Section 9.3. Interrupt Options

9.3. Interrupt Options

Interrupts are a complex aspect of kernel behavior. The boot time options deal mostly with the interface between the kernel and the hardware that handles interrupts, such as the Intel chip's Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (APIC).

Change the verbosity of the APIC subsystem when booting.

apic=[quiet|verbose|debug]

Control how much information the APIC subsystem generates when booting the kernel. The default is quiet.

Do not use any IOAPICs.

Prevent the kernel from using any of the IOAPICs that might be present in the system.

Enable the local APIC.

Cause the kernel to enable the local APIC even if the BIOS had disabled it.

Do not use the local APIC.

Tell the kernel not to use the local APIC.

Disable kernel IRQ balancing.

Disable all of the built-in kernel IRQ balancing logic.

Basic fix to interrupt problems.

When an interrupt is not handled, search all known interrupt handlers for it. This is intended to get systems with badly broken firmware running.

Extended fix to interrupt problems.

When an interrupt is not handled, search all known interrupt handlers for it and also check all handlers on each timer interrupt. This is intended to get systems with badly broken firmware running.

Disable unhandled interrupt detection.

By default, the kernel attempts to detect and disable unhandled interrupt sources because they can cause problems with the responsiveness of the rest of the kernel if left unchecked. This option disables this logic.