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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/admin-guide/initrd.rst   (or  Documentation/initrd.txt  before  Linux
              4.10).

              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 32k B,
              and  the  maximum  size  that  can  be  specified  is  a  ridiculous 16384 kB.  The
              write_threshold is the value at which the buffer  is  committed  to  tape,  with  a
              default  value  of  30 kB.  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/admin-guide/kernel-
       parameters.txt.

COLOPHON

       This  page  is  part of release 5.05 of the Linux man-pages project.  A description of the
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