In the last part we discussed evolution of the interrupt delivery process from the devices in the x86 system (PIC → APIC → MSI), general theory, and all the necessary terminology.

In this practical part we will look at how to roll back to the use of obsolete methods of interrupt delivery in Linux, and in particular we will look at Linux kernel boot options:

pci=nomsi
noapic
nolapic

Also we will look at the order in which the OS looks for interrupt routing tables (ACPI/MPtable/$PIR) and what the impact is from the following boot options:

pci=noacpi
acpi=noirq
acpi=off

You've probably used some combination of these options when one of the devices in your system hasn't worked correctly because of an interrupt problem. We'll go through these options and find out what they do and how they change the kernel '/proc/interrupts' interface output.

Boot without any extra options

In this article for our interrupt investigation we will be using custom board with the Intel Haswell i7 CPU with the LynxPoint-LP chipset which runs coreboot.

We will be getting information about interrupts in the Linux system through the command:

cat /proc/interrupts

Here is the output when the kernel was booted without any external options:


	  CPU0      CPU1      CPU2      CPU3       
  0:        15         0         0         0   IO-APIC-edge      timer
  1:         0         1         0         1   IO-APIC-edge      i8042
  8:         0         0         0         1   IO-APIC-edge      rtc0 
  9:         0         0         0         0   IO-APIC-fasteoi   acpi 
 12:         0         0         0         1   IO-APIC-edge           
 23:        16       247         7        10   IO-APIC-fasteoi   ehci_hcd:usb1
 56:         0         0         0         0   PCI-MSI-edge      aerdrv,PCIe PME
 57:         0         0         0         0   PCI-MSI-edge      aerdrv,PCIe PME
 58:         0         0         0         0   PCI-MSI-edge      aerdrv,PCIe PME
 59:         0         0         0         0   PCI-MSI-edge      aerdrv,PCIe PME
 60:         0         0         0         0   PCI-MSI-edge      aerdrv,PCIe PME
 61:         0         0         0         0   PCI-MSI-edge      aerdrv,PCIe PME
 62:      3118      1984       972      3454   PCI-MSI-edge      ahci   
 63:         1         0         0         0   PCI-MSI-edge      eth59
 64:      2095        57         4       832   PCI-MSI-edge      eth59-rx-0
 65:         6        18         1      1309   PCI-MSI-edge      eth59-rx-1
 66:        13       512         2         1   PCI-MSI-edge      eth59-rx-2
 67:        10        61       232         2   PCI-MSI-edge      eth59-rx-3
 68:       169         0         0         0   PCI-MSI-edge      eth59-tx-0
 69:        14        14         4       205   PCI-MSI-edge      eth59-tx-1
 70:        11       491         3         0   PCI-MSI-edge      eth59-tx-2
 71:        20        19       134        50   PCI-MSI-edge      eth59-tx-3
 72:         0         0         0         0   PCI-MSI-edge      eth58
 73:         2         1         0       152   PCI-MSI-edge      eth58-rx-0
 74:         3       150         2         0   PCI-MSI-edge      eth58-rx-1
 75:         2        34       117         2   PCI-MSI-edge      eth58-rx-2
 76:       153         0         2         0   PCI-MSI-edge      eth58-rx-3
 77:         4         0         2       149   PCI-MSI-edge      eth58-tx-0
 78:         4       149         2         0   PCI-MSI-edge      eth58-tx-1
 79:         4         0       117        34   PCI-MSI-edge      eth58-tx-2
 80:       153         0         2         0   PCI-MSI-edge      eth58-tx-3
 81:        66       106         2       101   PCI-MSI-edge      snd_hda_intel
 82:       928      5657       262       224   PCI-MSI-edge      i915
 83:       545        56        32        15   PCI-MSI-edge      snd_hda_intel
NMI:         0         0         0         0   Non-maskable interrupts
LOC:      4193      3644      3326      3499   Local timer interrupts
SPU:         0         0         0         0   Spurious interrupts
PMI:         0         0         0         0   Performance monitoring interrupts
IWI:       290       233       590       111   IRQ work interrupts
RTR:         3         0         0         0   APIC ICR read retries
RES:      1339      2163      2404      1946   Rescheduling interrupts
CAL:       607       537       475       559   Function call interrupts
TLB:       163       202       164       251   TLB shootdowns
TRM:        48        48        48        48   Thermal event interrupts
THR:         0         0         0         0   Threshold APIC interrupts
MCE:         0         0         0         0   Machine check exceptions
MCP:         3         3         3         3   Machine check polls
ERR:         0
MIS:         0

File '/proc/interrupts' is the procfs Linux interface to the interrupt subsystem, and it presents a table about the number of interrupts on every CPU core in the system in the following form:

First column: interrupt number
CPUx columns: interrupt counters for every CPU core in the system
Next column: interrupt type:
- IO-APIC-edge — edge-triggered interrupt for the I/O APIC controller
- IO-APIC-fasteoi — level-triggered interrupt for the I/O APIC controller
- PCI-MSI-edge — MSI interrupt
- XT-PIC-XT-PIC — interrupt for the PIC controller (we will see it later)
Last column: device (driver) associated with this interrupt

Everything here is like it is supposed to be in the modern system. For the devices and drivers which support MSI/MSI-X, this is the type of interrupt that they use. The rest of the interrupt routing is done through the APIC controller.

Simplistically, the interrupt routing schematics can be drawn like this: (red lines are active routing paths and black lines are unused routing paths)

A device that supports MSI/MSI-X interrupts should have that particular capability listed in its PCI configuration space.

As an example of that let's look at a little fragment of the lspci output for the devices that declare they use MSI/MSI-X. In our case it is a SATA controller (interrupt 'ahci'), two ethernet controllers (interrupts 'eth58*' and 'eth59*'), graphical controller ('i915'), and two HD Audio controllers ('snd_hda_intel').

lspci -v


00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
		...
		Capabilities: [90] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
		Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 2
		Capabilities: [a4] PCI Advanced Features
		Kernel driver in use: i915

00:03.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation Haswell-ULT HD Audio Controller (rev 09
		...
		Capabilities: [60] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
		Capabilities: [70] Express Root Complex Integrated Endpoint, MSI 00
		Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 8 Series HD Audio Controller (rev 04)
		...
		Capabilities: [60] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
		Capabilities: [70] Express Root Complex Integrated Endpoint, MSI 00
		Capabilities: [100] Virtual Channel
		Kernel driver in use: snd_hda_intel


00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 8 Series SATA Controller 1 [AHCI mode] (rev 04) (prog-if 01 [AHCI 1.0])
		...
		Capabilities: [80] MSI: Enable+ Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
		Capabilities: [70] Power Management version 3
		Capabilities: [a8] SATA HBA v1.0
		Kernel driver in use: ahci


05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation I350 Gigabit Network Connection (rev 01)
		...
		Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable+ 64bit+
		Capabilities: [70] MSI-X: Enable+ Count=10 Masked-
		Capabilities: [a0] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
		Kernel driver in use: igb

05:00.1 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation I350 Gigabit Network Connection (rev 01)
		...
		Capabilities: [50] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable+ 64bit+
		Capabilities: [70] MSI-X: Enable+ Count=10 Masked-
		Capabilities: [a0] Express Endpoint, MSI 00
		Kernel driver in use: igb

As we see, all of these devices either have a string «MSI: Enable+» or «MSI-X: Enable+».

Let's downgrade our system! For a start let's boot with the kernel option 'pci=nomsi'.

pci=nomsi

Because of this option MSI interrupts become IO-APIC/XT-PIC depending on the interrupt controller in use.

In this case the priority choice is still modern APIC controller, so the interrupt picture will be:

Output of /proc/interrupts:

           CPU0       CPU1       CPU2       CPU3
  0:         15          0          0          0   IO-APIC-edge      timer
  1:          0          1          0          1   IO-APIC-edge      i8042
  8:          0          0          1          0   IO-APIC-edge      rtc0
  9:          0          0          0          0   IO-APIC-fasteoi   acpi
 12:          0          0          0          1   IO-APIC-edge
 16:       1314       5625        342        555   IO-APIC-fasteoi   i915, snd_hda_intel, eth59
 17:          5          0          1         34   IO-APIC-fasteoi   eth58
 21:       2882       2558        963       2088   IO-APIC-fasteoi   ahci
 22:         26         81          2        170   IO-APIC-fasteoi   snd_hda_intel
 23:         23        369          8          8   IO-APIC-fasteoi   ehci_hcd:usb1
NMI:          0          0          0          0   Non-maskable interrupts
LOC:       3011       3331       2435       2617   Local timer interrupts
SPU:          0          0          0          0   Spurious interrupts
PMI:          0          0          0          0   Performance monitoring interrupts
IWI:        197        228        544         85   IRQ work interrupts
RTR:          3          0          0          0   APIC ICR read retries
RES:       1708       2349       1821       1569   Rescheduling interrupts
CAL:        520        554        509        555   Function call interrupts
TLB:        187        181        205        179   TLB shootdowns
TRM:        102        102        102        102   Thermal event interrupts
THR:          0          0          0          0   Threshold APIC interrupts
MCE:          0          0          0          0   Machine check exceptions
MCP:          2          2          2          2   Machine check polls
ERR:          0
MIS:          0

As expected, all MSI/MSI-X interrupts have disappeared. Instead of them devices now use interrupts of 'IO-APIC-fasteoi' type.

Let us draw our attention to the fact that earlier, before enabling this kernel boot option, each of the 'eth58' and 'eth59' had nine interrupts! But now each of them has only one interrupt. Recall that without the MSI, one function in the PCI device can have only one interrupt!

Here is a little info from the 'dmesg' command about the ethernet controllers' initialization:

— boot without the 'pci=nomsi' option:


igb: Intel(R) Gigabit Ethernet Network Driver - version 5.0.5-k
igb: Copyright (c) 2007-2013 Intel Corporation.
acpi:acpi_pci_irq_enable: igb 0000:05:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
igb 0000:05:00.0: irq 63 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.0: irq 64 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.0: irq 65 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.0: irq 66 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.0: irq 67 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.0: irq 68 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.0: irq 69 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.0: irq 70 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.0: irq 71 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.0: irq 63 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.0: irq 64 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.0: irq 65 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.0: irq 66 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.0: irq 67 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.0: irq 68 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.0: irq 69 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.0: irq 70 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.0: irq 71 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.0: added PHC on eth0
igb 0000:05:00.0: Intel(R) Gigabit Ethernet Network Connection
igb 0000:05:00.0: eth0: (PCIe:5.0Gb/s:Width x1) 00:15:d5:03:00:2a
igb 0000:05:00.0: eth0: PBA No: 106300-000
igb 0000:05:00.0: Using MSI-X interrupts. 4 rx queue(s), 4 tx queue(s)
acpi:acpi_pci_irq_enable: igb 0000:05:00.1: PCI INT B -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
igb 0000:05:00.1: irq 72 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.1: irq 73 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.1: irq 74 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.1: irq 75 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.1: irq 76 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.1: irq 77 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.1: irq 78 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.1: irq 79 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.1: irq 80 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.1: irq 72 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.1: irq 73 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.1: irq 74 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.1: irq 75 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.1: irq 76 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.1: irq 77 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.1: irq 78 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.1: irq 79 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.1: irq 80 for MSI/MSI-X
igb 0000:05:00.1: added PHC on eth1
igb 0000:05:00.1: Intel(R) Gigabit Ethernet Network Connection
igb 0000:05:00.1: eth1: (PCIe:5.0Gb/s:Width x1) 00:15:d5:03:00:2b
igb 0000:05:00.1: eth1: PBA No: 106300-000
igb 0000:05:00.1: Using MSI-X interrupts. 4 rx queue(s), 4 tx queue(s)

— boot with the 'pci=nomsi' option:


igb: Intel(R) Gigabit Ethernet Network Driver - version 5.0.5-k
igb: Copyright (c) 2007-2013 Intel Corporation.
acpi:acpi_pci_irq_enable: igb 0000:05:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
igb 0000:05:00.0: added PHC on eth0
igb 0000:05:00.0: Intel(R) Gigabit Ethernet Network Connection
igb 0000:05:00.0: eth0: (PCIe:5.0Gb/s:Width x1) 00:15:d5:03:00:2a
igb 0000:05:00.0: eth0: PBA No: 106300-000
igb 0000:05:00.0: Using legacy interrupts. 1 rx queue(s), 1 tx queue(s)
acpi:acpi_pci_irq_enable: igb 0000:05:00.1: PCI INT B -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
igb 0000:05:00.1: added PHC on eth1
igb 0000:05:00.1: Intel(R) Gigabit Ethernet Network Connection
igb 0000:05:00.1: eth1: (PCIe:5.0Gb/s:Width x1) 00:15:d5:03:00:2b
igb 0000:05:00.1: eth1: PBA No: 106300-000
igb 0000:05:00.1: Using legacy interrupts. 1 rx queue(s), 1 tx queue(s)

Because of the decreased number of interrupts per device, enabling this option can lead to a significant performance limitation of the device driver, and that is not even counting that according to the Intel research 'Reducing Interrupt Latency Through the Use of Message Signaled Interrupts', MSI interrupts 3 times faster than the IO-APIC interrupts and 5 times faster than the PIC interrupts.

noapic

This option disables I/O APIC. MSI interrupts can still find their way to all of the CPUs, but the rest of interrupts from the devices can go only to CPU0, because PIC is only connected to CPU0. However, LAPIC is working and all other CPUs can still work and handle interrupts.

          CPU0      CPU1      CPU2      CPU3
  0:         5         0         0         0   XT-PIC-XT-PIC    timer
  1:         2         0         0         0   XT-PIC-XT-PIC    i8042
  2:         0         0         0         0   XT-PIC-XT-PIC    cascade 
  8:         1         0         0         0   XT-PIC-XT-PIC    rtc0
  9:         0         0         0         0   XT-PIC-XT-PIC    acpi
 12:       172         0         0         0   XT-PIC-XT-PIC    ehci_hcd:usb1
 56:         0         0         0         0  PCI-MSI-edge      aerdrv, PCIe PME
 57:         0         0         0         0  PCI-MSI-edge      aerdrv, PCIe PME
 58:         0         0         0         0  PCI-MSI-edge      aerdrv, PCIe PME
 59:         0         0         0         0  PCI-MSI-edge      aerdrv, PCIe PME
 60:         0         0         0         0  PCI-MSI-edge      aerdrv, PCIe PME
 61:         0         0         0         0  PCI-MSI-edge      aerdrv, PCIe PME
 62:      2833      2989      1021       811  PCI-MSI-edge      ahci
 63:         0         1         0         0  PCI-MSI-edge      eth59
 64:       301        52         9         3  PCI-MSI-edge      eth59-rx-0
 65:        12        24         3       178  PCI-MSI-edge      eth59-rx-1
 66:        14        85         6         2  PCI-MSI-edge      eth59-rx-2
 67:        17        24       307         1  PCI-MSI-edge      eth59-rx-3
 68:        70        18         8        10  PCI-MSI-edge      eth59-tx-0
 69:         7         0         0        23  PCI-MSI-edge      eth59-tx-1
 70:        15       227         2         2  PCI-MSI-edge      eth59-tx-2
 71:        18         6        27         2  PCI-MSI-edge      eth59-tx-3
 72:         0         0         0         0  PCI-MSI-edge      eth58
 73:         1         0         0        27  PCI-MSI-edge      eth58-rx-0
 74:         1        22         0         5  PCI-MSI-edge      eth58-rx-1
 75:         1         0        22         5  PCI-MSI-edge      eth58-rx-2
 76:        23         0         0         5  PCI-MSI-edge      eth58-rx-3
 77:         1         0         0        27  PCI-MSI-edge      eth58-tx-0
 78:         1        22         0         5  PCI-MSI-edge      eth58-tx-1
 79:         1         0        22         5  PCI-MSI-edge      eth58-tx-2
 80:        23         0         0         5  PCI-MSI-edge      eth58-tx-3
 81:       187        17        70         7  PCI-MSI-edge      snd_hda_intel
 82:       698      1647       247       129  PCI-MSI-edge      i915
 83:       438       135        16        59  PCI-MSI-edge      snd_hda_intel
NMI:         0         0         0         0  Non-maskable interrupts
LOC:      1975      2499      2245      1474  Local timer interrupts
SPU:         0         0         0         0  Spurious interrupts
PMI:         0         0         0         0  Performance monitoring interrupts
IWI:       132        67       429        91  IRQ work interrupts
RTR:         3         0         0         0  APIC ICR read retries
RES:      1697      2178      1903      1541  Rescheduling interrupts
CAL:       561       496       534       567  Function call interrupts
TLB:       229       254       170       137  TLB shootdowns
TRM:        78        78        78        78  Thermal event interrupts
THR:         0         0         0         0  Threshold APIC interrupts
MCE:         0         0         0         0  Machine check exceptions
MCP:         2         2         2         2  Machine check polls
ERR:         0
MIS:         0

As we see, all IO-APIC-* interrupts have turned into XT-PIC-XT-PIC, and all of these interrupts have been routed to CPU0 only. MSI interrupts on the other hand have remained unchanged and go to all of the CPUs.

nolapic

This kernel boot option disables LAPIC. MSI interrupts can't work without LAPIC, and I/O APIC can't work without LAPIC either. All of the device interrupts can only go to the PIC, and it works with the CPU0 only. And without LAPIC the rest of the CPUs besides CPU0 won't work.

Output of /proc/interrupts:

            CPU0
  0:       6416    XT-PIC-XT-PIC    timer
  1:          2    XT-PIC-XT-PIC    i8042
  2:          0    XT-PIC-XT-PIC    cascade
  3:       5067    XT-PIC-XT-PIC    aerdrv, aerdrv, PCIe PME, PCIe PME, i915, snd_hda_intel, eth59
  4:         32    XT-PIC-XT-PIC    aerdrv, aerdrv, PCIe PME, PCIe PME, eth58
  5:          0    XT-PIC-XT-PIC    aerdrv, PCIe PME
  6:          0    XT-PIC-XT-PIC    aerdrv, PCIe PME
  8:          1    XT-PIC-XT-PIC    rtc0
  9:          0    XT-PIC-XT-PIC    acpi
 11:        274    XT-PIC-XT-PIC    snd_hda_intel
 12:        202    XT-PIC-XT-PIC    ehci_hcd:usb1
 15:       7903    XT-PIC-XT-PIC    ahci
NMI:          0   Non-maskable interrupts
LOC:          0   Local timer interrupts
SPU:          0   Spurious interrupts
PMI:          0   Performance monitoring interrupts
IWI:          0   IRQ work interrupts
RTR:          0   APIC ICR read retries
RES:          0   Rescheduling interrupts
CAL:          0   Function call interrupts
TLB:          0   TLB shootdowns
TRM:          0   Thermal event interrupts
THR:          0   Threshold APIC interrupts
MCE:          0   Machine check exceptions
MCP:          1   Machine check polls
ERR:          0
MIS:          0

Combinations of options:

Actually there is only one combination for the new variant of routing: «noapic pci=nomsi». In this case all interrupts from the devices only go to the CPU0 through the PIC controller. But the LAPIC system is still working, so all the other CPUs can work and handle interrupts.

You cannot combine any other options with «nolapic» since it makes I/O APIC and MSI unaccessible. Therefore, if you've ever added Linux kernel boot options like «noapic nolapic» (or the most common case «acpi=off noapic nolapic») it seems like you've written some extra letters.

Finally, here is the result of the options «noapic pci=nomsi» to our interrupt routing picture:

And the output of /proc/interrupts is:

          CPU0       CPU1       CPU2       CPU3
  0:        5          0          0          0    XT-PIC-XT-PIC    timer
  1:        2          0          0          0    XT-PIC-XT-PIC    i8042
  2:        0          0          0          0    XT-PIC-XT-PIC    cascade
  3:     5072          0          0          0    XT-PIC-XT-PIC    i915, snd_hda_intel, eth59
  4:       32          0          0          0    XT-PIC-XT-PIC    eth58
  8:        1          0          0          0    XT-PIC-XT-PIC    rtc0
  9:        0          0          0          0    XT-PIC-XT-PIC    acpi
 11:      281          0          0          0    XT-PIC-XT-PIC    snd_hda_intel
 12:      200          0          0          0    XT-PIC-XT-PIC    ehci_hcd:usb1
 15:     7930          0          0          0    XT-PIC-XT-PIC    ahci
NMI:        0          0          0          0   Non-maskable interrupts
LOC:     2595       2387       2129       1697   Local timer interrupts
SPU:        0          0          0          0   Spurious interrupts
PMI:        0          0          0          0   Performance monitoring interrupts
IWI:      159         90        482        135   IRQ work interrupts
RTR:        3          0          0          0   APIC ICR read retries
RES:     1568       1666       1810       1833   Rescheduling interrupts
CAL:      431        556        549        558   Function call interrupts
TLB:      124        184        156        274   TLB shootdowns
TRM:      116        116        116        116   Thermal event interrupts
THR:        0          0          0          0   Threshold APIC interrupts
MCE:        0          0          0          0   Machine check exceptions
MCP:        2          2          2          2   Machine check polls
ERR:        0
MIS:        0

Interrupt routing tables and the options «acpi=noirq», «pci=noacpi», «acpi=off»

How does the operating system get information about the device interrupt routing? The BIOS prepares such info for the OS in the form of:

ACPI tables (_PIC/_PRT functions)
_MP_ table (MPtable)
$PIR table
Registers 0x3C/0x3D of the device's PCI configuration space

It is worth to note for the MSI interrupts declaration that the BIOS doesn't need to do anything extra (beside declaring the use of the LAPIC): all the aforementioned routing information is needed only for the APIC/PIC interrupt lines.

Tables in the list above are presented in the order of priority. Let's examine it in detail.

Let's assume the BIOS has presented all this data and we boot our OS without any extra boot options:

OS finds ACPI tables.
ОS executes ACPI function "_PIC", passing it the argument stating that the boot should happen in APIC mode. Here there is function code that usually saves the chosen mode in a variable (for example, PICM=1).
To access interrupt routing info the OS calls ACPI function "_PRT". This checks the PICM variable and returns routing for the APIC mode case.

In the case when we boot with the option noapic:

OS finds ACPI tables
ОS executes ACPI function "_PIC", passing it the argument stating that the boot should happen in PIC mode. Here there is function code that usually saves the chosen mode in a variable (for example, PICM=0)
To access interrupt routing info the OS calls ACPI function "_PRT". This checks the PICM variable and returns routing for the PIC mode case.

If ACPI tables aren't present or interrupt routing with ACPI is disabled through the option acpi=noirq or pci=noacpi (or ACPI subsystem is completely disabled with the acpi=off option), then the OS looks for the MPtable (_MP_) to get all the interrupt routing information:

OS can't find/doesn't look at the ACPI tables
OS finds MPtable (_MP_)

If ACPI tables aren't present or interrupt routing with ACPI is disabled through the option acpi=noirq or pci=noacpi (or ACPI subsystem is completely disabled with the acpi=off option), and if the MPtable (_MP_) is not present either (or there is a boot option noapic or nolapic):

OS can't find/doesn't look at the ACPI tables
OS can't find/doesn't look at the MPtable (_MP_)
OS finds $PIR table

If there is no $PIR table or it is not full, then the OS will look at the registers 0x3C/0x3D of the device's PCI configuration space to guess interrupt routing.

Here is a picture summarizing all of this:

One should remember that not every BIOS provides all of these three tables (ACPI/MPtable/$PIR), so if you've passed an option to your bootloader (e.g. GRUB) that disables the use of ACPI or ACPI and MPtable for the interrupt routing, it is possible that your system won't boot.

Note 1: In the case when we try to boot in APIC mode with the option 'acpi=noirq' and without MPtable present, the picture of interrupts will be like in the case of normal booting with only the 'noapic' option. The operating system will go to PIC mode by itself. In the case when you try to boot without any ACPI tables at all ('acpi=off') and without MPtable present, then the picture will be like this:

           CPU0       
  0:          6    XT-PIC-XT-PIC    timer
  1:          2    XT-PIC-XT-PIC    i8042
  2:          0    XT-PIC-XT-PIC    cascade
  8:          0    XT-PIC-XT-PIC    rtc0
 12:        373    XT-PIC-XT-PIC    ehci_hcd:usb1
 16:          0   PCI-MSI-edge      PCIe PME
 17:          0   PCI-MSI-edge      PCIe PME
 18:          0   PCI-MSI-edge      PCIe PME
 19:          0   PCI-MSI-edge      PCIe PME
 20:          0   PCI-MSI-edge      PCIe PME
 21:          0   PCI-MSI-edge      PCIe PME
 22:       8728   PCI-MSI-edge      ahci
 23:          1   PCI-MSI-edge      eth59
 24:       1301   PCI-MSI-edge      eth59-rx-0
 25:        113   PCI-MSI-edge      eth59-tx-0
 26:          0   PCI-MSI-edge      eth58
 27:         45   PCI-MSI-edge      eth58-rx-0
 28:         45   PCI-MSI-edge      eth58-tx-0
 29:       1280   PCI-MSI-edge      snd_hda_intel
NMI:          2   Non-maskable interrupts
LOC:      24076   Local timer interrupts
SPU:          0   Spurious interrupts
PMI:          2   Performance monitoring interrupts
IWI:       2856   IRQ work interrupts
RTR:          0   APIC ICR read retries
RES:          0   Rescheduling interrupts
CAL:          0   Function call interrupts
TLB:          0   TLB shootdowns
TRM:         34   Thermal event interrupts
THR:          0   Threshold APIC interrupts
MCE:          0   Machine check exceptions
MCP:          2   Machine check polls
ERR:          0
MIS:          0

This happens because without the ACPI MADT table (Multiple APIC Description Table) and the necessary info from the MPtable, the operating system doesn't know APIC identifiers (APIC IDs) for the other CPUs and can't work with them. But the LAPIC of the main CPU0 works because we haven't disabled it, and MSI interrupts can still go to it. So the interrupt picture would be:

Note 2: In general, interrupt routing with the use of ACPI in an APIC case should match the interrupt routing with the MPtable. Also, the interrupt routing with the use of ACPI in a PIC case should match the interrupt routing with the $PIR table. Therefore the '/proc/interrupts' output should not differ. But in my investigation I've noticed one strange fact. For some reason in the case of interrupt routing through the MPtable there is a cascade interrupt «XT-PIC-XT-PIC cascade» in the output:

           CPU0       CPU1       CPU2       CPU3       
  0:         15          0          0          0   IO-APIC-edge      timer
  1:          2          0          0          0   IO-APIC-edge      i8042
  2:          0          0          0          0    XT-PIC-XT-PIC    cascade
  8:          0          1          0          0   IO-APIC-edge      rtc0   
  9:          0          0          0          0   IO-APIC-edge      acpi   
...

It is a little bit strange that it happens like that, but it seems like the kernel source documentation says that it is OK.

Сonclusion

In conclusion we review for one more time the discussed options.

Interrupt controller choice options:

pci=nomsi — MSI interrupts become IO-APIC/XT-PIC depending on the interrupt controller in use.
noapic — Disables I/O APIC. MSI interrupts can still go to all the other CPUs, the rest of the device interrupts can only go to the PIC, and it works with the CPU0 only. But LAPIC still works and other CPUs can work and handle interrupts.
noapic pci=nomsi — All of the device interrupts can only go to the PIC, and it works with the CPU0 only. But LAPIC works and other CPUs can work and handle interrupts.
nolapic — Disables LAPIC. MSI interrupts can't work without LAPIC, and I/O APIC can't work without LAPIC. All of the device interrupts can only go to the PIC, and it works with the CPU0 only. And without LAPIC the rest of the CPUs besides CPU0 won't work.

Interrupt tables priority options:

no options — routing through the APIC with the help of ACPI tables
noapic — routing through the PIC with the help of ACPI tables
acpi=noirq (pci=noacpi/acpi=off) — routing through the APIC with the help of MPtable
acpi=noirq (pci=noacpi/acpi=off) noapic (nolapic) — routing through the PIC with the help of $PIR

In the next part we will look at how coreboot configures the chipset for the interrupt routing.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Jacob Garber from the coreboot community for helping me with this article translation

External Interrupts in the x86 system. Part 2. Linux kernel boot options