# Xen Hypervisor Command Line Options

This document covers the command line options which the Xen
Hypervisor.

## Types of parameter

Most parameters take the form `option=value`.  Different options on
the command line should be space delimited.  All options are case
sensitive, as are all values unless explicitly noted.

### Boolean (`<boolean>`)

All boolean option may be explicitly enabled using a `value` of
> `yes`, `on`, `true`, `enable` or `1`

They may be explicitly disabled using a `value` of
> `no`, `off`, `false`, `disable` or `0`

In addition, a boolean option may be enabled by simply stating its
name, and may be disabled by prefixing its name with `no-`.

####Examples

Enable noreboot mode
> `noreboot=true`

Disable x2apic support (if present)
> `x2apic=off`

Enable synchronous console mode
> `sync_console`

Explicitly specifying any value other than those listed above is
undefined, as is stacking a `no-` prefix with an explicit value.

### Integer (`<integer>`)

An integer parameter will default to decimal and may be prefixed with
a `-` for negative numbers.  Alternatively, a hexadecimal number may be
used by prefixing the number with `0x`, or an octal number may be used
if a leading `0` is present.

Providing a string which does not validly convert to an integer is
undefined.

### Size (`<size>`)

A size parameter may be any integer, with a single size suffix

* `T` or `t`: TiB (2^40)
* `G` or `g`: GiB (2^30)
* `M` or `m`: MiB (2^20)
* `K` or `k`: KiB (2^10)
* `B` or `b`: Bytes

Without a size suffix, the default will be kilo.  Providing a suffix
other than those listed above is undefined.

### String

Many parameters are more complicated and require more intricate
configuration.  The detailed description of each individual parameter
specify which values are valid.

### List

Some options take a comma separated list of values.

### Combination

Some parameters act as combinations of the above, most commonly a mix
of Boolean and String.  These are noted in the relevant sections.

## Parameter details

### acpi
> `= force | ht | noirq | <boolean>`

**String**, or **Boolean** to disable.

The **acpi** option is used to control a set of four related boolean
flags; `acpi_force`, `acpi_ht`, `acpi_noirq` and `acpi_disabled`.

By default, Xen will scan the DMI data and blacklist certain systems
which are known to have broken ACPI setups.  Providing `acpi=force`
will cause Xen to ignore the blacklist and attempt to use all ACPI
features.

Using `acpi=ht` causes Xen to parse the ACPI tables enough to
enumerate all CPUs, but will not use other ACPI features.  This is not
common, and only has an effect if your system is blacklisted.

The `acpi=noirq` option causes Xen to not parse the ACPI MADT table
looking for IO-APIC entries.  This is also not common, and any system
which requires this option to function should be blacklisted.
Additionally, this will not prevent Xen from finding IO-APIC entries
from the MP tables.

Finally, any of the boolean false options can be used to disable ACPI
usage entirely.

Because responsibility for ACPI processing is shared between Xen and
the domain 0 kernel this option is automatically propagated to the
domain 0 command line

### acpi\_apic\_instance
> `= <integer>`

Specify which ACPI MADT table to parse for APIC information, if more
than one is present.

### acpi\_pstate\_strict (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `false`

Enforce checking that P-state transitions by the ACPI cpufreq driver
actually result in the nominated frequency to be established. A warning
message will be logged if that isn't the case.

### acpi\_skip\_timer\_override (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

Instruct Xen to ignore timer-interrupt override.

### acpi\_sleep (x86)
> `= s3_bios | s3_mode`

`s3_bios` instructs Xen to invoke video BIOS initialization during S3
resume.

`s3_mode` instructs Xen to set up the boot time (option `vga=`) video
mode during S3 resume.

### allow\_unsafe (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `false`

Force boot on potentially unsafe systems. By default Xen will refuse
to boot on systems with the following errata:

* AMD Erratum 121. Processors with this erratum are subject to a guest
  triggerable Denial of Service. Override only if you trust all of
  your PV guests.

### altp2m (Intel)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `false`

Permit multiple copies of host p2m.

### apic (x86)
> `= bigsmp | default`

Override Xen's logic for choosing the APIC driver.  By default, if
there are more than 8 CPUs, Xen will switch to `bigsmp` over
`default`.

### apicv (Intel)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `true`

Permit Xen to use APIC Virtualisation Extensions.  This is an optimisation
available as part of VT-x, and allows hardware to take care of the guests APIC
handling, rather than requiring emulation in Xen.

### apic\_verbosity (x86)
> `= verbose | debug`

Increase the verbosity of the APIC code from the default value.

### arat (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `true`

Permit Xen to use "Always Running APIC Timer" support on compatible hardware
in combination with cpuidle.  This option is only expected to be useful for
developers wishing Xen to fall back to older timing methods on newer hardware.

### asid (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `true`

Permit Xen to use Address Space Identifiers.  This is an optimisation which
tags the TLB entries with an ID per vcpu.  This allows for guest TLB flushes
to be performed without the overhead of a complete TLB flush.

### async-show-all (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `false`

Forces all CPUs' full state to be logged upon certain fatal asynchronous
exceptions (watchdog NMIs and unexpected MCEs).

### ats (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `false`

Permits Xen to set up and use PCI Address Translation Services.  This is a
performance optimisation for PCI Passthrough.

**WARNING: Xen cannot currently safely use ATS because of its synchronous wait
loops for Queued Invalidation completions.**

### availmem
> `= <size>`

> Default: `0` (no limit)

Specify a maximum amount of available memory, to which Xen will clamp
the e820 table.

### badpage
> `= List of [ <integer> | <integer>-<integer> ]`

Specify that certain pages, or certain ranges of pages contain bad
bytes and should not be used.  For example, if your memory tester says
that byte `0x12345678` is bad, you would place `badpage=0x12345` on
Xen's command line.

### bootscrub
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `true`

Scrub free RAM during boot.  This is a safety feature to prevent
accidentally leaking sensitive VM data into other VMs if Xen crashes
and reboots.

### bootscrub\_chunk
> `= <size>`

> Default: `128M`

Maximum RAM block size chunks to be scrubbed whilst holding the page heap lock
and not running softirqs. Reduce this if softirqs are not being run frequently
enough. Setting this to a high value may cause boot failure, particularly if
the NMI watchdog is also enabled.

### bti (x86)
> `= List of [ <bool>, thunk=retpoline|lfence|jmp, ibrs=<bool>, ibpb=<bool>, rsb=<bool>, rsb_{vmexit,native}=<bool> ]`

**WARNING: This command line option is deprecated, and superseded by
_spec-ctrl=_ - using both options in combination is undefined.**

Branch Target Injection controls.  By default, Xen will pick the most
appropriate BTI mitigations based on compiled in support, loaded microcode,
and hardware details.

**WARNING: Any use of this option may interfere with heuristics.  Use with
extreme care.**

A (negative) boolean value can be specified to turn off all mitigations.
(Use of a positive boolean value is invalid.)

If Xen was compiled with INDIRECT\_THUNK support, `thunk=` can be used to
select which of the thunks gets patched into the `__x86_indirect_thunk_%reg`
locations.  The default thunk is `retpoline` (generally preferred for Intel
hardware), with the alternatives being `jmp` (a `jmp *%reg` gadget, minimal
overhead), and `lfence` (an `lfence; jmp *%reg` gadget, preferred for AMD).

On hardware supporting IBRS, the `ibrs=` option can be used to force or
prevent Xen using the feature itself.  If Xen is not using IBRS itself,
functionality is still set up so IBRS can be virtualised for guests.

On hardware supporting IBPB, the `ibpb=` option can be used to prevent Xen
from issuing Branch Prediction Barriers on vcpu context switches.

The `rsb=`, `rsb_vmexit=` and `rsb_native=` options can be used to control
when the RSB gets overwritten.  The former control all RSB overwriting, while
the latter two can be used to fine tune overwriting on from HVM context, and
an entry from a native (PV or Xen) context.

### clocksource (x86)
> `= pit | hpet | acpi | tsc`

If set, override Xen's default choice for the platform timer.
Having TSC as platform timer requires being explicitly set. This is because
TSC can only be safely used if CPU hotplug isn't performed on the system. On
some platforms, the "maxcpus" option may need to be used to further adjust
the number of allowed CPUs.  When running on platforms that can guarantee a
monotonic TSC across sockets you may want to adjust the "tsc" command line
parameter to "stable:socket".

### cmci-threshold (Intel)
> `= <integer>`

> Default: `2`

Specify the event count threshold for raising Corrected Machine Check
Interrupts.  Specifying zero disables CMCI handling.

### cmos-rtc-probe (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `false`

Flag to indicate whether to probe for a CMOS Real Time Clock irrespective of
ACPI indicating none to be there.

### com1,com2
> `= <baud>[/<base-baud>][,[DPS][,[<io-base>|pci|amt][,[<irq>][,[<port-bdf>][,[<bridge-bdf>]]]]]]`

Both option `com1` and `com2` follow the same format.

* `<baud>` may be either an integer baud rate, or the string `auto` if
  the bootloader or other earlier firmware has already set it up.
* Optionally, the base baud rate (usually the highest baud rate the
  device can communicate at) can be specified.
* `DPS` represents the number of data bits, the parity, and the number
  of stop bits.
  * `D` is an integer between 5 and 8 for the number of data bits.
  * `P` is a single character representing the type of parity:
      * `n` No
      * `o` Odd
      * `e` Even
      * `m` Mark
      * `s` Space
  * `S` is an integer 1 or 2 for the number of stop bits.
* `<io-base>` is an integer which specifies the IO base port for UART
  registers.
* `<irq>` is the IRQ number to use, or `0` to use the UART in poll
  mode only.
* `<port-bdf>` is the PCI location of the UART, in
  `<bus>:<device>.<function>` notation.
* `<bridge-bdf>` is the PCI bridge behind which is the UART, in
  `<bus>:<device>.<function>` notation.
* `pci` indicates that Xen should scan the PCI bus for the UART,
  avoiding Intel AMT devices.
* `amt` indicated that Xen should scan the PCI bus for the UART,
  including Intel AMT devices if present.

A typical setup for most situations might be `com1=115200,8n1`

In addition to the above positional specification for UART parameters,
name=value pair specfications are also supported. This is used to add
flexibility for UART devices which require additional UART parameter
configurations.

The comma separation still delineates positional parameters. Hence,
unless the parameter is explicitly specified with name=value option, it
will be considered a positional parameter.

The syntax consists of
com1=(comma-separated positional parameters),(comma separated name-value pairs)

The accepted name keywords for name=value pairs are:

* `baud` - accepts integer baud rate (eg. 115200) or `auto`
* `bridge`- Similar to bridge-bdf in positional parameters.
            Used to determine the PCI bridge to access the UART device.
            Notation is xx:xx.x `<bus>:<device>.<function>`
* `clock-hz`- accepts large integers to setup UART clock frequencies.
              Do note - these values are multiplied by 16.
* `data-bits` - integer between 5 and 8
* `dev` - accepted values are `pci` OR `amt`. If this option
          is used to specify if the serial device is pci-based. The io\_base
          cannot be specified when `dev=pci` or `dev=amt` is used.
* `io-base` - accepts integer which specified IO base port for UART registers
* `irq` - IRQ number to use
* `parity` - accepted values are same as positional parameters
* `port` - Used to specify which port the PCI serial device is located on
           Notation is xx:xx.x `<bus>:<device>.<function>`
* `reg-shift` - register shifts required to set UART registers
* `reg-width` - register width required to set UART registers
                (only accepts 1 and 4)
* `stop-bits` - only accepts 1 or 2 for the number of stop bits

The following are examples of correct specifications:

    com1=115200,8n1,0x3f8,4
    com1=115200,8n1,0x3f8,4,reg\_width=4,reg\_shift=2
    com1=baud=115200,parity=n,stop\_bits=1,io\_base=0x3f8,reg\_width=4

### conring\_size
> `= <size>`

> Default: `conring_size=16k`

Specify the size of the console ring buffer.

### console
> `= List of [ vga | com1[H,L] | com2[H,L] | pv | dbgp | none ]`

> Default: `console=com1,vga`

Specify which console(s) Xen should use.

`vga` indicates that Xen should try and use the vga graphics adapter.

`com1` and `com2` indicates that Xen should use serial ports 1 and 2
respectively.  Optionally, these arguments may be followed by an `H` or
`L`.  `H` indicates that transmitted characters will have their MSB
set, while received characters must have their MSB set.  `L` indicates
the converse; transmitted and received characters will have their MSB
cleared.  This allows a single port to be shared by two subsystems
(e.g. console and debugger).

`pv` indicates that Xen should use Xen's PV console. This option is
only available when used together with `pv-in-pvh`.

`dbgp` indicates that Xen should use a USB debug port.

`none` indicates that Xen should not use a console.  This option only
makes sense on its own.

### console\_timestamps
> `= none | date | datems | boot`

> Default: `none`

> Can be modified at runtime

Specify which timestamp format Xen should use for each console line.

* `none`: No timestamps
* `date`: Date and time information
    * `[YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS]`
* `datems`: Date and time, with milliseconds
    * `[YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS.mmm]`
* `boot`: Seconds and microseconds since boot
    * `[SSSSSS.uuuuuu]`

For compatibility with the older boolean parameter, specifying
`console_timestamps` alone will enable the `date` option.

### console\_to\_ring
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `false`

Flag to indicate whether all guest console output should be copied
into the console ring buffer.

### conswitch
> `= <switch char>[x]`

> Default: `conswitch=a`

> Can be modified at runtime

Specify which character should be used to switch serial input between
Xen and dom0.  The required sequence is CTRL-&lt;switch char&gt; three
times.

The optional trailing `x` indicates that Xen should not automatically
switch the console input to dom0 during boot.  Any other value,
including omission, causes Xen to automatically switch to the dom0
console during dom0 boot.  Use `conswitch=ax` to keep the default switch
character, but for xen to keep the console.

### core\_parking
> `= power | performance`

> Default: `power`

### cpu\_type (x86)
> `= arch_perfmon`

If set, force use of the performance counters for oprofile, rather than detecting
available support.

### cpufreq
> `= none | {{ <boolean> | xen } [:[powersave|performance|ondemand|userspace][,<maxfreq>][,[<minfreq>][,[verbose]]]]} | dom0-kernel`

> Default: `xen`

Indicate where the responsibility for driving power states lies.  Note that the
choice of `dom0-kernel` is deprecated and not supported by all Dom0 kernels.

* Default governor policy is ondemand.
* `<maxfreq>` and `<minfreq>` are integers which represent max and min processor frequencies
  respectively.
* `verbose` option can be included as a string or also as `verbose=<integer>`

### cpuid (x86)
> `= List of comma separated booleans`

This option allows for fine tuning of the facilities Xen will use, after
accounting for hardware capabilities as enumerated via CPUID.

Unless otherwise noted, options only have any effect in their negative form,
to hide the named feature(s).  Ignoring a feature using this mechanism will
cause Xen not to use the feature, nor offer them as usable to guests.

Currently accepted:

The Speculation Control hardware features `srbds-ctrl`, `md-clear`, `ibrsb`,
`stibp`, `ibpb`, `l1d-flush` and `ssbd` are used by default if available and
applicable.  They can all be ignored.

`rdrand` and `rdseed` can be ignored, as a mitigation to XSA-320 /
CVE-2020-0543.

### cpuid\_mask\_cpu (AMD only)
> `= fam_0f_rev_c | fam_0f_rev_d | fam_0f_rev_e | fam_0f_rev_f | fam_0f_rev_g | fam_10_rev_b | fam_10_rev_c | fam_11_rev_b`

If the other **cpuid\_mask\_{,ext\_,thermal\_,l7s0\_}e{a,b,c,d}x**
options are fully set (unspecified on the command line), specify a
pre-canned cpuid mask to mask the current processor down to appear as
the specified processor. It is important to ensure that all hosts in a
pool appear the same to guests to allow successful live migration.

### cpuid\_mask\_{{,ext\_}ecx,edx} (x86)
> `= <integer>`

> Default: `~0` (all bits set)

These four command line parameters are used to specify cpuid masks to
help with cpuid levelling across a pool of hosts.  Setting a bit in
the mask indicates that the feature should be enabled, while clearing
a bit in the mask indicates that the feature should be disabled.  It
is important to ensure that all hosts in a pool appear the same to
guests to allow successful live migration.

### cpuid\_mask\_xsave\_eax (Intel only)
> `= <integer>`

> Default: `~0` (all bits set)

This command line parameter is also used to specify a cpuid mask to
help with cpuid levelling across a pool of hosts.  See the description
of the other respective options above.

### cpuid\_mask\_{l7s0\_{eax,ebx},thermal\_ecx} (AMD only)
> `= <integer>`

> Default: `~0` (all bits set)

These three command line parameters are also used to specify cpuid
masks to help with cpuid levelling across a pool of hosts.  See the
description of the other respective options above.

### cpuidle (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

### cpuinfo (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

### crashinfo\_maxaddr
> `= <size>`

> Default: `4G`

Specify the maximum address to allocate certain structures, if used in
combination with the `low_crashinfo` command line option.

### crashkernel
> `= <ramsize-range>:<size>[,...][{@,<}<offset>]`
> `= <size>[{@,<}<offset>]`
> `= <size>,below=offset`

Specify sizes and optionally placement of the crash kernel reservation
area.  The `<ramsize-range>:<size>` pairs indicate how much memory to
set aside for a crash kernel (`<size>`) for a given range of installed
RAM (`<ramsize-range>`).  Each `<ramsize-range>` is of the form
`<start>-[<end>]`.

A trailing `@<offset>` specifies the exact address this area should be
placed at, whereas `<` in place of `@` just specifies an upper bound of
the address range the area should fall into.

< and below are synonyomous, the latter being useful for grub2 systems
which would otherwise require escaping of the < option


### credit2\_balance\_over
> `= <integer>`

### credit2\_balance\_under
> `= <integer>`

### credit2\_cap\_period\_ms
> `= <integer>`

> Default: `10`

Domains subject to a cap receive a replenishment of their runtime budget
once every cap period interval. Default is 10 ms. The amount of budget
they receive depends on their cap. For instance, a domain with a 50% cap
will receive 50% of 10 ms, so 5 ms.

### credit2\_load\_precision\_shift
> `= <integer>`

> Default: `18`

Specify the number of bits to use for the fractional part of the
values involved in Credit2 load tracking and load balancing math.

### credit2\_load\_window\_shift
> `= <integer>`

> Default: `30`

Specify the number of bits to use to represent the length of the
window (in nanoseconds) we use for load tracking inside Credit2.
This means that, with the default value (30), we use
2^30 nsec ~= 1 sec long window.

Load tracking is done by means of a variation of exponentially
weighted moving average (EWMA). The window length defined here
is what tells for how long we give value to previous history
of the load itself. In fact, after a full window has passed,
what happens is that we discard all previous history entirely.

A short window will make the load balancer quick at reacting
to load changes, but also short-sighted about previous history
(and hence, e.g., long term load trends). A long window will
make the load balancer thoughtful of previous history (and
hence capable of capturing, e.g., long term load trends), but
also slow in responding to load changes.

The default value of `1 sec` is rather long.

### credit2\_runqueue
> `= cpu | core | socket | node | all`

> Default: `socket`

Specify how host CPUs are arranged in runqueues. Runqueues are kept
balanced with respect to the load generated by the vCPUs running on
them. Smaller runqueues (as in with `core`) means more accurate load
balancing (for instance, it will deal better with hyperthreading),
but also more overhead.

Available alternatives, with their meaning, are:
* `cpu`: one runqueue per each logical pCPUs of the host;
* `core`: one runqueue per each physical core of the host;
* `socket`: one runqueue per each physical socket (which often,
            but not always, matches a NUMA node) of the host;
* `node`: one runqueue per each NUMA node of the host;
* `all`: just one runqueue shared by all the logical pCPUs of
         the host

### dbgp
> `= ehci[ <integer> | @pci<bus>:<slot>.<func> ]`

Specify the USB controller to use, either by instance number (when going
over the PCI busses sequentially) or by PCI device (must be on segment 0).

### debug\_stack\_lines
> `= <integer>`

> Default: `20`

Limits the number lines printed in Xen stack traces.

### debugtrace
> `= <integer>`

> Default: `128`

Specify the size of the console debug trace buffer in KiB. The debug
trace feature is only enabled in debugging builds of Xen.

### dma\_bits
> `= <integer>`

Specify the bit width of the DMA heap.

### dom0 (x86)
> `= List of [ pvh | shadow ]`

> Sub-options:

> `pvh`

> Default: `false`

Flag that makes a dom0 boot in PVHv2 mode.

> `shadow`

> Default: `false`

Flag that makes a dom0 use shadow paging. Only works when "pvh" is
enabled.

### dom0\_ioports\_disable (x86)
> `= List of <hex>-<hex>`

Specify a list of IO ports to be excluded from dom0 access.

### dom0\_max\_vcpus

Either:

> `= <integer>`.

The number of VCPUs to give to dom0.  This number of VCPUs can be more
than the number of PCPUs on the host.  The default is the number of
PCPUs.

Or:

> `= <min>-<max>` where `<min>` and `<max>` are integers.

Gives dom0 a number of VCPUs equal to the number of PCPUs, but always
at least `<min>` and no more than `<max>`.  Using `<min>` may give
more VCPUs than PCPUs.  `<min>` or `<max>` may be omitted and the
defaults of 1 and unlimited respectively are used instead.

For example, with `dom0_max_vcpus=4-8`:

>        Number of
>     PCPUs | Dom0 VCPUs
>      2    |  4
>      4    |  4
>      6    |  6
>      8    |  8
>     10    |  8

### dom0\_mem (ARM)
> `= <size>`

Set the amount of memory for the initial domain (dom0). It must be
greater than zero. This parameter is required.

### dom0\_mem (x86)
> `= List of ( min:<size> | max:<size> | <size> )`

Set the amount of memory for the initial domain (dom0). If a size is
positive, it represents an absolute value.  If a size is negative, it
is subtracted from the total available memory.

* `<size>` specifies the exact amount of memory.
* `min:<size>` specifies the minimum amount of memory.
* `max:<size>` specifies the maximum amount of memory.

If `<size>` is not specified, the default is all the available memory
minus some reserve.  The reserve is 1/16 of the available memory or
128 MB (whichever is smaller).

The amount of memory will be at least the minimum but never more than
the maximum (i.e., `max` overrides the `min` option).  If there isn't
enough memory then as much as possible is allocated.

`max:<size>` also sets the maximum reservation (the maximum amount of
memory dom0 can balloon up to).  If this is omitted then the maximum
reservation is unlimited.

For example, to set dom0's initial memory allocation to 512MB but
allow it to balloon up as far as 1GB use `dom0_mem=512M,max:1G`

If you use this option then it is highly recommended that you disable
any dom0 autoballooning feature present in your toolstack. See the
_xl.conf(5)_ man page or [Xen Best
Practices](http://wiki.xen.org/wiki/Xen_Best_Practices#Xen_dom0_dedicated_memory_and_preventing_dom0_memory_ballooning).

This option doesn't have effect if pv-shim mode is enabled.

### dom0\_nodes (x86)

> `= List of [ <integer> | relaxed | strict ]`

> Default: `strict`

Specify the NUMA nodes to place Dom0 on. Defaults for vCPU-s created
and memory assigned to Dom0 will be adjusted to match the node
restrictions set up here. Note that the values to be specified here are
ACPI PXM ones, not Xen internal node numbers. `relaxed` sets up vCPU
affinities to prefer but be not limited to the specified node(s).

### dom0\_vcpus\_pin
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `false`

Pin dom0 vcpus to their respective pcpus

### dtuart (ARM)
> `= path [:options]`

> Default: `""`

Specify the full path in the device tree for the UART.  If the path doesn't
start with `/`, it is assumed to be an alias.  The options are device specific.

### e820-mtrr-clip (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

Flag that specifies if RAM should be clipped to the highest cacheable
MTRR.

> Default: `true` on Intel CPUs, otherwise `false`

### e820-verbose (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `false`

Flag that enables verbose output when processing e820 information and
applying clipping.

### edd (x86)
> `= off | on | skipmbr`

Control retrieval of Extended Disc Data (EDD) from the BIOS during
boot.

### edid (x86)
> `= no | force`

Either force retrieval of monitor EDID information via VESA DDC, or
disable it (edid=no). This option should not normally be required
except for debugging purposes.

### efi
> `= List of [ rs | attr ]`

All options are of boolean kind and can be prefixed with `no-` to
effect the inverse meaning.

> `rs`

> Default: `true`

>> Force or disable use of EFI runtime services.

> `attr=uc`

> Default: `off`

>> Allows mapping of RuntimeServices which have no cachability attribute
>> set as UC.

### ept (Intel)
> `= List of [ {no-}pml,  {no-}ad, {no-}exec-sp ]`

Controls EPT related features.

> Sub-options:

> `pml`

> Default: `true`

>> PML is a new hardware feature in Intel's Broadwell Server and further
>> platforms which reduces hypervisor overhead of log-dirty mechanism by
>> automatically recording GPAs (guest physical addresses) when guest memory
>> gets dirty, and therefore significantly reducing number of EPT violation
>> caused by write protection of guest memory, which is a necessity to
>> implement log-dirty mechanism before PML.

> `ad`

> Default: Hardware dependent

>> Have hardware keep accessed/dirty (A/D) bits updated.

*   The `exec-sp` boolean controls whether EPT superpages with execute
    permissions are permitted.  In general this is good for performance.

    However, on processors vulnerable CVE-2018-12207, HVM guest kernels can
    use executable superpages to crash the host.  By default, executable
    superpages are disabled on affected hardware.

    If HVM guest kernels are trusted not to mount a DoS against the system,
    this option can enabled to regain performance.

    This boolean may be modified at runtime using `xl set-parameters
    ept=[no-]exec-sp` to switch between fast and secure.

    *   When switching from secure to fast, preexisting HVM domains will run
        at their current performance until they are rebooted; new domains will
        run without any overhead.

    *   When switching from fast to secure, all HVM domains will immediately
        suffer a performance penalty.

    **Warning: No guarantee is made that this runtime option will be retained
      indefinitely, or that it will retain this exact behaviour.  It is
      intended as an emergency option for people who first chose fast, then
      change their minds to secure, and wish not to reboot.**

### extra\_guest\_irqs
> `= [<domU number>][,<dom0 number>]`

> Default: `32,<variable>`

Change the number of PIRQs available for guests.  The optional first number is
common for all domUs, while the optional second number (preceded by a comma)
is for dom0.  Changing the setting for domU has no impact on dom0 and vice
versa.  For example to change dom0 without changing domU, use
`extra_guest_irqs=,512`.  The default value for Dom0 and an eventual separate
hardware domain is architecture dependent.
Note that specifying zero as domU value means zero, while for dom0 it means
to use the default.

### xsm
> `= dummy | flask | silo`

> Default: `dummy`

Specify which XSM module should be enabled.  This option is only available if
the hypervisor was compiled with XSM support.

* `dummy`: this is the default choice.  Basic restriction for common deployment
  (the dummy module) will be applied.  It's also used when XSM is compiled out.
* `flask`: this is the policy based access control.  To choose this, the
  separated option in kconfig must also be enabled.
* `silo`: this will deny any unmediated communication channels between
  unprivileged VMs.  To choose this, the separated option in kconfig must also
  be enabled.

### flask
> `= permissive | enforcing | late | disabled`

> Default: `enforcing`

Specify how the FLASK security server should be configured.  This option is only
available if the hypervisor was compiled with FLASK support.  This can be
enabled by running either:
- make -C xen config and enabling XSM and FLASK.
- make -C xen menuconfig and enabling 'FLux Advanced Security Kernel support' and 'Xen Security Modules support'

* `permissive`: This is intended for development and is not suitable for use
  with untrusted guests.  If a policy is provided by the bootloader, it will be
  loaded; errors will be reported to the ring buffer but will not prevent
  booting.  The policy can be changed to enforcing mode using "xl setenforce".
* `enforcing`: This will cause the security server to enter enforcing mode prior
  to the creation of domain 0.  If an valid policy is not provided by the
  bootloader and no built-in policy is present, the hypervisor will not continue
  booting.
* `late`: This disables loading of the built-in security policy or the policy
  provided by the bootloader.  FLASK will be enabled but will not enforce access
  controls until a policy is loaded by a domain using "xl loadpolicy".  Once a
  policy is loaded, FLASK will run in enforcing mode unless "xl setenforce" has
  changed that setting.
* `disabled`: This causes the XSM framework to revert to the dummy module.  The
  dummy module provides the same security policy as is used when compiling the
  hypervisor without support for XSM.  The xsm\_op hypercall can also be used to
  switch to this mode after boot, but there is no way to re-enable FLASK once
  the dummy module is loaded.

### font
> `= <height>` where height is `8x8 | 8x14 | 8x16`

Specify the font size when using the VESA console driver.

### force-ept (Intel)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `false`

Allow EPT to be enabled when VMX feature VM\_ENTRY\_LOAD\_GUEST\_PAT is not
present.

*Warning:*
Due to CVE-2013-2212, VMX feature VM\_ENTRY\_LOAD\_GUEST\_PAT is by default
required as a prerequisite for using EPT.  If you are not using PCI Passthrough,
or trust the guest administrator who would be using passthrough, then the
requirement can be relaxed.  This option is particularly useful for nested
virtualization, to allow the L1 hypervisor to use EPT even if the L0 hypervisor
does not provide VM\_ENTRY\_LOAD\_GUEST\_PAT.

### gdb
> `= com1[H,L] | com2[H,L] | dbgp`

> Default: ``

Specify which console gdbstub should use. See **console**.

### gnttab
> `= List of [ max-ver:<integer>, transitive=<bool> ]`

> Default: `gnttab=max-ver:2,transitive`

Control various aspects of the grant table behaviour available to guests.

* `max-ver` Select the maximum grant table version to offer to guests.  Valid
version are 1 and 2.
* `transitive` Permit or disallow the use of transitive grants.  Note that the
use of grant table v2 without transitive grants is an ABI breakage from the
guests point of view.

The usage of gnttab v2 is not security supported on ARM platforms.

### gnttab\_max\_frames
> `= <integer>`

> Default: `64`

> Can be modified at runtime

Specify the maximum number of frames which any domain may use as part
of its grant table. This value is an upper boundary of the per-domain
value settable via Xen tools.

Dom0 is using this value for sizing its grant table.

### gnttab\_max\_maptrack\_frames
> `= <integer>`

> Default: `1024`

> Can be modified at runtime

Specify the maximum number of frames to use as part of a domains
maptrack array. This value is an upper boundary of the per-domain
value settable via Xen tools.

Dom0 is using this value for sizing its maptrack table.

### guest\_loglvl
> `= <level>[/<rate-limited level>]` where level is `none | error | warning | info | debug | all`

> Default: `guest_loglvl=none/warning`

> Can be modified at runtime

Set the logging level for Xen guests.  Any log message with equal more
more importance will be printed.

The optional `<rate-limited level>` option instructs which severities
should be rate limited.

### hap (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `true`

Flag to globally enable or disable support for Hardware Assisted
Paging (HAP)

### hap\_1gb (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `true`

Flag to enable 1 GB host page table support for Hardware Assisted
Paging (HAP).

### hap\_2mb (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `true`

Flag to enable 2 MB host page table support for Hardware Assisted
Paging (HAP).

### hardware\_dom
> `= <domid>`

> Default: `0`

Enable late hardware domain creation using the specified domain ID.  This is
intended to be used when domain 0 is a stub domain which builds a disaggregated
system including a hardware domain with the specified domain ID.  This option is
supported only when compiled with XSM on x86.

### hest\_disable
> ` = <boolean>`

> Default: `false`

Control Xens use of the APEI Hardware Error Source Table, should one be found.

### highmem-start (x86)
> `= <size>`

Specify the memory boundary past which memory will be treated as highmem (x86
debug hypervisor only).

### hmp-unsafe (arm)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default : `false`

Say yes at your own risk if you want to enable heterogenous computing
(such as big.LITTLE). This may result to an unstable and insecure
platform, unless you manually specify the cpu affinity of all domains so
that all vcpus are scheduled on the same class of pcpus (big or LITTLE
but not both). vcpu migration between big cores and LITTLE cores is not
supported. See docs/misc/arm/big.LITTLE.txt for more information.

When the hmp-unsafe option is disabled (default), CPUs that are not
identical to the boot CPU will be parked and not used by Xen.

### hpetbroadcast (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

### hvm\_debug (x86)
> `= <integer>`

The specified value is a bit mask with the individual bits having the
following meaning:

>     Bit  0 - debug level 0 (unused at present)
>     Bit  1 - debug level 1 (Control Register logging)
>     Bit  2 - debug level 2 (VMX logging of MSR restores when context switching)
>     Bit  3 - debug level 3 (unused at present)
>     Bit  4 - I/O operation logging
>     Bit  5 - vMMU logging
>     Bit  6 - vLAPIC general logging
>     Bit  7 - vLAPIC timer logging
>     Bit  8 - vLAPIC interrupt logging
>     Bit  9 - vIOAPIC logging
>     Bit 10 - hypercall logging
>     Bit 11 - MSR operation logging

Recognized in debug builds of the hypervisor only.

### hvm\_fep (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `false`

Allow use of the Forced Emulation Prefix in HVM guests, to allow emulation of
arbitrary instructions.

This option is intended for development and testing purposes.

*Warning*
As this feature opens up the instruction emulator to arbitrary
instruction from an HVM guest, don't use this in production system. No
security support is provided when this flag is set.

### hvm\_port80 (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `true`

Specify whether guests are to be given access to physical port 80
(often used for debugging purposes), to override the DMI based
detection of systems known to misbehave upon accesses to that port.

### idle\_latency\_factor (x86)
> `= <integer>`

### ioapic\_ack (x86)
> `= old | new`

> Default: `new` unless directed-EOI is supported

### iommu
> `= List of [ <boolean> | force | required | quarantine | intremap | intpost | qinval | snoop | sharept | dom0-passthrough | dom0-strict | amd-iommu-perdev-intremap | workaround_bios_bug | igfx | crash-disable | verbose | debug ]`

> Sub-options:

> `<boolean>`

> Default: `on`

>> Control the use of IOMMU(s) in the system.

> All other sub-options are of boolean kind and can be prefixed with `no-` to
> effect the inverse meaning.

> `force` or `required`

> Default: `false`

>> Don't continue booting unless IOMMU support is found and can be initialized
>> successfully.

> `quarantine`

> Default: `true`

>> Control Xen's behavior when de-assigning devices from guests.  If enabled,
>> Xen always quarantines such devices; they must be explicitly assigned back
>> to Dom0 before they can be used there again.  If disabled, Xen will only
>> quarantine devices the toolstack hass arranged for getting quarantined.

> `intremap`

> Default: `true`

>> Control the use of interrupt remapping (DMA remapping will always be enabled
>> if IOMMU functionality is enabled).

> `intpost`

> Default: `false`

>> Control the use of interrupt posting, which depends on the availability of
>> interrupt remapping.

> `qinval` (VT-d)

> Default: `true`

>> Control the use of Queued Invalidation.

> `snoop` (Intel)

> Default: `true`

>> Control the use of Snoop Control.

> `sharept`

> Default: `true`

>> Control whether CPU and IOMMU page tables should be shared.

> `dom0-passthrough`

> Default: `false`

>> Control whether to disable DMA remapping for Dom0.

> `dom0-strict`

> Default: `false`

>> Control whether to set up DMA remapping only for the memory Dom0 actually
>> got assigned. Implies `no-dom0-passthrough`.

> `amd-iommu-perdev-intremap`

> Default: `true`

>> Control whether to set up interrupt remapping data structures per device
>> rather that once for the entire system. Turning this off is making PCI
>> device pass-through insecure and hence unsupported.

> `workaround_bios_bug` (VT-d)

> Default: `false`

>> Causes DRHD entries without any PCI discoverable devices under them to be
>> ignored (normally IOMMU setup fails if any of the devices listed by a DRHD
>> entry aren't PCI discoverable).

> `igfx` (VT-d)

> Default: `true`

>> Enable IOMMU for Intel graphics devices. The intended usage of this option
>> is `no-igfx`, which is similar to Linux `intel_iommu=igfx_off` option used
>> to workaround graphics issues. If adding `no-igfx` fixes anything, you
>> should file a bug reporting the problem.

>  `crash-disable`

> Default: `false`

>> This option controls disabling IOMMU functionality (DMAR/IR/QI) before
>> switching to a crash kernel. This option is inactive by default and
>> is for compatibility with older kdump kernels only. Modern kernels copy
>> all the necessary tables from the previous one following kexec which makes
>>  the transition transparent for them with IOMMU functions still on.

> `verbose`

> Default: `false`

>> Increase IOMMU code's verbosity.

> `debug`

> Default: `false`

>> Enable IOMMU debugging code (implies `verbose`).

### iommu\_dev\_iotlb\_timeout
> `= <integer>`

> Default: `1000`

Specify the timeout of the device IOTLB invalidation in milliseconds.
By default, the timeout is 1000 ms. When you see error 'Queue invalidate
wait descriptor timed out', try increasing this value.

### iommu\_inclusive\_mapping (VT-d)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `true`

Use this to work around firmware issues providing incorrect RMRR entries.
Rather than only mapping RAM pages for IOMMU accesses for Dom0, with this
option all pages not marked as unusable in the E820 table will get a mapping
established.

### irq\_ratelimit (x86)
> `= <integer>`

### irq\_vector\_map (x86)
### ivrs\_hpet[`<hpet>`] (AMD)
> `=[<seg>:]<bus>:<device>.<func>`

Force the use of `[<seg>:]<bus>:<device>.<func>` as device ID of HPET
`<hpet>` instead of the one specified by the IVHD sub-tables of the IVRS
ACPI table.

### ivrs\_ioapic[`<ioapic>`] (AMD)
> `=[<seg>:]<bus>:<device>.<func>`

Force the use of `[<seg>:]<bus>:<device>.<func>` as device ID of IO-APIC
`<ioapic>` instead of the one specified by the IVHD sub-tables of the IVRS
ACPI table.

### lapic (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

Force the use of use of the local APIC on a uniprocessor system, even
if left disabled by the BIOS.

### lapic\_timer\_c2\_ok (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

### ler (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

### loglvl
> `= <level>[/<rate-limited level>]` where level is `none | error | warning | info | debug | all`

> Default: `loglvl=warning`

> Can be modified at runtime

Set the logging level for Xen.  Any log message with equal more more
importance will be printed.

The optional `<rate-limited level>` option instructs which severities
should be rate limited.

### low\_crashinfo
> `= none | min | all`

> Default: `none` if not specified at all, or to `min` if **low\_crashinfo** is present without qualification.

This option is only useful for hosts with a 32bit dom0 kernel, wishing
to use kexec functionality in the case of a crash.  It represents
which data structures should be deliberately allocated in low memory,
so the crash kernel may find find them.  Should be used in combination
with **crashinfo\_maxaddr**.

### low\_mem\_virq\_limit
> `= <size>`

> Default: `64M`

Specify the threshold below which Xen will inform dom0 that the quantity of
free memory is getting low.  Specifying `0` will disable this notification.

### maxcpus (x86)
> `= <integer>`

### max\_cstate (x86)
> `= <integer>`

### max\_gsi\_irqs (x86)
> `= <integer>`

Specifies the number of interrupts to be use for pin (IO-APIC or legacy PIC)
based interrupts. Any higher IRQs will be available for use via PCI MSI.

### max\_lpi\_bits (arm)
> `= <integer>`

Specifies the number of ARM GICv3 LPI interrupts to allocate on the host,
presented as the number of bits needed to encode it. This must be at least
14 and not exceed 32, and each LPI requires one byte (configuration) and
one pending bit to be allocated.
Defaults to 20 bits (to cover at most 1048576 interrupts).

### mce (x86)
> `= <integer>`

### mce\_fb (Intel)
> `= <integer>`

### mce\_verbosity (x86)
> `= verbose`

Specify verbose machine check output.

### mem (x86)
> `= <size>`

Specify the maximum address of physical RAM.  Any RAM beyond this
limit is ignored by Xen.

### memop-max-order
> `= [<domU>][,[<ctldom>][,[<hwdom>][,<ptdom>]]]`

> x86 default: `9,18,12,12`
> ARM default: `9,18,10,10`

Change the maximum order permitted for allocation (or allocation-like)
requests issued by the various kinds of domains (in this order:
ordinary DomU, control domain, hardware domain, and - when supported
by the platform - DomU with pass-through device assigned).

### mmcfg (x86)
> `= <boolean>[,amd-fam10]`

> Default: `1`

Specify if the MMConfig space should be enabled.

### mmio-relax (x86)
> `= <boolean> | all`

> Default: `false`

By default, domains may not create cached mappings to MMIO regions.
This option relaxes the check for Domain 0 (or when using `all`, all PV
domains), to permit the use of cacheable MMIO mappings.

### msi (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `true`

Force Xen to (not) use PCI-MSI, even if ACPI FADT says otherwise.

### mtrr.show (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `false`

Print boot time MTRR state.

### mwait-idle (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `true`

Use the MWAIT idle driver (with model specific C-state knowledge) instead
of the ACPI based one.

### nmi (x86)
> `= ignore | dom0 | fatal`

> Default: `fatal` for a debug build, or `dom0` for a non-debug build

Specify what Xen should do in the event of an NMI parity or I/O error.
`ignore` discards the error; `dom0` causes Xen to report the error to
dom0, while 'fatal' causes Xen to print diagnostics and then hang.

### noapic (x86)

Instruct Xen to ignore any IOAPICs that are present in the system, and
instead continue to use the legacy PIC. This is _not_ recommended with
pvops type kernels.

Because responsibility for APIC setup is shared between Xen and the
domain 0 kernel this option is automatically propagated to the domain
0 command line.

### invpcid (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `true`

By default, Xen will use the INVPCID instruction for TLB management if
it is available.  This option can be used to cause Xen to fall back to
older mechanisms, which are generally slower.

### noirqbalance (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

Disable software IRQ balancing and affinity. This can be used on
systems such as Dell 1850/2850 that have workarounds in hardware for
IRQ routing issues.

### nolapic (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `false`

Ignore the local APIC on a uniprocessor system, even if enabled by the
BIOS.

### no-real-mode (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

Do not execute real-mode bootstrap code when booting Xen. This option
should not be used except for debugging. It will effectively disable
the **vga** option, which relies on real mode to set the video mode.

### noreboot
> `= <boolean>`

Do not automatically reboot after an error.  This is useful for
catching debug output.  Defaults to automatically reboot after 5
seconds.

### nosmp (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

Disable SMP support.  No secondary processors will be booted.
Defaults to booting secondary processors.

### nr\_irqs (x86)
> `= <integer>`

### numa (x86)
> `= on | off | fake=<integer> | noacpi`

> Default: `on`

### pci
> `= {no-}serr | {no-}perr`

> Default: Signaling left as set by firmware.

Disable signaling of SERR (system errors) and/or PERR (parity errors)
on all PCI devices.


### pci-phantom
> `=[<seg>:]<bus>:<device>,<stride>`

Mark a group of PCI devices as using phantom functions without actually
advertising so, so the IOMMU can create translation contexts for them.

All numbers specified must be hexadecimal ones.

This option can be specified more than once (up to 8 times at present).

### pcid (x86)
> `= <boolean> | xpti=<bool>`

> Default: `xpti`

> Can be modified at runtime (change takes effect only for domains created
  afterwards)

If available, control usage of the PCID feature of the processor for
64-bit pv-domains. PCID can be used either for no domain at all (`false`),
for all of them (`true`), only for those subject to XPTI (`xpti`) or for
those not subject to XPTI (`no-xpti`). The feature is used only in case
INVPCID is supported and not disabled via `invpcid=false`.

### pku (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `true`

Flag to enable Memory Protection Keys.

The protection-key feature provides an additional mechanism by which IA-32e
paging controls access to usermode addresses.

### ple\_gap
> `= <integer>`

### ple\_window (Intel)
> `= <integer>`

### psr (Intel)
> `= List of ( cmt:<boolean> | rmid_max:<integer> | cat:<boolean> | cos_max:<integer> | cdp:<boolean> )`

> Default: `psr=cmt:0,rmid_max:255,cat:0,cos_max:255,cdp:0`

Platform Shared Resource(PSR) Services.  Intel Haswell and later server
platforms offer information about the sharing of resources.

To use the PSR monitoring service for a certain domain, a Resource
Monitoring ID(RMID) is used to bind the domain to corresponding shared
resource.  RMID is a hardware-provided layer of abstraction between software
and logical processors.

To use the PSR cache allocation service for a certain domain, a capacity
bitmasks(CBM) is used to bind the domain to corresponding shared resource.
CBM represents cache capacity and indicates the degree of overlap and isolation
between domains. In hypervisor a Class of Service(COS) ID is allocated for each
unique CBM.

The following resources are available:

* Cache Monitoring Technology (Haswell and later).  Information regarding the
  L3 cache occupancy.
  * `cmt` instructs Xen to enable/disable Cache Monitoring Technology.
  * `rmid_max` indicates the max value for rmid.
* Memory Bandwidth Monitoring (Broadwell and later). Information regarding the
  total/local memory bandwidth. Follow the same options with Cache Monitoring
  Technology.

* Cache Allocation Technology (Broadwell and later).  Information regarding
  the cache allocation.
  * `cat` instructs Xen to enable/disable Cache Allocation Technology.
  * `cos_max` indicates the max value for COS ID.
* Code and Data Prioritization Technology (Broadwell and later). Information
  regarding the code cache and the data cache allocation. CDP is based on CAT.
  * `cdp` instructs Xen to enable/disable Code and Data Prioritization. Note
    that `cos_max` of CDP is a little different from `cos_max` of CAT. With
    CDP, one COS will corespond two CBMs other than one with CAT, due to the
    sum of CBMs is fixed, that means actual `cos_max` in use will automatically
    reduce to half when CDP is enabled.
	
### pv-linear-pt (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `true`

Only available if Xen is compiled with CONFIG\_PV\_LINEAR\_PT support
enabled.

Allow PV guests to have pagetable entries pointing to other pagetables
of the same level (i.e., allowing L2 PTEs to point to other L2 pages).
This technique is often called "linear pagetables", and is sometimes
used to allow operating systems a simple way to consistently map the
current process's pagetables into its own virtual address space.

Linux and MiniOS don't use this technique.  NetBSD and Novell Netware
do; there may be other custom operating systems which do.  If you're
certain you don't plan on having PV guests which use this feature,
turning it off can reduce the attack surface.

### pv-l1tf (x86)
> `= List of [ <bool>, dom0=<bool>, domu=<bool> ]`

> Default: `false` on believed-unaffected hardware, or in pv-shim mode.
>          `domu`  on believed-affected hardware.

Mitigations for L1TF / XSA-273 / CVE-2018-3620 for PV guests.

For backwards compatibility, we may not alter an architecturally-legitimate
pagetable entry a PV guest chooses to write.  We can however force such a
guest into shadow mode so that Xen controls the PTEs which are reachable by
the CPU pagewalk.

Shadowing is performed at the point where a PV guest first tries to write an
L1TF-vulnerable PTE.  Therefore, a PV guest kernel which has been updated with
its own L1TF mitigations will not trigger shadow mode if it is well behaved.

If CONFIG\_SHADOW\_PAGING is not compiled in, this mitigation instead crashes
the guest when an L1TF-vulnerable PTE is written, which still allows updated,
well-behaved PV guests to run, despite Shadow being compiled out.

In the pv-shim case, Shadow is expected to be compiled out, and a malicious
guest kernel can only leak data from the shim Xen, rather than the host Xen.

### pv-shim (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `false`

This option is intended for use by a toolstack, when choosing to run a PV
guest compatibly inside an HVM container.

In this mode, the kernel and initrd passed as modules to the hypervisor are
constructed into a plain unprivileged PV domain.

### rcu-idle-timer-period-ms
> `= <integer>`

> Default: `10`

How frequently a CPU which has gone idle, but with pending RCU callbacks,
should be woken up to check if the grace period has completed, and the
callbacks are safe to be executed. Expressed in milliseconds; maximum is
100, and it can't be 0.

### reboot (x86)
> `= t[riple] | k[bd] | a[cpi] | p[ci] | P[ower] | e[fi] | n[o] [, [w]arm | [c]old]`

> Default: `0`

Specify the host reboot method.

`warm` instructs Xen to not set the cold reboot flag.

`cold` instructs Xen to set the cold reboot flag.

`no` instructs Xen to not automatically reboot after panics or crashes.

`triple` instructs Xen to reboot the host by causing a triple fault.

`kbd` instructs Xen to reboot the host via the keyboard controller.

`acpi` instructs Xen to reboot the host using RESET\_REG in the ACPI FADT.

`pci` instructs Xen to reboot the host using PCI reset register (port CF9).

`Power` instructs Xen to power-cycle the host using PCI reset register (port CF9).

'efi' instructs Xen to reboot using the EFI reboot call (in EFI mode by
 default it will use that method first).

`xen` instructs Xen to reboot using Xen's SCHEDOP hypercall (this is the default
when running nested Xen)

### rmrr
> '= start<-end>=[s1]bdf1[,[s1]bdf2[,...]];start<-end>=[s2]bdf1[,[s2]bdf2[,...]]

Define RMRR units that are missing from ACPI table along with device they
belong to and use them for 1:1 mapping. End addresses can be omitted and one
page will be mapped. The ranges are inclusive when start and end are specified.
If segment of the first device is not specified, segment zero will be used.
If other segments are not specified, first device segment will be used.
If a segment is specified for other than the first device and it does not match
the one specified for the first one, an error will be reported.

'start' and 'end' values are page numbers (not full physical addresses),
in hexadecimal format (can optionally be preceded by "0x").

Usage example: If device 0:0:1d.0 requires one page (0xd5d45) to be
reserved, and device 0:0:1a.0 requires three pages (0xd5d46 thru 0xd5d48)
to be reserved, one usage would be:

rmrr=d5d45=0:0:1d.0;0xd5d46-0xd5d48=0:0:1a.0

Note: grub2 requires to escape or use quotations if special characters are used,
namely ';', refer to the grub2 documentation if multiple ranges are specified.

### ro-hpet (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `true`

Map the HPET page as read only in Dom0. If disabled the page will be mapped
with read and write permissions.

### sched
> `= credit | credit2 | arinc653 | rtds | null`

> Default: `sched=credit`

Choose the default scheduler.

### sched\_credit2\_migrate\_resist
> `= <integer>`

### sched\_credit\_tslice\_ms
> `= <integer>`

Set the timeslice of the credit1 scheduler, in milliseconds.  The
default is 30ms.  Reasonable values may include 10, 5, or even 1 for
very latency-sensitive workloads.

### sched\_ratelimit\_us
> `= <integer>`

In order to limit the rate of context switching, set the minimum
amount of time that a vcpu can be scheduled for before preempting it,
in microseconds.  The default is 1000us (1ms).  Setting this to 0
disables it altogether.

### sched\_smt\_power\_savings
> `= <boolean>`

Normally Xen will try to maximize performance and cache utilization by
spreading out vcpus across as many different divisions as possible
(i.e, numa nodes, sockets, cores threads, &c).  This often maximizes
throughput, but also maximizes energy usage, since it reduces the
depth to which a processor can sleep.

This option inverts the logic, so that the scheduler in effect tries
to keep the vcpus on the smallest amount of silicon possible; i.e.,
first fill up sibling threads, then sibling cores, then sibling
sockets, &c.  This will reduce performance somewhat, particularly on
systems with hyperthreading enabled, but should reduce power by
enabling more sockets and cores to go into deeper sleep states.

### serial\_tx\_buffer
> `= <size>`

> Default: `16kB`

Set the serial transmit buffer size.

### serrors (ARM)
> `= diverse | forward | panic`

> Default: `diverse`

This parameter is provided to administrators to determine how the
hypervisors handle SErrors.

In order to distinguish guest-generated SErrors from hypervisor-generated
SErrors we have to place SError checking code in every EL1 <-> EL2 paths.
That will cause overhead on entries and exits due to dsb/isb. However, not all
platforms need to categorize SErrors. For example, a host that is running with
trusted guests. The administrator can confirm that all guests that are running
on the host will not trigger such SErrors. In this case, the administrator can
use this parameter to skip categorizing SErrors and reduce the overhead of
dsb/isb.

We provided the following 3 options to administrators to determine how the
hypervisors handle SErrors:

* `diverse`:
  The hypervisor will distinguish guest SErrors from hypervisor SErrors.
  The guest generated SErrors will be forwarded to guests, the hypervisor
  generated SErrors will cause the whole system to crash.
  It requires:
  1. dsb/isb on all EL1 -> EL2 trap entries to categorize SErrors correctly.
  2. dsb/isb on EL2 -> EL1 return paths to prevent slipping hypervisor
     SErrors to guests.
  3. dsb/isb in context switch to isolate SErrors between 2 vCPUs.

* `forward`:
  The hypervisor will not distinguish guest SErrors from hypervisor SErrors.
  All SErrors will be forwarded to guests, except the SErrors generated when
  the idle vCPU is running. The idle domain doesn't have the ability to handle
  SErrors, so we have to crash the whole system when we get SErros with the
  idle vCPU. This option will avoid most overhead of the dsb/isb, except the
  dsb/isb in context switch which is used to isolate the SErrors between 2
  vCPUs.

* `panic`:
  The hypervisor will not distinguish guest SErrors from hypervisor SErrors.
  All SErrors will crash the whole system. This option will avoid all overhead
  of the dsb/isb pairs.

### shim\_mem (x86)
> `= List of ( min:<size> | max:<size> | <size> )`

Set the amount of memory that xen-shim uses. Only has effect if pv-shim mode is
enabled. Note that this value accounts for the memory used by the shim itself
plus the free memory slack given to the shim for runtime allocations.

* `min:<size>` specifies the minimum amount of memory. Ignored if greater
   than max.
* `max:<size>` specifies the maximum amount of memory.
* `<size>` specifies the exact amount of memory. Overrides both min and max.

By default, the amount of free memory slack given to the shim for runtime usage
is 1MB.

### smap (x86)
> `= <boolean> | hvm`

> Default: `true` unless running in pv-shim mode on AMD hardware

Flag to enable Supervisor Mode Access Prevention
Use `smap=hvm` to allow SMAP use by HVM guests only.

In PV shim mode on AMD hardware due to significant performance impact in some
cases and generally lower security risk the option defaults to false.

### smep (x86)
> `= <boolean> | hvm`

> Default: `true` unless running in pv-shim mode on AMD hardware

Flag to enable Supervisor Mode Execution Protection
Use `smep=hvm` to allow SMEP use by HVM guests only.

In PV shim mode on AMD hardware due to significant performance impact in some
cases and generally lower security risk the option defaults to false.

### smt (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

Default: `true`

Control bring up of multiple hyper-threads per CPU core.

### snb\_igd\_quirk
> `= <boolean> | cap | <integer>`

A true boolean value enables legacy behavior (1s timeout), while `cap`
enforces the maximum theoretically necessary timeout of 670ms. Any number
is being interpreted as a custom timeout in milliseconds. Zero or boolean
false disable the quirk workaround, which is also the default.

### spec-ctrl (x86)
> `= List of [ <bool>, xen=<bool>, {pv,hvm,msr-sc,rsb,md-clear}=<bool>,
>              bti-thunk=retpoline|lfence|jmp, {ibrs,ibpb,ssbd,eager-fpu,
>              l1d-flush,srb-lock}=<bool> ]`

Controls for speculative execution sidechannel mitigations.  By default, Xen
will pick the most appropriate mitigations based on compiled in support,
loaded microcode, and hardware details, and will virtualise appropriate
mitigations for guests to use.

**WARNING: Any use of this option may interfere with heuristics.  Use with
extreme care.**

An overall boolean value, `spec-ctrl=no`, can be specified to turn off all
mitigations, including pieces of infrastructure used to virtualise certain
mitigation features for guests.  This also includes settings which `xpti`,
`smt`, `pv-l1tf`, `tsx` control, unless the respective option(s) have been
specified earlier on the command line.

Alternatively, a slightly more restricted `spec-ctrl=no-xen` can be used to
turn off all of Xen's mitigations, while leaving the virtualisation support
in place for guests to use.

Use of a positive boolean value for either of these options is invalid.

The booleans `pv=`, `hvm=`, `msr-sc=`, `rsb=` and `md-clear=` offer fine
grained control over the alternative blocks used by Xen.  These impact Xen's
ability to protect itself, and Xen's ability to virtualise support for guests
to use.

* `pv=` and `hvm=` offer control over all suboptions for PV and HVM guests
  respectively.
* `msr-sc=` offers control over Xen's support for manipulating MSR\_SPEC\_CTRL
  on entry and exit.  These blocks are necessary to virtualise support for
  guests and if disabled, guests will be unable to use IBRS/STIBP/SSBD/etc.
* `rsb=` offers control over whether to overwrite the Return Stack Buffer /
  Return Address Stack on entry to Xen.
* `md-clear=` offers control over whether to use VERW to flush
  microarchitectural buffers on idle and exit from Xen.  *Note: For
  compatibility with development versions of this fix, `mds=` is also accepted
  on Xen 4.12 and earlier as an alias.  Consult vendor documentation in
  preference to here.*

If Xen was compiled with INDIRECT\_THUNK support, `bti-thunk=` can be used to
select which of the thunks gets patched into the `__x86_indirect_thunk_%reg`
locations.  The default thunk is `retpoline` (generally preferred for Intel
hardware), with the alternatives being `jmp` (a `jmp *%reg` gadget, minimal
overhead), and `lfence` (an `lfence; jmp *%reg` gadget, preferred for AMD).

On hardware supporting IBRS (Indirect Branch Restricted Speculation), the
`ibrs=` option can be used to force or prevent Xen using the feature itself.
If Xen is not using IBRS itself, functionality is still set up so IBRS can be
virtualised for guests.

On hardware supporting IBPB (Indirect Branch Prediction Barrier), the `ibpb=`
option can be used to force (the default) or prevent Xen from issuing branch
prediction barriers on vcpu context switches.

On hardware supporting SSBD (Speculative Store Bypass Disable), the `ssbd=`
option can be used to force or prevent Xen using the feature itself.  On AMD
hardware, this is a global option applied at boot, and not virtualised for
guest use.  On Intel hardware, the feature is virtualised for guests,
independently of Xen's choice of setting.

On all hardware, the `eager-fpu=` option can be used to force or prevent Xen
from using fully eager FPU context switches.  This is currently implemented as
a global control.  By default, Xen will choose to use fully eager context
switches on hardware believed to speculate past #NM exceptions.

On hardware supporting L1D_FLUSH, the `l1d-flush=` option can be used to force
or prevent Xen from issuing an L1 data cache flush on each VMEntry.
Irrespective of Xen's setting, the feature is virtualised for HVM guests to
use.  By default, Xen will enable this mitigation on hardware believed to be
vulnerable to L1TF.

On hardware supporting SRBDS_CTRL, the `srb-lock=` option can be used to force
or prevent Xen from protect the Special Register Buffer from leaking stale
data. By default, Xen will enable this mitigation, except on parts where MDS
is fixed and TAA is fixed/mitigated (in which case, there is believed to be no
way for an attacker to obtain the stale data).

### sync\_console
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `false`

Flag to force synchronous console output.  Useful for debugging, but
not suitable for production environments due to incurred overhead.

### tboot (x86)
> `= 0x<phys_addr>`

Specify the physical address of the trusted boot shared page.

### tbuf\_size
> `= <integer>`

Specify the per-cpu trace buffer size in pages.

### tdt (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `true`

Flag to enable TSC deadline as the APIC timer mode.

### tevt\_mask
> `= <integer>`

Specify a mask for Xen event tracing. This allows Xen tracing to be
enabled at boot. Refer to the xentrace(8) documentation for a list of
valid event mask values. In order to enable tracing, a buffer size (in
pages) must also be specified via the tbuf\_size parameter.

### tickle\_one\_idle\_cpu
> `= <boolean>`

### timer\_slop
> `= <integer>`

### tmem
> `= <boolean>`

### tmem\_compress
> `= <boolean>`

### tsc (x86)
> `= unstable | skewed | stable:socket`

### tsx
    = <bool>

    Applicability: x86
    Default: false on parts vulnerable to TAA, true otherwise

Controls for the use of Transactional Synchronization eXtensions.

On Intel parts released in Q3 2019 (with updated microcode), and future parts,
a control has been introduced which allows TSX to be turned off.

On systems with the ability to turn TSX off, this boolean offers system wide
control of whether TSX is enabled or disabled.

On parts vulnerable to CVE-2019-11135 / TSX Asynchronous Abort, the following
logic applies:

 * An explicit `tsx=` choice is honoured, even if it is `true` and would
   result in a vulnerable system.

 * When no explicit `tsx=` choice is given, parts vulnerable to TAA will be
   mitigated by disabling TSX, as this is the lowest overhead option.

 * If the use of TSX is important, the more expensive TAA mitigations can be
   opted in to with `smt=0 spec-ctrl=md-clear`, at which point TSX will remain
   active by default.

### ucode (x86)
> `= [<integer> | scan]`

Specify how and where to find CPU microcode update blob.

'integer' specifies the CPU microcode update blob module index. When positive,
this specifies the n-th module (in the GrUB entry, zero based) to be used
for updating CPU micrcode. When negative, counting starts at the end of
the modules in the GrUB entry (so with the blob commonly being last,
one could specify `ucode=-1`). Note that the value of zero is not valid
here (entry zero, i.e. the first module, is always the Dom0 kernel
image). Note further that use of this option has an unspecified effect
when used with xen.efi (there the concept of modules doesn't exist, and
the blob gets specified via the `ucode=<filename>` config file/section
entry; see [EFI configuration file description](efi.html)).

'scan' instructs the hypervisor to scan the multiboot images for an cpio
image that contains microcode. Depending on the platform the blob with the
microcode in the cpio name space must be:
  - on Intel: kernel/x86/microcode/GenuineIntel.bin
  - on AMD  : kernel/x86/microcode/AuthenticAMD.bin

### unrestricted\_guest (Intel)
> `= <boolean>`

### vcpu\_migration\_delay
> `= <integer>`

> Default: `0`

Specify a delay, in microseconds, between migrations of a VCPU between
PCPUs when using the credit1 scheduler. This prevents rapid fluttering
of a VCPU between CPUs, and reduces the implicit overheads such as
cache-warming. 1ms (1000) has been measured as a good value.

### vesa-map
> `= <integer>`

### vesa-mtrr
> `= <integer>`

### vesa-ram
> `= <integer>`

### vga
> `= ( ask | current | text-80x<rows> | gfx-<width>x<height>x<depth> | mode-<mode> )[,keep]`

`ask` causes Xen to display a menu of available modes and request the
user to choose one of them.

`current` causes Xen to use the graphics adapter in its current state,
without further setup.

`text-80x<rows>` instructs Xen to set up text mode.  Valid values for
`<rows>` are `25, 28, 30, 34, 43, 50, 80`

`gfx-<width>x<height>x<depth>` instructs Xen to set up graphics mode
with the specified width, height and depth.

`mode-<mode>` instructs Xen to use a specific mode, as shown with the
`ask` option.  (N.B menu modes are displayed in hex, so `<mode>`
should be a hexadecimal number)

The optional `keep` parameter causes Xen to continue using the vga
console even after dom0 has been started.  The default behaviour is to
relinquish control to dom0.

### viridian-spinlock-retry-count (x86)
> `= <integer>`

> Default: `2047`

Specify the maximum number of retries before an enlightened Windows
guest will notify Xen that it has failed to acquire a spinlock.

### viridian-version (x86)
> `= [<major>],[<minor>],[<build>]`

> Default: `6,0,0x1772`

<major>, <minor> and <build> must be integers. The values will be
encoded in guest CPUID 0x40000002 if viridian enlightenments are enabled.

### vpid (Intel)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `true`

Use Virtual Processor ID support if available.  This prevents the need for TLB
flushes on VM entry and exit, increasing performance.

### vpmu (x86)
> `= ( <boolean> | { bts | ipc | arch | rtm-abort=<bool> [, ...] } )`

> Default: `off`

Switch on the virtualized performance monitoring unit for HVM guests.

If the current cpu isn't supported a message like
'VPMU: Initialization failed. ...'
is printed on the hypervisor serial log.

For some Intel Nehalem processors a quirk handling exist for an unknown
wrong behaviour (see handle\_pmc\_quirk()).

If 'vpmu=bts' is specified the virtualisation of the Branch Trace Store (BTS)
feature is switched on on Intel processors supporting this feature.

vpmu=ipc enables performance monitoring, but restricts the counters to the
most minimum set possible: instructions, cycles, and reference cycles. These
can be used to calculate instructions per cycle (IPC).

vpmu=arch enables performance monitoring, but restricts the counters to the
pre-defined architectural events only. These are exposed by cpuid, and listed
in the Pre-Defined Architectural Performance Events table from the Intel 64
and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer's Manual, Volume 3B, System
Programming Guide, Part 2.

vpmu=rtm-abort controls a trade-off between working Restricted Transactional
Memory, and working performance counters.

All processors released to date (Q1 2019) supporting Transactional Memory
Extensions suffer an erratum which has been addressed in microcode.

Processors based on the Skylake microarchitecture with up-to-date
microcode internally use performance counter 3 to work around the erratum.
A consequence is that the counter gets reprogrammed whenever an `XBEGIN`
instruction is executed.

An alternative mode exists where PCR3 behaves as before, at the cost of
`XBEGIN` unconditionally aborting.  Enabling `rtm-abort` mode will
activate this alternative mode.

If a boolean is not used, combinations of flags are allowed, comma separated.
For example, vpmu=arch,bts.

Note that if **watchdog** option is also specified vpmu will be turned off.

*Warning:*
As the virtualisation is not 100% safe, don't use the vpmu flag on
production systems (see http://xenbits.xen.org/xsa/advisory-163.html)!

### vwfi (arm)
> `= trap | native

> Default: `trap`

WFI is the ARM instruction to "wait for interrupt". WFE is similar and
means "wait for event". This option, which is ARM specific, changes the
way guest WFI and WFE are implemented in Xen. By default, Xen traps both
instructions. In the case of WFI, Xen blocks the guest vcpu; in the case
of WFE, Xen yield the guest vcpu. When setting vwfi to `native`, Xen
doesn't trap either instruction, running them in guest context. Setting
vwfi to `native` reduces irq latency significantly. It can also lead to
suboptimal scheduling decisions, but only when the system is
oversubscribed (i.e., in total there are more vCPUs than pCPUs).

### watchdog (x86)
> `= force | <boolean>`

> Default: `false`

Run an NMI watchdog on each processor.  If a processor is stuck for
longer than the **watchdog\_timeout**, a panic occurs.  When `force` is
specified, in addition to running an NMI watchdog on each processor,
unknown NMIs will still be processed.

### watchdog\_timeout (x86)
> `= <integer>`

> Default: `5`

Set the NMI watchdog timeout in seconds.  Specifying `0` will turn off
the watchdog.

### x2apic (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `true`

Permit use of x2apic setup for SMP environments.

### x2apic\_phys (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `true` if **FADT** mandates physical mode, `false` otherwise.

In the case that x2apic is in use, this option switches between physical and
clustered mode.  The default, given no hint from the **FADT**, is cluster
mode.

### xenheap\_megabytes (arm32)
> `= <size>`

> Default: `0` (1/32 of RAM)

Amount of RAM to set aside for the Xenheap. Must be an integer multiple of 32.

By default will use 1/32 of the RAM up to a maximum of 1GB and with a
minimum of 32M, subject to a suitably aligned and sized contiguous
region of memory being available.

### xpti (x86)
> `= List of [ default | <boolean> | dom0=<bool> | domu=<bool> ]`

> Default: `false` on hardware known not to be vulnerable to Meltdown (e.g. AMD)
> Default: `true` everywhere else

Override default selection of whether to isolate 64-bit PV guest page
tables.

`true` activates page table isolation even on hardware not vulnerable by
Meltdown for all domains.

`false` deactivates page table isolation on all systems for all domains.

`default` sets the default behaviour.

With `dom0` and `domu` it is possible to control page table isolation
for dom0 or guest domains only.

### xsave (x86)
> `= <boolean>`

> Default: `true`

Permit use of the `xsave/xrstor` instructions.
