11. Other Hardware Devices
Any other devices that didn't fit into any of the above categories got lumped together here.
11.1 Ethernet Devices (`ether=', `netdev=')
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_2,...param_8]]],name
The first non-numeric 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 only probe for one (with 2.4 and older kernels). 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.
IMPORTANT NOTE TO MODULE USERS: The above will not force a
probe for a second card if you are using the driver(s) as run time
loadable modules (instead of having them complied into the kernel).
Most Linux distributions use a bare bones kernel combined with a
large selection of modular drivers. The ether= only applies
to drivers compiled directly into the kernel.
The Ethernet-HowTo has complete and 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 for more complete information.
Ethernet-HowTo
11.2 The Floppy Disk Driver (`floppy=')
There are many floppy driver options, and they are all listed in
floppy.txt in linux/Documentation. There are too
many options in that file to list here. Instead, only those
options that may be required to get a Linux install to proceed
on less than normal hardware are reprinted here.
floppy=0,daring
Tells the floppy driver that your floppy controller should be used
with caution (disables all daring operations).
floppy=thinkpad
Tells the floppy driver that you have a Thinkpad. Thinkpads use an
inverted convention for the disk change line.
floppy=nodma
Tells the floppy driver not to use DMA for data transfers.
This is needed on HP Omnibooks, which don't have a workable
DMA channel for the floppy driver. This option is also useful
if you frequently get `Unable to allocate DMA memory' messages.
Use of `nodma' is not recommended if
you have a FDC without a FIFO (8272A or 82072). 82072A and
later are OK). The FDC model is reported at boot.
You also need at least a 486 to use nodma.
floppy=nofifo
Disables the FIFO entirely. This is needed if you get `Bus
master arbitration error' messages from your Ethernet card (or
from other devices) while accessing the floppy.
floppy=broken_dcl
Don't use the disk change line, but assume that the disk was
changed whenever the device node is reopened. Needed on some
boxes where the disk change line is broken or unsupported.
This should be regarded as a stopgap measure, indeed it makes
floppy operation less efficient due to unneeded cache
flushings, and slightly more unreliable. Please verify your
cable connection and jumper settings if you have any DCL
problems. However, some older drives, and also some Laptops
are known not to have a DCL.
floppy=debug
Print (additional) debugging messages.
floppy=messages
Print informational messages for some operations (disk change
notifications, warnings about over and underruns, and about
autodetection).
11.3 The Bus Mouse Driver (`bmouse=')
The busmouse driver only accepts one parameter, that being the hardware IRQ value to be used.
11.4 The MS Bus Mouse Driver (`msmouse=')
The MS mouse driver only accepts one parameter, that being the hardware IRQ value to be used.
11.5 The Printer Driver (`lp=')
With this boot argument 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 i/o, IRQ pairs. For example,
lp=0x3bc,0,0x378,7 would use the port at 0x3bc in IRQ-less
(polling) mode, and use IRQ 7 for the port at 0x378. The port
at 0x278 (if any) would not be probed, since autoprobing only
takes place in the absence of a lp= argument. To disable the
printer driver entirely, one can use lp=0.
11.6 The Parallel port IP driver (`plip=')
Using plip=timid will tell the plip driver to avoid
any ports that appear to be in use by other parallel port
devices. Otherwise you can use plip=parportN where
N is a non-zero integer indicating the parallel
port to use. (Using N=0 will disable the plip driver.)
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