ichwd(4)

ichwd4

Device driver for the intel ich watchdog interrupt timer

Usage

To compile this driver into the kernel, place the following line in your kernel configuration file:

device ichwd

Alternatively, to load the driver as a module at boot time, place the following line in loader.conf(5):

ichwd_load="YES"

Overview

The ichwd driver provides watchdog(4) support for the watchdog interrupt timer present on all Intel ICH motherboard chipsets.

The ICH WDT counts down in ticks of approximately 0.6 seconds; the exact value depends on hardware quality and environmental factors. Supported watchdog intervals range from 2 to 63 ticks.

In QEMU, there is a dedicated watchdog implementation for x86 systems based on the Intel 6300ESB controller hub. Support for this watchdog is provided by this kernel module.

Optionally, set the hw.i6300esbwd.x.locked=1 sysctl(8) to prevent users from disabling the watchdog timeout check after it has been enabled.

Note that on some ICH-based systems, the WDT may be present but disabled, either in hardware or by the BIOS. The ichwd driver attempts to detect this condition and will refuse to attach if it believes the WDT is disabled.

Releases

44 releases since FreeBSD 7.0-RELEASE; the text changed 34 times.

  1. 7.0
  2. 7.1
  3. 7.2
  4. 7.3
  5. 7.4
  6. 8.0
  7. 8.1
  8. 8.2
  9. 8.3
  10. 8.4
  11. 9.0
  12. 9.1
  13. 9.2
  14. 9.3
  15. 10.0
  16. 10.1
  17. 10.2
  18. 10.3
  19. 10.4
  20. 11.0
  21. 11.1
  22. 11.2
  23. 11.3
  24. 11.4
  25. 12.0
  26. 12.1
  27. 12.2
  28. 12.3
  29. 12.4
  30. 13.0–13.2
  31. 13.3–13.5
  32. 14.0–14.4
  33. 14.5
  34. 15.0–15.1
  35. 16.0

History

The ichwd driver first appeared in FreeBSD 5.3.

Authors

The ichwd driver was written by Wm. Daryl Hawkins ⟨[email protected]⟩ of Texas A&M University and Dag-Erling Smørgrav ⟨[email protected]⟩. This manual page was written by Dag-Erling Smørgrav ⟨[email protected]⟩.

From base 16.0-CURRENT-20261027-61c70dc16a79 in FreeBSD 16.0-CURRENT (2026-10-27). Parsed by carta from the page's mdoc source.