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Subjectsome edits to the Kconfig online help (2.5.73)
From
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
--- 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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