1 # SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
3 # Character device configuration
6 menu "Character devices"
8 source "drivers/tty/Kconfig"
11 tristate "TTY driver to output user messages via printk"
12 depends on EXPERT && TTY
15 If you say Y here, the support for writing user messages (i.e.
16 console messages) via printk is available.
18 The feature is useful to inline user messages with kernel
20 In order to use this feature, you should output user messages
21 to /dev/ttyprintk or redirect console to this TTY, or boot
22 the kernel with console=ttyprintk.
26 config TTY_PRINTK_LEVEL
28 int "ttyprintk log level (1-7)"
32 Printk log level to use for ttyprintk messages.
35 tristate "Parallel printer support"
38 If you intend to attach a printer to the parallel port of your Linux
39 box (as opposed to using a serial printer; if the connector at the
40 printer has 9 or 25 holes ["female"], then it's serial), say Y.
41 Also read the Printing-HOWTO, available from
42 <https://www.tldp.org/docs.html#howto>.
44 It is possible to share one parallel port among several devices
45 (e.g. printer and ZIP drive) and it is safe to compile the
46 corresponding drivers into the kernel.
48 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here and read
49 <file:Documentation/admin-guide/parport.rst>. The module will be called lp.
51 If you have several parallel ports, you can specify which ports to
52 use with the "lp" kernel command line option. (Try "man bootparam"
53 or see the documentation of your boot loader (lilo or loadlin) about
54 how to pass options to the kernel at boot time.) The syntax of the
55 "lp" command line option can be found in <file:drivers/char/lp.c>.
57 If you have more than 8 printers, you need to increase the LP_NO
58 macro in lp.c and the PARPORT_MAX macro in parport.h.
61 bool "Support for console on line printer"
64 If you want kernel messages to be printed out as they occur, you
65 can have a console on the printer. This option adds support for
66 doing that; to actually get it to happen you need to pass the
67 option "console=lp0" to the kernel at boot time.
69 If the printer is out of paper (or off, or unplugged, or too
70 busy..) the kernel will stall until the printer is ready again.
71 By defining CONSOLE_LP_STRICT to 0 (at your own risk) you
72 can make the kernel continue when this happens,
73 but it'll lose the kernel messages.
78 tristate "Support for user-space parallel port device drivers"
81 Saying Y to this adds support for /dev/parport device nodes. This
82 is needed for programs that want portable access to the parallel
83 port, for instance deviceid (which displays Plug-and-Play device
86 This is the parallel port equivalent of SCSI generic support (sg).
87 It is safe to say N to this -- it is not needed for normal printing
88 or parallel port CD-ROM/disk support.
90 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
91 module will be called ppdev.
96 tristate "Virtio console"
101 Virtio console for use with hypervisors.
103 Also serves as a general-purpose serial device for data
104 transfer between the guest and host. Character devices at
105 /dev/vportNpn will be created when corresponding ports are
106 found, where N is the device number and n is the port number
107 within that device. If specified by the host, a sysfs
108 attribute called 'name' will be populated with a name for
109 the port which can be used by udev scripts to create a
110 symlink to the device.
113 tristate "IBM POWER Barrier Synchronization Register support"
114 depends on PPC_PSERIES
116 This devices exposes a hardware mechanism for fast synchronization
117 of threads across a large system which avoids bouncing a cacheline
118 between several cores on a system
120 config POWERNV_OP_PANEL
121 tristate "IBM POWERNV Operator Panel Display support"
122 depends on PPC_POWERNV
125 If you say Y here, a special character device node, /dev/op_panel,
126 will be created which exposes the operator panel display on IBM
127 Power Systems machines with FSPs.
129 If you don't require access to the operator panel display from user
132 If unsure, say M here to build it as a module called powernv-op-panel.
134 source "drivers/char/ipmi/Kconfig"
137 tristate "NetWinder thermometer support"
138 depends on ARCH_NETWINDER
140 Say Y here to include support for the thermal management hardware
141 found in the NetWinder. This driver allows the user to control the
142 temperature set points and to read the current temperature.
144 It is also possible to say M here to build it as a module (ds1620)
145 It is recommended to be used on a NetWinder, but it is not a
149 tristate "NetWinder Button"
150 depends on ARCH_NETWINDER
152 If you say Y here and create a character device node /dev/nwbutton
153 with major and minor numbers 10 and 158 ("man mknod"), then every
154 time the orange button is pressed a number of times, the number of
155 times the button was pressed will be written to that device.
157 This is most useful for applications, as yet unwritten, which
158 perform actions based on how many times the button is pressed in a
161 Do not hold the button down for too long, as the driver does not
162 alter the behaviour of the hardware reset circuitry attached to the
163 button; it will still execute a hard reset if the button is held
164 down for longer than approximately five seconds.
166 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
167 module will be called nwbutton.
169 Most people will answer Y to this question and "Reboot Using Button"
170 below to be able to initiate a system shutdown from the button.
172 config NWBUTTON_REBOOT
173 bool "Reboot Using Button"
176 If you say Y here, then you will be able to initiate a system
177 shutdown and reboot by pressing the orange button a number of times.
178 The number of presses to initiate the shutdown is two by default,
179 but this can be altered by modifying the value of NUM_PRESSES_REBOOT
180 in nwbutton.h and recompiling the driver or, if you compile the
181 driver as a module, you can specify the number of presses at load
182 time with "insmod button reboot_count=<something>".
185 tristate "NetWinder flash support"
186 depends on ARCH_NETWINDER
188 If you say Y here and create a character device /dev/flash with
189 major 10 and minor 160 you can manipulate the flash ROM containing
190 the NetWinder firmware. Be careful as accidentally overwriting the
191 flash contents can render your computer unbootable. On no account
192 allow random users access to this device. :-)
194 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
195 module will be called nwflash.
197 If you're not sure, say N.
199 source "drivers/char/hw_random/Kconfig"
202 tristate "Double Talk PC internal speech card support"
205 This driver is for the DoubleTalk PC, a speech synthesizer
206 manufactured by RC Systems (<https://www.rcsys.com/>). It is also
207 called the `internal DoubleTalk'.
209 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
210 module will be called dtlk.
213 tristate "Xilinx HWICAP Support"
214 depends on MICROBLAZE
216 This option enables support for Xilinx Internal Configuration
217 Access Port (ICAP) driver. The ICAP is used on Xilinx Virtex
218 FPGA platforms to partially reconfigure the FPGA at runtime.
223 tristate "Applicom intelligent fieldbus card support"
226 This driver provides the kernel-side support for the intelligent
227 fieldbus cards made by Applicom International. More information
228 about these cards can be found on the WWW at the address
229 <https://www.applicom-int.com/>, or by email from David Woodhouse
230 <dwmw2@infradead.org>.
232 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
233 module will be called applicom.
238 tristate "Sony Vaio Programmable I/O Control Device support"
239 depends on X86_32 && PCI && INPUT
241 This driver enables access to the Sony Programmable I/O Control
242 Device which can be found in many (all ?) Sony Vaio laptops.
244 If you have one of those laptops, read
245 <file:Documentation/admin-guide/laptops/sonypi.rst>, and say Y or M here.
247 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
248 module will be called sonypi.
251 tristate "ACP Modem (Mwave) support"
252 depends on X86 && TTY
255 The ACP modem (Mwave) for Linux is a WinModem. It is composed of a
256 kernel driver and a user level application. Together these components
257 support direct attachment to public switched telephone networks (PSTNs)
258 and support selected world wide countries.
260 This version of the ACP Modem driver supports the IBM Thinkpad 600E,
261 600, and 770 that include on board ACP modem hardware.
263 The modem also supports the standard communications port interface
264 (ttySx) and is compatible with the Hayes AT Command Set.
266 The user level application needed to use this driver can be found at
267 the IBM Linux Technology Center (LTC) web site:
268 <http://www.ibm.com/linux/ltc/>.
270 If you own one of the above IBM Thinkpads which has the Mwave chipset
273 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
274 module will be called mwave.
277 tristate "NatSemi SCx200 GPIO Support"
281 Give userspace access to the GPIO pins on the National
282 Semiconductor SCx200 processors.
284 If compiled as a module, it will be called scx200_gpio.
287 tristate "NatSemi PC8736x GPIO Support"
288 depends on X86_32 && !UML
289 default SCx200_GPIO # mostly N
290 select NSC_GPIO # needed for support routines
292 Give userspace access to the GPIO pins on the National
293 Semiconductor PC-8736x (x=[03456]) SuperIO chip. The chip
294 has multiple functional units, inc several managed by
295 hwmon/pc87360 driver. Tested with PC-87366
297 If compiled as a module, it will be called pc8736x_gpio.
300 tristate "NatSemi Base GPIO Support"
302 # selected by SCx200_GPIO and PC8736x_GPIO
303 # what about 2 selectors differing: m != y
305 Common support used (and needed) by scx200_gpio and
306 pc8736x_gpio drivers. If those drivers are built as
307 modules, this one will be too, named nsc_gpio
310 bool "/dev/mem virtual device support"
313 Say Y here if you want to support the /dev/mem device.
314 The /dev/mem device is used to access areas of physical
316 When in doubt, say "Y".
319 tristate "/dev/nvram support"
320 depends on X86 || HAVE_ARCH_NVRAM_OPS
323 If you say Y here and create a character special file /dev/nvram
324 with major number 10 and minor number 144 using mknod ("man mknod"),
325 you get read and write access to the non-volatile memory.
327 /dev/nvram may be used to view settings in NVRAM or to change them
328 (with some utility). It could also be used to frequently
329 save a few bits of very important data that may not be lost over
330 power-off and for which writing to disk is too insecure. Note
331 however that most NVRAM space in a PC belongs to the BIOS and you
332 should NEVER idly tamper with it. See Ralf Brown's interrupt list
333 for a guide to the use of CMOS bytes by your BIOS.
335 This memory is conventionally called "NVRAM" on PowerPC machines,
336 "CMOS RAM" on PCs, "NVRAM" on Ataris and "PRAM" on Macintoshes.
338 To compile this driver as a module, choose M here: the
339 module will be called nvram.
342 bool "/dev/port character device"
343 depends on ISA || PCI
346 Say Y here if you want to support the /dev/port device. The /dev/port
347 device is similar to /dev/mem, but for I/O ports.
350 bool "HPET - High Precision Event Timer" if (X86 || IA64)
354 If you say Y here, you will have a miscdevice named "/dev/hpet/". Each
355 open selects one of the timers supported by the HPET. The timers are
356 non-periodic and/or periodic.
359 bool "Allow mmap of HPET"
363 If you say Y here, user applications will be able to mmap
366 config HPET_MMAP_DEFAULT
367 bool "Enable HPET MMAP access by default"
371 In some hardware implementations, the page containing HPET
372 registers may also contain other things that shouldn't be
373 exposed to the user. This option selects the default (if
374 kernel parameter hpet_mmap is not set) user access to the
375 registers for applications that require it.
377 config HANGCHECK_TIMER
378 tristate "Hangcheck timer"
379 depends on X86 || IA64 || PPC64 || S390
381 The hangcheck-timer module detects when the system has gone
382 out to lunch past a certain margin. It can reboot the system
383 or merely print a warning.
386 tristate "UV_MMTIMER Memory mapped RTC for SGI UV"
390 The uv_mmtimer device allows direct userspace access to the
393 source "drivers/char/tpm/Kconfig"
396 tristate "Telecom clock driver for ATCA SBC"
400 The telecom clock device is specific to the MPCBL0010 and MPCBL0050
401 ATCA computers and allows direct userspace access to the
402 configuration of the telecom clock configuration settings. This
403 device is used for hardware synchronization across the ATCA backplane
404 fabric. Upon loading, the driver exports a sysfs directory,
405 /sys/devices/platform/telco_clock, with a number of files for
406 controlling the behavior of this hardware.
408 source "drivers/s390/char/Kconfig"
410 source "drivers/char/xillybus/Kconfig"
413 tristate "SPARC Privileged ADI driver"
417 SPARC M7 and newer processors utilize ADI (Application Data
418 Integrity) to version and protect memory. This driver provides
419 read/write access to the ADI versions for privileged processes.
420 This feature is also known as MCD (Memory Corruption Detection)
421 and SSM (Silicon Secured Memory). Intended consumers of this
422 driver include crash and makedumpfile.