difference between noapic and acpi=off kernel parameters
 

hi everybody,

just wanted to know difference between passing 'noapic' and 'acpi=off' in kernel parameter list, tried google but thing is still not clear to me, sometimes in installation particularly in 2.6 kernel related linux distro i have to pass acpi=off parameter otherwise installation just hangs, are both same. Its not that urgent but any comments will be helpful.

thanks & regards,
rajnish

ACPI = Advanced Configuration and Power Interface

APIC = Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controllers

ACPI is the system that controls your dynamic speed fans, the power button behavior, sleep states, ect.

APIC is the replacement for the old PIC chip that used to come imbedded on motherboards that allowed you to setup interrupts for your soundcard, ide controllers, ect.

In general I'd leave the APIC settings alone. It has been some time since I've had a problem related to that.

However, many computers ship with buggy or out of spec. ACPI firmware which can cause any number of wackiness. If you are noticing your machine randomly powering off or failing to boot disabling this often helps.

thanks jtshaw, got confused over these keywords, now got it, thanks for reply. The main problem i have here is i am having this RH AS 3.0 used by one user and he use to work on virtual consoles(F1-F6) on all of them, sometimes his virtual console goes blank and he has to shift to graphical F7 then and when he switch back to virtual console it is normal, its not major issue but something is wrong somewhere.

what you think might be issue of APCI or something with X or 865 graphic chipset. Both SMP and non-SMP kernel used on the machine but by-default in SMP.