3 plan9.ini \- configuration file for PCs
7 When booting Plan 9 on a PC, the DOS program
10 containing configuration information from the boot disk.
13 looks like a shell script containing lines of the form
19 each of which defines a kernel or device parameter.
26 comments are ignored, but are only recognised if
28 appears at the start of a line.
30 For devices, the generic format of
35 type=TYPE [port=N] [irq=N] [mem=N] [size=N] [dma=N] [ea=N]
38 specifying the controller type,
39 the base I/O port of the interface, its interrupt
40 level, the physical starting address of any mapped memory,
41 the length in bytes of that memory, the DMA channel,
42 and for Ethernets an override of the physical network address.
43 Not all elements are relevant to all devices; the relevant values
44 and their defaults are defined below in the description of each device.
46 The file is used by the kernel to configure the hardware available.
47 The information it contains is also passed to the boot
48 process, and subsequently other programs,
49 as environment variables
52 However, values whose names begin with an asterisk
54 are used by the kernel and are not converted into environment variables.
56 The following sections describe how variables are used.
58 .SS \fLether\fIX\fL=\fIvalue\fP
59 This defines an Ethernet interface.
61 a unique monotonically increasing number beginning at 0,
62 identifies an Ethernet card to be probed at system boot.
63 Probing stops when a card is found or there is no line for
65 After probing as directed by the
67 lines, any remaining Ethernet cards that can be automatically
69 Almost all cards can be automatically detected.
70 For debugging purposes, automatic probing can
71 be disabled by specifying the line
74 Some cards are software configurable and do not require all options.
75 Unspecified options default to the factory defaults.
85 The Intel 8254X Gigabit Ethernet controllers,
86 as found on the Intel PRO/1000 adapters for copper (not fiber).
87 Completely configurable.
90 The Intel 8256[36], 8257[12], and 82573[ev] Gigabit Ethernet
91 PCI-Express controllers.
92 Completely configurable.
95 The Realtek 8169 Gigabit Ethernet controller.
96 Completely configurable.
99 Netgear GA620 and GA620T Gigabit Ethernet cards,
100 and other cards using the Alteon Acenic chip such as the
101 Alteon Acenic fiber and copper cards,
102 the DEC DEGPA-SA and the SGI Acenic.
103 Completely configurable.
106 National Semiconductor DP83820-based Gigabit Ethernet adapters, notably
108 Completely configurable.
111 The VIA Velocity Gigabit Ethernet controller.
112 Known to drive the VIA8237 (ABIT AV8), but at 100Mb/s full-duplex only.
115 The Myricom 10-Gigabit Ethernet 10G-PCIE-8A controller.
116 Completely configurable.
117 Can't boot through these due to enormous firmware loads.
120 The Intel 8259[89] 10-Gigabit Ethernet PCI-Express controllers.
121 Completely configurable.
124 Cards using the Intel 8255[789] Fast Ethernet PCI Bus LAN Controller such as the
125 Intel EtherExpress PRO/100B.
126 Completely configurable, no options need be given.
127 If you need to force the media, specify
128 one of the options (no value)
139 Completely configurable.
142 Cards using the Digital Equipment (now Intel) 2114x PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter Controller,
143 for example the Netgear FA310.
144 Completely configurable, no options need be given.
145 Media can be specified the same was as for the
151 near-clone chips may also work.
154 National Semiconductor DP83815-based adapters, notably
155 the Netgear FA311, Netgear FA312, and various SiS built-in
156 controllers such as the SiS900.
157 On the SiS controllers, the Ethernet address is not detected properly;
161 Completely configurable.
164 The Realtek 8139 Fast Ethernet controller.
165 Completely configurable.
168 The VIA VT6102 Fast Ethernet Controller (Rhine II).
171 SMC 91cXX chip-based PCMCIA adapters, notably the SMC EtherEZ card.
174 The 3COM Etherlink III series of cards including the 5x9, 59x, and 905 and 905B.
175 Completely configurable, no options need be given.
176 The media may be specified by setting
186 If you need to force full duplex, because for example the Ethernet switch does not negotiate correctly,
187 just name the word (no value)
191 Similarly, to force 100Mbit operation, specify
193 Port 0x110 is used for the little ISA configuration dance.
196 The 3COM 3C589 series PCMCIA cards, including the
198 There is no support for the modem on the 3C562.
199 Completely configurable, no options need be given.
204 The media may be specified as
210 The Linksys Combo PCMCIA EthernetCard (EC2T),
211 EtherFast 10/100 PCMCIA cards (PCMPC100) and integrated controllers (PCM100),
212 the Netgear FA410TX 10/100 PCMCIA card
213 and the Accton EtherPair-PCMCIA (EN2216).
214 Completely configurable, no options need be given.
219 These cards are NE2000 clones.
220 Other NE2000 compatible PCMCIA cards may be tried
227 is a unique identifier string contained in the attribute
228 memory of the card (see
230 unlike most options in
232 this string is case-sensitive.
235 can be used to turn off (0) or on (1) a dummy remote read in the driver
237 depending on how NE2000 compatible they are.
240 Not software configurable iff ISA;
241 PCI clones or supersets are software configurable;
242 includes the Realtek 8029 clone used by Parallels.
246 port=0x300 irq=2 mem=0x04000 size=0x4000
248 The option (no value)
250 is needed on some (near) clones to turn off a dummy remote read in the driver.
253 The AMD PCnet PCI Ethernet Adapter (AM79C970).
254 (This is the Ethernet adapter used by VMware.)
255 Completely configurable, no options need be given.
258 Includes WD8013 and SMC Elite and Elite Ultra cards. There are varying degrees
259 of software configurability. Cards may be in either 8-bit or 16-bit slots.
262 port=0x280 irq=3 mem=0xD0000 size=0x2000
264 BUG: On many machines only the 16 bit card works.
269 for Ethernet packets \(em the interface discards sent
270 packets and never receives any.
271 This is used to provide a test bed for
272 some experimental Ethernet bridging software.
275 Lucent Wavelan (Orinoco) IEEE 802.11b
276 and compatible PCMCIA cards.
277 Compatible cards include the Dell TrueMobile 1150
278 and the Linksys Instant Wireless Network PC Card.
279 Port and IRQ defaults are 0x180 and 3 respectively.
281 These cards take a number of unique options to aid in
282 identifying the card correctly on the 802.11b network.
287 (i.e. use an access point):
289 mode=[adhoc, managed]
293 The 802.11b network to attach to
303 and defaults to a null string.
304 The card station name is given by
310 The channel to use is given by
316 lies in the range 1 to 16 inclusive;
317 the channel is normally negotiated automatically.
319 If the card is capable of encryption,
320 the following options may be used:
329 sets the encryption key
333 is in the range 1 to 4 inclusive) to
335 this will also set the transmit key to
338 There are two formats for
340 which depend on the length of the string.
341 If it is exactly 5 or 13 characters long it is assumed
342 to be an alphanumeric key; if it is exactly 10 or 26 characters
343 long the key is assumed to be in hex format (without a leading
345 The lengths are checked,
346 as is the format of a hex key.
350 sets the transmit key to use to be
352 in the range 1 to 4 inclusive.
353 If it is desired to exclude or include unencrypted packets
357 configures reception and defaults to inclusion.
359 The defaults are intended to match the common case of
360 a managed network with encryption and a typical entry would
361 only require, for example
363 essid=left-armpit key1=afish key2=calledraawaru
365 if the port and IRQ defaults are used.
366 These options may be set after boot by writing to the device's
368 file using a space as the separator between option and value, e.g.
370 echo 'key2 1d8f65c9a52d83c8e4b43f94af' >/net/ether0/0/ctl
373 Card-specific power management may be enabled/disabled by
379 PCI Ethernet adapters that use the same Wavelan
380 programming interface.
381 Currently the only tested cards are those based on the
382 Intersil Prism 2.5 chipset.
385 (S)ATA controllers are autodetected.
387 disables dma on ata devices.
388 .SS \fL*sd\fIXX\fLdma=on\fP
389 explicitly enables dma on a specific ata device.
390 .SS \fLscsi\fIX\fL=value\fP
391 This defines a SCSI interface which cannot be automatically detected
399 Adaptec 154x series of controllers (and clones).
400 Almost completely configurable, only the
404 option need be given.
406 NCR/Symbios/LSI-Logic 53c8xx-based adapters
407 and Mylex MultiMaster (Buslogic BT-*) adapters are
408 automatically detected and need no entries.
410 By default, the NCR 53c8xx driver searches for up to 32 controllers.
411 This can be changed by setting the variable
414 By default the Mylex driver resets SCSI cards by using
415 both the hard reset and SCSI bus reset flags in the driver interface.
418 is defined, the SCSI bus reset flag is omitted.
419 .SS \fLaoeif=\fP\fIlist\fP
420 This specifies a space-separated
422 of Ethernet interfaces to be bound at boot to the ATA-over-Ethernet driver,
425 .LR "aoeif=ether0 ether1" .
426 Only interfaces on this list will initially be accessible via AoE.
427 .SS \fLaoedev=e!#æ/aoe/\fIshelf\fL.\fIslot\fR
428 This specifies an ATA-over-Ethernet device accessible via the interfaces
435 to use as a root device for bootstrapping.
437 .SS \fLaudio\fIX\fL=\fIvalue\fP
438 This defines a sound interface.
448 A Sound Blaster clone.
450 The DMA channel may be any of 5, 6, or 7.
454 port=0x220 irq=7 dma=5
457 Plan 9 automatically configures COM1 and COM2, if found,
465 These devices can be disabled by adding a line:
471 This is typically done in order to reuse the IRQ for
474 Plan 9 used to support various serial concentrators,
475 including the TTC 8 serial line card and various models
476 in the Star Gate Avanstar series of intelligent serial boards.
477 These are no longer supported; the much simpler
478 Perle PCI-Fast4, PCI-Fast8, and PCI-Fast16 controllers
479 have taken their places.
480 These latter cards are automatically detected
481 and need no configuration lines.
485 can be used to specify settings for a PCMCIA modem.
486 .SS \fLmouseport=\fIvalue\fP
487 This specifies where the mouse is attached.
492 the PS2 mouse/keyboard port. The BIOS setup procedure
493 should be used to configure the machine appropriately.
496 an Intellimouse on the PS2 port.
503 .SS \fLmodemport=\fIvalue\fP
504 Picks the UART line to call out on.
505 This is used when connecting to a file server over
508 is the number of the port.
509 .SS \fLconsole=\fIvalue params\fP
510 This is used to specify the console device.
524 A serial console is initially configured with the
531 specifying 9600 baud,
532 8 bit bytes, no parity, and one stop bit.
535 is given, it will be used to further
537 Notice that there is no
548 would use COM1 at 19,200 baud
551 .SS \fLpccard0=disabled\fP
552 Disable probing for and automatic configuration of PC card controllers.
553 .SS \fLpcmcia\fIX\fL=type=XXX irq=\fIvalue\fP
554 If the default IRQ for the
556 is correct, this entry can be omitted. The value of
559 .SS \fLpcmcia0=disabled\fP
560 Disable probing for and automatic configuration of PCMCIA controllers.
562 .SS \fLbootfile=\fIvalue\fP
563 This is used to direct the actions of
565 by naming the file from which to load the kernel in
566 the current BIOS boot device.
567 .SS \fLbootargs=\fIvalue\fP
570 of this variable is passed to
572 by the kernel as the name of the root file system to
573 automatically mount and boot into.
574 It is typically used to specify additional arguments to
579 For example, if the system is to run from a local
581 partition, the definition might read
582 .BR bootargs=local!/dev/sdC0/fscache .
586 .SS \fLnobootprompt=\fIvalue\fP
591 as the answer instead.
592 .SS \fLuser=\fIvalue\fP
597 as the answer instead.
598 .SS \fLdebugfactotum=\fP
605 option, so that it can be debugged.
606 .SS \fLfactotumopts=\fIoptions\fP
613 which must be a single word (i.e., contain no whitespace).
614 .SS \fLcfs=\fIvalue\fP
615 This gives the name of the file holding the disk partition
616 for the cache file system,
620 example, one would write
621 .BR cfs=#S/sdC0/cache .
622 .SS \fLbootdisk=\fIvalue\fP
623 This deprecated variable was used to specify the disk used by
624 the cache file system and other disk-resident services.
629 .SS \fLfs=\fIa.b.c.d\fP
630 .SS \fLauth=\fIa.b.c.d\fP
631 These specify the IP address of the file and authentication server
632 to use when mounting a network-provided root file system.
633 They are used only if the addresses cannot be determined via DHCP.
635 .SS \fLe820=\fIstart end ...\fP
636 This variable is automatically generated by the boot loader (see
638 by doing a BIOS E820 memory scan while still in realmode and
639 passed to the kernel. The format is a unordered list of
644 addresses of the usable memory areas.
645 .SS \fL*maxmem=\fIvalue\fP
646 This defines the maximum physical address that the system will scan when sizing memory.
647 By default the PC operating system will scan up to 3.75 gigabytes
648 (0xF0000000, the base of kernel virtual address space), but setting
652 must be less than 3.75 gigabytes.
653 This variable is not consulted if using the E820 memory map.
654 .SS \fL*kernelpercent=\fIvalue\fP
655 This defines what percentage of available memory is reserved for the kernel allocation pool.
656 The remainder is left for user processes. The default
662 on terminals with less than 16MB of memory,
665 on terminals with memories of 16MB or more.
666 Terminals use more kernel memory because
668 maintains its graphic images in kernel memory.
669 This deprecated option is rarely necessary in newer kernels.
670 .SS \fL*nomce=\fIvalue\fP
671 If machine check exceptions are supported by the processor,
672 then they are enabled by default.
673 Setting this variable to
675 causes them to be disabled even when available.
677 A multiprocessor machine will enable all processors by default.
680 restricts the kernel to starting only one processor and using the
681 traditional interrupt controller.
682 .SS \fL*ncpu=\fIvalue\fP
685 restricts the kernel to starting at most
689 Enables message signaled interrupts on devices that support it (see
691 It is mutually exclusive with the
694 .SS \fL*pcimaxbno=value\fP
695 This puts a limit on the maximum bus number probed
696 on a PCI bus (default 7).
699 of 1 should suffice on a 'standard' motherboard with an AGP slot.
702 below are rarely used and only on troublesome or suspect hardware.
703 .SS \fL*pcimaxdno=\fIvalue\fP
704 This puts a limit on the maximum device number probed
705 on a PCI bus (default 31).
706 .SS \fL*nopcirouting=\fP
707 Disable pci routing during boot. May solve interrupt routing
708 problems on certain machines.
709 .SS \fL*nodumpstack=\fP
710 Disable printing a stack dump on panic.
711 Useful if there is only a limited cga screen available,
712 otherwise the textual information about the panic may scroll off.
713 .\" .SS \fL*nobios=\fP
714 .\" what does this do? something with pci
715 .SS \fLioexclude=\fIvalue\fP
716 Specifies a list of ranges of I/O ports to exclude from use by drivers.
717 Ranges are inclusive on both ends and separated by commas.
720 ioexclude=0x330-0x337,0x430-0x43F
722 .SS \fLumbexclude=\fIvalue\fP
723 Specifies a list of ranges of UMB to exclude from use by drivers.
724 Ranges are inclusive on both ends and separated by commas.
727 umbexclude=0xD1800-0xD3FFF
730 This enables the ``advanced power management'' interface
735 The main feature of the interface is the ability to watch
738 It is not on by default because it causes problems on some laptops.
740 .SS \fLmonitor=\fIvalue\fP
741 .SS \fLvgasize=\fIvalue\fP
742 These are used not by the kernel but by
752 then the user is prompted for a choice on boot.
753 .SS \fL*dpms=\fIvalue\fP
754 This is used to specify the screen blanking behavior of the MGA4xx
761 The first two specify differing levels of power saving;
762 the third turns the monitor off completely.
763 .SS \fL*novesashadow=\fP
764 This disables the shadow framebuffer or softscreen of the VESA
765 video driver. This can improve performance on some graphics
768 .SS \fLnvram=\fIfile\fP
769 .SS \fLnvrlen=\fIlength\fP
770 .SS \fLnvroff=\fIoffset\fP
771 This is used to specify an nvram device and optionally the length of the ram
772 and read/write offset to use.
773 These values are consulted by
777 The most common use of the nvram is to hold a
781 .SS \fLnvr=\fIvalue\fP
782 This is used by the WORM file server kernel to locate a file holding information
783 to configure the file system.
784 The file cannot live on a SCSI disk.
790 is set, in which case it is
800 is the numeric unit id.
801 This variant syntax is a vestige of the file server kernel's origins.
808 % cat /n/9fat:/plan9.ini
812 serial0=type=generic port=0x3E8 irq=5
823 Being able to set the console device to other than a
824 display is marginally useful on file servers; MS-DOS
825 and the programs which run under it are so tightly bound
826 to the display that it is necessary to have a display if any
827 setup or reconfiguration programs need to be run.
828 Also, the delay before any messages appear at boot time
829 is disconcerting, as any error messages from the BIOS
832 This idea is at best an interesting experiment that needs another iteration.
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