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
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 }
361 crashkernel=nn[KMG]@ss[KMG]
362 [KNL] Reserve a chunk of physical memory to
363 hold a kernel to switch to with kexec on panic.
366 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<mpuio>,<mpuirq>
371 cs89x0_media= [HW,NET]
372 Format: { rj45 | aui | bnc }
374 cyclades= [HW,SERIAL] Cyclades multi-serial port adapter.
377 See header of drivers/s390/block/dasd_devmap.c.
379 db9.dev[2|3]= [HW,JOY] Multisystem joystick support via parallel port
380 (one device per port)
381 Format: <port#>,<type>
382 See also Documentation/input/joystick-parport.txt
384 debug [KNL] Enable kernel debugging (events log level).
387 Format: <area>[,<node>]
388 See also Documentation/networking/decnet.txt.
391 See Documentation/filesystems/devfs/boot-options.
394 Set number of hash buckets for dentry cache.
397 IO parameters + enable/disable command.
399 digiepca= [HW,SERIAL]
400 See drivers/char/README.epca and
401 Documentation/digiepca.txt.
403 dmascc= [HW,AX25,SERIAL] AX.25 Z80SCC driver with DMA
405 Format: <io_dev0>[,<io_dev1>[,..<io_dev32>]]
407 dmasound= [HW,OSS] Sound subsystem buffers
413 earlyprintk= [IA-32, X86-64]
415 earlyprintk=serial[,ttySn[,baudrate]]
417 Append ,keep to not disable it when the real console
420 Only vga or serial at a time, not both.
422 Currently only ttyS0 and ttyS1 are supported.
424 Interaction with the standard serial driver is not
427 The VGA output is eventually overwritten by the real
437 Format: {"of[f]" | "sk[ipmbr]"}
438 See comment in arch/i386/boot/edd.S
441 Format: <id>,<membase>,<irq>
443 eisa_irq_edge= [PARISC,HW]
444 See header of drivers/parisc/eisa.c.
447 See comment before function elanfreq_setup() in
448 arch/i386/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/elanfreq.c.
451 Format: {"as"|"cfq"|"deadline"|"noop"}
452 See Documentation/block/as-iosched.txt
453 and Documentation/block/deadline-iosched.txt for details.
455 Specifies physical address of start of kernel core image
457 See Documentation/kdump.txt for details.
459 enforcing [SELINUX] Set initial enforcing status.
461 See security/selinux/Kconfig help text.
462 0 -- permissive (log only, no denials).
463 1 -- enforcing (deny and log).
465 Value can be changed at runtime via /selinux/enforce.
468 Format: <lineout>[,<micbias>]
469 See also header of sound/oss/es1370.c.
472 Format: <spdif>,[<nomix>,[<amplifier>]]
473 See also header of sound/oss/es1371.c.
475 ether= [HW,NET] Ethernet cards parameters
476 This option is obsoleted by the "netdev=" option, which
477 has equivalent usage. See its documentation for details.
479 eurwdt= [HW,WDT] Eurotech CPU-1220/1410 onboard watchdog.
483 See header of drivers/scsi/fd_mcs.c.
486 See header of drivers/scsi/fdomain.c.
489 See Documentation/floppy.txt.
491 ftape= [HW] Floppy Tape subsystem debugging options.
492 See Documentation/ftape.txt.
495 [HW,JOY] Multisystem joystick and NES/SNES/PSX pad
496 support via parallel port (up to 5 devices per port)
497 Format: <port#>,<pad1>,<pad2>,<pad3>,<pad4>,<pad5>
498 See also Documentation/input/joystick-parport.txt
503 See header of drivers/scsi/gdth.c.
505 gpt [EFI] Forces disk with valid GPT signature but
506 invalid Protective MBR to be treated as GPT.
511 gt96100eth= [NET] MIPS GT96100 Advanced Communication Controller
514 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma16>
518 hashdist= [KNL,NUMA] Large hashes allocated during boot
519 are distributed across NUMA nodes. Defaults on
520 for IA-64, off otherwise.
522 hcl= [IA-64] SGI's Hardware Graph compatibility layer
524 hd= [EIDE] (E)IDE hard drive subsystem geometry
525 Format: <cyl>,<head>,<sect>
527 hd?= [HW] (E)IDE subsystem
528 hd?lun= See Documentation/ide.txt.
530 highmem=nn[KMG] [KNL,BOOT] forces the highmem zone to have an exact
531 size of <nn>. This works even on boxes that have no
532 highmem otherwise. This also works to reduce highmem
533 size on bigger boxes.
536 See Documentation/isdn/README.HiSax.
538 hugepages= [HW,IA-32,IA-64] Maximal number of HugeTLB pages.
540 noirqbalance [IA-32,SMP,KNL] Disable kernel irq balancing
542 i8042.direct [HW] Put keyboard port into non-translated mode
543 i8042.dumbkbd [HW] Pretend that controlled can only read data from
544 keyboard and can not control its state
545 (Don't attempt to blink the leds)
546 i8042.noaux [HW] Don't check for auxiliary (== mouse) port
547 i8042.nomux [HW] Don't check presence of an active multiplexing
549 i8042.nopnp [HW] Don't use ACPIPnP / PnPBIOS to discover KBD/AUX
552 [HW] Frequency with which keyboard LEDs should blink
553 when kernel panics (default is 0.5 sec)
554 i8042.reset [HW] Reset the controller during init and cleanup
555 i8042.unlock [HW] Unlock (ignore) the keylock
559 i8k.ignore_dmi [HW] Continue probing hardware even if DMI data
560 indicates that the driver is running on unsupported
562 i8k.force [HW] Activate i8k driver even if SMM BIOS signature
563 does not match list of supported models.
565 [HW] Report power status in /proc/i8k
566 (disabled by default)
567 i8k.restricted [HW] Allow controlling fans only if SYS_ADMIN
570 ibmmcascsi= [HW,MCA,SCSI] IBM MicroChannel SCSI adapter
571 See Documentation/mca.txt.
574 Format: <io>[,<membase>[,<icn_id>[,<icn_id2>]]]
576 ide= [HW] (E)IDE subsystem
577 Format: ide=nodma or ide=doubler or ide=reverse
578 See Documentation/ide.txt.
580 ide?= [HW] (E)IDE subsystem
581 Format: ide?=noprobe or chipset specific parameters.
582 See Documentation/ide.txt.
584 idebus= [HW] (E)IDE subsystem - VLB/PCI bus speed
585 See Documentation/ide.txt.
588 Format: idle=poll or idle=halt
591 Set number of hash buckets for inode cache.
594 See header of drivers/scsi/in2000.c.
598 Run specified binary instead of /sbin/init as init
601 initcall_debug [KNL] Trace initcalls as they are executed. Useful
602 for working out where the kernel is dying during
605 initrd= [BOOT] Specify the location of the initial ramdisk
607 inport.irq= [HW] Inport (ATI XL and Microsoft) busmouse driver
612 io7= [HW] IO7 for Marvel based alpha systems
613 See comment before marvel_specify_io7 in
614 arch/alpha/kernel/core_marvel.c.
617 See Documentation/nfsroot.txt.
619 ip2= [HW] Set IO/IRQ pairs for up to 4 IntelliPort boards
620 See comment before ip2_setup() in drivers/char/ip2.c.
622 ips= [HW,SCSI] Adaptec / IBM ServeRAID controller
623 See header of drivers/scsi/ips.c.
626 When an interrupt is not handled search all handlers
627 for it. Intended to get systems with badly broken
631 When an interrupt is not handled search all handlers
632 for it. Also check all handlers each timer
633 interrupt. Intended to get systems with badly broken
637 Format: <RDP>, <reset>, <pci_scan>, <verbosity>
639 isolcpus= [KNL,SMP] Isolate CPUs from the general scheduler.
640 Format: <cpu number>,...,<cpu number>
641 This option can be used to specify one or more CPUs
642 to isolate from the general SMP balancing and scheduling
643 algorithms. The only way to move a process onto or off
644 an "isolated" CPU is via the CPU affinity syscalls.
645 <cpu number> begins at 0 and the maximum value is
646 "number of CPUs in system - 1".
648 This option is the preferred way to isolate CPUs. The
649 alternative - manually setting the CPU mask of all tasks
650 in the system can cause problems and suboptimal load
651 balancer performance.
654 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<setup>
658 js= [HW,JOY] Analog joystick
659 See Documentation/input/joystick.txt.
663 kstack=N [IA-32, X86-64] Print N words from the kernel stack
668 lapic [IA-32,APIC] Enable the local APIC even if BIOS disabled it.
670 lasi= [HW,SCSI] PARISC LASI driver for the 53c700 chip
671 Format: addr:<io>,irq:<irq>
674 See function print_params() in arch/ia64/sn/kernel/llsc4.c.
676 load_ramdisk= [RAM] List of ramdisks to load from floppy
677 See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
683 logibm.irq= [HW,MOUSE] Logitech Bus Mouse Driver
686 loglevel= All Kernel Messages with a loglevel smaller than the
687 console loglevel will be printed to the console. It can
688 also be changed with klogd or other programs. The
689 loglevels are defined as follows:
691 0 (KERN_EMERG) system is unusable
692 1 (KERN_ALERT) action must be taken immediately
693 2 (KERN_CRIT) critical conditions
694 3 (KERN_ERR) error conditions
695 4 (KERN_WARNING) warning conditions
696 5 (KERN_NOTICE) normal but significant condition
697 6 (KERN_INFO) informational
698 7 (KERN_DEBUG) debug-level messages
700 log_buf_len=n Sets the size of the printk ring buffer, in bytes.
701 Format is n, nk, nM. n must be a power of two. The
702 default is set in kernel config.
704 lp=0 [LP] Specify parallel ports to use, e.g,
705 lp=port[,port...] lp=none,parport0 (lp0 not configured, lp1 uses
706 lp=reset first parallel port). 'lp=0' disables the
707 lp=auto printer driver. 'lp=reset' (which can be
708 specified in addition to the ports) causes
709 attached printers to be reset. Using
710 lp=port1,port2,... specifies the parallel ports
711 to associate lp devices with, starting with
712 lp0. A port specification may be 'none' to skip
713 that lp device, or a parport name such as
714 'parport0'. Specifying 'lp=auto' instead of a
715 port specification list means that device IDs
716 from each port should be examined, to see if
717 an IEEE 1284-compliant printer is attached; if
718 so, the driver will manage that printer.
719 See also header of drivers/char/lp.c.
722 Sets loops_per_jiffy to given constant, thus avoiding
723 time-consuming boot-time autodetection (up to 250 ms per
724 CPU). 0 enables autodetection (default). To determine
725 the correct value for your kernel, boot with normal
726 autodetection and see what value is printed. Note that
727 on SMP systems the preset will be applied to all CPUs,
728 which is likely to cause problems if your CPUs need
729 significantly divergent settings. An incorrect value
730 will cause delays in the kernel to be wrong, leading to
731 unpredictable I/O errors and other breakage. Although
732 unlikely, in the extreme case this might damage your
736 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>
739 Format: <can_queue>,<cmd_per_lun>,<sg_tablesize>,<hostid>,<use_tags>
742 Format: <num_esps>,<disconnect>,<nosync>,<can_queue>,<cmd_per_lun>,<sg_tablesize>,<hostid>,<use_tags>
745 Force the use of a particular machine-vector (machvec) in a generic
746 kernel. Example: machvec=hpzx1_swiotlb
749 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma16>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>,<joystick>
754 max_loop= [LOOP] Maximum number of loopback devices that can
758 maxcpus= [SMP] Maximum number of processors that an SMP kernel
761 max_addr=[KMG] [KNL,BOOT,ia64] All physical memory greater than or
762 equal to this physical address is ignored.
764 max_luns= [SCSI] Maximum number of LUNs to probe
765 Should be between 1 and 2^32-1.
768 [SCSI] Maximum number of LUNs received
769 Should be between 1 and 16384.
771 mca-pentium [BUGS=IA-32]
776 Format: <port>,<irq>,<mitsumi_bug_93_wait>
780 mce [IA-32] Machine Check Exception
782 md= [HW] RAID subsystems devices and level
783 See Documentation/md.txt.
786 Format: <first>,<last>
787 Specifies range of consoles to be captured by the MDA.
789 mem=nn[KMG] [KNL,BOOT] Force usage of a specific amount of memory
790 Amount of memory to be used when the kernel is not able
791 to see the whole system memory or for test.
792 [IA-32] Use together with memmap= to avoid physical
793 address space collisions. Without memmap= PCI devices
794 could be placed at addresses belonging to unused RAM.
796 mem=nopentium [BUGS=IA-32] Disable usage of 4MB pages for kernel
799 memmap=exactmap [KNL,IA-32] Enable setting of an exact
800 E820 memory map, as specified by the user.
801 Such memmap=exactmap lines can be constructed based on
802 BIOS output or other requirements. See the memmap=nn@ss
805 memmap=nn[KMG]@ss[KMG]
806 [KNL] Force usage of a specific region of memory
807 Region of memory to be used, from ss to ss+nn.
809 memmap=nn[KMG]#ss[KMG]
810 [KNL,ACPI] Mark specific memory as ACPI data.
811 Region of memory to be used, from ss to ss+nn.
813 memmap=nn[KMG]$ss[KMG]
814 [KNL,ACPI] Mark specific memory as reserved.
815 Region of memory to be used, from ss to ss+nn.
817 meye.*= [HW] Set MotionEye Camera parameters
818 See Documentation/video4linux/meye.txt.
823 [MOUSE] Maximum time between finger touching and
824 leaving touchpad surface for touch to be considered
825 a tap and be reported as a left button click (for
826 touchpads working in absolute mode only).
828 mousedev.xres= [MOUSE] Horizontal screen resolution, used for devices
829 reporting absolute coordinates, such as tablets
830 mousedev.yres= [MOUSE] Vertical screen resolution, used for devices
831 reporting absolute coordinates, such as tablets
837 Format: <name>,<region-number>,<size>,<offset>
840 Format: <name>,<region-number>[,<base>,<size>,<buswidth>,<altbuswidth>]
843 See drivers/mtd/cmdline.c.
845 mtouchusb.raw_coordinates=
846 [HW] Make the MicroTouch USB driver use raw coordinates ('y', default)
847 or cooked coordinates ('n')
849 n2= [NET] SDL Inc. RISCom/N2 synchronous serial card
852 See header of drivers/scsi/NCR_D700.c.
858 ncr53c400a= [HW,SCSI]
860 ncr53c406a= [HW,SCSI]
864 netdev= [NET] Network devices parameters
865 Format: <irq>,<io>,<mem_start>,<mem_end>,<name>
866 Note that mem_start is often overloaded to mean
867 something different and driver-specific.
870 See Documentation/nfsroot.txt.
872 nfsroot= [NFS] nfs root filesystem for disk-less boxes.
873 See Documentation/nfsroot.txt.
875 nmi_watchdog= [KNL,BUGS=IA-32] Debugging features for SMP kernels
877 no387 [BUGS=IA-32] Tells the kernel to use the 387 maths
878 emulation library even if a 387 maths coprocessor
883 noapic [SMP,APIC] Tells the kernel to not make use of any
884 IOAPICs that may be present in the system.
886 noasync [HW,M68K] Disables async and sync negotiation for
889 nobats [PPC] Do not use BATs for mapping kernel lowmem
890 on "Classic" PPC cores.
894 nodisconnect [HW,SCSI,M68K] Disables SCSI disconnects.
898 noexec [IA-32, X86-64]
899 noexec=on: enable non-executable mappings (default)
900 noexec=off: disable nn-executable mappings
906 no-hlt [BUGS=IA-32] Tells the kernel that the hlt
907 instruction doesn't work correctly and not to
910 nohalt [IA-64] Tells the kernel not to use the power saving
911 function PAL_HALT_LIGHT when idle. This increases
912 power-consumption. On the positive side, it reduces
913 interrupt wake-up latency, which may improve performance
914 in certain environments such as networked servers or
917 noirqdebug [IA-32] Disables the code which attempts to detect and
918 disable unhandled interrupt sources.
920 noisapnp [ISAPNP] Disables ISA PnP code.
922 noinitrd [RAM] Tells the kernel not to load any configured
927 nolapic [IA-32,APIC] Do not enable or use the local APIC.
929 noltlbs [PPC] Do not use large page/tlb entries for kernel
930 lowmem mapping on PPC40x.
932 nomce [IA-32] Machine Check Exception
934 noresidual [PPC] Don't use residual data on PReP machines.
936 noresume [SWSUSP] Disables resume and restore original swap space.
938 no-scroll [VGA] Disables scrollback.
939 This is required for the Braillex ib80-piezo Braille
940 reader made by F.H. Papenmeier (Germany).
944 nosmp [SMP] Tells an SMP kernel to act as a UP kernel.
946 nosync [HW,M68K] Disables sync negotiation for all devices.
948 notsc [BUGS=IA-32] Disable Time Stamp Counter
950 nousb [USB] Disable the USB subsystem
958 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>
961 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<mss_io>,<mpu_io>,<ymode>,<loopback>[,<isapnp>,<multiple]
964 Use timer interrupt instead of performance counters
969 osst= [HW,SCSI] SCSI Tape Driver
970 Format: <buffer_size>,<write_threshold>
971 See also Documentation/scsi/st.txt.
973 panic= [KNL] Kernel behaviour on panic
976 parkbd.port= [HW] Parallel port number the keyboard adapter is
977 connected to, default is 0.
979 parkbd.mode= [HW] Parallel port keyboard adapter mode of operation,
980 0 for XT, 1 for AT (default is AT).
983 parport=0 [HW,PPT] Specify parallel ports. 0 disables.
984 parport=auto Use 'auto' to force the driver to use
985 parport=0xBBB[,IRQ[,DMA]] any IRQ/DMA settings detected (the
986 default is to ignore detected IRQ/DMA
987 settings because of possible
988 conflicts). You can specify the base
989 address, IRQ, and DMA settings; IRQ and
990 DMA should be numbers, or 'auto' (for
991 using detected settings on that
992 particular port), or 'nofifo' (to avoid
993 using a FIFO even if it is detected).
994 Parallel ports are assigned in the
995 order they are specified on the command
996 line, starting with parport0.
999 [HW,PPT] Configure VIA parallel port to
1000 operate in specific mode. This is
1001 necessary on Pegasos computer where
1002 firmware has no options for setting up
1003 parallel port mode and sets it to
1004 spp. Currently this function knows
1005 686a and 8231 chips.
1006 Format: [spp|ps2|epp|ecp|ecpepp]
1009 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma16>,<sb_io>,<sb_irq>,<sb_dma>,<sb_dma16>
1012 See header of drivers/scsi/pas16.c.
1017 See header of drivers/block/paride/pcd.c.
1018 See also Documentation/paride.txt.
1020 pci=option[,option...] [PCI] various PCI subsystem options:
1021 off [IA-32] don't probe for the PCI bus
1022 bios [IA-32] force use of PCI BIOS, don't access
1023 the hardware directly. Use this if your machine
1024 has a non-standard PCI host bridge.
1025 nobios [IA-32] disallow use of PCI BIOS, only direct
1026 hardware access methods are allowed. Use this
1027 if you experience crashes upon bootup and you
1028 suspect they are caused by the BIOS.
1029 conf1 [IA-32] Force use of PCI Configuration Mechanism 1.
1030 conf2 [IA-32] Force use of PCI Configuration Mechanism 2.
1031 nosort [IA-32] Don't sort PCI devices according to
1032 order given by the PCI BIOS. This sorting is done
1033 to get a device order compatible with older kernels.
1034 biosirq [IA-32] Use PCI BIOS calls to get the interrupt
1035 routing table. These calls are known to be buggy
1036 on several machines and they hang the machine when used,
1037 but on other computers it's the only way to get the
1038 interrupt routing table. Try this option if the kernel
1039 is unable to allocate IRQs or discover secondary PCI
1040 buses on your motherboard.
1041 rom [IA-32] Assign address space to expansion ROMs.
1042 Use with caution as certain devices share address
1043 decoders between ROMs and other resources.
1044 irqmask=0xMMMM [IA-32] Set a bit mask of IRQs allowed to be assigned
1045 automatically to PCI devices. You can make the kernel
1046 exclude IRQs of your ISA cards this way.
1047 pirqaddr=0xAAAAA [IA-32] Specify the physical address
1048 of the PIRQ table (normally generated
1049 by the BIOS) if it is outside the
1050 F0000h-100000h range.
1051 lastbus=N [IA-32] Scan all buses till bus #N. Can be useful
1052 if the kernel is unable to find your secondary buses
1053 and you want to tell it explicitly which ones they are.
1054 assign-busses [IA-32] Always assign all PCI bus
1055 numbers ourselves, overriding
1056 whatever the firmware may have
1058 usepirqmask [IA-32] Honor the possible IRQ mask
1059 stored in the BIOS $PIR table. This is
1060 needed on some systems with broken
1061 BIOSes, notably some HP Pavilion N5400
1062 and Omnibook XE3 notebooks. This will
1063 have no effect if ACPI IRQ routing is
1065 noacpi [IA-32] Do not use ACPI for IRQ routing
1066 or for PCI scanning.
1067 routeirq Do IRQ routing for all PCI devices.
1068 This is normally done in pci_enable_device(),
1069 so this option is a temporary workaround
1070 for broken drivers that don't call it.
1072 firmware [ARM] Do not re-enumerate the bus but
1073 instead just use the configuration
1074 from the bootloader. This is currently
1075 used on IXP2000 systems where the
1076 bus has to be configured a certain way
1079 pcmv= [HW,PCMCIA] BadgePAD 4
1082 See Documentation/paride.txt.
1084 pdcchassis= [PARISC,HW] Disable/Enable PDC Chassis Status codes at
1087 See arch/parisc/kernel/pdc_chassis.c
1090 See Documentation/paride.txt.
1093 See Documentation/paride.txt.
1095 pirq= [SMP,APIC] Manual mp-table setup
1096 See Documentation/i386/IO-APIC.txt.
1098 plip= [PPT,NET] Parallel port network link
1099 Format: { parport<nr> | timid | 0 }
1100 See also Documentation/parport.txt.
1106 { on | off | curr | res | no-curr | no-res }
1109 [ISAPNP] Exclude IRQs for the autoconfiguration
1112 [ISAPNP] Exclude DMAs for the autoconfiguration
1114 pnp_reserve_io= [ISAPNP] Exclude I/O ports for the autoconfiguration
1115 Ranges are in pairs (I/O port base and size).
1118 [ISAPNP] Exclude memory regions for the autoconfiguration
1119 Ranges are in pairs (memory base and size).
1121 profile= [KNL] Enable kernel profiling via /proc/profile
1122 { schedule | <number> }
1123 (param: schedule - profile schedule points}
1124 (param: profile step/bucket size as a power of 2 for
1125 statistical time based profiling)
1127 processor.max_cstate= [HW, ACPI]
1128 Limit processor to maximum C-state
1129 max_cstate=9 overrides any DMI blacklist limit.
1131 prompt_ramdisk= [RAM] List of RAM disks to prompt for floppy disk
1133 See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
1135 psmouse.proto= [HW,MOUSE] Highest PS2 mouse protocol extension to
1136 probe for (bare|imps|exps|lifebook|any).
1137 psmouse.rate= [HW,MOUSE] Set desired mouse report rate, in reports
1140 [HW,MOUSE] Try to reset the device after so many bad packets
1143 [HW,MOUSE] Set desired mouse resolution, in dpi.
1144 psmouse.smartscroll=
1145 [HW,MOUSE] Controls Logitech smartscroll autorepeat,
1146 0 = disabled, 1 = enabled (default).
1148 pss= [HW,OSS] Personal Sound System (ECHO ESC614)
1149 Format: <io>,<mss_io>,<mss_irq>,<mss_dma>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>
1152 See Documentation/paride.txt.
1154 quiet= [KNL] Disable log messages
1159 See Documentation/md.txt.
1161 ramdisk= [RAM] Sizes of RAM disks in kilobytes [deprecated]
1162 See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
1166 See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
1168 ramdisk_size= [RAM] Sizes of RAM disks in kilobytes
1169 New name for the ramdisk parameter.
1170 See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
1172 reboot= [BUGS=IA-32,BUGS=ARM,BUGS=IA-64] Rebooting mode
1173 Format: <reboot_mode>[,<reboot_mode2>[,...]]
1174 See arch/*/kernel/reboot.c.
1176 reserve= [KNL,BUGS] Force the kernel to ignore some iomem area
1178 resume= [SWSUSP] Specify the partition device for software suspension
1180 rhash_entries= [KNL,NET]
1181 Set number of hash buckets for route cache
1183 riscom8= [HW,SERIAL]
1184 Format: <io_board1>[,<io_board2>[,...<io_boardN>]]
1186 ro [KNL] Mount root device read-only on boot
1188 root= [KNL] Root filesystem
1190 rootdelay= [KNL] Delay (in seconds) to pause before attempting to
1191 mount the root filesystem
1193 rootflags= [KNL] Set root filesystem mount option string
1195 rootfstype= [KNL] Set root filesystem type
1197 rw [KNL] Mount root device read-write on boot
1199 S [KNL] Run init in single mode
1202 See drivers/net/irda/sa1100_ir.c.
1205 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>
1207 sbni= [NET] Granch SBNI12 leased line adapter
1209 sbpcd= [HW,CD] Soundblaster CD adapter
1211 See a comment before function sbpcd_setup() in
1212 drivers/cdrom/sbpcd.c.
1214 sc1200wdt= [HW,WDT] SC1200 WDT (watchdog) driver
1215 Format: <io>[,<timeout>[,<isapnp>]]
1217 scsi_debug_*= [SCSI]
1218 See drivers/scsi/scsi_debug.c.
1220 scsi_default_dev_flags=
1221 [SCSI] SCSI default device flags
1224 scsi_dev_flags= [SCSI] Black/white list entry for vendor and model
1225 Format: <vendor>:<model>:<flags>
1226 (flags are integer value)
1228 scsi_logging= [SCSI]
1230 selinux [SELINUX] Disable or enable SELinux at boot time.
1231 Format: { "0" | "1" }
1232 See security/selinux/Kconfig help text.
1235 Default value is set via kernel config option.
1236 If enabled at boot time, /selinux/disable can be used
1237 later to disable prior to initial policy load.
1239 serialnumber [BUGS=IA-32]
1241 sg_def_reserved_size=
1245 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<sgbase>
1248 Maximal number of shapers.
1251 See header of drivers/scsi/sim710.c.
1257 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>
1258 See header of drivers/cdrom/sjcd.c.
1263 Format: <io1>[,<io2>[,...,<io8>]]
1265 snd-ad1816a= [HW,ALSA]
1267 snd-ad1848= [HW,ALSA]
1269 snd-ali5451= [HW,ALSA]
1271 snd-als100= [HW,ALSA]
1273 snd-als4000= [HW,ALSA]
1275 snd-azt2320= [HW,ALSA]
1277 snd-cmi8330= [HW,ALSA]
1279 snd-cmipci= [HW,ALSA]
1281 snd-cs4231= [HW,ALSA]
1283 snd-cs4232= [HW,ALSA]
1285 snd-cs4236= [HW,ALSA]
1287 snd-cs4281= [HW,ALSA]
1289 snd-cs46xx= [HW,ALSA]
1291 snd-dt019x= [HW,ALSA]
1293 snd-dummy= [HW,ALSA]
1295 snd-emu10k1= [HW,ALSA]
1297 snd-ens1370= [HW,ALSA]
1299 snd-ens1371= [HW,ALSA]
1301 snd-es968= [HW,ALSA]
1303 snd-es1688= [HW,ALSA]
1305 snd-es18xx= [HW,ALSA]
1307 snd-es1938= [HW,ALSA]
1309 snd-es1968= [HW,ALSA]
1311 snd-fm801= [HW,ALSA]
1313 snd-gusclassic= [HW,ALSA]
1315 snd-gusextreme= [HW,ALSA]
1317 snd-gusmax= [HW,ALSA]
1321 snd-ice1712= [HW,ALSA]
1323 snd-intel8x0= [HW,ALSA]
1325 snd-interwave= [HW,ALSA]
1330 snd-korg1212= [HW,ALSA]
1332 snd-maestro3= [HW,ALSA]
1334 snd-mpu401= [HW,ALSA]
1336 snd-mtpav= [HW,ALSA]
1338 snd-nm256= [HW,ALSA]
1340 snd-opl3sa2= [HW,ALSA]
1348 snd-opti93x= [HW,ALSA]
1352 snd-rme32= [HW,ALSA]
1354 snd-rme96= [HW,ALSA]
1356 snd-rme9652= [HW,ALSA]
1362 snd-sbawe= [HW,ALSA]
1364 snd-serial= [HW,ALSA]
1366 snd-sgalaxy= [HW,ALSA]
1368 snd-sonicvibes= [HW,ALSA]
1373 snd-sun-cs4231= [HW,ALSA]
1375 snd-trident= [HW,ALSA]
1377 snd-usb-audio= [HW,ALSA,USB]
1379 snd-via82xx= [HW,ALSA]
1381 snd-virmidi= [HW,ALSA]
1383 snd-wavefront= [HW,ALSA]
1385 snd-ymfpci= [HW,ALSA]
1387 sonicvibes= [HW,OSS]
1391 Format: <io>[,<irq>]
1393 sonypi.*= [HW] Sony Programmable I/O Control Device driver
1394 See Documentation/sonypi.txt
1396 specialix= [HW,SERIAL] Specialix multi-serial port adapter
1397 See Documentation/specialix.txt.
1399 spia_io_base= [HW,MTD]
1405 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>
1407 st= [HW,SCSI] SCSI tape parameters (buffers, etc.)
1408 See Documentation/scsi/st.txt.
1411 See header of drivers/scsi/seagate.c.
1415 Set the STI (builtin display/keyboard on the HP-PARISC
1416 machines) console (graphic card) which should be used
1417 as the initial boot-console.
1418 See also comment in drivers/video/console/sticore.c.
1421 See comment in drivers/video/console/sticore.c.
1424 Format: bpp:<bpp1>[:<bpp2>[:<bpp3>...]]
1426 stram_swap= [HW,M68k]
1428 swiotlb= [IA-64] Number of I/O TLB slabs
1432 sym53c416= [HW,SCSI]
1433 See header of drivers/scsi/sym53c416.c.
1436 See header of drivers/scsi/t128.c.
1440 thash_entries= [KNL,NET]
1441 Set number of hash buckets for TCP connection
1443 time Show timing data prefixed to each printk message line
1445 tipar.timeout= [HW,PPT]
1446 Set communications timeout in tenths of a second
1449 tipar.delay= [HW,PPT]
1450 Set inter-bit delay in microseconds (default 10).
1453 See header of drivers/scsi/seagate.c.
1456 See comment before function dc390_setup() in
1457 drivers/scsi/tmscsim.c.
1461 trix= [HW,OSS] MediaTrix AudioTrix Pro
1462 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<sb_io>,<sb_irq>,<sb_dma>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>
1464 tsdev.xres= [TS] Horizontal screen resolution.
1465 tsdev.yres= [TS] Vertical screen resolution.
1467 turbografx.map[2|3]=
1468 [HW,JOY] TurboGraFX parallel port interface
1469 Format: <port#>,<js1>,<js2>,<js3>,<js4>,<js5>,<js6>,<js7>
1470 See also Documentation/input/joystick-parport.txt
1472 u14-34f= [HW,SCSI] UltraStor 14F/34F SCSI host adapter
1473 See header of drivers/scsi/u14-34f.c.
1481 usb-handoff [HW] Enable early USB BIOS -> OS handoff
1484 [USBHID] The interval which mice are to be polled at.
1486 video= [FB] Frame buffer configuration
1487 See Documentation/fb/modedb.txt.
1489 vga= [BOOT,IA-32] Select a particular video mode
1490 See Documentation/i386/boot.txt and Documentation/svga.txt.
1491 Use vga=ask for menu.
1492 This is actually a boot loader parameter; the value is
1493 passed to the kernel using a special protocol.
1495 vmalloc=nn[KMG] [KNL,BOOT] forces the vmalloc area to have an exact
1496 size of <nn>. This can be used to increase the
1497 minimum size (128MB on x86). It can also be used to
1498 decrease the size and leave more room for directly
1505 waveartist= [HW,OSS]
1506 Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>
1509 See header of drivers/scsi/wd33c93.c.
1512 See header of drivers/scsi/wd7000.c.
1515 See Documentation/watchdog/watchdog.txt.
1517 xd= [HW,XT] Original XT pre-IDE (RLL encoded) disks.
1518 xd_geo= See header of drivers/block/xd.c.
1520 xirc2ps_cs= [NET,PCMCIA]
1521 Format: <irq>,<irq_mask>,<io>,<full_duplex>,<do_sound>,<lockup_hack>[,<irq2>[,<irq3>[,<irq4>]]]
1527 The last known update (for 2.4.0) - the changelog was not kept before.
1528 2000-06-?? Mr. Unknown
1530 Update for 2.5.49, description for most of the options introduced,
1531 references to other documentation (C files, READMEs, ..), added S390,
1532 PPC, SPARC, MTD, ALSA and OSS category. Minor corrections and
1534 2002-11-24 Petr Baudis <pasky@ucw.cz>
1535 Randy Dunlap <randy.dunlap@verizon.net>
1539 Add documentation for ALSA options.
1540 Add more DRM drivers.