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NAME

       bootparam - introduction to boot time parameters of the Linux kernel

DESCRIPTION

       The  Linux  kernel accepts certain 'command-line options' or 'boot time parameters' at the
       moment it is started.  In general this is used to supply the kernel with information about
       hardware  parameters  that  the  kernel  would  not be able to determine on its own, or to
       avoid/override the values that the kernel would otherwise detect.

       When the kernel is booted directly by the BIOS, you have no  opportunity  to  specify  any
       parameters.   So,  in  order  to take advantage of this possibility you have to use a boot
       loader that is able to pass parameters, such as GRUB.

   The argument list
       The kernel command line is parsed into a list of strings  (boot  arguments)  separated  by
       spaces.  Most of the boot arguments have the form:

           name[=value_1][,value_2]...[,value_10]

       where  'name'  is  a  unique  keyword that is used to identify what part of the kernel the
       associated values (if any) are to be given to.  Note the limit  of  10  is  real,  as  the
       present  code  handles  only 10 comma separated parameters per keyword.  (However, you can
       reuse the same keyword with up to an additional 10  parameters  in  unusually  complicated
       situations, assuming the setup function supports it.)

       Most  of  the  sorting  is coded in the kernel source file init/main.c.  First, the kernel
       checks to see if the argument  is  any  of  the  special  arguments  'root=',  'nfsroot=',
       'nfsaddrs=',  'ro',  'rw',  'debug'  or 'init'.  The meaning of these special arguments is
       described below.

       Then it walks a list of setup functions to see if the specified argument string  (such  as
       'foo')  has  been associated with a setup function ('foo_setup()') for a particular device
       or part of the kernel.  If you passed the kernel the  line  foo=3,4,5,6  then  the  kernel
       would  search  the  bootsetups  array  to see if 'foo' was registered.  If it was, then it
       would call the setup  function  associated  with  'foo'  (foo_setup())  and  hand  it  the
       arguments 3, 4, 5, and 6 as given on the kernel command line.

       Anything of the form 'foo=bar' that is not accepted as a setup function as described above
       is then interpreted as an environment variable to be set.  A (useless?) example  would  be
       to use 'TERM=vt100' as a boot argument.

       Any  remaining arguments that were not picked up by the kernel and were not interpreted as
       environment variables are then passed onto PID 1, which is usually  the  init(1)  program.
       The  most  common  argument  that is passed to the init process is the word 'single' which
       instructs it to boot the computer in single user  mode,  and  not  launch  all  the  usual
       daemons.  Check the manual page for the version of init(1) installed on your system to see
       what arguments it accepts.

   General non-device-specific boot arguments
       'init=...'
              This sets the initial command to be executed by the kernel.  If this is not set, or
              cannot  be  found,  the kernel will try /sbin/init, then /etc/init, then /bin/init,
              then /bin/sh and panic if all of this fails.

       'nfsaddrs=...'
              This sets the NFS boot address to the given string.  This boot address is  used  in
              case of a net boot.

       'nfsroot=...'
              This  sets  the  NFS  root name to the given string.  If this string does not begin
              with '/' or ',' or a digit, then it is prefixed by '/tftpboot/'.  This root name is
              used in case of a net boot.

       'root=...'
              This  argument  tells  the  kernel what device is to be used as the root filesystem
              while booting.  The default of this setting is  determined  at  compile  time,  and
              usually is the value of the root device of the system that the kernel was built on.
              To override this value, and select the second floppy drive as the root device,  one
              would use 'root=/dev/fd1'.

              The  root  device  can  be  specified  symbolically  or  numerically.   A  symbolic
              specification has the form /dev/XXYN, where XX designates the  device  type  (e.g.,
              'hd'  for  ST-506 compatible hard disk, with Y in 'a'-'d'; 'sd' for SCSI compatible
              disk, with Y in 'a'-'e'), Y the driver letter or  number,  and  N  the  number  (in
              decimal) of the partition on this device.

              Note  that  this  has  nothing  to do with the designation of these devices on your
              filesystem.  The '/dev/' part is purely conventional.

              The more awkward and less portable numeric specification of the above possible root
              devices  in  major/minor format is also accepted.  (For example, /dev/sda3 is major
              8, minor 3, so you could use 'root=0x803' as an alternative.)

       'rootdelay='
              This parameter sets the delay (in seconds) to pause before attempting to mount  the
              root filesystem.

       'rootflags=...'
              This  parameter  sets  the  mount  option  string for the root filesystem (see also
              fstab(5)).

       'rootfstype=...'
              The 'rootfstype' option tells the kernel to mount the  root  filesystem  as  if  it
              where  of  the  type  specified.  This can be useful (for example) to mount an ext3
              filesystem as ext2 and then remove the journal in  the  root  filesystem,  in  fact
              reverting  its  format  from  ext3  to  ext2  without the need to boot the box from
              alternate media.

       'ro' and 'rw'
              The 'ro' option tells the kernel to mount the root  filesystem  as  'read-only'  so
              that  filesystem consistency check programs (fsck) can do their work on a quiescent
              filesystem.  No processes can write to files on the filesystem in question until it
              is  'remounted'  as read/write capable, for example, by 'mount -w -n -o remount /'.
              (See also mount(8).)

              The 'rw' option tells the kernel to mount the root filesystem read/write.  This  is
              the default.

       'resume=...'
              This  tells  the  kernel the location of the suspend-to-disk data that you want the
              machine to resume from after hibernation.  Usually, it is the  same  as  your  swap
              partition or file.  Example:

                  resume=/dev/hda2

       'reserve=...'
              This is used to protect I/O port regions from probes.  The form of the command is:

                  reserve=iobase,extent[,iobase,extent]...

              In  some  machines  it may be necessary to prevent device drivers from checking for
              devices (auto-probing) in a specific region.  This may be because of hardware  that
              reacts  badly  to  the probing, or hardware that would be mistakenly identified, or
              merely hardware you don't want the kernel to initialize.

              The reserve boot-time argument specifies an  I/O  port  region  that  shouldn't  be
              probed.   A  device  driver  will  not probe a reserved region, unless another boot
              argument explicitly specifies that it do so.

              For example, the boot line

                  reserve=0x300,32  blah=0x300

              keeps all device drivers except the driver for 'blah' from probing 0x300-0x31f.

       'panic=N'
              By default, the kernel will not reboot after a panic, but this option will cause  a
              kernel  reboot after N seconds (if N is greater than zero).  This panic timeout can
              also be set by

                  echo N > /proc/sys/kernel/panic

       'reboot=[warm|cold][,[bios|hard]]'
              Since Linux 2.0.22, a reboot is by default a cold reboot.  One  asks  for  the  old
              default  with  'reboot=warm'.   (A  cold  reboot  may  be required to reset certain
              hardware, but might destroy not yet written data in a disk cache.   A  warm  reboot
              may be faster.)  By default, a reboot is hard, by asking the keyboard controller to
              pulse the reset line low, but there is at least one type of motherboard where  that
              doesn't work.  The option 'reboot=bios' will instead jump through the BIOS.

       'nosmp' and 'maxcpus=N'
              (Only  when  __SMP__  is defined.)  A command-line option of 'nosmp' or 'maxcpus=0'
              will disable SMP activation entirely; an  option  'maxcpus=N'  limits  the  maximum
              number of CPUs activated in SMP mode to N.

   Boot arguments for use by kernel developers
       'debug'
              Kernel messages are handed off to a daemon (e.g., klogd(8) or similar) so that they
              may be logged to disk.  Messages with a priority above  console_loglevel  are  also
              printed  on  the  console.   (For  a  discussion of log levels, see syslog(2).)  By
              default, console_loglevel is set to log messages at levels higher than  KERN_DEBUG.
              This  boot  argument  will  cause the kernel to also print messages logged at level
              KERN_DEBUG.  The console loglevel can also be  set  on  a  booted  system  via  the
              /proc/sys/kernel/printk    file    (described    in   syslog(2)),   the   syslog(2)
              SYSLOG_ACTION_CONSOLE_LEVEL operation, or dmesg(8).

       'profile=N'
              It is possible to enable a kernel profiling function, if one  wishes  to  find  out
              where  the  kernel is spending its CPU cycles.  Profiling is enabled by setting the
              variable prof_shift to  a  nonzero  value.   This  is  done  either  by  specifying
              CONFIG_PROFILE  at compile time, or by giving the 'profile=' option.  Now the value
              that prof_shift gets will be N, when given, or CONFIG_PROFILE_SHIFT, when  that  is
              given,  or  2, the default.  The significance of this variable is that it gives the
              granularity of the profiling: each clock tick, if the system was  executing  kernel
              code, a counter is incremented:

                  profile[address >> prof_shift]++;

              The raw profiling information can be read from /proc/profile.  Probably you'll want
              to use a tool such as readprofile.c to digest it.  Writing  to  /proc/profile  will
              clear the counters.

   Boot arguments for ramdisk use
       (Only if the kernel was compiled with CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM.)  In general it is a bad idea to
       use a ramdisk under Linux—the system will use available memory  more  efficiently  itself.
       But  while  booting,  it  is often useful to load the floppy contents into a ramdisk.  One
       might also have a system in which first some modules (for filesystem or hardware) must  be
       loaded before the main disk can be accessed.

       In  Linux  1.3.48,  ramdisk  handling  was  changed  drastically.  Earlier, the memory was
       allocated statically, and there was a 'ramdisk=N' parameter to tell its size.  (This could
       also  be  set  in  the kernel image at compile time.)  These days ram disks use the buffer
       cache, and grow dynamically.  For a lot of information on the current ramdisk  setup,  see
       the  kernel  source  file Documentation/blockdev/ramdisk.txt (Documentation/ramdisk.txt in
       older kernels).

       There are four parameters, two boolean and two integral.

       'load_ramdisk=N'
              If N=1, do load a ramdisk.  If N=0, do not load a ramdisk.  (This is the default.)

       'prompt_ramdisk=N'
              If N=1, do prompt for insertion of the floppy.  (This is the default.)  If N=0,  do
              not prompt.  (Thus, this parameter is never needed.)

       'ramdisk_size=N' or (obsolete) 'ramdisk=N'
              Set the maximal size of the ramdisk(s) to N kB.  The default is 4096 (4 MB).

       'ramdisk_start=N'
              Sets  the starting block number (the offset on the floppy where the ramdisk starts)
              to N.  This is needed in case the ramdisk follows a kernel image.

       'noinitrd'
              (Only   if    the    kernel    was    compiled    with    CONFIG_BLK_DEV_RAM    and
              CONFIG_BLK_DEV_INITRD.)   These  days  it  is possible to compile the kernel to use
              initrd.  When this feature is enabled, the boot process will load the kernel and an
              initial  ramdisk; then the kernel converts initrd into a "normal" ramdisk, which is
              mounted read-write as root device; then /linuxrc is executed; afterward the  "real"
              root  filesystem  is  mounted,  and the initrd filesystem is moved over to /initrd;
              finally the usual boot sequence (e.g., invocation of /sbin/init) is performed.

              For a detailed description of the  initrd  feature,  see  the  kernel  source  file
              Documentation/initrd.txt.

              The  'noinitrd' option tells the kernel that although it was compiled for operation
              with initrd, it should not go through the above steps, but leave  the  initrd  data
              under  /dev/initrd.   (This device can be used only once: the data is freed as soon
              as the last process that used it has closed /dev/initrd.)

   Boot arguments for SCSI devices
       General notation for this section:

       iobase -- the first I/O port  that  the  SCSI  host  occupies.   These  are  specified  in
       hexadecimal notation, and usually lie in the range from 0x200 to 0x3ff.

       irq  --  the  hardware interrupt that the card is configured to use.  Valid values will be
       dependent on the card in question, but will usually be 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, and  15.   The
       other values are usually used for common peripherals like IDE hard disks, floppies, serial
       ports, and so on.

       scsi-id -- the ID that the host adapter uses to identify itself on  the  SCSI  bus.   Only
       some  host  adapters allow you to change this value, as most have it permanently specified
       internally.  The usual default value is 7, but  the  Seagate  and  Future  Domain  TMC-950
       boards use 6.

       parity  --  whether  the SCSI host adapter expects the attached devices to supply a parity
       value with all information exchanges.  Specifying  a  one  indicates  parity  checking  is
       enabled,  and  a  zero  disables  parity  checking.   Again, not all adapters will support
       selection of parity behavior as a boot argument.

       'max_scsi_luns=...'
              A SCSI device can have a number of 'subdevices' contained within itself.  The  most
              common  example  is one of the new SCSI CD-ROMs that handle more than one disk at a
              time.  Each CD is addressed as a 'Logical Unit Number'  (LUN)  of  that  particular
              device.   But  most  devices, such as hard disks, tape drives and such are only one
              device, and will be assigned to LUN zero.

              Some poorly designed SCSI devices cannot handle being probed for LUNs not equal  to
              zero.   Therefore, if the compile-time flag CONFIG_SCSI_MULTI_LUN is not set, newer
              kernels will by default probe only LUN zero.

              To specify the number of probed LUNs at boot, one  enters  'max_scsi_luns=n'  as  a
              boot  arg,  where  n  is  a  number  between  one  and eight.  To avoid problems as
              described above, one would use n=1 to avoid upsetting such broken devices.

       SCSI tape configuration
              Some boot time configuration of the SCSI tape driver can be achieved by  using  the
              following:

                  st=buf_size[,write_threshold[,max_bufs]]

              The  first two numbers are specified in units of kB.  The default buf_size is 32kB,
              and the  maximum  size  that  can  be  specified  is  a  ridiculous  16384kB.   The
              write_threshold  is  the  value  at  which  the buffer is committed to tape, with a
              default value of 30kB.  The maximum number of buffers varies  with  the  number  of
              drives detected, and has a default of two.  An example usage would be:

                  st=32,30,2

              Full   details   can   be   found   in   the   file  Documentation/scsi/st.txt  (or
              drivers/scsi/README.st for older kernels) in the Linux kernel source.

   Hard disks
       IDE Disk/CD-ROM Driver Parameters
              The IDE driver accepts a number of  parameters,  which  range  from  disk  geometry
              specifications, to support for broken controller chips.  Drive-specific options are
              specified by using 'hdX=' with X in 'a'-'h'.

              Non-drive-specific options are specified with the prefix 'hd='.  Note that using  a
              drive-specific  prefix  for  a  non-drive-specific  option will still work, and the
              option will just be applied as expected.

              Also note that 'hd=' can be used to refer to the next unspecified drive in the  (a,
              ...,  h)  sequence.   For the following discussions, the 'hd=' option will be cited
              for brevity.  See the file Documentation/ide/ide.txt (or  Documentation/ide.txt  in
              older  kernels, or drivers/block/README.ide in ancient kernels) in the Linux kernel
              source for more details.

       The 'hd=cyls,heads,sects[,wpcom[,irq]]' options
              These options are used to specify the physical geometry  of  the  disk.   Only  the
              first  three  values  are required.  The cylinder/head/sectors values will be those
              used by fdisk.  The write precompensation value is ignored for IDE disks.  The  IRQ
              value  specified  will be the IRQ used for the interface that the drive resides on,
              and is not really a drive-specific parameter.

       The 'hd=serialize' option
              The dual IDE interface CMD-640 chip is broken as designed such that when drives  on
              the  secondary  interface  are  used  at  the  same  time  as drives on the primary
              interface, it will corrupt your data.  Using this option tells the driver  to  make
              sure that both interfaces are never used at the same time.

       The 'hd=noprobe' option
              Do not probe for this drive.  For example,

                  hdb=noprobe hdb=1166,7,17

              would  disable  the probe, but still specify the drive geometry so that it would be
              registered as a valid block device, and hence usable.

       The 'hd=nowerr' option
              Some drives apparently have the WRERR_STAT bit stuck on permanently.  This  enables
              a work-around for these broken devices.

       The 'hd=cdrom' option
              This  tells  the  IDE  driver  that there is an ATAPI compatible CD-ROM attached in
              place of a  normal  IDE  hard  disk.   In  most  cases  the  CD-ROM  is  identified
              automatically, but if it isn't then this may help.

       Standard ST-506 Disk Driver Options ('hd=')
              The standard disk driver can accept geometry arguments for the disks similar to the
              IDE driver.  Note however that it expects only three values (C/H/S);  any  more  or
              any  less  and  it  will  silently  ignore  you.  Also, it accepts only 'hd=' as an
              argument, that is, 'hda=' and so on are not valid here.  The format is as follows:

                  hd=cyls,heads,sects

              If there are  two  disks  installed,  the  above  is  repeated  with  the  geometry
              parameters of the second disk.

   Ethernet devices
       Different  drivers make use of different parameters, but they all at least share having an
       IRQ, an I/O port base value, and a name.  In its most generic  form,  it  looks  something
       like this:

           ether=irq,iobase[,param_1[,...param_8]],name

       The  first  nonnumeric  argument is taken as the name.  The param_n values (if applicable)
       usually have different meanings for each different card/driver.   Typical  param_n  values
       are  used  to  specify things like shared memory address, interface selection, DMA channel
       and the like.

       The most common use of this parameter is to force probing for a second ethercard,  as  the
       default is to probe only for one.  This can be accomplished with a simple:

           ether=0,0,eth1

       Note  that  the  values  of  zero  for  the IRQ and I/O base in the above example tell the
       driver(s) to autoprobe.

       The Ethernet-HowTo has  extensive  documentation  on  using  multiple  cards  and  on  the
       card/driver-specific  implementation of the param_n values where used.  Interested readers
       should refer to the section in that document on their particular card.

   The floppy disk driver
       There   are   many   floppy   driver   options,   and   they    are    all    listed    in
       Documentation/blockdev/floppy.txt   (or  Documentation/floppy.txt  in  older  kernels,  or
       drivers/block/README.fd for ancient kernels) in the Linux kernel source.   See  that  file
       for the details.

   The sound driver
       The  sound driver can also accept boot arguments to override the compiled-in values.  This
       is not recommended, as it is rather complex.  It is described in the Linux  kernel  source
       file   Documentation/sound/oss/README.OSS   (drivers/sound/Readme.linux  in  older  kernel
       versions).  It accepts a boot argument of the form:

           sound=device1[,device2[,device3...[,device10]]]

              where each deviceN value is of the following format 0xTaaaId and the bytes are used
              as follows:

              T - device type: 1=FM, 2=SB, 3=PAS, 4=GUS, 5=MPU401, 6=SB16, 7=SB16-MPU401

              aaa - I/O address in hex.

              I - interrupt line in hex (i.e 10=a, 11=b, ...)

              d - DMA channel.

              As you can see, it gets pretty messy, and you are better off to compile in your own
              personal values as recommended.  Using a boot argument of  'sound=0'  will  disable
              the sound driver entirely.

   The line printer driver
       'lp='
              Syntax:

                  lp=0
                  lp=auto
                  lp=reset
                  lp=port[,port...]

              You  can  tell the printer driver what ports to use and what ports not to use.  The
              latter comes in handy if you don't want the printer driver to claim  all  available
              parallel ports, so that other drivers (e.g., PLIP, PPA) can use them instead.

              The  format  of the argument is multiple port names.  For example, lp=none,parport0
              would use the first parallel port for lp1, and disable lp0.  To disable the printer
              driver entirely, one can use lp=0.

SEE ALSO

       klogd(8), mount(8)

       For   up-to-date   information,   see   the   kernel   source  file  Documentation/kernel-
       parameters.txt.

COLOPHON

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