Installation guide

Appendix A.
General Parameters and Modules
This appendix is provided to illustrate some of the possible parameters available for some common
hardware device drivers
1
. In most cases, these additional parameters are unnecessary, since the kernel
may already be able to use the device without them. You should only use the settings provided in this
appendix if you are having trouble getting Red Hat Linux to use a particular device or you need to
override the system’s default parameters for the device.
During the installation of Red Hat Linux, some limits are placed on file systems and some device
drivers supported by the kernel. After installation, however, support exists for all file systems avail-
able under Linux. At the time of installation, the modularized kernel has support for (E)IDE devices
(including ATAPI CD-ROM drives), SCSI adapters, and network cards.
Note
Because Red Hat Linux supports installation on many different types of hardware, some drivers
(including those for SCSI adapters, network cards, and many CD-ROMs) are not built into the Linux
kernel used by the installation program. Rather, they are available as modules and are loaded as you
need them during the installation process. If necessary, you will have the chance to specify options
for these modules when they are loaded from the driver disk.
To specify module parameters when a driver is loaded, type linux expert at the boot: prompt
and insert the driver disk when prompted to do so by the installation program. After reading the
driver disk, the installation program will ask you to select the type of device you are configuring. On
that screen, you can elect to specify a module parameter. Then, the installation program will display
a screen where you can type the correct parameters based on the particular type of device you are
configuring.
After the installation is complete, you may want to rebuild a kernel that includes support for your
specific hardware configuration. Note that in most cases, a custom-built kernel is not necessary. See
the Official Red Hat Linux Customization Guide for more information about rebuilding your kernel.
A.1. Specifying Module Parameters
If you are providing parameters upon loading a module, you can usually specify them using one of
two different methods:
• Specify a full set of parameters in one statement. For example, the parameter cdu31=0x340,0
could be used with a Sony CDU 31 or 33 at port 340 with no IRQ.
• Specify the parameters individually. This method is used when one or more parameters in the
first set are not needed. For example, cdu31_port=0x340 cdu31a_irq=0 can be used as the
parameter for the same CD-ROM used as an example for the first method. An OR is used in the
CD-ROM, SCSI, and Ethernet tables in this appendix to show where the first parameter method
stops and the second method begins.
1. A driver is software enabling your system to use a particular hardware device. Without the driver, the kernel
may not know how to correctly access the device.