some edits to the Kconfig online help (2.5.73)

Peter Cordes (peter@llama.nslug.ns.ca)
Tue, 1 Jul 2003 05:13:36 -0300


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On Tue, Jul 01, 2003 at 10:02:50AM +0200, Jacek Kawa wrote:
> Peter Cordes wrote:
>
> > Attached is a patch to arch/i386/Kconfig for Linux 2.5.73.
>
> Hmm, you may want to repost it with patch (really) attached :-)
>

Yeah, good idea :)

please CC on replies.

-- 
#define X(x,y) x##y
Peter Cordes ;  e-mail: X(peter@llama.nslug.n , s.ca)

"The gods confound the man who first found out how to distinguish the hours! Confound him, too, who in this place set up a sundial, to cut and hack my day so wretchedly into small pieces!" -- Plautus, 200 BC

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--- linux-2.5.73/arch/i386/Kconfig.old Sun Jun 22 15:32:34 2003 +++ linux-2.5.73/arch/i386/Kconfig Tue Jul 1 02:39:18 2003 @@ -57,17 +57,17 @@ config X86_NUMAQ bool "NUMAQ (IBM/Sequent)" help - This option is used for getting Linux to run on a (IBM/Sequent) NUMA - multiquad box. This changes the way that processors are bootstrapped, - and uses Clustered Logical APIC addressing mode instead of Flat Logical. - You will need a new lynxer.elf file to flash your firmware with - send - email to Martin.Bligh@us.ibm.com + Support for (IBM/Sequent) NUMA multiquad box. This changes the + way that processors are bootstrapped, and uses Clustered Logical + APIC addressing mode instead of Flat Logical. You will need a new + lynxer.elf file to flash your firmware with - send email to + Martin.Bligh@us.ibm.com config X86_SUMMIT bool "Summit/EXA (IBM x440)" depends on SMP help - This option is needed for IBM systems that use the Summit/EXA chipset. + Support for IBM systems that use the Summit/EXA chipset. In particular, it is needed for the x440. If you don't have one of these computers, you should say N here. @@ -76,8 +76,8 @@ bool "Support for other sub-arch SMP systems with more than 8 CPUs" depends on SMP help - This option is needed for the systems that have more than 8 CPUs - and if the system is not of any sub-arch type above. + Support for systems that have more than 8 CPUs, other than the + sub-arch types above. If you don't have such a system, you should say N here. @@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ bool "Generic architecture (Summit, bigsmp, default)" depends on SMP help - This option compiles in the Summit, bigsmp, default subarchitectures. + Compile in the Summit, bigsmp, default subarchitectures. It is intended for a generic binary kernel. config X86_ES7000 @@ -303,9 +303,9 @@ config X86_GENERIC bool "Generic x86 support" help - Including some tuning for non selected x86 CPUs too. - when it has moderate overhead. This is intended for generic - distributions kernels. + Including some tuning for non-selected x86 CPUs, + when it has only moderate overhead. + This is intended for generic distributions kernels. # # Define implied options from the CPU selection here @@ -400,7 +400,7 @@ config HUGETLB_PAGE bool "Huge TLB Page Support" help - This enables support for huge pages. User space applications + Enable support for huge pages. User space applications can make use of this support with the sys_alloc_hugepages and sys_free_hugepages system calls. If your applications are huge page aware and your processor (Pentium or later for x86) @@ -411,15 +411,15 @@ config SMP bool "Symmetric multi-processing support" ---help--- - This enables support for systems with more than one CPU. If you have - a system with only one CPU, like most personal computers, say N. If - you have a system with more than one CPU, say Y. - - If you say N here, the kernel will run on single and multiprocessor - machines, but will use only one CPU of a multiprocessor machine. If - you say Y here, the kernel will run on many, but not all, - singleprocessor machines. On a singleprocessor machine, the kernel - will run faster if you say N here. + Enable support for systems with more than one CPU. If you have + a system with only one CPU, like most personal computers, say N. + If you have a system with more than one CPU, say Y. + + A kernel without SMP support will run on single and multiprocessor + machines, but will use only one CPU even on machine with more. A + kernel with SMP support will run on most single processor machines, + but more slowly than if it was compiled for only single processor + machines. Note that if you say Y here and choose architecture "586" or "Pentium" under "Processor family", the kernel will not work on 486 @@ -442,9 +442,9 @@ depends on SMP default "32" help - This allows you to specify the maximum number of CPUs which this - kernel will support. The maximum supported value is 32 and the - minimum value which makes sense is 2. + Specify the maximum number of CPUs which this kernel will support. + The maximum supported value is 32 and the minimum value which + makes sense is 2. This is purely to save memory - each supported CPU adds approximately eight kilobytes to the kernel image. @@ -452,11 +452,11 @@ config PREEMPT bool "Preemptible Kernel" help - This option reduces the latency of the kernel when reacting to - real-time or interactive events by allowing a low priority process to - be preempted even if it is in kernel mode executing a system call. - This allows applications to run more reliably even when the system is - under load. + Reduce the latency of the kernel when reacting to real-time or + interactive events by allowing a low priority process to be + preempted even if it is in kernel mode executing a system call. + This allows applications to run more reliably even when the system + is under load. Say Y here if you are building a kernel for a desktop, embedded or real-time system. Say N if you are unsure. @@ -466,13 +466,12 @@ depends on !(X86_VISWS || X86_VOYAGER) ---help--- A local APIC (Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller) is an - integrated interrupt controller in the CPU. If you have a single-CPU + integrated interrupt controller in the CPU. If you have a single-CPU system which has a processor with a local APIC, you can say Y here to - enable and use it. If you say Y here even though your machine doesn't - have a local APIC, then the kernel will still run with no slowdown at - all. The local APIC supports CPU-generated self-interrupts (timer, - performance counters), and the NMI watchdog which detects hard - lockups. + enable and use it. This option won't slow down the kernel on a + machine without a local APICs. The local APIC supports + CPU-generated self-interrupts (timer, performance counters), and + the NMI watchdog which detects hard lockups. If you have a system with several CPUs, you do not need to say Y here: the local APIC will be used automatically. @@ -512,8 +511,8 @@ Machine Check Exception support allows the processor to notify the kernel if it detects a problem (e.g. overheating, component failure). The action the kernel takes depends on the severity of the problem, - ranging from a warning message on the console, to halting the machine. - Your processor must be a Pentium or newer to support this - check the + ranging from a warning message on the console to halting the machine. + Your processor must be a Pentium or newer to support this; Check the flags in /proc/cpuinfo for mce. Note that some older Pentium systems have a design flaw which leads to false MCE events - hence MCE is disabled on all P5 processors, unless explicitly enabled with "mce" @@ -528,19 +527,18 @@ help Enabling this feature starts a timer that triggers every 5 seconds which will look at the machine check registers to see if anything happened. - Non-fatal problems automatically get corrected (but still logged). + Non-fatal problems automatically get corrected (and logged). Disable this if you don't want to see these messages. - Seeing the messages this option prints out may be indicative of dying hardware, - or out-of-spec (ie, overclocked) hardware. - This option only does something on certain CPUs. - (AMD Athlon/Duron and Intel Pentium 4) + Seeing the messages this option prints out may be indicative of + dying hardware, or out-of-spec (ie, overclocked) hardware. + This option only does anything on certain CPUs: + AMD Athlon/Duron and Intel Pentium 4. config X86_MCE_P4THERMAL bool "check for P4 thermal throttling interrupt." depends on X86_MCE && (X86_UP_APIC || SMP) help - Enabling this feature will cause a message to be printed when the P4 - enters thermal throttling. + Cause a message to be printed when the P4 enters thermal throttling. config TOSHIBA tristate "Toshiba Laptop support" @@ -620,11 +618,11 @@ depends on EXPERIMENTAL help Say Y or M here if you want to enable BIOS Enhanced Disk Drive - Services real mode BIOS calls to determine which disk - BIOS tries boot from. This information is then exported via driverfs. + Services real mode BIOS calls to determine which disk the BIOS + tries to boot from. This information is then exported via driverfs. - This option is experimental, but believed to be safe, - and most disk controller BIOS vendors do not yet implement this feature. + This option is experimental, but believed to be safe. However, + most disk controller BIOS vendors do not yet implement this feature. choice prompt "High Memory Support" @@ -740,7 +738,7 @@ is broken. Try "man bootparam" or see the documentation of your boot loader (lilo or loadlin) about how to pass options to the kernel at boot time.) This means that it is a good idea to say Y here if you - intend to use this kernel on different machines. + intend to use this kernel on different very old machines. More information about the internals of the Linux math coprocessor emulation can be found in <file:arch/i386/math-emu/README>. @@ -759,7 +757,7 @@ before bursting over the PCI/AGP bus. This can increase performance of image write operations 2.5 times or more. Saying Y here creates a /proc/mtrr file which may be used to manipulate your processor's - MTRRs. Typically the X server should use this. + MTRRs. XFree86 4.0 and later uses this automatically. This code has a reasonably generic interface so that similar control registers on other processors can be easily supported @@ -805,49 +803,44 @@ ---help--- "Power Management" means that parts of your computer are shut off or put into a power conserving "sleep" mode if they are not - being used. There are two competing standards for doing this: APM - and ACPI. If you want to use either one, say Y here and then also - to the requisite support below. - - Power Management is most important for battery powered laptop - computers; if you have a laptop, check out the Linux Laptop home - page on the WWW at - <http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/linux-laptop/> and the - Battery Powered Linux mini-HOWTO, available from + being used. There are two standards for doing this: APM and ACPI. + If you want to use either one, say Y here and then also to the + requisite support below. + + Power Management is most important for battery powered computers; + if you have a laptop, check out the Linux Laptop home page on the + WWW at <http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/linux-laptop/> and + the Battery Powered Linux mini-HOWTO, available from <http://www.tldp.org/docs.html#howto>. - Note that, even if you say N here, Linux on the x86 architecture - will issue the hlt instruction if nothing is to be done, thereby - sending the processor to sleep and saving power. + Even if you say N here, Linux on the x86 architecture will issue + the hlt instruction if nothing is to be done, thereby sending the + processor to sleep until the next interrupt, saving power. config SOFTWARE_SUSPEND bool "Software Suspend (EXPERIMENTAL)" depends on EXPERIMENTAL && PM && SWAP ---help--- - Enable the possibilty of suspendig machine. It doesn't need APM. - You may suspend your machine by 'swsusp' or 'shutdown -z <time>' - (patch for sysvinit needed). - - It creates an image which is saved in your active swaps. By the next - booting the, pass 'resume=/path/to/your/swap/file' and kernel will - detect the saved image, restore the memory from - it and then it continues to run as before you've suspended. - If you don't want the previous state to continue use the 'noresume' - kernel option. However note that your partitions will be fsck'd and - you must re-mkswap your swap partitions/files. - - Right now you may boot without resuming and then later resume but - in meantime you cannot use those swap partitions/files which were - involved in suspending. Also in this case there is a risk that buffers - on disk won't match with saved ones. - - SMP is supported ``as-is''. There's a code for it but doesn't work. - There have been problems reported relating SCSI. - - This option is about getting stable. However there is still some - absence of features. - - For more information take a look at Documentation/swsusp.txt. + Enable the possibilty of suspending the machine without using APM. + You may suspend your machine with 'swsusp' or 'shutdown -z <time>' + (patch for sysvinit needed). + + It creates an image which is saved in your active swaps. At the next + boot, pass 'resume=/path/to/your/swap/file' and your kernel will + detect the saved image, restore the machine state from it, and + continue to run from where it left off. Use the 'noresume' option + to boot without restoring, but your partitions will need an fsck, + and your swap areas will need an mkswap. + + If you booting without resuming, it is dangerous to later restore + the saved state, because disk buffers won't match what's on disk. + + SMP is supported ``as-is''. There's code for it, but it doesn't work. + There have been problems reported relating to SCSI. + + This option is nearly stable, but it lacks some features and + support for saving/restoring the state of some hardware. Thus, + be sure to check Documentation/swsusp.txt for caveats before using. source "drivers/acpi/Kconfig" @@ -868,14 +861,14 @@ Note that the APM support is almost completely disabled for machines with more than one CPU. - In order to use APM, you will need supporting software. For location - and more information, read <file:Documentation/pm.txt> and the - Battery Powered Linux mini-HOWTO, available from - <http://www.tldp.org/docs.html#howto>. + In order to use APM, you will need supporting software. Read + <file:Documentation/pm.txt> and the Battery Powered Linux + mini-HOWTO, available from <http://www.tldp.org/docs.html#howto>. This driver does not spin down disk drives (see the hdparm(8) - manpage ("man 8 hdparm") for that), and it doesn't turn off - VESA-compliant "green" monitors. + man page ("man hdparm") for that), and it doesn't turn off + VESA-compliant "green" monitors (see XF86Config(5) and/or xset(1) + for XFree86, or setterm(1) on the console for that). This driver does not support the TI 4000M TravelMate and the ACER 486/DX4/75 because they don't have compliant BIOSes. Many "green" @@ -904,7 +897,7 @@ 8) disable the cache from your BIOS settings 9) install a fan for the video card or exchange video RAM 10) install a better fan for the CPU - 11) exchange RAM chips + 11) test (with memtest86) and/or exchange RAM chips 12) exchange the motherboard. To compile this driver as a module ( = code which can be inserted in @@ -1023,10 +1016,11 @@ depends on !X86_VOYAGER default y if X86_VISWS help - Find out whether you have a PCI motherboard. PCI is the name of a - bus system, i.e. the way the CPU talks to the other stuff inside - your box. Other bus systems are ISA, EISA, MicroChannel (MCA) or - VESA. If you have PCI, say Y, otherwise N. + Modern PCs have PCI, but some Pentium and earlier computers don't. + If your computer is of that vintage, you'll need to check. PCI is + the name of a bus system, i.e. the way the CPU talks to the other + stuff inside your box. Other bus systems are ISA, EISA, + MicroChannel (MCA) or VESA. If you have PCI, say Y, otherwise N. The PCI-HOWTO, available from <http://www.tldp.org/docs.html#howto>, contains valuable @@ -1121,8 +1115,8 @@ tristate "NatSemi SCx200 support" depends on !X86_VOYAGER help - This provides basic support for the National Semiconductor SCx200 - processor. Right now this is just a driver for the GPIO pins. + Basic support for the National Semiconductor SCx200 processor. + Right now this is just a driver for the GPIO pins. If you don't know what to do here, say N. @@ -1308,9 +1302,7 @@ tristate "Sound card support" ---help--- If you have a sound card in your computer, i.e. if it can say more - than an occasional beep, say Y. Be sure to have all the information - about your sound card and its configuration down (I/O port, - interrupt and DMA channel), because you will be asked for it. + than an occasional beep, say Y. You want to read the Sound-HOWTO, available from <http://www.tldp.org/docs.html#howto>. General information about @@ -1328,6 +1320,11 @@ this, say M here and read <file:Documentation/modules.txt> as well as <file:Documentation/sound/README.modules>; the module will be called soundcore. + + If your sound card is connected to the ISA bus, and you're not + using kernel ISA PnP support, be sure to have all the information + about your sound card and its configuration down (I/O port, + interrupt and DMA channel), because you will be asked for it. I'm told that even without a sound card, you can make your computer say more than an occasional beep, by programming the PC speaker. @@ -1403,7 +1400,7 @@ bool "Highmem debugging" depends on DEBUG_KERNEL && HIGHMEM help - This options enables addition error checking for high memory systems. + This options enables additional error checking for high memory systems. Disable for production systems. config KALLSYMS

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