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1 | .\" Copyright (c) 1995,1997 Paul Gortmaker and Andries Brouwer |
2 | .\" | |
3 | .\" This is free documentation; you can redistribute it and/or | |
4 | .\" modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as | |
5 | .\" published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of | |
6 | .\" the License, or (at your option) any later version. | |
7 | .\" | |
8 | .\" The GNU General Public License's references to "object code" | |
9 | .\" and "executables" are to be interpreted as the output of any | |
10 | .\" document formatting or typesetting system, including | |
11 | .\" intermediate and printed output. | |
12 | .\" | |
13 | .\" This manual is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, | |
14 | .\" but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of | |
15 | .\" MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the | |
16 | .\" GNU General Public License for more details. | |
17 | .\" | |
18 | .\" You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public | |
19 | .\" License along with this manual; if not, write to the Free | |
20 | .\" Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111, | |
21 | .\" USA. | |
22 | .\" | |
23 | .\" This man page written 950814 by aeb, based on Paul Gortmaker's HOWTO | |
24 | .\" (dated v1.0.1, 15/08/95). | |
25 | .\" Major update, aeb, 970114. | |
26 | .\" | |
d9343c5c | 27 | .TH BOOTPARAM 7 1995-01-14 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual" |
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28 | .SH NAME |
29 | bootparam \- Introduction to boot time parameters of the Linux kernel | |
30 | .SH DESCRIPTION | |
31 | The Linux kernel accepts certain `command line options' or `boot time | |
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32 | parameters' at the moment it is started. |
33 | In general this is used to | |
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34 | supply the kernel with information about hardware parameters that |
35 | the kernel would not be able to determine on its own, or to avoid/override | |
36 | the values that the kernel would otherwise detect. | |
37 | ||
38 | When the kernel is booted directly by the BIOS (say from a floppy to | |
39 | which you copied a kernel using `cp zImage /dev/fd0'), | |
40 | you have no opportunity to specify any parameters. | |
41 | So, in order to take advantage of this possibility you have to | |
42 | use software that is able to pass parameters, like LILO or loadlin. | |
43 | For a few parameters one can also modify the kernel image itself, | |
44 | using rdev, see | |
45 | .BR rdev (8) | |
46 | for further details. | |
47 | ||
48 | The LILO program (LInux LOader) written by Werner Almesberger is the | |
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49 | most commonly used. |
50 | It has the ability to boot various kernels, and | |
51 | stores the configuration information in a plain text file. | |
52 | (See | |
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53 | .BR lilo (8) |
54 | and | |
55 | .BR lilo.conf (5).) | |
56 | LILO can boot DOS, OS/2, Linux, FreeBSD, UnixWare, etc., and is quite flexible. | |
57 | ||
58 | The other commonly used Linux loader is `LoadLin' which is a DOS | |
59 | program that has the capability to launch a Linux kernel from the DOS | |
60 | prompt (with boot-args) assuming that certain resources are available. | |
61 | This is good for people that want to launch Linux from DOS. | |
62 | ||
63 | It is also very useful if you have certain hardware which relies on | |
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64 | the supplied DOS driver to put the hardware into a known state. |
65 | A common example is `SoundBlaster Compatible' sound cards that require | |
fea681da | 66 | the DOS driver to twiddle a few mystical registers to put the card |
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67 | into a SB compatible mode. |
68 | Booting DOS with the supplied driver, and | |
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69 | then loading Linux from the DOS prompt with loadlin avoids the reset |
70 | of the card that happens if one rebooted instead. | |
fea681da | 71 | .SH "THE ARGUMENT LIST" |
fea681da | 72 | The kernel command line is parsed into a list of strings |
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73 | (boot arguments) separated by spaces. |
74 | Most of the boot args take the form of: | |
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75 | .IP |
76 | name[=value_1][,value_2]...[,value_10] | |
77 | .LP | |
78 | where `name' is a unique keyword that is used to identify what part of | |
79 | the kernel the associated values (if any) are to be given to. | |
80 | Note the limit of 10 is real, as the present code only handles 10 comma | |
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81 | separated parameters per keyword. |
82 | (However, you can re-use the same | |
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83 | keyword with up to an additional 10 parameters in unusually |
84 | complicated situations, assuming the setup function supports it.) | |
85 | ||
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86 | Most of the sorting goes on in linux/init/main.c. |
87 | First, the kernel | |
fea681da | 88 | checks to see if the argument is any of the special arguments `root=', |
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89 | `nfsroot=', `nfsaddrs=', `ro', `rw', `debug' or `init'. |
90 | The meaning of these special arguments is described below. | |
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91 | |
92 | Then it walks a list of setup functions (contained in the bootsetups | |
93 | array) to see if the specified argument string (such as `foo') has | |
94 | been associated with a setup function (`foo_setup()') for a particular | |
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95 | device or part of the kernel. |
96 | If you passed the kernel the line | |
fea681da | 97 | foo=3,4,5,6 then the kernel would search the bootsetups array to see |
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98 | if `foo' was registered. |
99 | If it was, then it would call the setup | |
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100 | function associated with `foo' (foo_setup()) and hand it the arguments |
101 | 3, 4, 5 and 6 as given on the kernel command line. | |
102 | ||
103 | Anything of the form `foo=bar' that is not accepted as a setup function | |
104 | as described above is then interpreted as an environment variable to | |
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105 | be set. |
106 | A (useless?) example would be to use `TERM=vt100' as a boot | |
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107 | argument. |
108 | ||
109 | Any remaining arguments that were not picked up by the kernel and were | |
110 | not interpreted as environment variables are then passed onto process | |
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111 | one, which is usually the init program. |
112 | The most common argument that | |
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113 | is passed to the init process is the word `single' which instructs init |
114 | to boot the computer in single user mode, and not launch all the usual | |
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115 | daemons. |
116 | Check the manual page for the version of init installed on | |
fea681da | 117 | your system to see what arguments it accepts. |
fea681da | 118 | .SH "GENERAL NON-DEVICE SPECIFIC BOOT ARGS" |
fea681da | 119 | .SS "`init=...'" |
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120 | This sets the initial command to be executed by the kernel. |
121 | If this is not set, or cannot be found, the kernel will try | |
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122 | .IR /sbin/init , |
123 | then | |
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124 | .IR /etc/init , |
125 | then | |
126 | .IR /bin/init , | |
127 | then | |
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128 | .IR /bin/sh |
129 | and panic if all of this fails. | |
fea681da | 130 | .SS "`nfsaddrs=...'" |
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131 | This sets the nfs boot address to the given string. |
132 | This boot address is used in case of a net boot. | |
fea681da | 133 | .SS "`nfsroot=...'" |
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134 | This sets the nfs root name to the given string. |
135 | If this string | |
fea681da | 136 | does not begin with '/' or ',' or a digit, then it is prefixed by |
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137 | `/tftpboot/'. |
138 | This root name is used in case of a net boot. | |
fea681da | 139 | .SS "`no387'" |
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140 | (Only when CONFIG_BUGi386 is defined.) |
141 | Some i387 coprocessor chips have bugs that show up when used in 32 bit | |
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142 | protected mode. |
143 | For example, some of the early ULSI-387 chips would | |
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144 | cause solid lockups while performing floating point calculations. |
145 | Using the `no387' boot arg causes Linux to ignore the maths | |
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146 | coprocessor even if you have one. |
147 | Of course you must then have your | |
fea681da | 148 | kernel compiled with math emulation support! |
fea681da | 149 | .SS "`no-hlt'" |
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150 | (Only when CONFIG_BUGi386 is defined.) |
151 | Some of the early i486DX-100 chips have a problem with the `hlt' | |
152 | instruction, in that they can't reliably return to operating mode | |
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153 | after this instruction is used. |
154 | Using the `no-hlt' instruction tells | |
fea681da | 155 | Linux to just run an infinite loop when there is nothing else to do, |
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156 | and to not halt the CPU. |
157 | This allows people with these broken chips | |
fea681da | 158 | to use Linux. |
fea681da | 159 | .SS "`root=...'" |
fea681da | 160 | This argument tells the kernel what device is to be used as the root |
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161 | filesystem while booting. |
162 | The default of this setting is determined | |
fea681da | 163 | at compile time, and usually is the value of the root device of the |
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164 | system that the kernel was built on. |
165 | To override this value, and | |
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166 | select the second floppy drive as the root device, one would |
167 | use `root=/dev/fd1'. (The root device can also be set using | |
168 | .BR rdev (8).) | |
169 | ||
170 | The root device can be specified symbolically or numerically. | |
171 | A symbolic specification has the form /dev/XXYN, where XX designates | |
172 | the device type (`hd' for ST-506 compatible hard disk, with Y in | |
173 | `a'-`d'; `sd' for SCSI compatible disk, with Y in `a'-`e'; | |
174 | `ad' for Atari ACSI disk, with Y in `a'-`e', | |
175 | `ez' for a Syquest EZ135 parallel port removable drive, with Y=`a', | |
176 | `xd' for XT compatible disk, with Y either `a' or `b'; `fd' for | |
4d9b6984 | 177 | floppy disk, with Y the floppy drive number \(em fd0 would be |
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178 | the DOS `A:' drive, and fd1 would be `B:'), Y the driver letter or |
179 | number, and N the number (in decimal) of the partition on this device | |
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180 | (absent in the case of floppies). |
181 | Recent kernels allow many other | |
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182 | types, mostly for CD-ROMs: nfs, ram, scd, mcd, cdu535, aztcd, cm206cd, |
183 | gscd, sbpcd, sonycd, bpcd. | |
184 | (The type nfs specifies a net boot; ram refers to a ram disk.) | |
185 | ||
186 | Note that this has nothing to do with the designation of these | |
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187 | devices on your file system. |
188 | The `/dev/' part is purely conventional. | |
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189 | |
190 | The more awkward and less portable numeric specification of the above | |
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191 | possible root devices in major/minor format is also accepted. |
192 | (E.g., /dev/sda3 is major 8, minor 3, so you could use `root=0x803' as an | |
fea681da | 193 | alternative.) |
fea681da | 194 | .SS "`ro' and `rw'" |
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195 | The `ro' option tells the kernel to mount the root filesystem |
196 | as `readonly' so that filesystem consistency check programs (fsck) | |
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197 | can do their work on a quiescent file system. |
198 | No processes can | |
fea681da | 199 | write to files on the filesystem in question until it is `remounted' |
4d9b6984 | 200 | as read/write capable, e.g., by `mount \-w \-n \-o remount /'. |
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201 | (See also |
202 | .BR mount (8).) | |
203 | ||
204 | The `rw' option tells the kernel to mount the root filesystem read/write. | |
205 | This is the default. | |
206 | ||
207 | The choice between read-only and read/write can also be set using | |
208 | .BR rdev (8). | |
fea681da | 209 | .SS "`reserve=...'" |
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210 | This is used to protect I/O port regions from probes. |
211 | The form of the command is: | |
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212 | .IP |
213 | .BI reserve= iobase,extent[,iobase,extent]... | |
214 | .LP | |
215 | In some machines it may be necessary to prevent device drivers from | |
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216 | checking for devices (auto-probing) in a specific region. |
217 | This may be | |
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218 | because of hardware that reacts badly to the probing, or hardware |
219 | that would be mistakenly identified, or merely | |
220 | hardware you don't want the kernel to initialize. | |
221 | ||
222 | The reserve boot-time argument specifies an I/O port region that | |
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223 | shouldn't be probed. |
224 | A device driver will not probe a reserved region, | |
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225 | unless another boot argument explicitly specifies that it do so. |
226 | ||
227 | For example, the boot line | |
228 | .IP | |
229 | reserve=0x300,32 blah=0x300 | |
230 | .LP | |
231 | keeps all device drivers except the driver for `blah' from probing | |
232 | 0x300-0x31f. | |
fea681da | 233 | .SS "`mem=...'" |
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234 | The BIOS call defined in the PC specification that returns |
235 | the amount of installed memory was only designed to be able | |
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236 | to report up to 64MB. |
237 | Linux uses this BIOS call at boot to | |
238 | determine how much memory is installed. | |
239 | If you have more than 64MB of | |
fea681da | 240 | RAM installed, you can use this boot arg to tell Linux how much memory |
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241 | you have. |
242 | The value is in decimal or hexadecimal (prefix 0x), | |
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243 | and the suffixes `k' (times 1024) or `M' (times 1048576) can be used. |
244 | Here is a quote from Linus on usage of the `mem=' parameter. | |
245 | ||
246 | \&``The kernel will accept any `mem=xx' parameter you give it, and if it | |
247 | turns out that you lied to it, it will crash horribly sooner or later. | |
248 | The parameter indicates the highest addressable RAM address, so | |
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249 | \&`mem=0x1000000' means you have 16MB of memory, for example. |
250 | For a 96MB machine this would be `mem=0x6000000'. | |
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251 | |
252 | NOTE NOTE NOTE: some machines might use the top of memory for BIOS | |
4f9d18f8 | 253 | caching or whatever, so you might not actually have up to the full |
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254 | 96MB addressable. |
255 | The reverse is also true: some chipsets will map | |
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256 | the physical memory that is covered by the BIOS area into the area |
257 | just past the top of memory, so the top-of-mem might actually be 96MB | |
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258 | + 384kB for example. |
259 | If you tell linux that it has more memory than | |
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260 | it actually does have, bad things will happen: maybe not at once, but |
261 | surely eventually.'' | |
262 | ||
441082ad | 263 | You can also use the boot argument `mem=nopentium' to turn off 4 MB |
eb1af896 | 264 | page tables on kernels configured for IA32 systems with a pentium or newer |
441082ad | 265 | CPU. |
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266 | .SS "`panic=N'" |
267 | By default the kernel will not reboot after a panic, but this option | |
268 | will cause a kernel reboot after N seconds (if N > 0). | |
269 | This panic timeout can also be set by "echo N > /proc/sys/kernel/panic". | |
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270 | .SS "`reboot=[warm|cold][,[bios|hard]]'" |
271 | (Only when CONFIG_BUGi386 is defined.) | |
272 | Since 2.0.22 a reboot is by default a cold reboot. | |
273 | One asks for the old default with `reboot=warm'. | |
274 | (A cold reboot may be required to reset certain hardware, | |
275 | but might destroy not yet written data in a disk cache. | |
276 | A warm reboot may be faster.) | |
277 | By default a reboot is hard, by asking the keyboard controller | |
278 | to pulse the reset line low, but there is at least one type | |
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279 | of motherboard where that doesn't work. |
280 | The option `reboot=bios' will | |
fea681da | 281 | instead jump through the BIOS. |
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282 | .SS "`nosmp'" and "`maxcpus=N'" |
283 | (Only when __SMP__ is defined.) | |
284 | A command-line option of `nosmp' or `maxcpus=0' will disable SMP | |
285 | activation entirely; an option `maxcpus=N' limits the maximum number | |
286 | of CPUs activated in SMP mode to N. | |
fea681da | 287 | .SH "BOOT ARGUMENTS FOR USE BY KERNEL DEVELOPERS" |
fea681da | 288 | .SS "`debug'" |
fea681da | 289 | Kernel messages are handed off to the kernel log daemon klogd so that they |
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290 | may be logged to disk. |
291 | Messages with a priority above | |
fea681da | 292 | .I console_loglevel |
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293 | are also printed on the console. |
294 | (For these levels, see <linux/kernel.h>.) | |
fea681da | 295 | By default this variable is set to log anything more important than |
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296 | debug messages. |
297 | This boot argument will cause the kernel to also | |
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298 | print the messages of DEBUG priority. |
299 | The console loglevel can also be set at run time via an option | |
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300 | to klogd. |
301 | See | |
fea681da | 302 | .BR klogd (8). |
fea681da | 303 | .SS "`profile=N'" |
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304 | It is possible to enable a kernel profiling function, |
305 | if one wishes to find out where the kernel is spending its CPU cycles. | |
306 | Profiling is enabled by setting the variable | |
307 | .I prof_shift | |
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308 | to a non-zero value. |
309 | This is done either by specifying CONFIG_PROFILE at | |
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310 | compile time, or by giving the `profile=' option. |
311 | Now the value that | |
312 | .I prof_shift | |
313 | gets will be N, when given, or CONFIG_PROFILE_SHIFT, when that is given, | |
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314 | or 2, the default. |
315 | The significance of this variable is that it | |
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316 | gives the granularity of the profiling: each clock tick, if the |
317 | system was executing kernel code, a counter is incremented: | |
318 | .IP | |
319 | profile[address >> prof_shift]++; | |
320 | .LP | |
321 | The raw profiling information can be read from | |
322 | .IR /proc/profile . | |
323 | Probably you'll want to use a tool such as readprofile.c to digest it. | |
324 | Writing to | |
325 | .I /proc/profile | |
326 | will clear the counters. | |
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327 | .SS "`swap=N1,N2,N3,N4,N5,N6,N7,N8'" |
328 | Set the eight parameters max_page_age, page_advance, page_decline, | |
329 | page_initial_age, age_cluster_fract, age_cluster_min, pageout_weight, | |
330 | bufferout_weight that control the kernel swap algorithm. | |
331 | For kernel tuners only. | |
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332 | .SS "`buff=N1,N2,N3,N4,N5,N6'" |
333 | Set the six parameters max_buff_age, buff_advance, buff_decline, | |
334 | buff_initial_age, bufferout_weight, buffermem_grace that control | |
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335 | kernel buffer memory management. |
336 | For kernel tuners only. | |
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337 | .SH "BOOT ARGUMENTS FOR RAMDISK USE" |
338 | (Only if the kernel was compiled with CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM.) | |
8c383102 | 339 | In general it is a bad idea to use a ramdisk under Linux \(em |
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340 | the system will use available memory more efficiently itself. |
341 | But while booting (or while constructing boot floppies) | |
342 | it is often useful to load the floppy contents into a | |
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343 | ramdisk. |
344 | One might also have a system in which first | |
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345 | some modules (for filesystem or hardware) must be loaded |
346 | before the main disk can be accessed. | |
347 | ||
348 | In Linux 1.3.48, ramdisk handling was changed drastically. | |
349 | Earlier, the memory was allocated statically, and there was | |
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350 | a `ramdisk=N' parameter to tell its size. |
351 | (This could also | |
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352 | be set in the kernel image at compile time, or by use of |
353 | .BR rdev (8).) | |
354 | These days ram disks use the buffer cache, and grow dynamically. | |
355 | For a lot of information (e.g., how to use | |
356 | .BR rdev (8) | |
357 | in conjunction with the new ramdisk setup), see | |
358 | .IR /usr/src/linux/Documentation/ramdisk.txt . | |
359 | ||
360 | There are four parameters, two boolean and two integral. | |
fea681da | 361 | .SS "`load_ramdisk=N'" |
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362 | If N=1, do load a ramdisk. |
363 | If N=0, do not load a ramdisk. | |
fea681da | 364 | (This is the default.) |
fea681da | 365 | .SS "`prompt_ramdisk=N'" |
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366 | If N=1, do prompt for insertion of the floppy. |
367 | (This is the default.) | |
368 | If N=0, do not prompt. | |
369 | (Thus, this parameter is never needed.) | |
c10859eb | 370 | .SS "`ramdisk_size=N' or (obsolete) `ramdisk=N'" |
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371 | Set the maximal size of the ramdisk(s) to N kB. |
372 | The default is 4096 (4 MB). | |
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373 | .SS "`ramdisk_start=N'" |
374 | Sets the starting block number (the offset on the floppy where | |
375 | the ramdisk starts) to N. | |
376 | This is needed in case the ramdisk follows a kernel image. | |
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377 | .SS "`noinitrd'" |
378 | (Only if the kernel was compiled with CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM | |
379 | and CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD.) | |
380 | These days it is possible to compile the kernel to use initrd. | |
381 | When this feature is enabled, the boot process will load the kernel | |
382 | and an initial ramdisk; then the kernel converts initrd into | |
383 | a "normal" ramdisk, which is mounted read-write as root device; | |
384 | then /linuxrc is executed; afterwards the "real" root file system is mounted, | |
385 | and the initrd filesystem is moved over to /initrd; finally | |
386 | the usual boot sequence (e.g. invocation of /sbin/init) is performed. | |
387 | ||
388 | For a detailed description of the initrd feature, see | |
389 | .IR /usr/src/linux/Documentation/initrd.txt . | |
390 | ||
391 | The `noinitrd' option tells the kernel that although it was compiled for | |
392 | operation with initrd, it should not go through the above steps, but | |
393 | leave the initrd data under | |
394 | .IR /dev/initrd . | |
4d9b6984 | 395 | (This device can be used only once: the data is freed as soon as |
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396 | the last process that used it has closed |
397 | .IR /dev/initrd .) | |
fea681da | 398 | .SH "BOOT ARGUMENTS FOR SCSI DEVICES" |
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399 | General notation for this section: |
400 | ||
401 | .I iobase | |
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402 | -- the first I/O port that the SCSI host occupies. |
403 | These are specified in hexadecimal notation, | |
404 | and usually lie in the range from 0x200 to 0x3ff. | |
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405 | |
406 | .I irq | |
407 | -- the hardware interrupt that the card is configured to use. | |
408 | Valid values will be dependent on the card in question, but will | |
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409 | usually be 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 15. |
410 | The other values are usually | |
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411 | used for common peripherals like IDE hard disks, floppies, serial |
412 | ports, etc. | |
413 | ||
414 | .I scsi-id | |
415 | -- the ID that the host adapter uses to identify itself on the | |
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416 | SCSI bus. |
417 | Only some host adapters allow you to change this value, as | |
418 | most have it permanently specified internally. | |
419 | The usual default value | |
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420 | is 7, but the Seagate and Future Domain TMC-950 boards use 6. |
421 | ||
422 | .I parity | |
423 | -- whether the SCSI host adapter expects the attached devices | |
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424 | to supply a parity value with all information exchanges. |
425 | Specifying a one indicates parity checking is enabled, | |
426 | and a zero disables parity checking. | |
427 | Again, not all adapters will support selection of parity | |
d9bfdb9c | 428 | behavior as a boot argument. |
fea681da | 429 | .SS "`max_scsi_luns=...'" |
fea681da | 430 | A SCSI device can have a number of `sub-devices' contained within |
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431 | itself. |
432 | The most common example is one of the new SCSI CD-ROMs that | |
433 | handle more than one disk at a time. | |
434 | Each CD is addressed as a | |
435 | `Logical Unit Number' (LUN) of that particular device. | |
436 | But most | |
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437 | devices, such as hard disks, tape drives and such are only one device, |
438 | and will be assigned to LUN zero. | |
439 | ||
440 | Some poorly designed SCSI devices cannot handle being probed for | |
c13182ef MK |
441 | LUNs not equal to zero. |
442 | Therefore, if the compile time flag | |
fea681da MK |
443 | CONFIG_SCSI_MULTI_LUN is not set, newer kernels will by default |
444 | only probe LUN zero. | |
445 | ||
446 | To specify the number of probed LUNs at boot, one enters | |
447 | `max_scsi_luns=n' as a boot arg, where n is a number between one and | |
c13182ef MK |
448 | eight. |
449 | To avoid problems as described above, one would use n=1 to | |
fea681da | 450 | avoid upsetting such broken devices. |
fea681da | 451 | .SS "SCSI tape configuration" |
fea681da MK |
452 | Some boot time configuration of the SCSI tape driver can be achieved |
453 | by using the following: | |
454 | .IP | |
455 | .BI st= buf_size[,write_threshold[,max_bufs]] | |
456 | .LP | |
c13182ef MK |
457 | The first two numbers are specified in units of kB. |
458 | The default | |
fea681da MK |
459 | .I buf_size |
460 | is 32kB, and the maximum size that can be specified is a | |
c13182ef MK |
461 | ridiculous 16384kB. |
462 | The | |
fea681da MK |
463 | .I write_threshold |
464 | is the value at which the buffer is committed to tape, with a | |
c13182ef MK |
465 | default value of 30kB. |
466 | The maximum number of buffers varies | |
fea681da MK |
467 | with the number of drives detected, and has a default of two. |
468 | An example usage would be: | |
469 | .IP | |
470 | st=32,30,2 | |
471 | .LP | |
472 | Full details can be found in the README.st file that is in the scsi | |
473 | directory of the kernel source tree. | |
fea681da | 474 | .SS "Adaptec aha151x, aha152x, aic6260, aic6360, SB16-SCSI configuration" |
fea681da MK |
475 | The aha numbers refer to cards and the aic numbers refer to the actual |
476 | SCSI chip on these type of cards, including the Soundblaster-16 SCSI. | |
477 | ||
478 | The probe code for these SCSI hosts looks for an installed BIOS, and | |
c13182ef MK |
479 | if none is present, the probe will not find your card. |
480 | Then you will | |
fea681da MK |
481 | have to use a boot arg of the form: |
482 | .IP | |
483 | .BI aha152x= iobase[,irq[,scsi-id[,reconnect[,parity]]]] | |
484 | .LP | |
485 | If the driver was compiled with debugging enabled, a sixth | |
486 | value can be specified to set the debug level. | |
487 | ||
488 | All the parameters are as described at the top of this section, and the | |
489 | .I reconnect | |
490 | value will allow device disconnect/reconnect if a non-zero value | |
c13182ef MK |
491 | is used. |
492 | An example usage is as follows: | |
fea681da MK |
493 | .IP |
494 | aha152x=0x340,11,7,1 | |
495 | .LP | |
496 | Note that the parameters must be specified in order, meaning that if | |
497 | you want to specify a parity setting, then you will have to specify an | |
498 | iobase, irq, scsi-id and reconnect value as well. | |
fea681da | 499 | .SS "Adaptec aha154x configuration" |
fea681da | 500 | The aha1542 series cards have an i82077 floppy controller onboard, |
c13182ef MK |
501 | while the aha1540 series cards do not. |
502 | These are busmastering cards, | |
fea681da | 503 | and have parameters to set the ``fairness'' that is used to share |
c13182ef MK |
504 | the bus with other devices. |
505 | The boot arg looks like the following. | |
fea681da MK |
506 | .IP |
507 | .BI aha1542= iobase[,buson,busoff[,dmaspeed]] | |
508 | .LP | |
509 | Valid iobase values are usually one of: 0x130, 0x134, 0x230, 0x234, | |
c13182ef MK |
510 | 0x330, 0x334. |
511 | Clone cards may permit other values. | |
fea681da MK |
512 | |
513 | The | |
514 | .IR buson ", " busoff | |
515 | values refer to the number of microseconds that the | |
c13182ef MK |
516 | card dominates the ISA bus. |
517 | The defaults are 11us on, and 4us off, so | |
fea681da MK |
518 | that other cards (such as an ISA LANCE Ethernet card) have a chance to |
519 | get access to the ISA bus. | |
520 | ||
521 | The | |
522 | .I dmaspeed | |
523 | value refers to the rate (in MB/s) at which the DMA | |
c13182ef MK |
524 | (Direct Memory Access) transfers proceed. |
525 | The default is 5MB/s. | |
fea681da | 526 | Newer revision cards allow you to select this value as part of the |
c13182ef MK |
527 | soft-configuration, older cards use jumpers. |
528 | You can use values up to | |
fea681da MK |
529 | 10MB/s assuming that your motherboard is capable of handling it. |
530 | Experiment with caution if using values over 5MB/s. | |
fea681da | 531 | .SS "Adaptec aha274x, aha284x, aic7xxx configuration" |
fea681da MK |
532 | These boards can accept an argument of the form: |
533 | .IP | |
534 | .BI aic7xxx= extended,no_reset | |
535 | .LP | |
536 | The | |
537 | .I extended | |
538 | value, if non-zero, indicates that extended translation for large | |
c13182ef MK |
539 | disks is enabled. |
540 | The | |
fea681da MK |
541 | .I no_reset |
542 | value, if non-zero, tells the driver not to reset the SCSI bus when | |
d89be9f3 | 543 | setting up the host adapter at boot. |
fea681da | 544 | .SS "AdvanSys SCSI Hosts configuration (`advansys=')" |
fea681da | 545 | The AdvanSys driver can accept up to four i/o addresses that will be |
c13182ef MK |
546 | probed for an AdvanSys SCSI card. |
547 | Note that these values (if used) do | |
548 | not effect EISA or PCI probing in any way. | |
549 | They are only used for | |
550 | probing ISA and VLB cards. | |
551 | In addition, if the driver has been | |
fea681da | 552 | compiled with debugging enabled, the level of debugging output can be |
c13182ef MK |
553 | set by adding an 0xdeb[0-f] parameter. |
554 | The 0-f allows setting the | |
fea681da | 555 | level of the debugging messages to any of 16 levels of verbosity. |
fea681da MK |
556 | .SS "AM53C974" |
557 | .IP | |
558 | .BI AM53C974= host-scsi-id,target-scsi-id,max-rate,max-offset | |
fea681da MK |
559 | .SS "BusLogic SCSI Hosts configuration (`BusLogic=')" |
560 | .IP | |
561 | .BI BusLogic= N1,N2,N3,N4,N5,S1,S2,... | |
562 | .LP | |
563 | For an extensive discussion of the BusLogic command line parameters, | |
564 | see | |
565 | .IR /usr/src/linux/drivers/scsi/BusLogic.c | |
c13182ef MK |
566 | (lines 3149-3270 in the kernel version I am looking at). |
567 | The text | |
fea681da MK |
568 | below is a very much abbreviated extract. |
569 | ||
c13182ef MK |
570 | The parameters N1-N5 are integers. |
571 | The parameters S1,... are strings. | |
fea681da MK |
572 | N1 is the I/O Address at which the Host Adapter is located. |
573 | N2 is the Tagged Queue Depth to use for Target Devices that support | |
574 | Tagged Queuing. | |
c13182ef MK |
575 | N3 is the Bus Settle Time in seconds. |
576 | This is the amount of time | |
fea681da MK |
577 | to wait between a Host Adapter Hard Reset which |
578 | initiates a SCSI Bus Reset and issuing any SCSI Commands. | |
579 | N4 is the Local Options (for one Host Adapter). | |
580 | N5 is the Global Options (for all Host Adapters). | |
581 | ||
582 | The string options are used to provide control over Tagged Queuing | |
583 | (TQ:Default, TQ:Enable, TQ:Disable, TQ:<Per-Target-Spec>), over | |
584 | Error Recovery (ER:Default, ER:HardReset, ER:BusDeviceReset, | |
585 | ER:None, ER:<Per-Target-Spec>), and over Host Adapter Probing | |
586 | (NoProbe, NoProbeISA, NoSortPCI). | |
fea681da MK |
587 | .SS "EATA/DMA configuration" |
588 | The default list of i/o ports to be probed can be changed by | |
589 | .IP | |
590 | .BI eata= iobase,iobase,... . | |
fea681da MK |
591 | .SS "Future Domain TMC-16x0 configuration" |
592 | .IP | |
593 | .BI fdomain= iobase,irq[,adapter_id] | |
fea681da MK |
594 | .SS "Great Valley Products (GVP) SCSI controller configuration" |
595 | .IP | |
596 | .BI gvp11= dma_transfer_bitmask | |
fea681da MK |
597 | .SS "Future Domain TMC-8xx, TMC-950 configuration" |
598 | .IP | |
599 | .BI tmc8xx= mem_base,irq | |
600 | .LP | |
601 | The | |
602 | .I mem_base | |
603 | value is the value of the memory mapped I/O region that | |
c13182ef MK |
604 | the card uses. |
605 | This will usually be one of the following values: | |
fea681da | 606 | 0xc8000, 0xca000, 0xcc000, 0xce000, 0xdc000, 0xde000. |
fea681da MK |
607 | .SS "IN2000 configuration" |
608 | .IP | |
609 | .BI in2000= S | |
610 | .LP | |
611 | where S is a comma-separated string of items keyword[:value]. | |
612 | Recognized keywords (possibly with value) are: | |
613 | ioport:addr, noreset, nosync:x, period:ns, disconnect:x, | |
c13182ef MK |
614 | debug:x, proc:x. |
615 | For the function of these parameters, see | |
fea681da | 616 | .IR /usr/src/linux/drivers/scsi/in2000.c . |
fea681da MK |
617 | .SS "NCR5380 and NCR53C400 configuration" |
618 | The boot arg is of the form | |
619 | .IP | |
620 | .BI ncr5380= iobase,irq,dma | |
621 | .LP | |
622 | or | |
623 | .IP | |
624 | .BI ncr53c400= iobase,irq | |
625 | .LP | |
626 | If the card doesn't use interrupts, then an IRQ value of 255 (0xff) will | |
c13182ef MK |
627 | disable interrupts. |
628 | An IRQ value of 254 means to autoprobe. | |
629 | More | |
fea681da MK |
630 | details can be found in the file |
631 | .IR /usr/src/linux/drivers/scsi/README.g_NCR5380 . | |
fea681da MK |
632 | .SS "NCR53C8xx configuration" |
633 | .IP | |
634 | .BI ncr53c8xx= S | |
635 | .LP | |
636 | where S is a comma-separated string of items keyword:value. | |
637 | Recognized keywords are: mpar (master_parity), spar (scsi_parity), | |
638 | disc (disconnection), specf (special_features), ultra (ultra_scsi), | |
639 | fsn (force_sync_nego), tags (default_tags), sync (default_sync), | |
640 | verb (verbose), debug (debug), burst (burst_max). | |
641 | For the function of the assigned values, see | |
642 | .IR /usr/src/linux/drivers/scsi/ncr53c8xx.c . | |
fea681da MK |
643 | .SS "NCR53c406a configuration" |
644 | .IP | |
645 | .BI ncr53c406a= iobase[,irq[,fastpio]] | |
646 | .LP | |
647 | Specify irq = 0 for non-interrupt driven mode. | |
648 | Set fastpio = 1 for fast pio mode, 0 for slow mode. | |
fea681da | 649 | .SS "Pro Audio Spectrum configuration" |
fea681da | 650 | The PAS16 uses a NC5380 SCSI chip, and newer models support |
c13182ef MK |
651 | jumperless configuration. |
652 | The boot arg is of the form: | |
fea681da MK |
653 | .IP |
654 | .BI pas16= iobase,irq | |
655 | .LP | |
656 | The only difference is that you can specify an IRQ value of 255, which | |
657 | will tell the driver to work without using interrupts, albeit at a | |
c13182ef MK |
658 | performance loss. |
659 | The iobase is usually 0x388. | |
fea681da | 660 | .SS "Seagate ST-0x configuration" |
fea681da MK |
661 | If your card is not detected at boot time, |
662 | you will then have to use a boot arg of the form: | |
663 | .IP | |
664 | .BI st0x= mem_base,irq | |
665 | .LP | |
666 | The | |
667 | .I mem_base | |
668 | value is the value of the memory mapped I/O region that | |
c13182ef MK |
669 | the card uses. |
670 | This will usually be one of the following values: | |
fea681da | 671 | 0xc8000, 0xca000, 0xcc000, 0xce000, 0xdc000, 0xde000. |
fea681da | 672 | .SS "Trantor T128 configuration" |
fea681da MK |
673 | These cards are also based on the NCR5380 chip, and accept the |
674 | following options: | |
675 | .IP | |
676 | .BI t128= mem_base,irq | |
677 | .LP | |
678 | The valid values for | |
679 | .I mem_base | |
680 | are as follows: 0xcc000, 0xc8000, 0xdc000, 0xd8000. | |
fea681da MK |
681 | .SS "UltraStor 14F/34F configuration" |
682 | The default list of i/o ports to be probed can be changed by | |
683 | .IP | |
684 | .BI eata= iobase,iobase,... . | |
fea681da MK |
685 | .SS "WD7000 configuration" |
686 | .IP | |
687 | .BI wd7000= irq,dma,iobase | |
fea681da MK |
688 | .SS "Commodore Amiga A2091/590 SCSI controller configuration" |
689 | .IP | |
690 | .BI wd33c93= S | |
691 | .LP | |
c13182ef MK |
692 | where S is a comma-separated string of options. |
693 | Recognized options are | |
fea681da | 694 | nosync:bitmask, nodma:x, period:ns, disconnect:x, debug:x, |
c13182ef MK |
695 | clock:x, next. |
696 | For details, see | |
fea681da | 697 | .IR /usr/src/linux/drivers/scsi/wd33c93.c . |
fea681da | 698 | .SH "HARD DISKS" |
fea681da | 699 | .SS "IDE Disk/CD-ROM Driver Parameters" |
fea681da | 700 | The IDE driver accepts a number of parameters, which range from disk |
c13182ef MK |
701 | geometry specifications, to support for broken controller chips. |
702 | Drive specific options are specified by using `hdX=' with X in `a'-`h'. | |
fea681da | 703 | |
c13182ef MK |
704 | Non-drive specific options are specified with the prefix `hd='. |
705 | Note that using a drive specific prefix for a non-drive specific option | |
fea681da MK |
706 | will still work, and the option will just be applied as expected. |
707 | ||
708 | Also note that `hd=' can be used to refer to the next unspecified | |
c13182ef MK |
709 | drive in the (a, ..., h) sequence. |
710 | For the following discussions, | |
711 | the `hd=' option will be cited for brevity. | |
712 | See the file | |
fea681da | 713 | README.ide in linux/drivers/block for more details. |
fea681da | 714 | .SS "The `hd=cyls,heads,sects[,wpcom[,irq]]' options" |
fea681da | 715 | These options are used to specify the physical geometry of the disk. |
c13182ef MK |
716 | Only the first three values are required. |
717 | The cylinder/head/sectors | |
718 | values will be those used by fdisk. | |
719 | The write precompensation value | |
720 | is ignored for IDE disks. | |
721 | The IRQ value specified will be the IRQ | |
fea681da MK |
722 | used for the interface that the drive resides on, and is not really a |
723 | drive specific parameter. | |
fea681da | 724 | .SS "The `hd=serialize' option" |
fea681da MK |
725 | The dual IDE interface CMD-640 chip is broken as designed such that |
726 | when drives on the secondary interface are used at the same time as | |
c13182ef MK |
727 | drives on the primary interface, it will corrupt your data. |
728 | Using this | |
fea681da MK |
729 | option tells the driver to make sure that both interfaces are never |
730 | used at the same time. | |
fea681da | 731 | .SS "The `hd=dtc2278' option" |
fea681da MK |
732 | This option tells the driver that you have a DTC-2278D IDE interface. |
733 | The driver then tries to do DTC specific operations to enable the | |
734 | second interface and to enable faster transfer modes. | |
fea681da | 735 | .SS "The `hd=noprobe' option" |
c13182ef MK |
736 | Do not probe for this drive. |
737 | For example, | |
fea681da MK |
738 | .IP |
739 | hdb=noprobe hdb=1166,7,17 | |
740 | .LP | |
741 | would disable the probe, but still specify the drive geometry so | |
742 | that it would be registered as a valid block device, and hence | |
743 | usable. | |
fea681da | 744 | .SS "The `hd=nowerr' option" |
fea681da MK |
745 | Some drives apparently have the WRERR_STAT bit stuck on permanently. |
746 | This enables a work-around for these broken devices. | |
fea681da | 747 | .SS "The `hd=cdrom' option" |
fea681da | 748 | This tells the IDE driver that there is an ATAPI compatible CD-ROM |
c13182ef MK |
749 | attached in place of a normal IDE hard disk. |
750 | In most cases the CD-ROM | |
fea681da | 751 | is identified automatically, but if it isn't then this may help. |
fea681da | 752 | .SS "Standard ST-506 Disk Driver Options (`hd=')" |
fea681da | 753 | The standard disk driver can accept geometry arguments for the disks |
c13182ef MK |
754 | similar to the IDE driver. |
755 | Note however that it only expects three | |
756 | values (C/H/S); any more or any less and it will silently ignore you. | |
757 | Also, it only accepts `hd=' as an argument, i.e. `hda=' | |
758 | and so on are not valid here. | |
759 | The format is as follows: | |
fea681da MK |
760 | .IP |
761 | hd=cyls,heads,sects | |
762 | .LP | |
763 | If there are two disks installed, the above is repeated with the | |
764 | geometry parameters of the second disk. | |
fea681da | 765 | .SS "XT Disk Driver Options (`xd=')" |
fea681da MK |
766 | If you are unfortunate enough to be using one of these old 8 bit cards |
767 | that move data at a whopping 125kB/s then here is the scoop. | |
d9bfdb9c | 768 | If the card is not recognized, you will have to use a boot arg of the form: |
fea681da MK |
769 | .IP |
770 | xd=type,irq,iobase,dma_chan | |
771 | .LP | |
772 | The type value specifies the particular manufacturer of the card, | |
c13182ef MK |
773 | overriding autodetection. |
774 | For the types to use, consult the | |
fea681da | 775 | .I drivers/block/xd.c |
c13182ef MK |
776 | source file of the kernel you are using. |
777 | The type is an index in the list | |
fea681da MK |
778 | .I xd_sigs |
779 | and in the course of time | |
780 | .\" 1.1.50, 1.3.81, 1.3.99, 2.0.34, 2.1.67, 2.1.78, 2.1.127 | |
781 | types have been added to or deleted from the middle of the list, | |
c13182ef MK |
782 | changing all type numbers. |
783 | Today (Linux 2.5.0) the types are | |
fea681da MK |
784 | 0=generic; 1=DTC 5150cx; 2,3=DTC 5150x; 4,5=Western Digital; |
785 | 6,7,8=Seagate; 9=Omti; 10=XEBEC, and where here several types are | |
786 | given with the same designation, they are equivalent. | |
787 | ||
788 | The xd_setup() function does no checking on the values, and assumes | |
c13182ef MK |
789 | that you entered all four values. |
790 | Don't disappoint it. | |
791 | Here is an | |
fea681da MK |
792 | example usage for a WD1002 controller with the BIOS disabled/removed, |
793 | using the `default' XT controller parameters: | |
794 | .IP | |
795 | xd=2,5,0x320,3 | |
fea681da MK |
796 | .SS "Syquest's EZ* removable disks" |
797 | .IP | |
798 | .BI ez= iobase[,irq[,rep[,nybble]]] | |
fea681da MK |
799 | .SH "IBM MCA BUS DEVICES" |
800 | See also | |
801 | .IR /usr/src/linux/Documentation/mca.txt . | |
fea681da MK |
802 | .SS "PS/2 ESDI hard disks" |
803 | It is possible to specify the desired geometry at boot time: | |
804 | .IP | |
805 | .BI ed= cyls,heads,sectors. | |
806 | .LP | |
807 | For a ThinkPad-720, add the option | |
808 | .IP | |
809 | .BR tp720=1 . | |
fea681da MK |
810 | .SS "IBM Microchannel SCSI Subsystem configuration" |
811 | .IP | |
812 | .BI ibmmcascsi= N | |
813 | .LP | |
814 | where N is the \fIpun\fP (SCSI ID) of the subsystem. | |
fea681da | 815 | .SS "The Aztech Interface" |
fea681da MK |
816 | The syntax for this type of card is: |
817 | .IP | |
818 | aztcd=iobase[,magic_number] | |
819 | .LP | |
820 | If you set the magic_number to 0x79 then the driver will try and run | |
c13182ef MK |
821 | anyway in the event of an unknown firmware version. |
822 | All other values | |
fea681da | 823 | are ignored. |
fea681da MK |
824 | .SS "Parallel port CD-ROM drives" |
825 | Syntax: | |
826 | .IP | |
827 | pcd.driveN=prt,pro,uni,mod,slv,dly | |
828 | .br | |
829 | pcd.nice=nice | |
830 | .LP | |
831 | where `port' is the base address, `pro' is the protocol number, `uni' | |
8729177b | 832 | is the unit selector (for chained devices), `mod' is the mode (or \-1 |
fea681da | 833 | to choose the best automatically), `slv' is 1 if it should be a slave, |
c13182ef MK |
834 | and `dly' is a small integer for slowing down port accesses. |
835 | The `nice' parameter controls the driver's use of idle CPU time, at the | |
fea681da | 836 | expense of some speed. |
fea681da | 837 | .SS "The CDU-31A and CDU-33A Sony Interface" |
fea681da | 838 | This CD-ROM interface is found on some of the Pro Audio Spectrum sound |
c13182ef MK |
839 | cards, and other Sony supplied interface cards. |
840 | The syntax is as follows: | |
fea681da MK |
841 | .IP |
842 | cdu31a=iobase,[irq[,is_pas_card]] | |
843 | .LP | |
844 | Specifying an IRQ value of zero tells the driver that hardware | |
c13182ef MK |
845 | interrupts aren't supported (as on some PAS cards). |
846 | If your card | |
fea681da MK |
847 | supports interrupts, you should use them as it cuts down on the CPU |
848 | usage of the driver. | |
849 | ||
850 | The | |
851 | .I is_pas_card | |
852 | should be entered as `PAS' if using a Pro Audio Spectrum card, | |
853 | and otherwise it should not be specified at all. | |
fea681da | 854 | .SS "The CDU-535 Sony Interface" |
fea681da MK |
855 | The syntax for this CD-ROM interface is: |
856 | .IP | |
857 | sonycd535=iobase[,irq] | |
858 | .LP | |
859 | A zero can be used for the I/O base as a `placeholder' if one wishes | |
860 | to specify an IRQ value. | |
fea681da | 861 | .SS "The GoldStar Interface" |
fea681da MK |
862 | The syntax for this CD-ROM interface is: |
863 | .IP | |
864 | gscd=iobase | |
fea681da MK |
865 | .SS "The ISP16 CD-ROM Interface" |
866 | Syntax: | |
867 | .IP | |
868 | isp16=[iobase[,irq[,dma[,type]]]] | |
869 | .LP | |
c13182ef MK |
870 | (three integers and a string). |
871 | If the type is given as `noisp16', | |
872 | the interface will not be configured. | |
873 | Other recognized types | |
fea681da | 874 | are: `Sanyo", `Sony', `Panasonic' and `Mitsumi'. |
fea681da | 875 | .SS "The Mitsumi Standard Interface" |
fea681da MK |
876 | The syntax for this CD-ROM interface is: |
877 | .IP | |
878 | mcd=iobase,[irq[,wait_value]] | |
879 | .LP | |
880 | The | |
881 | .I wait_value | |
882 | is used as an internal timeout value for people who are | |
883 | having problems with their drive, and may or may not be implemented | |
884 | depending on a compile time #define. | |
885 | The Mitsumi FX400 is an IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM player and does not use | |
886 | the mcd driver. | |
fea681da | 887 | .SS "The Mitsumi XA/MultiSession Interface" |
fea681da MK |
888 | This is for the same hardware as above, but the driver has extended features. |
889 | Syntax: | |
890 | .IP | |
891 | mcdx=iobase[,irq] | |
fea681da | 892 | .SS "The Optics Storage Interface" |
fea681da MK |
893 | The syntax for this type of card is: |
894 | .IP | |
895 | optcd=iobase | |
fea681da | 896 | .SS "The Phillips CM206 Interface" |
fea681da MK |
897 | The syntax for this type of card is: |
898 | .IP | |
899 | cm206=[iobase][,irq] | |
900 | .LP | |
fea681da MK |
901 | The driver assumes numbers between 3 and 11 are IRQ values, and |
902 | numbers between 0x300 and 0x370 are I/O ports, so you can specify one, | |
c13182ef MK |
903 | or both numbers, in any order. |
904 | It also accepts `cm206=auto' to enable | |
fea681da | 905 | autoprobing. |
fea681da | 906 | .SS "The Sanyo Interface" |
fea681da MK |
907 | The syntax for this type of card is: |
908 | .IP | |
909 | sjcd=iobase[,irq[,dma_channel]] | |
fea681da | 910 | .SS "The SoundBlaster Pro Interface" |
fea681da MK |
911 | The syntax for this type of card is: |
912 | .IP | |
913 | sbpcd=iobase,type | |
914 | .LP | |
915 | where type is one of the following (case sensitive) strings: | |
c13182ef MK |
916 | `SoundBlaster', `LaserMate', or `SPEA'. |
917 | The I/O base is that of the | |
fea681da | 918 | CD-ROM interface, and not that of the sound portion of the card. |
fea681da | 919 | .SH "ETHERNET DEVICES" |
fea681da | 920 | Different drivers make use of different parameters, but they all at |
c13182ef MK |
921 | least share having an IRQ, an I/O port base value, and a name. |
922 | In its most generic form, it looks something like this: | |
fea681da MK |
923 | .IP |
924 | ether=irq,iobase[,param_1[,...param_8]],name | |
925 | .LP | |
c13182ef MK |
926 | The first non-numeric argument is taken as the name. |
927 | The param_n values (if applicable) usually have different meanings for each | |
928 | different card/driver. | |
929 | Typical param_n values are used to specify | |
fea681da MK |
930 | things like shared memory address, interface selection, DMA channel |
931 | and the like. | |
932 | ||
933 | The most common use of this parameter is to force probing for a second | |
c13182ef MK |
934 | ethercard, as the default is to only probe for one. |
935 | This can be accomplished with a simple: | |
fea681da MK |
936 | .IP |
937 | ether=0,0,eth1 | |
938 | .LP | |
939 | Note that the values of zero for the IRQ and I/O base in the above | |
940 | example tell the driver(s) to autoprobe. | |
941 | ||
942 | The Ethernet-HowTo has extensive documentation on using multiple | |
943 | cards and on the card/driver specific implementation | |
c13182ef MK |
944 | of the param_n values where used. |
945 | Interested readers should refer to | |
fea681da | 946 | the section in that document on their particular card. |
fea681da | 947 | .SH "THE FLOPPY DISK DRIVER" |
fea681da | 948 | There are many floppy driver options, and they are all listed in |
c13182ef MK |
949 | README.fd in linux/drivers/block. |
950 | This information is taken directly | |
fea681da | 951 | from that file. |
fea681da | 952 | .SS "floppy=mask,allowed_drive_mask" |
c13182ef MK |
953 | Sets the bitmask of allowed drives to mask. |
954 | By default, only units 0 | |
955 | and 1 of each floppy controller are allowed. | |
956 | This is done because | |
fea681da | 957 | certain non-standard hardware (ASUS PCI motherboards) mess up the |
c13182ef MK |
958 | keyboard when accessing units 2 or 3. |
959 | This option is somewhat | |
fea681da | 960 | obsoleted by the cmos option. |
fea681da | 961 | .SS "floppy=all_drives" |
c13182ef MK |
962 | Sets the bitmask of allowed drives to all drives. |
963 | Use this if you have | |
fea681da | 964 | more than two drives connected to a floppy controller. |
fea681da | 965 | .SS "floppy=asus_pci" |
fea681da | 966 | Sets the bitmask to allow only units 0 and 1. (The default) |
fea681da | 967 | .SS "floppy=daring" |
fea681da | 968 | Tells the floppy driver that you have a well behaved floppy |
c13182ef MK |
969 | controller. |
970 | This allows more efficient and smoother operation, but | |
971 | may fail on certain controllers. | |
972 | This may speed up certain operations. | |
fea681da | 973 | .SS "floppy=0,daring" |
fea681da MK |
974 | Tells the floppy driver that your floppy controller should be used |
975 | with caution. | |
fea681da | 976 | .SS "floppy=one_fdc" |
fea681da | 977 | Tells the floppy driver that you have only floppy controller (default) |
fea681da | 978 | .SS "floppy=two_fdc or floppy=address,two_fdc" |
c13182ef MK |
979 | Tells the floppy driver that you have two floppy controllers. |
980 | The second floppy controller is assumed to be at address. | |
981 | If address is | |
fea681da | 982 | not given, 0x370 is assumed. |
fea681da | 983 | .SS "floppy=thinkpad" |
c13182ef MK |
984 | Tells the floppy driver that you have a Thinkpad. |
985 | Thinkpads use an | |
fea681da | 986 | inverted convention for the disk change line. |
fea681da | 987 | .SS "floppy=0,thinkpad" |
fea681da | 988 | Tells the floppy driver that you don't have a Thinkpad. |
fea681da | 989 | .SS "floppy=drive,type,cmos" |
c13182ef MK |
990 | Sets the cmos type of drive to type. |
991 | Additionally, this drive is | |
992 | allowed in the bitmask. | |
993 | This is useful if you have more than two | |
fea681da | 994 | floppy drives (only two can be described in the physical cmos), or if |
c13182ef MK |
995 | your BIOS uses non-standard CMOS types. |
996 | Setting the CMOS to 0 for the | |
fea681da MK |
997 | first two drives (default) makes the floppy driver read the physical |
998 | cmos for those drives. | |
fea681da | 999 | .SS "floppy=unexpected_interrupts" |
fea681da | 1000 | Print a warning message when an unexpected interrupt is received |
d9bfdb9c | 1001 | (default behavior) |
fea681da | 1002 | .SS "floppy=no_unexpected_interrupts or floppy=L40SX" |
c13182ef MK |
1003 | Don't print a message when an unexpected interrupt is received. |
1004 | This is needed on IBM L40SX laptops in certain video modes. | |
1005 | (There seems to | |
1006 | be an interaction between video and floppy. | |
1007 | The unexpected interrupts | |
fea681da | 1008 | only affect performance, and can safely be ignored.) |
fea681da | 1009 | .SH "THE SOUND DRIVER" |
fea681da | 1010 | The sound driver can also accept boot args to override the compiled in |
c13182ef MK |
1011 | values. |
1012 | This is not recommended, as it is rather complex. | |
1013 | It is described in the Readme.Linux file, in linux/drivers/sound. | |
1014 | It accepts | |
fea681da MK |
1015 | a boot arg of the form: |
1016 | .IP | |
1017 | sound=device1[,device2[,device3...[,device10]]] | |
1018 | .LP | |
1019 | where each deviceN value is of the following format 0xTaaaId and the | |
1020 | bytes are used as follows: | |
1021 | ||
4d9b6984 | 1022 | T \- device type: 1=FM, 2=SB, 3=PAS, 4=GUS, 5=MPU401, 6=SB16, |
fea681da MK |
1023 | 7=SB16-MPU401 |
1024 | ||
4d9b6984 | 1025 | aaa \- I/O address in hex. |
fea681da | 1026 | |
4d9b6984 | 1027 | I \- interrupt line in hex (i.e 10=a, 11=b, ...) |
fea681da | 1028 | |
4d9b6984 | 1029 | d \- DMA channel. |
fea681da MK |
1030 | |
1031 | As you can see it gets pretty messy, and you are better off to compile | |
c13182ef MK |
1032 | in your own personal values as recommended. |
1033 | Using a boot arg of | |
fea681da | 1034 | `sound=0' will disable the sound driver entirely. |
fea681da | 1035 | .SH "ISDN DRIVERS" |
fea681da MK |
1036 | .SS "The ICN ISDN driver" |
1037 | Syntax: | |
1038 | .IP | |
1039 | icn=iobase,membase,icn_id1,icn_id2 | |
1040 | .LP | |
1041 | where icn_id1,icn_id2 are two strings used to identify the | |
1042 | card in kernel messages. | |
fea681da MK |
1043 | .SS "The PCBIT ISDN driver" |
1044 | Syntax: | |
1045 | .IP | |
1046 | pcbit=membase1,irq1[,membase2,irq2] | |
1047 | .LP | |
1048 | where membaseN is the shared memory base of the N'th card, and irqN is | |
c13182ef MK |
1049 | the interrupt setting of the N'th card. |
1050 | The default is IRQ 5 and | |
fea681da | 1051 | membase 0xD0000. |
fea681da MK |
1052 | .SS "The Teles ISDN driver" |
1053 | Syntax: | |
1054 | .IP | |
1055 | teles=iobase,irq,membase,protocol,teles_id | |
1056 | .LP | |
1057 | where iobase is the i/o port address of the card, membase is the | |
1058 | shared memory base address of the card, irq is the interrupt channel | |
1059 | the card uses, and teles_id is the unique ASCII string identifier. | |
fea681da | 1060 | .SH "SERIAL PORT DRIVERS" |
fea681da MK |
1061 | .SS "The RISCom/8 Multiport Serial Driver (`riscom8=')" |
1062 | Syntax: | |
1063 | .IP | |
1064 | riscom=iobase1[,iobase2[,iobase3[,iobase4]]] | |
1065 | .LP | |
1066 | More details can be found in | |
1067 | .IR /usr/src/linux/Documentation/riscom8.txt . | |
fea681da MK |
1068 | .SS "The DigiBoard Driver (`digi=')" |
1069 | If this option is used, it should have precisely six parameters. | |
1070 | Syntax: | |
1071 | .IP | |
1072 | digi=status,type,altpin,numports,iobase,membase | |
1073 | .LP | |
1074 | The parameters maybe given as integers, or as strings. | |
1075 | If strings are used, then iobase and membase should be given | |
1076 | in hexadecimal. | |
1077 | The integer arguments (fewer may be given) are in order: | |
1078 | status (Enable(1) or Disable(0) this card), | |
1079 | type (PC/Xi(0), PC/Xe(1), PC/Xeve(2), PC/Xem(3)), | |
1080 | altpin (Enable(1) or Disable(0) alternate pin arrangement), | |
1081 | numports (number of ports on this card), | |
1082 | iobase (I/O Port where card is configured (in HEX)), | |
1083 | membase (base of memory window (in HEX)). | |
1084 | Thus, the following two boot prompt arguments are equivalent: | |
1085 | .IP | |
1086 | digi=E,PC/Xi,D,16,200,D0000 | |
1087 | .br | |
1088 | digi=1,0,0,16,0x200,851968 | |
1089 | .LP | |
1090 | More details can be found in | |
1091 | .IR /usr/src/linux/Documentation/digiboard.txt . | |
fea681da MK |
1092 | .SS "The Baycom Serial/Parallel Radio Modem" |
1093 | Syntax: | |
1094 | .IP | |
1095 | baycom=iobase,irq,modem | |
1096 | .LP | |
1097 | There are precisely 3 parameters; for several cards, give | |
c13182ef MK |
1098 | several `baycom=' commands. |
1099 | The modem parameter is a string | |
fea681da MK |
1100 | that can take one of the values ser12, ser12*, par96, par96*. |
1101 | Here the * denotes that software DCD is to be used, and | |
1102 | ser12/par96 chooses between the supported modem types. | |
1103 | For more details, see | |
1104 | .IR /usr/src/linux/drivers/net/README.baycom . | |
fea681da MK |
1105 | .SS "Soundcard radio modem driver" |
1106 | Syntax: | |
1107 | .IP | |
1108 | soundmodem=iobase,irq,dma[,dma2[,serio[,pario]]],0,mode | |
1109 | .LP | |
1110 | All parameters except the last are integers; | |
1111 | the dummy 0 is required because of a bug in the setup code. | |
1112 | The mode parameter is a string with syntax hw:modem, | |
1113 | where hw is one of sbc, wss, wssfdx and modem is one of | |
1114 | afsk1200, fsk9600. | |
fea681da | 1115 | .SH "THE LINE PRINTER DRIVER" |
fea681da MK |
1116 | .SS "`lp='" |
1117 | Syntax: | |
1118 | .IP | |
1119 | lp=0 | |
1120 | .br | |
1121 | lp=auto | |
1122 | .br | |
1123 | lp=reset | |
1124 | .br | |
1125 | lp=port[,port...] | |
1126 | .LP | |
1127 | You can tell the printer driver what ports to use and what ports not | |
c13182ef MK |
1128 | to use. |
1129 | The latter comes in handy if you don't want the printer driver | |
fea681da MK |
1130 | to claim all available parallel ports, so that other drivers |
1131 | (e.g. PLIP, PPA) can use them instead. | |
1132 | ||
c13182ef MK |
1133 | The format of the argument is multiple port names. |
1134 | For example, | |
fea681da | 1135 | lp=none,parport0 would use the first parallel port for lp1, and |
c13182ef MK |
1136 | disable lp0. |
1137 | To disable the printer driver entirely, one can use | |
fea681da | 1138 | lp=0. |
fea681da MK |
1139 | .SS "WDT500/501 driver" |
1140 | Syntax: | |
1141 | .IP | |
1142 | wdt=io,irq | |
fea681da | 1143 | .SH "MOUSE DRIVERS" |
fea681da MK |
1144 | .SS "`bmouse=irq'" |
1145 | The busmouse driver only accepts one parameter, that being the | |
1146 | hardware IRQ value to be used. | |
fea681da MK |
1147 | .SS "`msmouse=irq'" |
1148 | And precisely the same is true for the msmouse driver. | |
fea681da MK |
1149 | .SS "ATARI mouse setup" |
1150 | .LP | |
1151 | atamouse=threshold[,y-threshold] | |
1152 | .IP | |
1153 | If only one argument is given, it is used for both | |
c13182ef MK |
1154 | x-threshold and y-threshold. |
1155 | Otherwise, the first argument | |
fea681da MK |
1156 | is the x-threshold, and the second the y-threshold. |
1157 | These values must lie between 1 and 20 (inclusive); the default is 2. | |
fea681da | 1158 | .SH "VIDEO HARDWARE" |
fea681da MK |
1159 | .SS "`no-scroll'" |
1160 | This option tells the console driver not to use hardware scroll | |
1161 | (where a scroll is effected by moving the screen origin in video | |
c13182ef MK |
1162 | memory, instead of moving the data). |
1163 | It is required by certain | |
fea681da | 1164 | Braille machines. |
fd7f0a7f MK |
1165 | .\" .SH AUTHORS |
1166 | .\" Linus Torvalds (and many others) | |
fea681da MK |
1167 | .SH "SEE ALSO" |
1168 | .BR lilo.conf (5), | |
1169 | .BR klogd (8), | |
1170 | .BR lilo (8), | |
1171 | .BR mount (8), | |
1172 | .BR rdev (8) | |
1173 | ||
1174 | Large parts of this man page have been derived from the | |
1175 | Boot Parameter HOWTO (version 1.0.1) written by Paul Gortmaker. | |
1176 | More information may be found in this (or a more recent) HOWTO. | |
b9560046 | 1177 | An up-to-date source of information is |
fea681da | 1178 | .IR /usr/src/linux/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt . |