xref: /freebsd/share/man/man5/device.hints.5 (revision ad962727266d02dc83ba1307659b94d8675c9d2c)
1.\" Copyright (c) 2001
2.\" Kazutaka YOKOTA <yokota@zodiac.mech.utsunomiya-u.ac.jp>
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26.\" $FreeBSD$
27.\"
28.Dd October 7, 2001
29.Dt DEVICE.HINTS 5
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm device.hints
33.Nd device resource hints
34.Sh DESCRIPTION
35The
36.Nm
37file is read in by the boot
38.Xr loader 8
39when the system is about to start, and its contents are
40passed to the kernel.
41It contains various variables to control the boot behavior of
42the kernel.
43These variables are typically
44.Dq device hints .
45.\" .Dq device hints ,
46.\" and other control variables.
47.Pp
48The file contains one variable per line.
49Lines starting with the
50.Ql #
51character are comments and are ignored by the boot loader.
52.Pp
53After the file is read by the boot loader, you may examine
54the variables with the
55.Ic show
56command, and may add a new variable, modify an existing one,
57or delete a variable with the
58.Ic set
59and
60.Ic unset
61commands of the boot loader
62(see
63.Xr loader 8 ) .
64.Pp
65After the system has started, you can dump these variables
66with the
67.Xr kenv 1
68command.
69.Sh DEVICE HINTS
70Device hint variables are used by device drivers to set up
71the device.
72They are most often used by ISA device drivers to specify
73where the driver will probe for the relevant devices, and what
74resources it will attempt to use.
75.Pp
76A device hint line looks like:
77.Pp
78.Sm off
79.D1 Li hint. Ar driver Li . Ar unit Li . Ar keyword Li = Qq Ar value
80.Sm on
81.Pp
82where
83.Ar driver
84is the name of a device driver,
85.Ar unit
86is the unit number, and
87.Ar keyword
88is the keyword of the hint.
89The keyword may be:
90.Pp
91.Bl -tag -width ".Li disabled" -compact -offset indent
92.It Li at
93specifies a bus to which the device is attached.
94.It Li port
95specifies the start address of I/O ports to be used by the device.
96.It Li irq
97is the interrupt line number to be used.
98.It Li drq
99is the DMA channel number.
100.It Li maddr
101specifies the physical memory address used by the device.
102.It Li msize
103specifies the physical memory size used by the device.
104.It Li flags
105sets various flag bits for the device.
106.It Li disabled
107can be set to
108.Qq 1
109to disable the device.
110.El
111.Pp
112A device driver may require one or more hint lines with these keywords,
113and may accept other keywords not listed here.
114Consult individual device drivers' manual pages for available
115keywords and their possible values.
116.\" .Sh CONTROL VARIABLES
117.\" Lines not starting with
118.\" .Dq hint.
119.\" specify other control variables for the kernel.
120.\" They look:
121.\" .Pp
122.\" .Dl <name>="<value>"
123.\" XXX
124.\" WE SHOULD LIST AVAILABLE VARIABLE NAMES AND THEIR POSSIBLE VALUES HERE!
125.\" .Pp
126.Sh FILES
127.Bl -tag -width ".Pa /sys/ Ns Ar ARCH Ns Pa /conf/GENERIC.hints" -compact
128.It Pa /boot/device.hints
129Device resource hints file.
130.It Pa /sys/ Ns Ar ARCH Ns Pa /conf/GENERIC.hints
131Sample resource hints for the
132.Pa GENERIC
133kernel.
134.It Pa /sys/ Ns Ar ARCH Ns Pa /conf/NOTES
135Notes on the kernel configuration file and device resource hints.
136.El
137.Sh EXAMPLES
138The following example sets up resources for the
139.Xr sio 4
140driver on the ISA bus:
141.Bd -literal -offset indent
142hint.sio.0.at="isa"
143hint.sio.0.port="0x3F8"
144hint.sio.0.flags="0x10"
145hint.sio.0.irq="4"
146.Ed
147.Pp
148The following example disables the ACPI driver:
149.Bd -literal -offset indent
150hint.acpi.0.disabled="1"
151.Ed
152.\" .Pp
153.\" A control variable may look like:
154.\" .Pp
155.\" .Bd -literal -offset indent
156.\" debug.acpi.layer="ACPI_RESOURCES"
157.\" .Ed
158.Sh SEE ALSO
159.Xr kenv 1 ,
160.Xr loader.conf 5 ,
161.Xr loader 8
162.Sh HISTORY
163The
164.Nm
165file first appeared in
166.Fx 5.0 .
167