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.
69 config TTY_PRINTK_LEVEL
71 int "ttyprintk log level (1-7)"
75 Printk log level to use for ttyprintk messages.
78 tristate "Parallel printer support"
81 If you intend to attach a printer to the parallel port of your Linux
82 box (as opposed to using a serial printer; if the connector at the
83 printer has 9 or 25 holes ["female"], then it's serial), say Y.
84 Also read the Printing-HOWTO, available from
85 <http://www.tldp.org/docs.html#howto>.
87 It is possible to share one parallel port among several devices
88 (e.g. printer and ZIP drive) and it is safe to compile the
89 corresponding drivers into the kernel.
91 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here and read
92 <file:Documentation/admin-guide/parport.rst>. The module will be called lp.
94 If you have several parallel ports, you can specify which ports to
95 use with the "lp" kernel command line option. (Try "man bootparam"
96 or see the documentation of your boot loader (lilo or loadlin) about
97 how to pass options to the kernel at boot time.) The syntax of the
98 "lp" command line option can be found in <file:drivers/char/lp.c>.
100 If you have more than 8 printers, you need to increase the LP_NO
101 macro in lp.c and the PARPORT_MAX macro in parport.h.
104 bool "Support for console on line printer"
107 If you want kernel messages to be printed out as they occur, you
108 can have a console on the printer. This option adds support for
109 doing that; to actually get it to happen you need to pass the
110 option "console=lp0" to the kernel at boot time.
112 If the printer is out of paper (or off, or unplugged, or too
113 busy..) the kernel will stall until the printer is ready again.
114 By defining CONSOLE_LP_STRICT to 0 (at your own risk) you
115 can make the kernel continue when this happens,
116 but it'll lose the kernel messages.
121 tristate "Support for user-space parallel port device drivers"
124 Saying Y to this adds support for /dev/parport device nodes. This
125 is needed for programs that want portable access to the parallel
126 port, for instance deviceid (which displays Plug-and-Play device
129 This is the parallel port equivalent of SCSI generic support (sg).
130 It is safe to say N to this -- it is not needed for normal printing
131 or parallel port CD-ROM/disk support.
133 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
134 module will be called ppdev.
138 source "drivers/tty/hvc/Kconfig"
140 config VIRTIO_CONSOLE
141 tristate "Virtio console"
142 depends on VIRTIO && TTY
145 Virtio console for use with hypervisors.
147 Also serves as a general-purpose serial device for data
148 transfer between the guest and host. Character devices at
149 /dev/vportNpn will be created when corresponding ports are
150 found, where N is the device number and n is the port number
151 within that device. If specified by the host, a sysfs
152 attribute called 'name' will be populated with a name for
153 the port which can be used by udev scripts to create a
154 symlink to the device.
157 tristate "IBM POWER Barrier Synchronization Register support"
158 depends on PPC_PSERIES
160 This devices exposes a hardware mechanism for fast synchronization
161 of threads across a large system which avoids bouncing a cacheline
162 between several cores on a system
164 config POWERNV_OP_PANEL
165 tristate "IBM POWERNV Operator Panel Display support"
166 depends on PPC_POWERNV
169 If you say Y here, a special character device node, /dev/op_panel,
170 will be created which exposes the operator panel display on IBM
171 Power Systems machines with FSPs.
173 If you don't require access to the operator panel display from user
176 If unsure, say M here to build it as a module called powernv-op-panel.
178 source "drivers/char/ipmi/Kconfig"
181 tristate "NetWinder thermometer support"
182 depends on ARCH_NETWINDER
184 Say Y here to include support for the thermal management hardware
185 found in the NetWinder. This driver allows the user to control the
186 temperature set points and to read the current temperature.
188 It is also possible to say M here to build it as a module (ds1620)
189 It is recommended to be used on a NetWinder, but it is not a
193 tristate "NetWinder Button"
194 depends on ARCH_NETWINDER
196 If you say Y here and create a character device node /dev/nwbutton
197 with major and minor numbers 10 and 158 ("man mknod"), then every
198 time the orange button is pressed a number of times, the number of
199 times the button was pressed will be written to that device.
201 This is most useful for applications, as yet unwritten, which
202 perform actions based on how many times the button is pressed in a
205 Do not hold the button down for too long, as the driver does not
206 alter the behaviour of the hardware reset circuitry attached to the
207 button; it will still execute a hard reset if the button is held
208 down for longer than approximately five seconds.
210 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
211 module will be called nwbutton.
213 Most people will answer Y to this question and "Reboot Using Button"
214 below to be able to initiate a system shutdown from the button.
216 config NWBUTTON_REBOOT
217 bool "Reboot Using Button"
220 If you say Y here, then you will be able to initiate a system
221 shutdown and reboot by pressing the orange button a number of times.
222 The number of presses to initiate the shutdown is two by default,
223 but this can be altered by modifying the value of NUM_PRESSES_REBOOT
224 in nwbutton.h and recompiling the driver or, if you compile the
225 driver as a module, you can specify the number of presses at load
226 time with "insmod button reboot_count=<something>".
229 tristate "NetWinder flash support"
230 depends on ARCH_NETWINDER
232 If you say Y here and create a character device /dev/flash with
233 major 10 and minor 160 you can manipulate the flash ROM containing
234 the NetWinder firmware. Be careful as accidentally overwriting the
235 flash contents can render your computer unbootable. On no account
236 allow random users access to this device. :-)
238 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
239 module will be called nwflash.
241 If you're not sure, say N.
243 source "drivers/char/hw_random/Kconfig"
246 tristate "/dev/nvram support"
247 depends on X86 || HAVE_ARCH_NVRAM_OPS
250 If you say Y here and create a character special file /dev/nvram
251 with major number 10 and minor number 144 using mknod ("man mknod"),
252 you get read and write access to the non-volatile memory.
254 /dev/nvram may be used to view settings in NVRAM or to change them
255 (with some utility). It could also be used to frequently
256 save a few bits of very important data that may not be lost over
257 power-off and for which writing to disk is too insecure. Note
258 however that most NVRAM space in a PC belongs to the BIOS and you
259 should NEVER idly tamper with it. See Ralf Brown's interrupt list
260 for a guide to the use of CMOS bytes by your BIOS.
262 This memory is conventionally called "NVRAM" on PowerPC machines,
263 "CMOS RAM" on PCs, "NVRAM" on Ataris and "PRAM" on Macintoshes.
265 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
266 module will be called nvram.
269 # These legacy RTC drivers just cause too many conflicts with the generic
270 # RTC framework ... let's not even try to coexist any more.
275 tristate "Enhanced Real Time Clock Support (legacy PC RTC driver)"
278 If you say Y here and create a character special file /dev/rtc with
279 major number 10 and minor number 135 using mknod ("man mknod"), you
280 will get access to the real time clock (or hardware clock) built
283 Every PC has such a clock built in. It can be used to generate
284 signals from as low as 1Hz up to 8192Hz, and can also be used
285 as a 24 hour alarm. It reports status information via the file
286 /proc/driver/rtc and its behaviour is set by various ioctls on
289 If you run Linux on a multiprocessor machine and said Y to
290 "Symmetric Multi Processing" above, you should say Y here to read
291 and set the RTC in an SMP compatible fashion.
293 If you think you have a use for such a device (such as periodic data
294 sampling), then say Y here, and read <file:Documentation/rtc.txt>
297 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
298 module will be called rtc.
301 tristate "Enhanced Real Time Clock Support"
302 depends on SPARC32 && PCI
304 If you say Y here and create a character special file /dev/rtc with
305 major number 10 and minor number 135 using mknod ("man mknod"), you
306 will get access to the real time clock (or hardware clock) built
309 Every PC has such a clock built in. It can be used to generate
310 signals from as low as 1Hz up to 8192Hz, and can also be used
311 as a 24 hour alarm. It reports status information via the file
312 /proc/driver/rtc and its behaviour is set by various ioctls on
315 If you think you have a use for such a device (such as periodic data
316 sampling), then say Y here, and read <file:Documentation/rtc.txt>
319 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
320 module will be called js-rtc.
323 bool "EFI Real Time Clock Services"
329 tristate "Double Talk PC internal speech card support"
332 This driver is for the DoubleTalk PC, a speech synthesizer
333 manufactured by RC Systems (<http://www.rcsys.com/>). It is also
334 called the `internal DoubleTalk'.
336 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
337 module will be called dtlk.
340 tristate "Xilinx HWICAP Support"
341 depends on XILINX_VIRTEX || MICROBLAZE
343 This option enables support for Xilinx Internal Configuration
344 Access Port (ICAP) driver. The ICAP is used on Xilinx Virtex
345 FPGA platforms to partially reconfigure the FPGA at runtime.
350 tristate "Siemens R3964 line discipline"
353 This driver allows synchronous communication with devices using the
354 Siemens R3964 packet protocol. Unless you are dealing with special
355 hardware like PLCs, you are unlikely to need this.
357 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
358 module will be called n_r3964.
363 tristate "Applicom intelligent fieldbus card support"
366 This driver provides the kernel-side support for the intelligent
367 fieldbus cards made by Applicom International. More information
368 about these cards can be found on the WWW at the address
369 <http://www.applicom-int.com/>, or by email from David Woodhouse
370 <dwmw2@infradead.org>.
372 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
373 module will be called applicom.
378 tristate "Sony Vaio Programmable I/O Control Device support"
379 depends on X86_32 && PCI && INPUT
381 This driver enables access to the Sony Programmable I/O Control
382 Device which can be found in many (all ?) Sony Vaio laptops.
384 If you have one of those laptops, read
385 <file:Documentation/laptops/sonypi.txt>, and say Y or M here.
387 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
388 module will be called sonypi.
391 tristate "TANBAC TB0219 GPIO support"
392 depends on TANBAC_TB022X
395 source "drivers/char/pcmcia/Kconfig"
398 tristate "ACP Modem (Mwave) support"
399 depends on X86 && TTY
402 The ACP modem (Mwave) for Linux is a WinModem. It is composed of a
403 kernel driver and a user level application. Together these components
404 support direct attachment to public switched telephone networks (PSTNs)
405 and support selected world wide countries.
407 This version of the ACP Modem driver supports the IBM Thinkpad 600E,
408 600, and 770 that include on board ACP modem hardware.
410 The modem also supports the standard communications port interface
411 (ttySx) and is compatible with the Hayes AT Command Set.
413 The user level application needed to use this driver can be found at
414 the IBM Linux Technology Center (LTC) web site:
415 <http://www.ibm.com/linux/ltc/>.
417 If you own one of the above IBM Thinkpads which has the Mwave chipset
420 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
421 module will be called mwave.
424 tristate "NatSemi SCx200 GPIO Support"
428 Give userspace access to the GPIO pins on the National
429 Semiconductor SCx200 processors.
431 If compiled as a module, it will be called scx200_gpio.
434 tristate "NatSemi PC8736x GPIO Support"
435 depends on X86_32 && !UML
436 default SCx200_GPIO # mostly N
437 select NSC_GPIO # needed for support routines
439 Give userspace access to the GPIO pins on the National
440 Semiconductor PC-8736x (x=[03456]) SuperIO chip. The chip
441 has multiple functional units, inc several managed by
442 hwmon/pc87360 driver. Tested with PC-87366
444 If compiled as a module, it will be called pc8736x_gpio.
447 tristate "NatSemi Base GPIO Support"
449 # selected by SCx200_GPIO and PC8736x_GPIO
450 # what about 2 selectors differing: m != y
452 Common support used (and needed) by scx200_gpio and
453 pc8736x_gpio drivers. If those drivers are built as
454 modules, this one will be too, named nsc_gpio
457 tristate "RAW driver (/dev/raw/rawN)"
460 The raw driver permits block devices to be bound to /dev/raw/rawN.
461 Once bound, I/O against /dev/raw/rawN uses efficient zero-copy I/O.
462 See the raw(8) manpage for more details.
464 Applications should preferably open the device (eg /dev/hda1)
465 with the O_DIRECT flag.
468 int "Maximum number of RAW devices to support (1-65536)"
469 depends on RAW_DRIVER
473 The maximum number of RAW devices that are supported.
474 Default is 256. Increase this number in case you need lots of
478 bool "HPET - High Precision Event Timer" if (X86 || IA64)
482 If you say Y here, you will have a miscdevice named "/dev/hpet/". Each
483 open selects one of the timers supported by the HPET. The timers are
484 non-periodic and/or periodic.
487 bool "Allow mmap of HPET"
491 If you say Y here, user applications will be able to mmap
494 config HPET_MMAP_DEFAULT
495 bool "Enable HPET MMAP access by default"
499 In some hardware implementations, the page containing HPET
500 registers may also contain other things that shouldn't be
501 exposed to the user. This option selects the default (if
502 kernel parameter hpet_mmap is not set) user access to the
503 registers for applications that require it.
505 config HANGCHECK_TIMER
506 tristate "Hangcheck timer"
507 depends on X86 || IA64 || PPC64 || S390
509 The hangcheck-timer module detects when the system has gone
510 out to lunch past a certain margin. It can reboot the system
511 or merely print a warning.
514 tristate "UV_MMTIMER Memory mapped RTC for SGI UV"
518 The uv_mmtimer device allows direct userspace access to the
521 source "drivers/char/tpm/Kconfig"
524 tristate "Telecom clock driver for ATCA SBC"
528 The telecom clock device is specific to the MPCBL0010 and MPCBL0050
529 ATCA computers and allows direct userspace access to the
530 configuration of the telecom clock configuration settings. This
531 device is used for hardware synchronization across the ATCA backplane
532 fabric. Upon loading, the driver exports a sysfs directory,
533 /sys/devices/platform/telco_clock, with a number of files for
534 controlling the behavior of this hardware.
537 bool "/dev/port character device"
538 depends on ISA || PCI
541 Say Y here if you want to support the /dev/port device. The /dev/port
542 device is similar to /dev/mem, but for I/O ports.
544 source "drivers/s390/char/Kconfig"
546 source "drivers/char/xillybus/Kconfig"
549 tristate "SPARC Privileged ADI driver"
553 SPARC M7 and newer processors utilize ADI (Application Data
554 Integrity) to version and protect memory. This driver provides
555 read/write access to the ADI versions for privileged processes.
556 This feature is also known as MCD (Memory Corruption Detection)
557 and SSM (Silicon Secured Memory). Intended consumers of this
558 driver include crash and makedumpfile.
562 config RANDOM_TRUST_CPU
563 bool "Trust the CPU manufacturer to initialize Linux's CRNG"
564 depends on X86 || S390 || PPC
567 Assume that CPU manufacturer (e.g., Intel or AMD for RDSEED or
568 RDRAND, IBM for the S390 and Power PC architectures) is trustworthy
569 for the purposes of initializing Linux's CRNG. Since this is not
570 something that can be independently audited, this amounts to trusting
571 that CPU manufacturer (perhaps with the insistence or mandate
572 of a Nation State's intelligence or law enforcement agencies)
573 has not installed a hidden back door to compromise the CPU's
574 random number generation facilities. This can also be configured
575 at boot with "random.trust_cpu=on/off".