Linux Kernel Boot Parameters
Derived from kernel-parameters.txt in the Linux source
February 2003 Kernel Parameters v2.5.59
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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
The text in square brackets at the beginning of the description state the restrictions on the kernel for the said kernel parameter to be valid. The restrictions referred to are that the relevant option is valid if:
ACPI ACPI support 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.
CD Appropriate CD support is enabled.
DEVFS devfs 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 DCHP, BOOTP, or RARP is enabled.
ISAPNP ISA PnP code is enabled.
ISDN Appropriate ISDN support is enabled.
JOY Appropriate joystick support 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.
MTD MTD support is enabled.
NET Appropriate network support is enabled.
NUMA NUMA support is enabled.
NFS Appropriate NFS support is enabled.
OSS OSS sound support is enabled.
PARIDE The ParIDE 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.
SMP The kernel is an SMP kernel.
SPARC Sparc architecture is enabled.
SWSUSP Software suspension 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>.
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.
53c7xx= [HW,SCSI] Amiga SCSI controllers
See header of drivers/scsi/53c7xx.c.
See also Documentation/scsi/ncr53c7xx.txt.
acpi= [HW,ACPI] Advanced Configuration and Power Interface
Format: { force | off | ht | strict }
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_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
Format: { level | edge | high | low }
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
Format: <irq>,<irq>...
acpi_irq_isa= [HW,ACPI] If irq_balance, Mark listed IRQs used by ISA
Format: <irq>,<irq>...
acpi_osi= [HW,ACPI] empty param disables _OSI
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_dbg_layer= [HW,ACPI]
Format: <int>
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 /proc/acpi/debug_layer.
acpi_dbg_level= [HW,ACPI]
Format: <int>
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 /proc/acpi/debug_level.
acpi_fake_ecdt [HW,ACPI] Workaround failure due to BIOS lacking ECDT
ad1816= [HW,OSS]
Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>
See also Documentation/sound/oss/AD1816.
ad1848= [HW,OSS]
Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<type>
adlib= [HW,OSS]
Format: <io>
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.
AM53C974= [HW,SCSI]
Format: <host-scsi-id>,<target-scsi-id>,<max-rate>,<max-offset>
See also header of drivers/scsi/AM53C974.c.
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] 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]
awe= [HW,OSS] AWE32/SB32/AWE64 wave table synth
Format: <io>,<memsize>,<isapnp>
aztcd= [HW,CD] Aztech CD268 CDROM driver
Format: <io>,0x79 (?)
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.
cdu31a= [HW,CD]
Format: <io>,<irq>[,PAS]
See header of drivers/cdrom/cdu31a.c.
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 timesource override.
Forces specified timesource (if avaliable) to be used
when calculating gettimeofday(). If specicified timesource
is not avalible, it defaults to PIT.
Format: { pit | tsc | cyclone | pmtmr }
hpet= [IA-32,HPET] option to disable HPET and use PIT.
Format: disable
cm206= [HW,CD]
Format: { auto | [<io>,][<irq>] }
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]
Use the specified serial port. The options are of
the form "bbbbpn", where "bbbb" is the baud rate,
"p" is parity ("n", "o", or "e"), and "n" is bits.
Default is "9600n8".
See also Documentation/serial-console.txt.
uart,io,<addr>[,options]
uart,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.
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 }
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.
dasd= [HW,NET]
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).
decnet= [HW,NET]
Format: <area>[,<node>]
See also Documentation/networking/decnet.txt.
devfs= [DEVFS]
See Documentation/filesystems/devfs/boot-options.
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]
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]
eda= [HW,PS2]
edb= [HW,PS2]
edd= [EDD]
Format: {"of[f]" | "sk[ipmbr]"}
See comment in arch/i386/boot/edd.S
eicon= [HW,ISDN]
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: {"as"|"cfq"|"deadline"|"noop"}
See Documentation/block/as-iosched.txt
and Documentation/block/deadline-iosched.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.
es1370= [HW,OSS]
Format: <lineout>[,<micbias>]
See also header of sound/oss/es1370.c.
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>]
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.
ftape= [HW] Floppy Tape subsystem debugging options.
See Documentation/ftape.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.
gscd= [HW,CD]
Format: <io>
gt96100eth= [NET] MIPS GT96100 Advanced Communication Controller
gus= [HW,OSS]
Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma16>
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.
hisax= [HW,ISDN]
See Documentation/isdn/README.HiSax.
hugepages= [HW,IA-32,IA-64] Maximal number of HugeTLB pages.
noirqbalance [IA-32,SMP,KNL] Disable kernel irq balancing
i8042.direct [HW] Put keyboard port into non-translated mode
i8042.dumbkbd [HW] Pretend that controlled can only read data from
keyboard and can not control its state
(Don't attempt to blink the leds)
i8042.noaux [HW] Don't check for auxiliary (== mouse) 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.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= [HW]
Format: idle=poll or idle=halt
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.c.
ips= [HW,SCSI] Adaptec / IBM ServeRAID controller
See header of drivers/scsi/ips.c.
isapnp= [ISAPNP]
Format: <RDP>, <reset>, <pci_scan>, <verbosity>
isolcpus= [KNL,SMP] Isolate CPUs from the general scheduler.
Format: <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.
isp16= [HW,CD]
Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<setup>
iucv= [HW,NET]
js= [HW,JOY] Analog joystick
See Documentation/input/joystick.txt.
keepinitrd [HW,ARM]
kstack=N [IA-32, X86-64] Print N words from the kernel stack
in oops dumps.
l2cr= [PPC]
lapic [IA-32,APIC] Enable the local APIC even if BIOS disabled it.
lasi= [HW,SCSI] PARISC LASI driver for the 53c700 chip
Format: addr:<io>,irq:<irq>
llsc*= [IA64]
See function print_params() in arch/ia64/sn/kernel/llsc4.c.
load_ramdisk= [RAM] List of ramdisks to load from floppy
See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
lockd.udpport= [NFS]
lockd.tcpport= [NFS]
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 is n, nk, nM. n must be a power of two. The
default is set in kernel config.
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
mad16= [HW,OSS]
Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma16>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>,<joystick>
maui= [HW,OSS]
Format: <io>,<irq>
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
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]
mcd= [HW,CD]
Format: <port>,<irq>,<mitsumi_bug_93_wait>
mcdx= [HW,CD]
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] Enable setting of an exact
E820 memory map, as specified by the user.
Such memmap=exactmap lines can be constructed based on
BIOS output or other requirements. See the memmap=nn@ss
option description.
memmap=nn[KMG]@ss[KMG]
[KNL] Force usage of a specific region of memory
Region of memory to be used, from ss to ss+nn.
memmap=nn[KMG]#ss[KMG]
[KNL,ACPI] Mark specific memory as ACPI data.
Region of memory to be used, from ss to ss+nn.
memmap=nn[KMG]$ss[KMG]
[KNL,ACPI] Mark specific memory as reserved.
Region of memory to be used, from ss to ss+nn.
meye.*= [HW] Set MotionEye Camera parameters
See Documentation/video4linux/meye.txt.
mga= [HW,DRM]
mousedev.tap_time=
[MOUSE] Maximum time between finger touching and
leaving touchpad surface for touch to be considered
a tap and be reported as a left button click (for
touchpads working in absolute mode only).
Format: <msecs>
mousedev.xres= [MOUSE] Horizontal screen resolution, used for devices
reporting absolute coordinates, such as tablets
mousedev.yres= [MOUSE] Vertical screen resolution, used for devices
reporting absolute coordinates, such as tablets
mpu401= [HW,OSS]
Format: <io>,<irq>
MTD_Partition= [MTD]
Format: <name>,<region-number>,<size>,<offset>
MTD_Region= [MTD]
Format: <name>,<region-number>[,<base>,<size>,<buswidth>,<altbuswidth>]
mtdparts= [MTD]
See drivers/mtd/cmdline.c.
mtouchusb.raw_coordinates=
[HW] Make the MicroTouch USB driver use raw coordinates ('y', default)
or cooked coordinates ('n')
n2= [NET] SDL Inc. RISCom/N2 synchronous serial card
NCR_D700= [HW,SCSI]
See header of drivers/scsi/NCR_D700.c.
ncr5380= [HW,SCSI]
ncr53c400= [HW,SCSI]
ncr53c400a= [HW,SCSI]
ncr53c406a= [HW,SCSI]
ncr53c8xx= [HW,SCSI]
netdev= [NET] Network devices parameters
Format: <irq>,<io>,<mem_start>,<mem_end>,<name>
Note that mem_start is often overloaded to mean
something different and driver-specific.
nfsaddrs= [NFS]
See Documentation/nfsroot.txt.
nfsroot= [NFS] nfs root filesystem for disk-less boxes.
See Documentation/nfsroot.txt.
nmi_watchdog= [KNL,BUGS=IA-32] Debugging features for SMP kernels
no387 [BUGS=IA-32] Tells the kernel to use the 387 maths
emulation library even if a 387 maths coprocessor
is present.
noalign [KNL,ARM]
noapic [SMP,APIC] Tells the kernel to not make use of any
IOAPICs that may be present in the system.
noasync [HW,M68K] Disables async and sync negotiation for
all devices.
nobats [PPC] Do not use BATs for mapping kernel lowmem
on "Classic" PPC cores.
nocache [ARM]
nodisconnect [HW,SCSI,M68K] Disables SCSI disconnects.
noexec [IA-64]
noexec [IA-32, X86-64]
noexec=on: enable non-executable mappings (default)
noexec=off: disable nn-executable mappings
nofxsr [BUGS=IA-32]
nohlt [BUGS=ARM]
no-hlt [BUGS=IA-32] Tells the kernel that the hlt
instruction doesn't work correctly and not to
use it.
nohalt [IA-64] Tells the kernel not to use the power saving
function PAL_HALT_LIGHT when idle. This increases
power-consumption. On the positive side, it reduces
interrupt wake-up latency, which may improve performance
in certain environments such as networked servers or
real-time systems.
noirqdebug [IA-32] Disables the code which attempts to detect and
disable unhandled interrupt sources.
noisapnp [ISAPNP] Disables ISA PnP code.
noinitrd [RAM] Tells the kernel not to load any configured
initial RAM disk.
nointroute [IA-64]
nolapic [IA-32,APIC] Do not enable or use the local APIC.
noltlbs [PPC] Do not use large page/tlb entries for kernel
lowmem mapping on PPC40x.
nomce [IA-32] Machine Check Exception
noresidual [PPC] Don't use residual data on PReP machines.
noresume [SWSUSP] Disables resume and restore original swap space.
no-scroll [VGA] Disables scrollback.
This is required for the Braillex ib80-piezo Braille
reader made by F.H. Papenmeier (Germany).
nosbagart [IA-64]
nosmp [SMP] Tells an SMP kernel to act as a UP kernel.
nosync [HW,M68K] Disables sync negotiation for all devices.
notsc [BUGS=IA-32] Disable Time Stamp Counter
nousb [USB] Disable the USB subsystem
nowb [ARM]
opl3= [HW,OSS]
Format: <io>
opl3sa= [HW,OSS]
Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>
opl3sa2= [HW,OSS]
Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<mss_io>,<mpu_io>,<ymode>,<loopback>[,<isapnp>,<multiple]
oprofile.timer= [HW]
Use timer interrupt instead of performance counters
optcd= [HW,CD]
Format: <io>
osst= [HW,SCSI] SCSI Tape Driver
Format: <buffer_size>,<write_threshold>
See also Documentation/scsi/st.txt.
panic= [KNL] Kernel behaviour on panic
Format: <timeout>
parkbd.port= [HW] Parallel port number the keyboard adapter is
connected to, default is 0.
Format: <parport#>
parkbd.mode= [HW] Parallel port keyboard adapter mode of operation,
0 for XT, 1 for AT (default is AT).
Format: <mode>
parport=0 [HW,PPT] Specify parallel ports. 0 disables.
parport=auto Use 'auto' to force the driver to use
parport=0xBBB[,IRQ[,DMA]] any IRQ/DMA settings detected (the
default is to ignore detected IRQ/DMA
settings because of possible
conflicts). You can specify the base
address, IRQ, and DMA settings; IRQ and
DMA should be numbers, or 'auto' (for
using detected settings on that
particular port), or 'nofifo' (to avoid
using a FIFO even if it is detected).
Parallel ports are assigned in the
order they are specified on the command
line, starting with parport0.
parport_init_mode=
[HW,PPT] Configure VIA parallel port to
operate in specific mode. This is
necessary on Pegasos computer where
firmware has no options for setting up
parallel port mode and sets it to
spp. Currently this function knows
686a and 8231 chips.
Format: [spp|ps2|epp|ecp|ecpepp]
pas2= [HW,OSS]
Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma16>,<sb_io>,<sb_irq>,<sb_dma>,<sb_dma16>
pas16= [HW,SCSI]
See header of drivers/scsi/pas16.c.
pcbit= [HW,ISDN]
pcd. [PARIDE]
See header of drivers/block/paride/pcd.c.
See also Documentation/paride.txt.
pci=option[,option...] [PCI] various PCI subsystem options:
off [IA-32] don't probe for the PCI bus
bios [IA-32] force use of PCI BIOS, don't access
the hardware directly. Use this if your machine
has a non-standard PCI host bridge.
nobios [IA-32] disallow use of PCI BIOS, only direct
hardware access methods are allowed. Use this
if you experience crashes upon bootup and you
suspect they are caused by the BIOS.
conf1 [IA-32] Force use of PCI Configuration Mechanism 1.
conf2 [IA-32] Force use of PCI Configuration Mechanism 2.
nosort [IA-32] Don't sort PCI devices according to
order given by the PCI BIOS. This sorting is done
to get a device order compatible with older kernels.
biosirq [IA-32] Use PCI BIOS calls to get the interrupt
routing table. These calls are known to be buggy
on several machines and they hang the machine when used,
but on other computers it's the only way to get the
interrupt routing table. Try this option if the kernel
is unable to allocate IRQs or discover secondary PCI
buses on your motherboard.
rom [IA-32] Assign address space to expansion ROMs.
Use with caution as certain devices share address
decoders between ROMs and other resources.
irqmask=0xMMMM [IA-32] Set a bit mask of IRQs allowed to be assigned
automatically to PCI devices. You can make the kernel
exclude IRQs of your ISA cards this way.
lastbus=N [IA-32] Scan all buses till bus #N. Can be useful
if the kernel is unable to find your secondary buses
and you want to tell it explicitly which ones they are.
assign-busses [IA-32] Always assign all PCI bus
numbers ourselves, overriding
whatever the firmware may have
done.
usepirqmask [IA-32] Honor the possible IRQ mask
stored in the BIOS $PIR table. This is
needed on some systems with broken
BIOSes, notably some HP Pavilion N5400
and Omnibook XE3 notebooks. This will
have no effect if ACPI IRQ routing is
enabled.
noacpi [IA-32] Do not use ACPI for IRQ routing
or for PCI scanning.
routeirq Do IRQ routing for all PCI devices.
This is normally done in pci_enable_device(),
so this option is a temporary workaround
for broken drivers that don't call it.
firmware [ARM] Do not re-enumerate the bus but
instead just use the configuration
from the bootloader. This is currently
used on IXP2000 systems where the
bus has to be configured a certain way
for adjunct CPUs.
pcmv= [HW,PCMCIA] BadgePAD 4
pd. [PARIDE]
See Documentation/paride.txt.
pdcchassis= [PARISC,HW] Disable/Enable PDC Chassis Status codes at
boot time.
Format: { 0 | 1 }
See arch/parisc/kernel/pdc_chassis.c
pf. [PARIDE]
See Documentation/paride.txt.
pg. [PARIDE]
See Documentation/paride.txt.
pirq= [SMP,APIC] Manual mp-table setup
See Documentation/i386/IO-APIC.txt.
plip= [PPT,NET] Parallel port network link
Format: { parport<nr> | timid | 0 }
See also Documentation/parport.txt.
pnpacpi= [ACPI]
{ off }
pnpbios= [ISAPNP]
{ on | off | curr | res | no-curr | no-res }
pnp_reserve_irq=
[ISAPNP] Exclude IRQs for the autoconfiguration
pnp_reserve_dma=
[ISAPNP] Exclude DMAs for the autoconfiguration
pnp_reserve_io= [ISAPNP] Exclude I/O ports for the autoconfiguration
Ranges are in pairs (I/O port base and size).
pnp_reserve_mem=
[ISAPNP] Exclude memory regions for the autoconfiguration
Ranges are in pairs (memory base and size).
profile= [KNL] Enable kernel profiling via /proc/profile
{ schedule | <number> }
(param: schedule - profile schedule points}
(param: profile step/bucket size as a power of 2 for
statistical time based profiling)
processor.max_cstate= [HW, ACPI]
Limit processor to maximum C-state
max_cstate=9 overrides any DMI blacklist limit.
prompt_ramdisk= [RAM] List of RAM disks to prompt for floppy disk
before loading.
See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
psmouse.proto= [HW,MOUSE] Highest PS2 mouse protocol extension to
probe for (bare|imps|exps).
psmouse.rate= [HW,MOUSE] Set desired mouse report rate, in reports
per second.
psmouse.resetafter=
[HW,MOUSE] Try to reset the device after so many bad packets
(0 = never).
psmouse.resolution=
[HW,MOUSE] Set desired mouse resolution, in dpi.
psmouse.smartscroll=
[HW,MOUSE] Controls Logitech smartscroll autorepeat,
0 = disabled, 1 = enabled (default).
pss= [HW,OSS] Personal Sound System (ECHO ESC614)
Format: <io>,<mss_io>,<mss_irq>,<mss_dma>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>
pt. [PARIDE]
See Documentation/paride.txt.
quiet= [KNL] Disable log messages
r128= [HW,DRM]
raid= [HW,RAID]
See Documentation/md.txt.
ramdisk= [RAM] Sizes of RAM disks in kilobytes [deprecated]
See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
ramdisk_blocksize=
[RAM]
See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
ramdisk_size= [RAM] Sizes of RAM disks in kilobytes
New name for the ramdisk parameter.
See Documentation/ramdisk.txt.
reboot= [BUGS=IA-32,BUGS=ARM,BUGS=IA-64] Rebooting mode
Format: <reboot_mode>[,<reboot_mode2>[,...]]
See arch/*/kernel/reboot.c.
reserve= [KNL,BUGS] Force the kernel to ignore some iomem area
resume= [SWSUSP] Specify the partition device for software suspension
rhash_entries= [KNL,NET]
Set number of hash buckets for route cache
riscom8= [HW,SERIAL]
Format: <io_board1>[,<io_board2>[,...<io_boardN>]]
ro [KNL] Mount root device read-only on boot
root= [KNL] Root filesystem
rootdelay= [KNL] Delay (in seconds) to pause before attempting to
mount the root filesystem
rootflags= [KNL] Set root filesystem mount option string
rootfstype= [KNL] Set root filesystem type
rw [KNL] Mount root device read-write on boot
S [KNL] Run init in single mode
sa1100ir [NET]
See drivers/net/irda/sa1100_ir.c.
sb= [HW,OSS]
Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>
sbni= [NET] Granch SBNI12 leased line adapter
sbpcd= [HW,CD] Soundblaster CD adapter
Format: <io>,<type>
See a comment before function sbpcd_setup() in
drivers/cdrom/sbpcd.c.
sc1200wdt= [HW,WDT] SC1200 WDT (watchdog) driver
Format: <io>[,<timeout>[,<isapnp>]]
scsi_debug_*= [SCSI]
See drivers/scsi/scsi_debug.c.
scsi_default_dev_flags=
[SCSI] SCSI default device flags
Format: <integer>
scsi_dev_flags= [SCSI] Black/white list entry for vendor and model
Format: <vendor>:<model>:<flags>
(flags are integer value)
scsi_logging= [SCSI]
selinux [SELINUX] Disable or enable SELinux at boot time.
Format: { "0" | "1" }
See security/selinux/Kconfig help text.
0 -- disable.
1 -- enable.
Default value is set via kernel config option.
If enabled at boot time, /selinux/disable can be used
later to disable prior to initial policy load.
serialnumber [BUGS=IA-32]
sg_def_reserved_size=
[SCSI]
sgalaxy= [HW,OSS]
Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<sgbase>
shapers= [NET]
Maximal number of shapers.
sim710= [SCSI,HW]
See header of drivers/scsi/sim710.c.
simeth= [IA-64]
simscsi=
sjcd= [HW,CD]
Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>
See header of drivers/cdrom/sjcd.c.
slram= [HW,MTD]
smart2= [HW]
Format: <io1>[,<io2>[,...,<io8>]]
snd-ad1816a= [HW,ALSA]
snd-ad1848= [HW,ALSA]
snd-ali5451= [HW,ALSA]
snd-als100= [HW,ALSA]
snd-als4000= [HW,ALSA]
snd-azt2320= [HW,ALSA]
snd-cmi8330= [HW,ALSA]
snd-cmipci= [HW,ALSA]
snd-cs4231= [HW,ALSA]
snd-cs4232= [HW,ALSA]
snd-cs4236= [HW,ALSA]
snd-cs4281= [HW,ALSA]
snd-cs46xx= [HW,ALSA]
snd-dt019x= [HW,ALSA]
snd-dummy= [HW,ALSA]
snd-emu10k1= [HW,ALSA]
snd-ens1370= [HW,ALSA]
snd-ens1371= [HW,ALSA]
snd-es968= [HW,ALSA]
snd-es1688= [HW,ALSA]
snd-es18xx= [HW,ALSA]
snd-es1938= [HW,ALSA]
snd-es1968= [HW,ALSA]
snd-fm801= [HW,ALSA]
snd-gusclassic= [HW,ALSA]
snd-gusextreme= [HW,ALSA]
snd-gusmax= [HW,ALSA]
snd-hdsp= [HW,ALSA]
snd-ice1712= [HW,ALSA]
snd-intel8x0= [HW,ALSA]
snd-interwave= [HW,ALSA]
snd-interwave-stb=
[HW,ALSA]
snd-korg1212= [HW,ALSA]
snd-maestro3= [HW,ALSA]
snd-mpu401= [HW,ALSA]
snd-mtpav= [HW,ALSA]
snd-nm256= [HW,ALSA]
snd-opl3sa2= [HW,ALSA]
snd-opti92x-ad1848=
[HW,ALSA]
snd-opti92x-cs4231=
[HW,ALSA]
snd-opti93x= [HW,ALSA]
snd-pmac= [HW,ALSA]
snd-rme32= [HW,ALSA]
snd-rme96= [HW,ALSA]
snd-rme9652= [HW,ALSA]
snd-sb8= [HW,ALSA]
snd-sb16= [HW,ALSA]
snd-sbawe= [HW,ALSA]
snd-serial= [HW,ALSA]
snd-sgalaxy= [HW,ALSA]
snd-sonicvibes= [HW,ALSA]
snd-sun-amd7930=
[HW,ALSA]
snd-sun-cs4231= [HW,ALSA]
snd-trident= [HW,ALSA]
snd-usb-audio= [HW,ALSA,USB]
snd-via82xx= [HW,ALSA]
snd-virmidi= [HW,ALSA]
snd-wavefront= [HW,ALSA]
snd-ymfpci= [HW,ALSA]
sonicvibes= [HW,OSS]
Format: <reverb>
sonycd535= [HW,CD]
Format: <io>[,<irq>]
sonypi.*= [HW] Sony Programmable I/O Control Device driver
See Documentation/sonypi.txt
specialix= [HW,SERIAL] Specialix multi-serial port adapter
See Documentation/specialix.txt.
spia_io_base= [HW,MTD]
spia_fio_base=
spia_pedr=
spia_peddr=
sscape= [HW,OSS]
Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>
st= [HW,SCSI] SCSI tape parameters (buffers, etc.)
See Documentation/scsi/st.txt.
st0x= [HW,SCSI]
See header of drivers/scsi/seagate.c.
sti= [PARISC,HW]
Format: <num>
Set the STI (builtin display/keyboard on the HP-PARISC
machines) console (graphic card) which should be used
as the initial boot-console.
See also comment in drivers/video/console/sticore.c.
sti_font= [HW]
See comment in drivers/video/console/sticore.c.
stifb= [HW]
Format: bpp:<bpp1>[:<bpp2>[:<bpp3>...]]
stram_swap= [HW,M68k]
swiotlb= [IA-64] Number of I/O TLB slabs
switches= [HW,M68k]
sym53c416= [HW,SCSI]
See header of drivers/scsi/sym53c416.c.
t128= [HW,SCSI]
See header of drivers/scsi/t128.c.
tdfx= [HW,DRM]
thash_entries= [KNL,NET]
Set number of hash buckets for TCP connection
time Show timing data prefixed to each printk message line
tipar.timeout= [HW,PPT]
Set communications timeout in tenths of a second
(default 15).
tipar.delay= [HW,PPT]
Set inter-bit delay in microseconds (default 10).
tmc8xx= [HW,SCSI]
See header of drivers/scsi/seagate.c.
tmscsim= [HW,SCSI]
See comment before function dc390_setup() in
drivers/scsi/tmscsim.c.
tp720= [HW,PS2]
trix= [HW,OSS] MediaTrix AudioTrix Pro
Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>,<sb_io>,<sb_irq>,<sb_dma>,<mpu_io>,<mpu_irq>
tsdev.xres= [TS] Horizontal screen resolution.
tsdev.yres= [TS] Vertical screen resolution.
turbografx.map[2|3]=
[HW,JOY] TurboGraFX parallel port interface
Format: <port#>,<js1>,<js2>,<js3>,<js4>,<js5>,<js6>,<js7>
See also Documentation/input/joystick-parport.txt
u14-34f= [HW,SCSI] UltraStor 14F/34F SCSI host adapter
See header of drivers/scsi/u14-34f.c.
uart401= [HW,OSS]
Format: <io>,<irq>
uart6850= [HW,OSS]
Format: <io>,<irq>
usb-handoff [HW] Enable early USB BIOS -> OS handoff
usbhid.mousepoll=
[USBHID] The interval which mice are to be polled at.
video= [FB] Frame buffer configuration
See Documentation/fb/modedb.txt.
vga= [BOOT,IA-32] Select a particular video mode
See Documentation/i386/boot.txt and Documentation/svga.txt.
Use vga=ask for menu.
This is actually a boot loader parameter; the value is
passed to the kernel using a special protocol.
vmalloc=nn[KMG] [KNL,BOOT] forces the vmalloc area to have an exact
size of <nn>. This can be used to increase the
minimum size (128MB on x86). It can also be used to
decrease the size and leave more room for directly
mapped kernel RAM.
vmhalt= [KNL,S390]
vmpoff= [KNL,S390]
waveartist= [HW,OSS]
Format: <io>,<irq>,<dma>,<dma2>
wd33c93= [HW,SCSI]
See header of drivers/scsi/wd33c93.c.
wd7000= [HW,SCSI]
See header of drivers/scsi/wd7000.c.
wdt= [WDT] Watchdog
See Documentation/watchdog/watchdog.txt.
xd= [HW,XT] Original XT pre-IDE (RLL encoded) disks.
xd_geo= See header of drivers/block/xd.c.
xirc2ps_cs= [NET,PCMCIA]
Format: <irq>,<irq_mask>,<io>,<full_duplex>,<do_sound>,<lockup_hack>[,<irq2>[,<irq3>[,<irq4>]]]
- Changelog
The last known update (for 2.4.0) - the changelog was not kept before.
2000-06-?? Mr. Unknown
Update for 2.5.49, description for most of the options introduced,
references to other documentation (C files, READMEs, ..), added S390,
PPC, SPARC, MTD, ALSA and OSS category. Minor corrections and
reformatting.
2002-11-24 Petr Baudis <pasky@ucw.cz>
Randy Dunlap <randy.dunlap@verizon.net>
- TODO
Add documentation for ALSA options.
Add more DRM drivers.