [HW] (E)IDE subsystem
hd?lun= See Documentation/ide.txt.
highmem=nn[KMG] [KNL,BOOT] forces the highmem zone to have an exact
size of <nn>. This works even on boxes that have no
highmem otherwise. This also works to reduce highmem
size on bigger boxes.
highres= [KNL] Enable/disable high resolution timer mode.
Valid parameters: "on", "off"
Default: "on"
hisax= [HW,ISDN]
See Documentation/isdn/README.HiSax.
hugepages= [HW,IA-32,IA-64] Maximal number of HugeTLB pages.
i8042.direct [HW] Put keyboard port into non-translated mode
i8042.dumbkbd [HW] Pretend that controller can only read data from
keyboard and cannot control its state
(Don't attempt to blink the leds)
i8042.noaux [HW] Don't check for auxiliary (== mouse) port
i8042.nokbd [HW] Don't check/create keyboard port
i8042.nomux [HW] Don't check presence of an active multiplexing
controller
i8042.nopnp [HW] Don't use ACPIPnP / PnPBIOS to discover KBD/AUX
controllers
i8042.panicblink=
[HW] Frequency with which keyboard LEDs should blink
when kernel panics (default is 0.5 sec)
i8042.reset [HW] Reset the controller during init and cleanup
i8042.unlock [HW] Unlock (ignore) the keylock
i810= [HW,DRM]
i8k.ignore_dmi [HW] Continue probing hardware even if DMI data
indicates that the driver is running on unsupported
hardware.
i8k.force [HW] Activate i8k driver even if SMM BIOS signature
does not match list of supported models.
i8k.power_status
[HW] Report power status in /proc/i8k
(disabled by default)
i8k.restricted [HW] Allow controlling fans only if SYS_ADMIN
capability is set.
ibmmcascsi= [HW,MCA,SCSI] IBM MicroChannel SCSI adapter
See Documentation/mca.txt.
icn= [HW,ISDN]
Format: <io>[,<membase>[,<icn_id>[,<icn_id2>]]]
ide= [HW] (E)IDE subsystem
Format: ide=nodma or ide=doubler or ide=reverse
See Documentation/ide.txt.
ide?= [HW] (E)IDE subsystem
Format: ide?=noprobe or chipset specific parameters.
See Documentation/ide.txt.
idebus= [HW] (E)IDE subsystem - VLB/PCI bus speed
See Documentation/ide.txt.
idle= [X86]
Format: idle=poll or idle=mwait
Poll forces a polling idle loop that can slightly improves the performance
of waking up a idle CPU, but will use a lot of power and make the system
run hot. Not recommended.
idle=mwait. On systems which support MONITOR/MWAIT but the kernel chose
to not use it because it doesn't save as much power as a normal idle
loop use the MONITOR/MWAIT idle loop anyways. Performance should be the same
as idle=poll.
ignore_loglevel [KNL]
Ignore loglevel setting - this will print /all/
kernel messages to the console. Useful for debugging.
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ihash_entries= [KNL]
Set number of hash buckets for inode cache.
in2000= [HW,SCSI]
See header of drivers/scsi/in2000.c.
init= [KNL]
Format: <full_path>
Run specified binary instead of /sbin/init as init
process.
initcall_debug [KNL] Trace initcalls as they are executed. Useful
for working out where the kernel is dying during
startup.
initrd= [BOOT] Specify the location of the initial ramdisk
inport.irq= [HW] Inport (ATI XL and Microsoft) busmouse driver
Format: <irq>
inttest= [IA64]
io7= [HW] IO7 for Marvel based alpha systems
See comment before marvel_specify_io7 in
arch/alpha/kernel/core_marvel.c.
ip= [IP_PNP]
See Documentation/nfsroot.txt.
ip2= [HW] Set IO/IRQ pairs for up to 4 IntelliPort boards
See comment before ip2_setup() in
drivers/char/ip2/ip2base.c.
ips= [HW,SCSI] Adaptec / IBM ServeRAID controller
See header of drivers/scsi/ips.c.
ports= [IP_VS_FTP] IPVS ftp helper module
Default is 21.
Up to 8 (IP_VS_APP_MAX_PORTS) ports
may be specified.
Format: <port>,<port>....
irqfixup [HW]
When an interrupt is not handled search all handlers
for it. Intended to get systems with badly broken
firmware running.
irqpoll [HW]
When an interrupt is not handled search all handlers
for it. Also check all handlers each timer
interrupt. Intended to get systems with badly broken
firmware running.
Format: <RDP>,<reset>,<pci_scan>,<verbosity>
isolcpus= [KNL,SMP] Isolate CPUs from the general scheduler.
Format:
<cpu number>,...,<cpu number>
or
<cpu number>-<cpu number> (must be a positive range in ascending order)
or a mixture
<cpu number>,...,<cpu number>-<cpu number>
This option can be used to specify one or more CPUs
to isolate from the general SMP balancing and scheduling
algorithms. The only way to move a process onto or off
an "isolated" CPU is via the CPU affinity syscalls.
<cpu number> begins at 0 and the maximum value is
"number of CPUs in system - 1".
This option is the preferred way to isolate CPUs. The
alternative -- manually setting the CPU mask of all
tasks in the system -- can cause problems and
suboptimal load balancer performance.
js= [HW,JOY] Analog joystick
See Documentation/input/joystick.txt.
kernelcore=nn[KMG] [KNL,IA-32,IA-64,PPC,X86-64] This parameter
specifies the amount of memory usable by the kernel
for non-movable allocations. The requested amount is
spread evenly throughout all nodes in the system. The
remaining memory in each node is used for Movable
pages. In the event, a node is too small to have both
kernelcore and Movable pages, kernelcore pages will
take priority and other nodes will have a larger number
of kernelcore pages. The Movable zone is used for the
allocation of pages that may be reclaimed or moved
by the page migration subsystem. This means that
HugeTLB pages may not be allocated from this zone.
Note that allocations like PTEs-from-HighMem still
use the HighMem zone if it exists, and the Normal
zone if it does not.
movablecore=nn[KMG] [KNL,IA-32,IA-64,PPC,X86-64] This parameter
is similar to kernelcore except it specifies the
amount of memory used for migratable allocations.
If both kernelcore and movablecore is specified,
then kernelcore will be at *least* the specified
value but may be more. If movablecore on its own
is specified, the administrator must be careful
that the amount of memory usable for all allocations
is not too small.
kstack=N [IA-32,X86-64] Print N words from the kernel stack
lapic [IA-32,APIC] Enable the local APIC even if BIOS
disabled it.
lapic_timer_c2_ok [IA-32,x86-64,APIC] trust the local apic timer in
C2 power state.
lasi= [HW,SCSI] PARISC LASI driver for the 53c700 chip
Format: addr:<io>,irq:<irq>
legacy_serial.force [HW,IA-32,X86-64]
Probe for COM ports at legacy addresses even
if PNPBIOS or ACPI should describe them. This
is for working around firmware defects.
load_ramdisk= [RAM] List of ramdisks to load from floppy
See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
lockd.nlm_grace_period=P [NFS] Assign grace period.
Format: <integer>
lockd.nlm_tcpport=N [NFS] Assign TCP port.
Format: <integer>
lockd.nlm_timeout=T [NFS] Assign timeout value.
Format: <integer>
lockd.nlm_udpport=M [NFS] Assign UDP port.
Format: <integer>
logibm.irq= [HW,MOUSE] Logitech Bus Mouse Driver
Format: <irq>
loglevel= All Kernel Messages with a loglevel smaller than the
console loglevel will be printed to the console. It can
also be changed with klogd or other programs. The
loglevels are defined as follows:
0 (KERN_EMERG) system is unusable
1 (KERN_ALERT) action must be taken immediately
2 (KERN_CRIT) critical conditions
3 (KERN_ERR) error conditions
4 (KERN_WARNING) warning conditions
5 (KERN_NOTICE) normal but significant condition
6 (KERN_INFO) informational
7 (KERN_DEBUG) debug-level messages
log_buf_len=n Sets the size of the printk ring buffer, in bytes.
Format: { n | nk | nM }
n must be a power of two. The default size
is set in the kernel config file.
908
909
910
911
912
913
914
915
916
917
918
919
920
921
922
923
924
925
926
927
928
929
930
931
932
933
934
935
936
937
938
939
940
941
942
lp=0 [LP] Specify parallel ports to use, e.g,
lp=port[,port...] lp=none,parport0 (lp0 not configured, lp1 uses
lp=reset first parallel port). 'lp=0' disables the
lp=auto printer driver. 'lp=reset' (which can be
specified in addition to the ports) causes
attached printers to be reset. Using
lp=port1,port2,... specifies the parallel ports
to associate lp devices with, starting with
lp0. A port specification may be 'none' to skip
that lp device, or a parport name such as
'parport0'. Specifying 'lp=auto' instead of a
port specification list means that device IDs
from each port should be examined, to see if
an IEEE 1284-compliant printer is attached; if
so, the driver will manage that printer.
See also header of drivers/char/lp.c.
lpj=n [KNL]
Sets loops_per_jiffy to given constant, thus avoiding
time-consuming boot-time autodetection (up to 250 ms per
CPU). 0 enables autodetection (default). To determine
the correct value for your kernel, boot with normal
autodetection and see what value is printed. Note that
on SMP systems the preset will be applied to all CPUs,
which is likely to cause problems if your CPUs need
significantly divergent settings. An incorrect value
will cause delays in the kernel to be wrong, leading to
unpredictable I/O errors and other breakage. Although
unlikely, in the extreme case this might damage your
hardware.
ltpc= [NET]
Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>
mac5380= [HW,SCSI] Format:
<can_queue>,<cmd_per_lun>,<sg_tablesize>,<hostid>,<use_tags>
mac53c9x= [HW,SCSI] Format:
<num_esps>,<disconnect>,<nosync>,<can_queue>,<cmd_per_lun>,<sg_tablesize>,<hostid>,<use_tags>
machvec= [IA64] Force the use of a particular machine-vector
(machvec) in a generic kernel.
Example: machvec=hpzx1_swiotlb
max_loop= [LOOP] Maximum number of loopback devices that can
be mounted
Format: <1-256>
maxcpus= [SMP] Maximum number of processors that an SMP kernel
should make use of.
Using "nosmp" or "maxcpus=0" will disable SMP
entirely (the MPS table probe still happens, though).
A command-line option of "maxcpus=<NUM>", where <NUM>
is an integer greater than 0, limits the maximum number
of CPUs activated in SMP mode to <NUM>.
Using "maxcpus=1" on an SMP kernel is the trivial
case of an SMP kernel with only one CPU.
max_addr=[KMG] [KNL,BOOT,ia64] All physical memory greater than or
equal to this physical address is ignored.
max_luns= [SCSI] Maximum number of LUNs to probe.
Should be between 1 and 2^32-1.
max_report_luns=
[SCSI] Maximum number of LUNs received.
Should be between 1 and 16384.
mca-pentium [BUGS=IA-32]
mcatest= [IA-64]
mce [IA-32] Machine Check Exception
md= [HW] RAID subsystems devices and level
See Documentation/md.txt.
mdacon= [MDA]
Format: <first>,<last>
Specifies range of consoles to be captured by the MDA.
mem=nn[KMG] [KNL,BOOT] Force usage of a specific amount of memory
Amount of memory to be used when the kernel is not able
to see the whole system memory or for test.
[IA-32] Use together with memmap= to avoid physical
address space collisions. Without memmap= PCI devices
could be placed at addresses belonging to unused RAM.
mem=nopentium [BUGS=IA-32] Disable usage of 4MB pages for kernel
memory.
memmap=exactmap [KNL,IA-32,X86_64] Enable setting of an exact