Add your favorite undocumented cheat code

**rickenbacherus** · 04-11-2003, 12:23 AM

There are currently quite a few cheat codes not listed here:
http://www.knoppix.net/docs/index.php/CheatCodes
So if you've got one that isn't on the list and you think it's worth your time, why not post it here and perhaps they'll eventually make their way to the documentation.

Here's one:

pci=biosirq

**Dave_Bechtel** · 04-11-2003, 01:58 AM

' vga=ext ' == 50-line TEXT mode (generic kernel parm)

' knoppix -b ' == Quick-n-dirty boot, almost no HW detection, only 1 VT; hit enter at root-password prompt and start typing commands. Good if you just need to fdisk IDE devices, activate a different partition for booting, DD stuff, and you are planning on rebooting RealFast after you're done. (You can actually Alt-SysRQ-B safely [[immediate reboot]] w/o worrying about shutting down nicely or anything, because nothing is mounted r/w at ALL - not even swap. Also works on other Linux distros.

--What does the pci=biosirq actually DO?

Originally Posted by rickenbacherus

There are currently quite a few cheat codes not listed here:
http://www.knoppix.net/docs/index.php/CheatCodes
So if you've got one that isn't on the list and you think it's worth your time, why not post it here and perhaps they'll eventually make their way to the documentation.

Here's one:

pci=biosirq

**rickenbacherus** · 04-11-2003, 04:15 AM

Originally Posted by Dave_Bechtel

--What does the pci=biosirq actually DO?

You're absolutely right- there should be some explaination. duh! Long week of dealing w/ VIP wannabe's @ work. :P And there's one more day to go.

pci=biosirq will force the use of the BIOS assigned Interrupt ReQuests on the PCI bus. Possible cure for non-functioning hardware. Very handy for unruly IRQ conflicts. Look at dmesg and cat /proc/pci to find out if you have any such troubles..

Gee Dave for a second there I thought maybe there was something you didn't already know.

Oh BTW- you can pass this option to the kernel in other distros as well.

**aay** · 04-11-2003, 04:29 AM

rickenbacherus,

pci=biosirq is worth it's weight in gold. Thanks! I'm hoping that this may just fix a problem I have. The machine I've set up at work with knoppix on it is having irq conflicts and i've been unable to get them resolved. It will be quite nice if this works.

Here's one: nosmp

I saw Klaus tell someone to use this once when they were using a mobo that supports dual processors (at least I think that was their setup) and since they only had one processor Knoppix was running into problems.

Hopefully nosmp should take care of this problem.

I will post back here if pci=biosirq fixes my problem.

**Entropy42** · 04-11-2003, 03:23 PM

Originally Posted by rickenbacherus

Originally Posted by Dave_Bechtel

--What does the pci=biosirq actually DO?

You're absolutely right- there should be some explaination. duh! Long week of dealing w/ VIP wannabe's @ work. :P And there's one more day to go.

pci=biosirq will force the use of the BIOS assigned Interrupt ReQuests on the PCI bus. Possible cure for non-functioning hardware. Very handy for unruly IRQ conflicts. Look at dmesg and cat /proc/pci to find out if you have any such troubles..

Gee Dave for a second there I thought maybe there was something you didn't already know.

Oh BTW- you can pass this option to the kernel in other distros as well.

That is a miracle when dealing with many PCI-based WLAN cards, since they are architectured as crappy PCMCIA bridges plus a PCMCIA card. Using this option was the only way to get my Orinoco to work in a PCI adapter. I wish Windows had an equivalent option...

**aay** · 04-11-2003, 04:49 PM

That is a miracle when dealing with many PCI-based WLAN cards, since they are architectured as crappy PCMCIA bridges plus a PCMCIA card. Using this option was the only way to get my Orinoco to work in a PCI adapter. I wish Windows had an equivalent option...

That's interesting. I didn't mention this but PCI wlan is exacly my problem! Still haven't been able to get to the machine to see if this helps, but I'm hopeful.

**aay** · 04-16-2003, 06:16 PM

Well it took me a while to get back here. pci=biosirq took care of the interrupt problems, but leaves me with the unfortunate side affect that my pci wireless card is no longer detected. Should I try to combine options at this point? Sorry I don't have more system info available at the moment.

**rickenbacherus** · 04-16-2003, 07:52 PM

Originally Posted by aay

Well it took me a while to get back here. pci=biosirq took care of the interrupt problems, but leaves me with the unfortunate side affect that my pci wireless card is no longer detected. Should I try to combine options at this point? Sorry I don't have more system info available at the moment.

When you boot windows what IRQ does your card get? Have a look at the BIOS- I assume you disabled PnP. Is the IRQ that your wireless card likes to have in use? I know virtually nothing about wireless but I wonder if it is possible that it has a hard assigned IRQ? When I use 3com ISA NIC's they prefer to have a specific IRQ, if that one is unavailable they throw a fit. There is a utility thogh to hard code the IRQ on those NIC's. You could always try moving cards to different slots, that might get them a different IRQ. Maybe your BIOS will allow you to hard code IRQ's. Hope you get it working.