linux/Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt, branch v2.6.19

[PATCH] x86: Add acpi_user_timer_override option for Asus boards

2006-11-14T15:57:46Z

Timer overrides are normally disabled on Nvidia board because they are commonly wrong, except on new ones with HPET support. Unfortunately there are quite some Asus boards around that don't have HPET, but need a timer override. We don't know yet how to handle this transparently, but at least add a command line option to force the timer override and let them boot. Cc: len.brown@intel.com Signed-off-by: Andi Kleen

PCI: optionally sort device lists breadth-first

2006-10-18T18:36:12Z

Problem: New Dell PowerEdge servers have 2 embedded ethernet ports, which are labeled NIC1 and NIC2 on the chassis, in the BIOS setup screens, and in the printed documentation. Assuming no other add-in ethernet ports in the system, Linux 2.4 kernels name these eth0 and eth1 respectively. Many people have come to expect this naming. Linux 2.6 kernels name these eth1 and eth0 respectively (backwards from expectations). I also have reports that various Sun and HP servers have similar behavior. Root cause: Linux 2.4 kernels walk the pci_devices list, which happens to be sorted in breadth-first order (or pcbios_find_device order on i386, which most often is breadth-first also). 2.6 kernels have both the pci_devices list and the pci_bus_type.klist_devices list, the latter is what is walked at driver load time to match the pci_id tables; this klist happens to be in depth-first order. On systems where, for physical routing reasons, NIC1 appears on a lower bus number than NIC2, but NIC2's bridge is discovered first in the depth-first ordering, NIC2 will be discovered before NIC1. If the list were sorted breadth-first, NIC1 would be discovered before NIC2. A PowerEdge 1955 system has the following topology which easily exhibits the difference between depth-first and breadth-first device lists. -[0000:00]-+-00.0 Intel Corporation 5000P Chipset Memory Controller Hub +-02.0-[0000:03-08]--+-00.0-[0000:04-07]--+-00.0-[0000:05-06]----00.0-[0000:06]----00.0 Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme II BCM5708S Gigabit Ethernet (labeled NIC2, 2.4 kernel name eth1, 2.6 kernel name eth0) +-1c.0-[0000:01-02]----00.0-[0000:02]----00.0 Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme II BCM5708S Gigabit Ethernet (labeled NIC1, 2.4 kernel name eth0, 2.6 kernel name eth1) Other factors, such as device driver load order and the presence of PCI slots at various points in the bus hierarchy further complicate this problem; I'm not trying to solve those here, just restore the device order, and thus basic behavior, that 2.4 kernels had. Solution: The solution can come in multiple steps. Suggested fix #1: kernel Patch below optionally sorts the two device lists into breadth-first ordering to maintain compatibility with 2.4 kernels. It adds two new command line options: pci=bfsort pci=nobfsort to force the sort order, or not, as you wish. It also adds DMI checks for the specific Dell systems which exhibit "backwards" ordering, to make them "right". Suggested fix #2: udev rules from userland Many people also have the expectation that embedded NICs are always discovered before add-in NICs (which this patch does not try to do). Using the PCI IRQ Routing Table provided by system BIOS, it's easy to determine which PCI devices are embedded, or if add-in, which PCI slot they're in. I'm working on a tool that would allow udev to name ethernet devices in ascending embedded, slot 1 .. slot N order, subsort by PCI bus/dev/fn breadth-first. It'll be possible to use it independent of udev as well for those distributions that don't use udev in their installers. Suggested fix #3: system board routing rules One can constrain the system board layout to put NIC1 ahead of NIC2 regardless of breadth-first or depth-first discovery order. This adds a significant level of complexity to board routing, and may not be possible in all instances (witness the above systems from several major manufacturers). I don't want to encourage this particular train of thought too far, at the expense of not doing #1 or #2 above. Feedback appreciated. Patch tested on a Dell PowerEdge 1955 blade with 2.6.18. You'll also note I took some liberty and temporarily break the klist abstraction to simplify and speed up the sort algorithm. I think that's both safe and appropriate in this instance. Signed-off-by: Matt Domsch Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman

[PATCH] The scheduled removal of some OSS drivers

2006-10-04T14:55:32Z

This patch contains the scheduled removal of OSS drivers that: - have ALSA drivers for the same hardware without known regressions and - whose Kconfig options have been removed in 2.6.17. [michal.k.k.piotrowski@gmail.com: build fix] Signed-off-by: Adrian Bunk Signed-off-by: Michal Piotrowski Cc: David Woodhouse Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds

[PATCH] rcu: simplify/improve batch tuning

2006-10-04T14:55:31Z

Kill a hard-to-calculate 'rsinterval' boot parameter and per-cpu rcu_data.last_rs_qlen. Instead, it adds adds a flag rcu_ctrlblk.signaled, which records the fact that one of CPUs has sent a resched IPI since the last rcu_start_batch(). Roughly speaking, we need two rcu_start_batch()s in order to move callbacks from ->nxtlist to ->donelist. This means that when ->qlen exceeds qhimark and continues to grow, we should send a resched IPI, and then do it again after we gone through a quiescent state. On the other hand, if it was already sent, we don't need to do it again when another CPU detects overflow of the queue. Signed-off-by: Oleg Nesterov Acked-by: Paul E. McKenney Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds

reboot parameter in Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt

2006-10-03T21:19:24Z

Documentation fix for the arm and arm26 architectures, in which the reboot kernel parameter is set in arch/*/kernel/process.c Signed-off-by: Michael Opdenacker Signed-off-by: Adrian Bunk

Fix "can not" in Documentation and Kconfig

2006-10-03T20:53:09Z

Randy brought it to my attention that in proper english "can not" should always be written "cannot". I donot see any reason to argue, even if I mightnot understand why this rule exists. This patch fixes "can not" in several Documentation files as well as three Kconfigs. Signed-off-by: Matt LaPlante Acked-by: Randy Dunlap Signed-off-by: Adrian Bunk

Fix some typos in Documentation/: 'A'

2006-10-03T20:45:33Z

This patch fixes typos in various Documentation txts. This patch addresses some words starting with the letter 'A'. Signed-off-by: Matt LaPlante Acked-by: Randy Dunlap Acked-by: Alan Cox Signed-off-by: Adrian Bunk

[PATCH] doc: fix kernel-parameters 'quiet'

2006-09-29T16:18:20Z

Fix "quiet" parameter doc. No trailing '=' sign, no value after it. And it disables "most" kernel messages, not all of them. Signed-off-by: Randy Dunlap Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds

[PATCH] update Documentation/kernel-parameters.txt

2006-09-29T16:18:15Z

Signed-off-by: jens m. noedler Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds

[PATCH] kdump: introduce "reset_devices" command line option

2006-09-27T15:26:17Z

Resetting the devices during driver initialization can be a costly operation in terms of time (especially scsi devices). This option can be used by drivers to know that user forcibly wants the devices to be reset during initialization. This option can be useful while kernel is booting in unreliable environment. For ex. during kdump boot where devices are in unknown random state and BIOS execution has been skipped. Signed-off-by: Vivek Goyal Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds