Table of Contents
Advertisement
General Parameters and Modules
A General Parameters and Modules
This appendix is provided to illustrate some of the possible parameters that may be needed by certain
1
drivers
for particular hardware devices. 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 filesystems and particular device
drivers supported by the kernel. After installation, however, support exists for all filesystems 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.
Because Red Hat Linux supports installation on many different types of hard-
ware, 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 con-
figuring.
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.
1 A driver is a type of software that helps your system use a particular hardware device. Without the driver, the
kernel may not know how to correctly utilize the device.
Note
311
Advertisement
Table of Contents
