1 # SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
3 # Character device configuration
6 menu "Character devices"
8 source "drivers/tty/Kconfig"
11 bool "/dev/mem virtual device support"
14 Say Y here if you want to support the /dev/mem device.
15 The /dev/mem device is used to access areas of physical
17 When in doubt, say "Y".
20 bool "/dev/kmem virtual device support"
21 # On arm64, VMALLOC_START < PAGE_OFFSET, which confuses kmem read/write
24 Say Y here if you want to support the /dev/kmem device. The
25 /dev/kmem device is rarely used, but can be used for certain
26 kind of kernel debugging operations.
27 When in doubt, say "N".
30 bool "SGI Altix system controller communication support"
31 depends on (IA64_SGI_SN2 || IA64_GENERIC)
33 If you have an SGI Altix and you want to enable system
34 controller communication from user space (you want this!),
35 say Y. Otherwise, say N.
38 bool "SGI TIO CX driver support"
39 depends on (IA64_SGI_SN2 || IA64_GENERIC)
41 If you have an SGI Altix and you have fpga devices attached
42 to your TIO, say Y here, otherwise say N.
45 tristate "SGI FPGA Core Services driver support"
48 If you have an SGI Altix with an attached SABrick
49 say Y or M here, otherwise say N.
51 source "drivers/tty/serial/Kconfig"
52 source "drivers/tty/serdev/Kconfig"
55 tristate "TTY driver to output user messages via printk"
56 depends on EXPERT && TTY
59 If you say Y here, the support for writing user messages (i.e.
60 console messages) via printk is available.
62 The feature is useful to inline user messages with kernel
64 In order to use this feature, you should output user messages
65 to /dev/ttyprintk or redirect console to this TTY.
70 tristate "Blackfin On-Chip OTP Memory Support"
71 depends on BLACKFIN && (BF51x || BF52x || BF54x)
74 If you say Y here, you will get support for a character device
75 interface into the One Time Programmable memory pages that are
76 stored on the Blackfin processor. This will not get you access
77 to the secure memory pages however. You will need to write your
78 own secure code and reader for that.
80 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the module
81 will be called bfin-otp.
83 If unsure, it is safe to say Y.
85 config BFIN_OTP_WRITE_ENABLE
86 bool "Enable writing support of OTP pages"
90 If you say Y here, you will enable support for writing of the
91 OTP pages. This is dangerous by nature as you can only program
92 the pages once, so only enable this option when you actually
93 need it so as to not inadvertently clobber data.
98 tristate "Parallel printer support"
101 If you intend to attach a printer to the parallel port of your Linux
102 box (as opposed to using a serial printer; if the connector at the
103 printer has 9 or 25 holes ["female"], then it's serial), say Y.
104 Also read the Printing-HOWTO, available from
105 <http://www.tldp.org/docs.html#howto>.
107 It is possible to share one parallel port among several devices
108 (e.g. printer and ZIP drive) and it is safe to compile the
109 corresponding drivers into the kernel.
111 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here and read
112 <file:Documentation/parport.txt>. The module will be called lp.
114 If you have several parallel ports, you can specify which ports to
115 use with the "lp" kernel command line option. (Try "man bootparam"
116 or see the documentation of your boot loader (lilo or loadlin) about
117 how to pass options to the kernel at boot time.) The syntax of the
118 "lp" command line option can be found in <file:drivers/char/lp.c>.
120 If you have more than 8 printers, you need to increase the LP_NO
121 macro in lp.c and the PARPORT_MAX macro in parport.h.
124 bool "Support for console on line printer"
127 If you want kernel messages to be printed out as they occur, you
128 can have a console on the printer. This option adds support for
129 doing that; to actually get it to happen you need to pass the
130 option "console=lp0" to the kernel at boot time.
132 If the printer is out of paper (or off, or unplugged, or too
133 busy..) the kernel will stall until the printer is ready again.
134 By defining CONSOLE_LP_STRICT to 0 (at your own risk) you
135 can make the kernel continue when this happens,
136 but it'll lose the kernel messages.
141 tristate "Support for user-space parallel port device drivers"
144 Saying Y to this adds support for /dev/parport device nodes. This
145 is needed for programs that want portable access to the parallel
146 port, for instance deviceid (which displays Plug-and-Play device
149 This is the parallel port equivalent of SCSI generic support (sg).
150 It is safe to say N to this -- it is not needed for normal printing
151 or parallel port CD-ROM/disk support.
153 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
154 module will be called ppdev.
158 source "drivers/tty/hvc/Kconfig"
160 config VIRTIO_CONSOLE
161 tristate "Virtio console"
162 depends on VIRTIO && TTY
165 Virtio console for use with hypervisors.
167 Also serves as a general-purpose serial device for data
168 transfer between the guest and host. Character devices at
169 /dev/vportNpn will be created when corresponding ports are
170 found, where N is the device number and n is the port number
171 within that device. If specified by the host, a sysfs
172 attribute called 'name' will be populated with a name for
173 the port which can be used by udev scripts to create a
174 symlink to the device.
177 tristate "IBM POWER Barrier Synchronization Register support"
178 depends on PPC_PSERIES
180 This devices exposes a hardware mechanism for fast synchronization
181 of threads across a large system which avoids bouncing a cacheline
182 between several cores on a system
184 config POWERNV_OP_PANEL
185 tristate "IBM POWERNV Operator Panel Display support"
186 depends on PPC_POWERNV
189 If you say Y here, a special character device node, /dev/op_panel,
190 will be created which exposes the operator panel display on IBM
191 Power Systems machines with FSPs.
193 If you don't require access to the operator panel display from user
196 If unsure, say M here to build it as a module called powernv-op-panel.
198 source "drivers/char/ipmi/Kconfig"
201 tristate "NetWinder thermometer support"
202 depends on ARCH_NETWINDER
204 Say Y here to include support for the thermal management hardware
205 found in the NetWinder. This driver allows the user to control the
206 temperature set points and to read the current temperature.
208 It is also possible to say M here to build it as a module (ds1620)
209 It is recommended to be used on a NetWinder, but it is not a
213 tristate "NetWinder Button"
214 depends on ARCH_NETWINDER
216 If you say Y here and create a character device node /dev/nwbutton
217 with major and minor numbers 10 and 158 ("man mknod"), then every
218 time the orange button is pressed a number of times, the number of
219 times the button was pressed will be written to that device.
221 This is most useful for applications, as yet unwritten, which
222 perform actions based on how many times the button is pressed in a
225 Do not hold the button down for too long, as the driver does not
226 alter the behaviour of the hardware reset circuitry attached to the
227 button; it will still execute a hard reset if the button is held
228 down for longer than approximately five seconds.
230 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
231 module will be called nwbutton.
233 Most people will answer Y to this question and "Reboot Using Button"
234 below to be able to initiate a system shutdown from the button.
236 config NWBUTTON_REBOOT
237 bool "Reboot Using Button"
240 If you say Y here, then you will be able to initiate a system
241 shutdown and reboot by pressing the orange button a number of times.
242 The number of presses to initiate the shutdown is two by default,
243 but this can be altered by modifying the value of NUM_PRESSES_REBOOT
244 in nwbutton.h and recompiling the driver or, if you compile the
245 driver as a module, you can specify the number of presses at load
246 time with "insmod button reboot_count=<something>".
249 tristate "NetWinder flash support"
250 depends on ARCH_NETWINDER
252 If you say Y here and create a character device /dev/flash with
253 major 10 and minor 160 you can manipulate the flash ROM containing
254 the NetWinder firmware. Be careful as accidentally overwriting the
255 flash contents can render your computer unbootable. On no account
256 allow random users access to this device. :-)
258 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
259 module will be called nwflash.
261 If you're not sure, say N.
263 source "drivers/char/hw_random/Kconfig"
266 tristate "/dev/nvram support"
267 depends on ATARI || X86 || (ARM && RTC_DRV_CMOS) || GENERIC_NVRAM
269 If you say Y here and create a character special file /dev/nvram
270 with major number 10 and minor number 144 using mknod ("man mknod"),
271 you get read and write access to the extra bytes of non-volatile
272 memory in the real time clock (RTC), which is contained in every PC
273 and most Ataris. The actual number of bytes varies, depending on the
274 nvram in the system, but is usually 114 (128-14 for the RTC).
276 This memory is conventionally called "CMOS RAM" on PCs and "NVRAM"
277 on Ataris. /dev/nvram may be used to view settings there, or to
278 change them (with some utility). It could also be used to frequently
279 save a few bits of very important data that may not be lost over
280 power-off and for which writing to disk is too insecure. Note
281 however that most NVRAM space in a PC belongs to the BIOS and you
282 should NEVER idly tamper with it. See Ralf Brown's interrupt list
283 for a guide to the use of CMOS bytes by your BIOS.
285 On Atari machines, /dev/nvram is always configured and does not need
288 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
289 module will be called nvram.
292 # These legacy RTC drivers just cause too many conflicts with the generic
293 # RTC framework ... let's not even try to coexist any more.
298 tristate "Enhanced Real Time Clock Support (legacy PC RTC driver)"
299 depends on ALPHA || (MIPS && MACH_LOONGSON64)
301 If you say Y here and create a character special file /dev/rtc with
302 major number 10 and minor number 135 using mknod ("man mknod"), you
303 will get access to the real time clock (or hardware clock) built
306 Every PC has such a clock built in. It can be used to generate
307 signals from as low as 1Hz up to 8192Hz, and can also be used
308 as a 24 hour alarm. It reports status information via the file
309 /proc/driver/rtc and its behaviour is set by various ioctls on
312 If you run Linux on a multiprocessor machine and said Y to
313 "Symmetric Multi Processing" above, you should say Y here to read
314 and set the RTC in an SMP compatible fashion.
316 If you think you have a use for such a device (such as periodic data
317 sampling), then say Y here, and read <file:Documentation/rtc.txt>
320 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
321 module will be called rtc.
324 tristate "Enhanced Real Time Clock Support"
325 depends on SPARC32 && PCI
327 If you say Y here and create a character special file /dev/rtc with
328 major number 10 and minor number 135 using mknod ("man mknod"), you
329 will get access to the real time clock (or hardware clock) built
332 Every PC has such a clock built in. It can be used to generate
333 signals from as low as 1Hz up to 8192Hz, and can also be used
334 as a 24 hour alarm. It reports status information via the file
335 /proc/driver/rtc and its behaviour is set by various ioctls on
338 If you think you have a use for such a device (such as periodic data
339 sampling), then say Y here, and read <file:Documentation/rtc.txt>
342 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
343 module will be called js-rtc.
346 bool "EFI Real Time Clock Services"
350 tristate "DS1302 RTC support"
351 depends on M32R && (PLAT_M32700UT || PLAT_OPSPUT)
353 If you say Y here and create a character special file /dev/rtc with
354 major number 121 and minor number 0 using mknod ("man mknod"), you
355 will get access to the real time clock (or hardware clock) built
361 tristate "Double Talk PC internal speech card support"
364 This driver is for the DoubleTalk PC, a speech synthesizer
365 manufactured by RC Systems (<http://www.rcsys.com/>). It is also
366 called the `internal DoubleTalk'.
368 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
369 module will be called dtlk.
372 tristate "Xilinx HWICAP Support"
373 depends on XILINX_VIRTEX || MICROBLAZE
375 This option enables support for Xilinx Internal Configuration
376 Access Port (ICAP) driver. The ICAP is used on Xilinx Virtex
377 FPGA platforms to partially reconfigure the FPGA at runtime.
382 tristate "Siemens R3964 line discipline"
385 This driver allows synchronous communication with devices using the
386 Siemens R3964 packet protocol. Unless you are dealing with special
387 hardware like PLCs, you are unlikely to need this.
389 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
390 module will be called n_r3964.
395 tristate "Applicom intelligent fieldbus card support"
398 This driver provides the kernel-side support for the intelligent
399 fieldbus cards made by Applicom International. More information
400 about these cards can be found on the WWW at the address
401 <http://www.applicom-int.com/>, or by email from David Woodhouse
402 <dwmw2@infradead.org>.
404 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
405 module will be called applicom.
410 tristate "Sony Vaio Programmable I/O Control Device support"
411 depends on X86_32 && PCI && INPUT
413 This driver enables access to the Sony Programmable I/O Control
414 Device which can be found in many (all ?) Sony Vaio laptops.
416 If you have one of those laptops, read
417 <file:Documentation/laptops/sonypi.txt>, and say Y or M here.
419 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
420 module will be called sonypi.
423 tristate "TANBAC TB0219 GPIO support"
424 depends on TANBAC_TB022X
427 source "drivers/char/pcmcia/Kconfig"
430 tristate "ACP Modem (Mwave) support"
431 depends on X86 && TTY
434 The ACP modem (Mwave) for Linux is a WinModem. It is composed of a
435 kernel driver and a user level application. Together these components
436 support direct attachment to public switched telephone networks (PSTNs)
437 and support selected world wide countries.
439 This version of the ACP Modem driver supports the IBM Thinkpad 600E,
440 600, and 770 that include on board ACP modem hardware.
442 The modem also supports the standard communications port interface
443 (ttySx) and is compatible with the Hayes AT Command Set.
445 The user level application needed to use this driver can be found at
446 the IBM Linux Technology Center (LTC) web site:
447 <http://www.ibm.com/linux/ltc/>.
449 If you own one of the above IBM Thinkpads which has the Mwave chipset
452 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
453 module will be called mwave.
456 tristate "NatSemi SCx200 GPIO Support"
460 Give userspace access to the GPIO pins on the National
461 Semiconductor SCx200 processors.
463 If compiled as a module, it will be called scx200_gpio.
466 tristate "NatSemi PC8736x GPIO Support"
467 depends on X86_32 && !UML
468 default SCx200_GPIO # mostly N
469 select NSC_GPIO # needed for support routines
471 Give userspace access to the GPIO pins on the National
472 Semiconductor PC-8736x (x=[03456]) SuperIO chip. The chip
473 has multiple functional units, inc several managed by
474 hwmon/pc87360 driver. Tested with PC-87366
476 If compiled as a module, it will be called pc8736x_gpio.
479 tristate "NatSemi Base GPIO Support"
481 # selected by SCx200_GPIO and PC8736x_GPIO
482 # what about 2 selectors differing: m != y
484 Common support used (and needed) by scx200_gpio and
485 pc8736x_gpio drivers. If those drivers are built as
486 modules, this one will be too, named nsc_gpio
489 tristate "RAW driver (/dev/raw/rawN)"
492 The raw driver permits block devices to be bound to /dev/raw/rawN.
493 Once bound, I/O against /dev/raw/rawN uses efficient zero-copy I/O.
494 See the raw(8) manpage for more details.
496 Applications should preferably open the device (eg /dev/hda1)
497 with the O_DIRECT flag.
500 int "Maximum number of RAW devices to support (1-65536)"
501 depends on RAW_DRIVER
505 The maximum number of RAW devices that are supported.
506 Default is 256. Increase this number in case you need lots of
510 bool "HPET - High Precision Event Timer" if (X86 || IA64)
514 If you say Y here, you will have a miscdevice named "/dev/hpet/". Each
515 open selects one of the timers supported by the HPET. The timers are
516 non-periodic and/or periodic.
519 bool "Allow mmap of HPET"
523 If you say Y here, user applications will be able to mmap
526 config HPET_MMAP_DEFAULT
527 bool "Enable HPET MMAP access by default"
531 In some hardware implementations, the page containing HPET
532 registers may also contain other things that shouldn't be
533 exposed to the user. This option selects the default (if
534 kernel parameter hpet_mmap is not set) user access to the
535 registers for applications that require it.
537 config HANGCHECK_TIMER
538 tristate "Hangcheck timer"
539 depends on X86 || IA64 || PPC64 || S390
541 The hangcheck-timer module detects when the system has gone
542 out to lunch past a certain margin. It can reboot the system
543 or merely print a warning.
546 tristate "UV_MMTIMER Memory mapped RTC for SGI UV"
550 The uv_mmtimer device allows direct userspace access to the
553 source "drivers/char/tpm/Kconfig"
556 tristate "Telecom clock driver for ATCA SBC"
560 The telecom clock device is specific to the MPCBL0010 and MPCBL0050
561 ATCA computers and allows direct userspace access to the
562 configuration of the telecom clock configuration settings. This
563 device is used for hardware synchronization across the ATCA backplane
564 fabric. Upon loading, the driver exports a sysfs directory,
565 /sys/devices/platform/telco_clock, with a number of files for
566 controlling the behavior of this hardware.
569 bool "/dev/port character device"
570 depends on ISA || PCI
573 Say Y here if you want to support the /dev/port device. The /dev/port
574 device is similar to /dev/mem, but for I/O ports.
576 source "drivers/s390/char/Kconfig"
579 tristate "Character-device access via hypervisor to the Tilera SPI ROM"
583 This device provides character-level read-write access
584 to the SROM, typically via the "0", "1", and "2" devices
585 in /dev/srom/. The Tilera hypervisor makes the flash
586 device appear much like a simple EEPROM, and knows
587 how to partition a single ROM for multiple purposes.
589 source "drivers/char/xillybus/Kconfig"