Kernel Parameters ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The following is a consolidated list of the kernel parameters as implemented (mostly) by the __setup() macro and sorted into English Dictionary order (defined as ignoring all punctuation and sorting digits before letters in a case insensitive manner), and with descriptions where known. Module parameters for loadable modules are specified only as the parameter name with optional '=' and value as appropriate, such as: modprobe usbcore blinkenlights=1 Module parameters for modules that are built into the kernel image are specified on the kernel command line with the module name plus '.' plus parameter name, with '=' and value if appropriate, such as: usbcore.blinkenlights=1 This document may not be entirely up to date and comprehensive. The command "modinfo -p ${modulename}" shows a current list of all parameters of a loadable module. Loadable modules, after being loaded into the running kernel, also reveal their parameters in /sys/module/${modulename}/parameters/. Some of these parameters may be changed at runtime by the command "echo -n ${value} > /sys/module/${modulename}/parameters/${parm}". The parameters listed below are only valid if certain kernel build options were enabled and if respective hardware is present. The text in square brackets at the beginning of each description states the restrictions within which a parameter is applicable: ACPI ACPI support is enabled. AGP AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) is enabled. ALSA ALSA sound support is enabled. APIC APIC support is enabled. APM Advanced Power Management support is enabled. AVR32 AVR32 architecture is enabled. AX25 Appropriate AX.25 support is enabled. BLACKFIN Blackfin architecture is enabled. DRM Direct Rendering Management support is enabled. EDD BIOS Enhanced Disk Drive Services (EDD) is enabled EFI EFI Partitioning (GPT) is enabled EIDE EIDE/ATAPI support is enabled. FB The frame buffer device is enabled. HW Appropriate hardware is enabled. IA-64 IA-64 architecture is enabled. IOSCHED More than one I/O scheduler is enabled. IP_PNP IP DHCP, BOOTP, or RARP is enabled. ISAPNP ISA PnP code is enabled. ISDN Appropriate ISDN support is enabled. JOY Appropriate joystick support is enabled. LIBATA Libata driver is enabled LP Printer support is enabled. LOOP Loopback device support is enabled. M68k M68k architecture is enabled. These options have more detailed description inside of Documentation/m68k/kernel-options.txt. MCA MCA bus support is enabled. MDA MDA console support is enabled. MOUSE Appropriate mouse support is enabled. MSI Message Signaled Interrupts (PCI). MTD MTD (Memory Technology Device) support is enabled. NET Appropriate network support is enabled. NUMA NUMA support is enabled. GENERIC_TIME The generic timeofday code is enabled. NFS Appropriate NFS support is enabled. OSS OSS sound support is enabled. PV_OPS A paravirtualized kernel is enabled. PARIDE The ParIDE (parallel port IDE) subsystem is enabled. PARISC The PA-RISC architecture is enabled. PCI PCI bus support is enabled. PCIE PCI Express support is enabled. PCMCIA The PCMCIA subsystem is enabled. PNP Plug & Play support is enabled. PPC PowerPC architecture is enabled. PPT Parallel port support is enabled. PS2 Appropriate PS/2 support is enabled. RAM RAM disk support is enabled. ROOTPLUG The example Root Plug LSM is enabled. S390 S390 architecture is enabled. SCSI Appropriate SCSI support is enabled. A lot of drivers has their options described inside of Documentation/scsi/. SECURITY Different security models are enabled. SELINUX SELinux support is enabled. SERIAL Serial support is enabled. SH SuperH architecture is enabled. SMP The kernel is an SMP kernel. SPARC Sparc architecture is enabled. SWSUSP Software suspend (hibernation) is enabled. SUSPEND System suspend states are enabled. TS Appropriate touchscreen support is enabled. USB USB support is enabled. USBHID USB Human Interface Device support is enabled. V4L Video For Linux support is enabled. VGA The VGA console has been enabled. VT Virtual terminal support is enabled. WDT Watchdog support is enabled. XT IBM PC/XT MFM hard disk support is enabled. X86-32 X86-32, aka i386 architecture is enabled. X86-64 X86-64 architecture is enabled. More X86-64 boot options can be found in Documentation/x86/x86_64/boot-options.txt . X86 Either 32bit or 64bit x86 (same as X86-32+X86-64) 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 . There are also arch-specific kernel-parameters not documented here. See for example . Note that ALL kernel parameters listed below are CASE SENSITIVE, and that a trailing = on the name of any parameter states that that parameter will be entered as an environment variable, whereas its absence indicates that it will appear as a kernel argument readable via /proc/cmdline by programs running once the system is up. The number of kernel parameters is not limited, but the length of the complete command line (parameters including spaces etc.) is limited to a fixed number of characters. This limit depends on the architecture and is between 256 and 4096 characters. It is defined in the file ./include/asm/setup.h as COMMAND_LINE_SIZE. acpi= [HW,ACPI,X86-64,i386] Advanced Configuration and Power Interface Format: { force | off | ht | strict | noirq } force -- enable ACPI if default was off off -- disable ACPI if default was on noirq -- do not use ACPI for IRQ routing ht -- run only enough ACPI to enable Hyper Threading strict -- Be less tolerant of platforms that are not strictly ACPI specification compliant. See also Documentation/power/pm.txt, pci=noacpi acpi_apic_instance= [ACPI, IOAPIC] Format: 2: use 2nd APIC table, if available 1,0: use 1st APIC table default: 0 acpi_sleep= [HW,ACPI] Sleep options Format: { s3_bios, s3_mode, s3_beep, s4_nohwsig, old_ordering } See Documentation/power/video.txt for s3_bios and s3_mode. s3_beep is for debugging; it makes the PC's speaker beep as soon as the kernel's real-mode entry point is called. s4_nohwsig prevents ACPI hardware signature from being used during resume from hibernation. old_ordering causes the ACPI 1.0 ordering of the _PTS control method, wrt putting devices into low power states, to be enforced (the ACPI 2.0 ordering of _PTS is used by default). acpi_sci= [HW,ACPI] ACPI System Control Interrupt trigger mode 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: ,... acpi_irq_isa= [HW,ACPI] If irq_balance, mark listed IRQs used by ISA Format: ,... acpi_no_auto_ssdt [HW,ACPI] Disable automatic loading of SSDT acpi_os_name= [HW,ACPI] Tell ACPI BIOS the name of the OS Format: To spoof as Windows 98: ="Microsoft Windows" acpi_osi= [HW,ACPI] Modify list of supported OS interface strings acpi_osi="string1" # add string1 -- only one string acpi_osi="!string2" # remove built-in string2 acpi_osi= # disable all strings acpi_serialize [HW,ACPI] force serialization of AML methods acpi_skip_timer_override [HW,ACPI] Recognize and ignore IRQ0/pin2 Interrupt Override. For broken nForce2 BIOS resulting in XT-PIC timer. acpi_use_timer_override [HW,ACPI} Use timer override. For some broken Nvidia NF5 boards that require a timer override, but don't have HPET acpi.debug_layer= [HW,ACPI] Format: Each bit of the indicates an ACPI debug layer, 1: enable, 0: disable. It is useful for boot time debugging. After system has booted up, it can be set via /sys/module/acpi/parameters/debug_layer. CONFIG_ACPI_DEBUG must be enabled for this to produce any output. Available bits (add the numbers together) to enable debug output for specific parts of the ACPI subsystem: 0x01 utilities 0x02 hardware 0x04 events 0x08 tables 0x10 namespace 0x20 parser 0x40 dispatcher 0x80 executer 0x100 resources 0x200 acpica debugger 0x400 os services 0x800 acpica disassembler. The number can be in decimal or prefixed with 0x in hex. Warning: Many of these options can produce a lot of output and make your system unusable. Be very careful. acpi.debug_level= [HW,ACPI] Format: Each bit of the indicates an ACPI debug level, which corresponds to the level in an ACPI_DEBUG_PRINT statement. After system has booted up, this mask can be set via /sys/module/acpi/parameters/debug_level. CONFIG_ACPI_DEBUG must be enabled for this to produce any output. The number can be in decimal or prefixed with 0x in hex. Some of these options produce so much output that the system is unusable. The following global components are defined by the ACPI CA: 0x01 error 0x02 warn 0x04 init 0x08 debug object 0x10 info 0x20 init names 0x40 parse 0x80 load 0x100 dispatch 0x200 execute 0x400 names 0x800 operation region 0x1000 bfield 0x2000 tables 0x4000 values 0x8000 objects 0x10000 resources 0x20000 user requests 0x40000 package The number can be in decimal or prefixed with 0x in hex. Warning: Many of these options can produce a lot of output and make your system unusable. Be very careful. acpi.power_nocheck= [HW,ACPI] Format: 1/0 enable/disable the check of power state. On some bogus BIOS the _PSC object/_STA object of power resource can't return the correct device power state. In such case it is unneccessary to check its power state again in power transition. 1 : disable the power state check acpi_pm_good [X86-32,X86-64] Override the pmtimer bug detection: force the kernel to assume that this machine's pmtimer latches its value and always returns good values. agp= [AGP] { off | try_unsupported } off: disable AGP support try_unsupported: try to drive unsupported chipsets (may crash computer or cause data corruption) enable_timer_pin_1 [i386,x86-64] Enable PIN 1 of APIC timer Can be useful to work around chipset bugs (in particular on some ATI chipsets). The kernel tries to set a reasonable default. disable_timer_pin_1 [i386,x86-64] Disable PIN 1 of APIC timer Can be useful to work around chipset bugs. ad1848= [HW,OSS] Format: ,,,, advansys= [HW,SCSI] See header of drivers/scsi/advansys.c. advwdt= [HW,WDT] Advantech WDT Format: , aedsp16= [HW,OSS] Audio Excel DSP 16 Format: ,,,,, See also header of sound/oss/aedsp16.c. aha152x= [HW,SCSI] See Documentation/scsi/aha152x.txt. aha1542= [HW,SCSI] Format: [,,[,]] aic7xxx= [HW,SCSI] See Documentation/scsi/aic7xxx.txt. aic79xx= [HW,SCSI] See Documentation/scsi/aic79xx.txt. amd_iommu= [HW,X86-84] Pass parameters to the AMD IOMMU driver in the system. Possible values are: isolate - enable device isolation (each device, as far as possible, will get its own protection domain) fullflush - enable flushing of IO/TLB entries when they are unmapped. Otherwise they are flushed before they will be reused, which is a lot of faster amd_iommu_size= [HW,X86-64] Define the size of the aperture for the AMD IOMMU driver. Possible values are: '32M', '64M' (default), '128M', '256M', '512M', '1G' amijoy.map= [HW,JOY] Amiga joystick support Map of devices attached to JOY0DAT and JOY1DAT Format: , 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: ,,.. apc= [HW,SPARC] Power management functions (SPARCstation-4/5 + deriv.) Format: noidle Disable APC CPU standby support. SPARCstation-Fox does not play well with APC CPU idle - disable it if you have APC and your system crashes randomly. apic= [APIC,i386] Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller Change the output verbosity whilst booting Format: { quiet (default) | verbose | debug } Change the amount of debugging information output when initialising the APIC and IO-APIC components. apm= [APM] Advanced Power Management See header of arch/x86/kernel/apm_32.c. arcrimi= [HW,NET] ARCnet - "RIM I" (entirely mem-mapped) cards Format: ,, 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: (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: (0 = real, 1 = synthetic (default)) atkbd.softrepeat= [HW] Use software keyboard repeat autotest [IA64] baycom_epp= [HW,AX25] Format: , baycom_par= [HW,AX25] BayCom Parallel Port AX.25 Modem Format: , See header of drivers/net/hamradio/baycom_par.c. baycom_ser_fdx= [HW,AX25] BayCom Serial Port AX.25 Modem (Full Duplex Mode) Format: ,,[,] 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: ,, See header of drivers/net/hamradio/baycom_ser_hdx.c. boot_delay= Milliseconds to delay each printk during boot. Values larger than 10 seconds (10000) are changed to no delay (0). Format: integer bootmem_debug [KNL] Enable bootmem allocator debug messages. bttv.card= [HW,V4L] bttv (bt848 + bt878 based grabber cards) bttv.radio= Most important insmod options are available as kernel args too. bttv.pll= See Documentation/video4linux/bttv/Insmod-options bttv.tuner= and Documentation/video4linux/bttv/CARDLIST BusLogic= [HW,SCSI] See drivers/scsi/BusLogic.c, comment before function BusLogic_ParseDriverOptions(). c101= [NET] Moxa C101 synchronous serial card cachesize= [BUGS=X86-32] Override level 2 CPU cache size detection. Sometimes CPU hardware bugs make them report the cache size incorrectly. The kernel will attempt work arounds to fix known problems, but for some CPUs it is not possible to determine what the correct size should be. This option provides an override for these situations. security= [SECURITY] Choose a security module to enable at boot. If this boot parameter is not specified, only the first security module asking for security registration will be loaded. An invalid security module name will be treated as if no module has been chosen. capability.disable= [SECURITY] Disable capabilities. This would normally be used only if an alternative security model is to be configured. Potentially dangerous and should only be used if you are entirely sure of the consequences. ccw_timeout_log [S390] See Documentation/s390/CommonIO for details. cgroup_disable= [KNL] Disable a particular controller Format: {name of the controller(s) to disable} {Currently supported controllers - "memory"} checkreqprot [SELINUX] Set initial checkreqprot flag value. Format: { "0" | "1" } See security/selinux/Kconfig help text. 0 -- check protection applied by kernel (includes any implied execute protection). 1 -- check protection requested by application. Default value is set via a kernel config option. Value can be changed at runtime via /selinux/checkreqprot. cio_ignore= [S390] See Documentation/s390/CommonIO for details. clock= [BUGS=X86-32, HW] gettimeofday clocksource override. [Deprecated] Forces specified clocksource (if available) to be used when calculating gettimeofday(). If specified clocksource is not available, it defaults to PIT. Format: { pit | tsc | cyclone | pmtmr } clocksource= [GENERIC_TIME] Override the default clocksource Format: Override the default clocksource and use the clocksource with the name specified. Some clocksource names to choose from, depending on the platform: [all] jiffies (this is the base, fallback clocksource) [ACPI] acpi_pm [ARM] imx_timer1,OSTS,netx_timer,mpu_timer2, pxa_timer,timer3,32k_counter,timer0_1 [AVR32] avr32 [X86-32] pit,hpet,tsc,vmi-timer; scx200_hrt on Geode; cyclone on IBM x440 [MIPS] MIPS [PARISC] cr16 [S390] tod [SH] SuperH [SPARC64] tick [X86-64] hpet,tsc clearcpuid=BITNUM [X86] Disable CPUID feature X for the kernel. See include/asm-x86/cpufeature.h for the valid bit numbers. Note the Linux specific bits are not necessarily stable over kernel options, but the vendor specific ones should be. Also note that user programs calling CPUID directly or using the feature without checking anything will still see it. This just prevents it from being used by the kernel or shown in /proc/cpuinfo. Also note the kernel might malfunction if you disable some critical bits. code_bytes [IA32/X86_64] How many bytes of object code to print in an oops report. Range: 0 - 8192 Default: 64 hpet= [X86-32,HPET] option to control HPET usage Format: { enable (default) | disable | force } disable: disable HPET and use PIT instead force: allow force enabled of undocumented chips (ICH4, VIA, nVidia) com20020= [HW,NET] ARCnet - COM20020 chipset Format: [,[,[,[,[,]]]]] com90io= [HW,NET] ARCnet - COM90xx chipset (IO-mapped buffers) Format: [,] com90xx= [HW,NET] ARCnet - COM90xx chipset (memory-mapped buffers) Format: [,[,]] condev= [HW,S390] console device conmode= console= [KNL] Output console device and options. tty Use the virtual console device . ttyS[,options] ttyUSB0[,options] Use the specified serial port. The options are of the form "bbbbpnf", where "bbbb" is the baud rate, "p" is parity ("n", "o", or "e"), "n" is number of bits, and "f" is flow control ("r" for RTS or omit it). Default is "9600n8". See Documentation/serial-console.txt for more information. See Documentation/networking/netconsole.txt for an alternative. uart[8250],io,[,options] uart[8250],mmio,[,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. If the device connected to the port is not a TTY but a braille device, prepend "brl," before the device type, for instance console=brl,ttyS0 For now, only VisioBraille is supported. earlycon= [KNL] Output early console device and options. uart[8250],io,[,options] uart[8250],mmio,[,options] Start an early, polled-mode console on the 8250/16550 UART at the specified I/O port or MMIO address. The options are the same as for ttyS, above. no_console_suspend [HW] Never suspend the console Disable suspending of consoles during suspend and hibernate operations. Once disabled, debugging messages can reach various consoles while the rest of the system is being put to sleep (ie, while debugging driver suspend/resume hooks). This may not work reliably with all consoles, but is known to work with serial and VGA consoles. cpcihp_generic= [HW,PCI] Generic port I/O CompactPCI driver Format: ,,,[,] crashkernel=nn[KMG]@ss[KMG] [KNL] Reserve a chunk of physical memory to hold a kernel to switch to with kexec on panic. crashkernel=range1:size1[,range2:size2,...][@offset] [KNL] Same as above, but depends on the memory in the running system. The syntax of range is start-[end] where start and end are both a memory unit (amount[KMG]). See also Documentation/kdump/kdump.txt for a example. cs4232= [HW,OSS] Format: ,,,,, cs89x0_dma= [HW,NET] Format: cs89x0_media= [HW,NET] Format: { rj45 | aui | bnc } 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: , See also Documentation/input/joystick-parport.txt debug [KNL] Enable kernel debugging (events log level). debug_locks_verbose= [KNL] verbose self-tests Format=<0|1> Print debugging info while doing the locking API self-tests. We default to 0 (no extra messages), setting it to 1 will print _a lot_ more information - normally only useful to kernel developers. debug_objects [KNL] Enable object debugging debugpat [X86] Enable PAT debugging decnet.addr= [HW,NET] Format: [,] See also Documentation/networking/decnet.txt. vt.default_blu= [VT] Format: ,,,..., Change the default blue palette of the console. This is a 16-member array composed of values ranging from 0-255. vt.default_grn= [VT] Format: ,,,..., Change the default green palette of the console. This is a 16-member array composed of values ranging from 0-255. vt.default_red= [VT] Format: ,,,..., Change the default red palette of the console. This is a 16-member array composed of values ranging from 0-255. vt.default_utf8= [VT] Format=<0|1> Set system-wide default UTF-8 mode for all tty's. Default is 1, i.e. UTF-8 mode is enabled for all newly opened terminals. dhash_entries= [KNL] Set number of hash buckets for dentry cache. digi= [HW,SERIAL] IO parameters + enable/disable command. digiepca= [HW,SERIAL] See drivers/char/README.epca and Documentation/digiepca.txt. disable_mtrr_cleanup [X86] enable_mtrr_cleanup [X86] The kernel tries to adjust MTRR layout from continuous to discrete, to make X server driver able to add WB entry later. This parameter enables/disables that. mtrr_chunk_size=nn[KMG] [X86] used for mtrr cleanup. It is largest continous chunk that could hold holes aka. UC entries. mtrr_gran_size=nn[KMG] [X86] Used for mtrr cleanup. It is granularity of mtrr block. Default is 1. Large value could prevent small alignment from using up MTRRs. mtrr_spare_reg_nr=n [X86] Format: Range: 0,7 : spare reg number Default : 1 Used for mtrr cleanup. It is spare mtrr entries number. Set to 2 or more if your graphical card needs more. disable_mtrr_trim [X86, Intel and AMD only] By default the kernel will trim any uncacheable memory out of your available memory pool based on MTRR settings. This parameter disables that behavior, possibly causing your machine to run very slowly. dmasound= [HW,OSS] Sound subsystem buffers dscc4.setup= [NET] dtc3181e= [HW,SCSI] earlyprintk= [X86-32,X86-64,SH,BLACKFIN] earlyprintk=vga earlyprintk=serial[,ttySn[,baudrate]] earlyprintk=dbgp Append ",keep" to not disable it when the real console takes over. Only vga or serial or usb debug port at a time. 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] edd= [EDD] Format: {"off" | "on" | "skip[mbr]"} eisa_irq_edge= [PARISC,HW] See header of drivers/parisc/eisa.c. elanfreq= [X86-32] See comment before function elanfreq_setup() in arch/x86/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/elanfreq.c. elevator= [IOSCHED] Format: {"anticipatory" | "cfq" | "deadline" | "noop"} See Documentation/block/as-iosched.txt and Documentation/block/deadline-iosched.txt for details. elfcorehdr= [IA64,PPC,SH,X86-32,X86_64] Specifies physical address of start of kernel core image elf header. Generally kexec loader will pass this option to capture kernel. See Documentation/kdump/kdump.txt for details. enforcing [SELINUX] Set initial enforcing status. Format: {"0" | "1"} See security/selinux/Kconfig help text. 0 -- permissive (log only, no denials). 1 -- enforcing (deny and log). Default value is 0. Value can be changed at runtime via /selinux/enforce. es1371= [HW,OSS] Format: ,[,[]] 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: [,] failslab= fail_page_alloc= fail_make_request=[KNL] General fault injection mechanism. Format: ,,, See also /Documentation/fault-injection/. 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. force_pal_cache_flush [IA-64] Avoid check_sal_cache_flush which may hang on buggy SAL_CACHE_FLUSH implementations. Using this parameter will force ia64_sal_cache_flush to call ia64_pal_cache_flush instead of SAL_CACHE_FLUSH. ftrace=[tracer] [ftrace] will set and start the specified tracer as early as possible in order to facilitate early boot debugging. ftrace_dump_on_oops [ftrace] will dump the trace buffers on oops. gamecon.map[2|3]= [HW,JOY] Multisystem joystick and NES/SNES/PSX pad support via parallel port (up to 5 devices per port) Format: ,,,,, See also Documentation/input/joystick-parport.txt gamma= [HW,DRM] gart_fix_e820= [X86_64] disable the fix e820 for K8 GART Format: off | on default: on gdth= [HW,SCSI] See header of drivers/scsi/gdth.c. gpt [EFI] Forces disk with valid GPT signature but invalid Protective MBR to be treated as GPT. gvp11= [HW,SCSI] hashdist= [KNL,NUMA] Large hashes allocated during boot are distributed across NUMA nodes. Defaults on for IA-64, off otherwise. Format: 0 | 1 (for off | on) hcl= [IA-64] SGI's Hardware Graph compatibility layer hd= [EIDE] (E)IDE hard drive subsystem geometry Format: ,, highmem=nn[KMG] [KNL,BOOT] forces the highmem zone to have an exact size of . This works even on boxes that have no highmem otherwise. This also works to reduce highmem size on bigger boxes. highres= [KNL] Enable/disable high resolution timer mode. Valid parameters: "on", "off" Default: "on" hisax= [HW,ISDN] See Documentation/isdn/README.HiSax. hugepages= [HW,X86-32,IA-64] HugeTLB pages to allocate at boot. hugepagesz= [HW,IA-64,PPC,X86-64] The size of the HugeTLB pages. On x86-64 and powerpc, this option can be specified multiple times interleaved with hugepages= to reserve huge pages of different sizes. Valid pages sizes on x86-64 are 2M (when the CPU supports "pse") and 1G (when the CPU supports the "pdpe1gb" cpuinfo flag) Note that 1GB pages can only be allocated at boot time using hugepages= and not freed afterwards. default_hugepagesz= [same as hugepagesz=] The size of the default HugeTLB page size. This is the size represented by the legacy /proc/ hugepages APIs, used for SHM, and default size when mounting hugetlbfs filesystems. Defaults to the default architecture's huge page size if not specified. hlt [BUGS=ARM,SH] i8042.debug [HW] Toggle i8042 debug mode i8042.direct [HW] Put keyboard port into non-translated mode i8042.dumbkbd [HW] Pretend that controller can only read data from keyboard and cannot control its state (Don't attempt to blink the leds) i8042.noaux [HW] Don't check for auxiliary (== mouse) port i8042.nokbd [HW] Don't check/create keyboard port i8042.noloop [HW] Disable the AUX Loopback command while probing for the AUX port i8042.nomux [HW] Don't check presence of an active multiplexing controller i8042.nopnp [HW] Don't use ACPIPnP / PnPBIOS to discover KBD/AUX controllers i8042.panicblink= [HW] Frequency with which keyboard LEDs should blink when kernel panics (default is 0.5 sec) i8042.reset [HW] Reset the controller during init and cleanup i8042.unlock [HW] Unlock (ignore) the keylock i810= [HW,DRM] i8k.ignore_dmi [HW] Continue probing hardware even if DMI data indicates that the driver is running on unsupported hardware. i8k.force [HW] Activate i8k driver even if SMM BIOS signature does not match list of supported models. i8k.power_status [HW] Report power status in /proc/i8k (disabled by default) i8k.restricted [HW] Allow controlling fans only if SYS_ADMIN capability is set. ibmmcascsi= [HW,MCA,SCSI] IBM MicroChannel SCSI adapter See Documentation/mca.txt. icn= [HW,ISDN] Format: [,[,[,]]] ide= [HW] (E)IDE subsystem Format: ide=nodma or ide=doubler See Documentation/ide/ide.txt. idebus= [HW] (E)IDE subsystem - VLB/PCI bus speed See Documentation/ide/ide.txt. idle= [X86] Format: idle=poll or idle=mwait, idle=halt, idle=nomwait Poll forces a polling idle loop that can slightly improves the performance of waking up a idle CPU, but will use a lot of power and make the system run hot. Not recommended. idle=mwait. On systems which support MONITOR/MWAIT but the kernel chose to not use it because it doesn't save as much power as a normal idle loop use the MONITOR/MWAIT idle loop anyways. Performance should be the same as idle=poll. idle=halt. Halt is forced to be used for CPU idle. In such case C2/C3 won't be used again. idle=nomwait. Disable mwait for CPU C-states ide-pci-generic.all-generic-ide [HW] (E)IDE subsystem Claim all unknown PCI IDE storage controllers. ignore_loglevel [KNL] Ignore loglevel setting - this will print /all/ kernel messages to the console. Useful for debugging. ihash_entries= [KNL] Set number of hash buckets for inode cache. in2000= [HW,SCSI] See header of drivers/scsi/in2000.c. init= [KNL] Format: 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: inttest= [IA64] iommu= [x86] off force noforce biomerge panic nopanic merge nomerge forcesac soft intel_iommu= [DMAR] Intel IOMMU driver (DMAR) option off Disable intel iommu driver. igfx_off [Default Off] By default, gfx is mapped as normal device. If a gfx device has a dedicated DMAR unit, the DMAR unit is bypassed by not enabling DMAR with this option. In this case, gfx device will use physical address for DMA. forcedac [x86_64] With this option iommu will not optimize to look for io virtual address below 32 bit forcing dual address cycle on pci bus for cards supporting greater than 32 bit addressing. The default is to look for translation below 32 bit and if not available then look in the higher range. strict [Default Off] With this option on every unmap_single operation will result in a hardware IOTLB flush operation as opposed to batching them for performance. io_delay= [X86-32,X86-64] I/O delay method 0x80 Standard port 0x80 based delay 0xed Alternate port 0xed based delay (needed on some systems) udelay Simple two microseconds delay none No delay 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/filesystems/nfsroot.txt. ip2= [HW] Set IO/IRQ pairs for up to 4 IntelliPort boards See comment before ip2_setup() in drivers/char/ip2/ip2base.c. ips= [HW,SCSI] Adaptec / IBM ServeRAID controller See header of drivers/scsi/ips.c. ports= [IP_VS_FTP] IPVS ftp helper module Default is 21. Up to 8 (IP_VS_APP_MAX_PORTS) ports may be specified. Format: ,.... irqfixup [HW] When an interrupt is not handled search all handlers for it. Intended to get systems with badly broken firmware running. irqpoll [HW] When an interrupt is not handled search all handlers for it. Also check all handlers each timer interrupt. Intended to get systems with badly broken firmware running. isapnp= [ISAPNP] Format: ,,, isolcpus= [KNL,SMP] Isolate CPUs from the general scheduler. Format: ,..., or - (must be a positive range in ascending order) or a mixture ,...,- 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. 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. iucv= [HW,NET] js= [HW,JOY] Analog joystick See Documentation/input/joystick.txt. kernelcore=nn[KMG] [KNL,X86-32,IA-64,PPC,X86-64] This parameter specifies the amount of memory usable by the kernel for non-movable allocations. The requested amount is spread evenly throughout all nodes in the system. The remaining memory in each node is used for Movable pages. In the event, a node is too small to have both kernelcore and Movable pages, kernelcore pages will take priority and other nodes will have a larger number of kernelcore pages. The Movable zone is used for the allocation of pages that may be reclaimed or moved by the page migration subsystem. This means that HugeTLB pages may not be allocated from this zone. Note that allocations like PTEs-from-HighMem still use the HighMem zone if it exists, and the Normal zone if it does not. movablecore=nn[KMG] [KNL,X86-32,IA-64,PPC,X86-64] This parameter is similar to kernelcore except it specifies the amount of memory used for migratable allocations. If both kernelcore and movablecore is specified, then kernelcore will be at *least* the specified value but may be more. If movablecore on its own is specified, the administrator must be careful that the amount of memory usable for all allocations is not too small. keepinitrd [HW,ARM] kstack=N [X86-32,X86-64] Print N words from the kernel stack in oops dumps. kgdboc= [HW] kgdb over consoles. Requires a tty driver that supports console polling. (only serial suported for now) Format: [,baud] kmac= [MIPS] korina ethernet MAC address. Configure the RouterBoard 532 series on-chip Ethernet adapter MAC address. l2cr= [PPC] l3cr= [PPC] lapic [X86-32,APIC] Enable the local APIC even if BIOS disabled it. lapic_timer_c2_ok [X86-32,x86-64,APIC] trust the local apic timer in C2 power state. libata.dma= [LIBATA] DMA control libata.dma=0 Disable all PATA and SATA DMA libata.dma=1 PATA and SATA Disk DMA only libata.dma=2 ATAPI (CDROM) DMA only libata.dma=4 Compact Flash DMA only Combinations also work, so libata.dma=3 enables DMA for disks and CDROMs, but not CFs. libata.noacpi [LIBATA] Disables use of ACPI in libata suspend/resume when set. Format: libata.force= [LIBATA] Force configurations. The format is comma separated list of "[ID:]VAL" where ID is PORT[:DEVICE]. PORT and DEVICE are decimal numbers matching port, link or device. Basically, it matches the ATA ID string printed on console by libata. If the whole ID part is omitted, the last PORT and DEVICE values are used. If ID hasn't been specified yet, the configuration applies to all ports, links and devices. If only DEVICE is omitted, the parameter applies to the port and all links and devices behind it. DEVICE number of 0 either selects the first device or the first fan-out link behind PMP device. It does not select the host link. DEVICE number of 15 selects the host link and device attached to it. The VAL specifies the configuration to force. As long as there's no ambiguity shortcut notation is allowed. For example, both 1.5 and 1.5G would work for 1.5Gbps. The following configurations can be forced. * Cable type: 40c, 80c, short40c, unk, ign or sata. Any ID with matching PORT is used. * SATA link speed limit: 1.5Gbps or 3.0Gbps. * Transfer mode: pio[0-7], mwdma[0-4] and udma[0-7]. udma[/][16,25,33,44,66,100,133] notation is also allowed. * [no]ncq: Turn on or off NCQ. * nohrst, nosrst, norst: suppress hard, soft and both resets. If there are multiple matching configurations changing the same attribute, the last one is used. load_ramdisk= [RAM] List of ramdisks to load from floppy See Documentation/ramdisk.txt. lockd.nlm_grace_period=P [NFS] Assign grace period. Format: lockd.nlm_tcpport=N [NFS] Assign TCP port. Format: lockd.nlm_timeout=T [NFS] Assign timeout value. Format: lockd.nlm_udpport=M [NFS] Assign UDP port. Format: logibm.irq= [HW,MOUSE] Logitech Bus Mouse Driver Format: loglevel= All Kernel Messages with a loglevel smaller than the console loglevel will be printed to the console. It can also be changed with klogd or other programs. The loglevels are defined as follows: 0 (KERN_EMERG) system is unusable 1 (KERN_ALERT) action must be taken immediately 2 (KERN_CRIT) critical conditions 3 (KERN_ERR) error conditions 4 (KERN_WARNING) warning conditions 5 (KERN_NOTICE) normal but significant condition 6 (KERN_INFO) informational 7 (KERN_DEBUG) debug-level messages log_buf_len=n Sets the size of the printk ring buffer, in bytes. Format: { n | nk | nM } n must be a power of two. The default size is set in the kernel config file. logo.nologo [FB] Disables display of the built-in Linux logo. This may be used to provide more screen space for kernel log messages and is useful when debugging kernel boot problems. 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: ,, mac5380= [HW,SCSI] Format: ,,,, machvec= [IA64] Force the use of a particular machine-vector (machvec) in a generic kernel. Example: machvec=hpzx1_swiotlb max_loop= [LOOP] Maximum number of loopback devices that can be mounted Format: <1-256> maxcpus= [SMP] Maximum number of processors that an SMP kernel should make use of. maxcpus=n : n >= 0 limits the kernel to using 'n' processors. n=0 is a special case, it is equivalent to "nosmp", which also disables the IO APIC. max_addr=[KMG] [KNL,BOOT,ia64] All physical memory greater than or equal to this physical address is ignored. max_luns= [SCSI] Maximum number of LUNs to probe. Should be between 1 and 2^32-1. max_report_luns= [SCSI] Maximum number of LUNs received. Should be between 1 and 16384. mcatest= [IA-64] mce [X86-32] Machine Check Exception mce=option [X86-64] See Documentation/x86/x86_64/boot-options.txt md= [HW] RAID subsystems devices and level See Documentation/md.txt. mdacon= [MDA] Format: , 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. [X86-32] 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=X86-32] Disable usage of 4MB pages for kernel memory. memchunk=nn[KMG] [KNL,SH] Allow user to override the default size for per-device physically contiguous DMA buffers. memmap=exactmap [KNL,X86-32,X86_64] 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. Example: Exclude memory from 0x18690000-0x1869ffff memmap=64K$0x18690000 or memmap=0x10000$0x18690000 memory_corruption_check=0/1 [X86] Some BIOSes seem to corrupt the first 64k of memory when doing things like suspend/resume. Setting this option will scan the memory looking for corruption. Enabling this will both detect corruption and prevent the kernel from using the memory being corrupted. However, its intended as a diagnostic tool; if repeatable BIOS-originated corruption always affects the same memory, you can use memmap= to prevent the kernel from using that memory. memory_corruption_check_size=size [X86] By default it checks for corruption in the low 64k, making this memory unavailable for normal use. Use this parameter to scan for corruption in more or less memory. memory_corruption_check_period=seconds [X86] By default it checks for corruption every 60 seconds. Use this parameter to check at some other rate. 0 disables periodic checking. memtest= [KNL,X86] Enable memtest Format: range: 0,4 : pattern number default : 0 meye.*= [HW] Set MotionEye Camera parameters See Documentation/video4linux/meye.txt. mfgpt_irq= [IA-32] Specify the IRQ to use for the Multi-Function General Purpose Timers on AMD Geode platforms. mfgptfix [X86-32] Fix MFGPT timers on AMD Geode platforms when the BIOS has incorrectly applied a workaround. TinyBIOS version 0.98 is known to be affected, 0.99 fixes the problem by letting the user disable the workaround. mga= [HW,DRM] mminit_loglevel= [KNL] When CONFIG_DEBUG_MEMORY_INIT is set, this parameter allows control of the logging verbosity for the additional memory initialisation checks. A value of 0 disables mminit logging and a level of 4 will log everything. Information is printed at KERN_DEBUG so loglevel=8 may also need to be specified. 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: 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: , MTD_Partition= [MTD] Format: ,,, MTD_Region= [MTD] Format: ,[,,,,] mtdparts= [MTD] See drivers/mtd/cmdlinepart.c. mtdset= [ARM] ARM/S3C2412 JIVE boot control See arch/arm/mach-s3c2412/mach-jive.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: ,,,, Note that mem_start is often overloaded to mean something different and driver-specific. This usage is only documented in each driver source file if at all. nf_conntrack.acct= [NETFILTER] Enable connection tracking flow accounting 0 to disable accounting 1 to enable accounting Default value depends on CONFIG_NF_CT_ACCT that is going to be removed in 2.6.29. nfsaddrs= [NFS] See Documentation/filesystems/nfsroot.txt. nfsroot= [NFS] nfs root filesystem for disk-less boxes. See Documentation/filesystems/nfsroot.txt. nfs.callback_tcpport= [NFS] set the TCP port on which the NFSv4 callback channel should listen. nfs.idmap_cache_timeout= [NFS] set the maximum lifetime for idmapper cache entries. nfs.enable_ino64= [NFS] enable 64-bit inode numbers. If zero, the NFS client will fake up a 32-bit inode number for the readdir() and stat() syscalls instead of returning the full 64-bit number. The default is to return 64-bit inode numbers. nmi_debug= [KNL,AVR32] Specify one or more actions to take when a NMI is triggered. Format: [state][,regs][,debounce][,die] nmi_watchdog= [KNL,BUGS=X86-32] Debugging features for SMP kernels no387 [BUGS=X86-32] Tells the kernel to use the 387 maths emulation library even if a 387 maths coprocessor is present. noaliencache [MM, NUMA, SLAB] Disables the allocation of alien caches in the slab allocator. Saves per-node memory, but will impact performance. noalign [KNL,ARM] noapic [SMP,APIC] Tells the kernel to not make use of any IOAPICs that may be present in the system. nobats [PPC] Do not use BATs for mapping kernel lowmem on "Classic" PPC cores. nocache [ARM] nodelayacct [KNL] Disable per-task delay accounting nodisconnect [HW,SCSI,M68K] Disables SCSI disconnects. nodsp [SH] Disable hardware DSP at boot time. noefi [X86-32,X86-64] Disable EFI runtime services support. noexec [IA-64] noexec [X86-32,X86-64] On X86-32 available only on PAE configured kernels. noexec=on: enable non-executable mappings (default) noexec=off: disable non-executable mappings noexec32 [X86-64] This affects only 32-bit executables. noexec32=on: enable non-executable mappings (default) read doesn't imply executable mappings noexec32=off: disable non-executable mappings read implies executable mappings nofpu [SH] Disable hardware FPU at boot time. nofxsr [BUGS=X86-32] Disables x86 floating point extended register save and restore. The kernel will only save legacy floating-point registers on task switch. noclflush [BUGS=X86] Don't use the CLFLUSH instruction nohlt [BUGS=ARM,SH] no-hlt [BUGS=X86-32] 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. nohz= [KNL] Boottime enable/disable dynamic ticks Valid arguments: on, off Default: on noirqbalance [X86-32,SMP,KNL] Disable kernel irq balancing noirqdebug [X86-32] Disables the code which attempts to detect and disable unhandled interrupt sources. no_timer_check [X86-32,X86_64,APIC] Disables the code which tests for broken timer IRQ sources. noisapnp [ISAPNP] Disables ISA PnP code. noinitrd [RAM] Tells the kernel not to load any configured initial RAM disk. nointroute [IA-64] nojitter [IA64] Disables jitter checking for ITC timers. nolapic [X86-32,APIC] Do not enable or use the local APIC. nolapic_timer [X86-32,APIC] Do not use the local APIC timer. nox2apic [X86-64,APIC] Do not enable x2APIC mode. x2apic_phys [X86-64,APIC] Use x2apic physical mode instead of default x2apic cluster mode on platforms supporting x2apic. noltlbs [PPC] Do not use large page/tlb entries for kernel lowmem mapping on PPC40x. nomca [IA-64] Disable machine check abort handling nomce [X86-32] Machine Check Exception nomfgpt [X86-32] Disable Multi-Function General Purpose Timer usage (for AMD Geode machines). noreplace-paravirt [X86-32,PV_OPS] Don't patch paravirt_ops noreplace-smp [X86-32,SMP] Don't replace SMP instructions with UP alternatives noresidual [PPC] Don't use residual data on PReP machines. noresume [SWSUSP] Disables resume and restores 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] nosep [BUGS=X86-32] Disables x86 SYSENTER/SYSEXIT support. nosmp [SMP] Tells an SMP kernel to act as a UP kernel, and disable the IO APIC. legacy for "maxcpus=0". nosoftlockup [KNL] Disable the soft-lockup detector. nosync [HW,M68K] Disables sync negotiation for all devices. notsc [BUGS=X86-32] Disable Time Stamp Counter nousb [USB] Disable the USB subsystem nowb [ARM] nptcg= [IA64] Override max number of concurrent global TLB purges which is reported from either PAL_VM_SUMMARY or SAL PALO. numa_zonelist_order= [KNL, BOOT] Select zonelist order for NUMA. one of ['zone', 'node', 'default'] can be specified This can be set from sysctl after boot. See Documentation/sysctl/vm.txt for details. nr_uarts= [SERIAL] maximum number of UARTs to be registered. olpc_ec_timeout= [OLPC] ms delay when issuing EC commands Rather than timing out after 20 ms if an EC command is not properly ACKed, override the length of the timeout. We have interrupts disabled while waiting for the ACK, so if this is set too high interrupts *may* be lost! opl3= [HW,OSS] Format: oprofile.timer= [HW] Use timer interrupt instead of performance counters osst= [HW,SCSI] SCSI Tape Driver Format: , See also Documentation/scsi/st.txt. panic= [KNL] Kernel behaviour on panic Format: parkbd.port= [HW] Parallel port number the keyboard adapter is connected to, default is 0. Format: parkbd.mode= [HW] Parallel port keyboard adapter mode of operation, 0 for XT, 1 for AT (default is AT). Format: parport= [HW,PPT] Specify parallel ports. 0 disables. Format: { 0 | auto | 0xBBB[,IRQ[,DMA]] } Use 'auto' to force the driver to use 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 a 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: ,,,,,,, pas16= [HW,SCSI] See header of drivers/scsi/pas16.c. pause_on_oops= Halt all CPUs after the first oops has been printed for the specified number of seconds. This is to be used if your oopses keep scrolling off the screen. 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 [X86] don't probe for the PCI bus bios [X86-32] force use of PCI BIOS, don't access the hardware directly. Use this if your machine has a non-standard PCI host bridge. nobios [X86-32] 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 [X86] Force use of PCI Configuration Mechanism 1. conf2 [X86] Force use of PCI Configuration Mechanism 2. noaer [PCIE] If the PCIEAER kernel config parameter is enabled, this kernel boot option can be used to disable the use of PCIE advanced error reporting. nodomains [PCI] Disable support for multiple PCI root domains (aka PCI segments, in ACPI-speak). nommconf [X86-32,X86_64] Disable use of MMCONFIG for PCI Configuration nomsi [MSI] If the PCI_MSI kernel config parameter is enabled, this kernel boot option can be used to disable the use of MSI interrupts system-wide. biosirq [X86-32] 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 [X86] Assign address space to expansion ROMs. Use with caution as certain devices share address decoders between ROMs and other resources. norom [X86] Do not assign address space to expansion ROMs that do not already have BIOS assigned address ranges. irqmask=0xMMMM [X86] 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. pirqaddr=0xAAAAA [X86] Specify the physical address of the PIRQ table (normally generated by the BIOS) if it is outside the F0000h-100000h range. lastbus=N [X86] Scan all buses thru 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 [X86] Always assign all PCI bus numbers ourselves, overriding whatever the firmware may have done. usepirqmask [X86] 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 [X86] Do not use ACPI for IRQ routing or for PCI scanning. use_crs [X86] Use _CRS for PCI resource allocation. 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. skip_isa_align [X86] do not align io start addr, so can handle more pci cards 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. noearly [X86] Don't do any early type 1 scanning. This might help on some broken boards which machine check when some devices' config space is read. But various workarounds are disabled and some IOMMU drivers will not work. bfsort Sort PCI devices into breadth-first order. This sorting is done to get a device order compatible with older (<= 2.4) kernels. nobfsort Don't sort PCI devices into breadth-first order. cbiosize=nn[KMG] The fixed amount of bus space which is reserved for the CardBus bridge's IO window. The default value is 256 bytes. cbmemsize=nn[KMG] The fixed amount of bus space which is reserved for the CardBus bridge's memory window. The default value is 64 megabytes. pcie_aspm= [PCIE] Forcibly enable or disable PCIe Active State Power Management. off Disable ASPM. force Enable ASPM even on devices that claim not to support it. WARNING: Forcing ASPM on may cause system lockups. 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/x86/i386/IO-APIC.txt. plip= [PPT,NET] Parallel port network link Format: { parport | timid | 0 } See also Documentation/parport.txt. pmtmr= [X86] Manual setup of pmtmr I/O Port. Override pmtimer IOPort with a hex value. e.g. pmtmr=0x508 pnp.debug [PNP] Enable PNP debug messages. This depends on the CONFIG_PNP_DEBUG_MESSAGES option. 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). dynamic_printk Enables pr_debug()/dev_dbg() calls if CONFIG_DYNAMIC_PRINTK_DEBUG has been enabled. These can also be switched on/off via /dynamic_printk/modules print-fatal-signals= [KNL] debug: print fatal signals print-fatal-signals=1: print segfault info to the kernel console. default: off. printk.time= Show timing data prefixed to each printk message line Format: (1/Y/y=enable, 0/N/n=disable) profile= [KNL] Enable kernel profiling via /proc/profile Format: [schedule,] Param: "schedule" - profile schedule points. Param: - step/bucket size as a power of 2 for statistical time based profiling. Param: "sleep" - profile D-state sleeping (millisecs). Requires CONFIG_SCHEDSTATS Param: "kvm" - profile VM exits. processor.max_cstate= [HW,ACPI] Limit processor to maximum C-state max_cstate=9 overrides any DMI blacklist limit. processor.nocst [HW,ACPI] Ignore the _CST method to determine C-states, instead using the legacy FADT method 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; one of (bare|imps|exps|lifebook|any). 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: ,,,,, pt. [PARIDE] See Documentation/paride.txt. pty.legacy_count= [KNL] Number of legacy pty's. Overwrites compiled-in default number. quiet [KNL] Disable most log messages r128= [HW,DRM] raid= [HW,RAID] See Documentation/md.txt. ramdisk_blocksize= [RAM] See Documentation/ramdisk.txt. ramdisk_size= [RAM] Sizes of RAM disks in kilobytes See Documentation/ramdisk.txt. rcupdate.blimit= [KNL,BOOT] Set maximum number of finished RCU callbacks to process in one batch. rcupdate.qhimark= [KNL,BOOT] Set threshold of queued RCU callbacks over which batch limiting is disabled. rcupdate.qlowmark= [KNL,BOOT] Set threshold of queued RCU callbacks below which batch limiting is re-enabled. rdinit= [KNL] Format: Run specified binary instead of /init from the ramdisk, used for early userspace startup. See initrd. reboot= [BUGS=X86-32,BUGS=ARM,BUGS=IA-64] Rebooting mode Format: [,[,...]] See arch/*/kernel/reboot.c or arch/*/kernel/process.c relax_domain_level= [KNL, SMP] Set scheduler's default relax_domain_level. See Documentation/cpusets.txt. reserve= [KNL,BUGS] Force the kernel to ignore some iomem area reservetop= [X86-32] Format: nn[KMG] Reserves a hole at the top of the kernel virtual address space. reset_devices [KNL] Force drivers to reset the underlying device during initialization. resume= [SWSUSP] Specify the partition device for software suspend resume_offset= [SWSUSP] Specify the offset from the beginning of the partition given by "resume=" at which the swap header is located, in units (needed only for swap files). See Documentation/power/swsusp-and-swap-files.txt retain_initrd [RAM] Keep initrd memory after extraction rhash_entries= [KNL,NET] Set number of hash buckets for route cache riscom8= [HW,SERIAL] Format: [,[,...]] 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 rootwait [KNL] Wait (indefinitely) for root device to show up. Useful for devices that are detected asynchronously (e.g. USB and MMC devices). root_plug.vendor_id= [ROOTPLUG] Override the default vendor ID root_plug.product_id= [ROOTPLUG] Override the default product ID root_plug.debug= [ROOTPLUG] Enable debugging output 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. sbni= [NET] Granch SBNI12 leased line adapter sc1200wdt= [HW,WDT] SC1200 WDT (watchdog) driver Format: [,[,]] scsi_debug_*= [SCSI] See drivers/scsi/scsi_debug.c. scsi_default_dev_flags= [SCSI] SCSI default device flags Format: scsi_dev_flags= [SCSI] Black/white list entry for vendor and model Format: :: (flags are integer value) scsi_logging_level= [SCSI] a bit mask of logging levels See drivers/scsi/scsi_logging.h for bits. Also settable via sysctl at dev.scsi.logging_level (/proc/sys/dev/scsi/logging_level). There is also a nice 'scsi_logging_level' script in the S390-tools package, available for download at http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/linux390/s390-tools-1.5.4.html scsi_mod.scan= [SCSI] sync (default) scans SCSI busses as they are discovered. async scans them in kernel threads, allowing boot to proceed. none ignores them, expecting user space to do the scan. 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. selinux_compat_net = [SELINUX] Set initial selinux_compat_net flag value. Format: { "0" | "1" } 0 -- use new secmark-based packet controls 1 -- use legacy packet controls Default value is 0 (preferred). Value can be changed at runtime via /selinux/compat_net. serialnumber [BUGS=X86-32] shapers= [NET] Maximal number of shapers. show_msr= [x86] show boot-time MSR settings Format: { } Show boot-time (BIOS-initialized) MSR settings. The parameter means the number of CPUs to show, for example 1 means boot CPU only. sim710= [SCSI,HW] See header of drivers/scsi/sim710.c. simeth= [IA-64] simscsi= slram= [HW,MTD] slub_debug[=options[,slabs]] [MM, SLUB] Enabling slub_debug allows one to determine the culprit if slab objects become corrupted. Enabling slub_debug can create guard zones around objects and may poison objects when not in use. Also tracks the last alloc / free. For more information see Documentation/vm/slub.txt. slub_max_order= [MM, SLUB] Determines the maximum allowed order for slabs. A high setting may cause OOMs due to memory fragmentation. For more information see Documentation/vm/slub.txt. slub_min_objects= [MM, SLUB] The minimum number of objects per slab. SLUB will increase the slab order up to slub_max_order to generate a sufficiently large slab able to contain the number of objects indicated. The higher the number of objects the smaller the overhead of tracking slabs and the less frequently locks need to be acquired. For more information see Documentation/vm/slub.txt. slub_min_order= [MM, SLUB] Determines the mininum page order for slabs. Must be lower than slub_max_order. For more information see Documentation/vm/slub.txt. slub_nomerge [MM, SLUB] Disable merging of slabs with similar size. May be necessary if there is some reason to distinguish allocs to different slabs. Debug options disable merging on their own. For more information see Documentation/vm/slub.txt. smart2= [HW] Format: [,[,...,]] smp-alt-once [X86-32,SMP] On a hotplug CPU system, only attempt to substitute SMP alternatives once at boot. smsc-ircc2.nopnp [HW] Don't use PNP to discover SMC devices smsc-ircc2.ircc_cfg= [HW] Device configuration I/O port smsc-ircc2.ircc_sir= [HW] SIR base I/O port smsc-ircc2.ircc_fir= [HW] FIR base I/O port smsc-ircc2.ircc_irq= [HW] IRQ line smsc-ircc2.ircc_dma= [HW] DMA channel smsc-ircc2.ircc_transceiver= [HW] Transceiver type: 0: Toshiba Satellite 1800 (GP data pin select) 1: Fast pin select (default) 2: ATC IRMode 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] softlockup_panic= [KNL] Should the soft-lockup detector generate panics. 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: ,,,, st= [HW,SCSI] SCSI tape parameters (buffers, etc.) See Documentation/scsi/st.txt. sti= [PARISC,HW] Format: 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:[:[:...]] sunrpc.pool_mode= [NFS] Control how the NFS server code allocates CPUs to service thread pools. Depending on how many NICs you have and where their interrupts are bound, this option will affect which CPUs will do NFS serving. Note: this parameter cannot be changed while the NFS server is running. auto the server chooses an appropriate mode automatically using heuristics global a single global pool contains all CPUs percpu one pool for each CPU pernode one pool for each NUMA node (equivalent to global on non-NUMA machines) swiotlb= [IA-64] Number of I/O TLB slabs switches= [HW,M68k] sym53c416= [HW,SCSI] See header of drivers/scsi/sym53c416.c. sysrq_always_enabled [KNL] Ignore sysrq setting - this boot parameter will neutralize any effect of /proc/sys/kernel/sysrq. Useful for debugging. t128= [HW,SCSI] See header of drivers/scsi/t128.c. tdfx= [HW,DRM] test_suspend= [SUSPEND] Specify "mem" (for Suspend-to-RAM) or "standby" (for standby suspend) as the system sleep state to briefly enter during system startup. The system is woken from this state using a wakeup-capable RTC alarm. thash_entries= [KNL,NET] Set number of hash buckets for TCP connection thermal.act= [HW,ACPI] -1: disable all active trip points in all thermal zones : override all lowest active trip points thermal.crt= [HW,ACPI] -1: disable all critical trip points in all thermal zones : override all critical trip points thermal.nocrt= [HW,ACPI] Set to disable actions on ACPI thermal zone critical and hot trip points. thermal.off= [HW,ACPI] 1: disable ACPI thermal control thermal.psv= [HW,ACPI] -1: disable all passive trip points : override all passive trip points to this value thermal.tzp= [HW,ACPI] Specify global default ACPI thermal zone polling rate : poll all this frequency 0: no polling (default) tmscsim= [HW,SCSI] See comment before function dc390_setup() in drivers/scsi/tmscsim.c. tp720= [HW,PS2] trix= [HW,OSS] MediaTrix AudioTrix Pro Format: ,,,,,,,, turbografx.map[2|3]= [HW,JOY] TurboGraFX parallel port interface Format: ,,,,,,, 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: , uart6850= [HW,OSS] Format: , uhci-hcd.ignore_oc= [USB] Ignore overcurrent events (default N). Some badly-designed motherboards generate lots of bogus events, for ports that aren't wired to anything. Set this parameter to avoid log spamming. Note that genuine overcurrent events won't be reported either. unknown_nmi_panic [X86-32,X86-64] Set unknown_nmi_panic=1 early on boot. usbcore.autosuspend= [USB] The autosuspend time delay (in seconds) used for newly-detected USB devices (default 2). This is the time required before an idle device will be autosuspended. Devices for which the delay is set to a negative value won't be autosuspended at all. usbcore.usbfs_snoop= [USB] Set to log all usbfs traffic (default 0 = off). usbcore.blinkenlights= [USB] Set to cycle leds on hubs (default 0 = off). usbcore.old_scheme_first= [USB] Start with the old device initialization scheme (default 0 = off). usbcore.use_both_schemes= [USB] Try the other device initialization scheme if the first one fails (default 1 = enabled). usbcore.initial_descriptor_timeout= [USB] Specifies timeout for the initial 64-byte USB_REQ_GET_DESCRIPTOR request in milliseconds (default 5000 = 5.0 seconds). usbhid.mousepoll= [USBHID] The interval which mice are to be polled at. add_efi_memmap [EFI; x86-32,X86-64] Include EFI memory map in kernel's map of available physical RAM. vdso= [X86-32,SH,x86-64] vdso=2: enable compat VDSO (default with COMPAT_VDSO) vdso=1: enable VDSO (default) vdso=0: disable VDSO mapping vdso32= [X86-32,X86-64] vdso32=2: enable compat VDSO (default with COMPAT_VDSO) vdso32=1: enable 32-bit VDSO (default) vdso32=0: disable 32-bit VDSO mapping vector= [IA-64,SMP] vector=percpu: enable percpu vector domain video= [FB] Frame buffer configuration See Documentation/fb/modedb.txt. vga= [BOOT,X86-32] Select a particular video mode See Documentation/x86/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 . 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] Perform z/VM CP command after system halt. Format: vmpanic= [KNL,S390] Perform z/VM CP command after kernel panic. Format: vmpoff= [KNL,S390] Perform z/VM CP command after power off. Format: waveartist= [HW,OSS] Format: ,,, 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/wdt.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: ,,,,,[,[,[,]]] norandmaps Don't use address space randomization Equivalent to echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/randomize_va_space ______________________________________________________________________ TODO: Add documentation for ALSA options. Add more DRM drivers.