Debian does not impose hardware requirements beyond the requirements of the Linux kernel and the GNU tool-sets. Therefore, any architecture or platform to which the Linux kernel, libc, gcc, etc. have been ported, and for which a Debian port exists, can run Debian. Please refer to the Ports pages at http://www.debian.org/ports/hppa/ for more details on PA-RISC architecture systems which have been tested with Debian.
Rather than attempting to describe all the different hardware configurations which are supported for PA-RISC, this section contains general information and pointers to where additional information can be found.
Debian 4.0 supports twelve major architectures and several variations of each architecture known as “flavors”.
Architecture | Debian Designation | Subarchitecture | Flavor |
---|---|---|---|
Intel x86-based | i386 | ||
AMD64 & Intel EM64T | amd64 | ||
DEC Alpha | alpha | ||
ARM and StrongARM | arm | Netwinder and CATS | netwinder |
Intel IOP32x | iop32x | ||
Intel IXP4xx | ixp4xx | ||
RiscPC | rpc | ||
HP PA-RISC | hppa | PA-RISC 1.1 | 32 |
PA-RISC 2.0 | 64 | ||
Intel IA-64 | ia64 | ||
MIPS (big endian) | mips | SGI IP22 (Indy/Indigo 2) | r4k-ip22 |
SGI IP32 (O2) | r5k-ip32 | ||
Broadcom BCM91250A (SWARM) | sb1-bcm91250a | ||
Broadcom BCM91480B (BigSur) | sb1a-bcm91480b | ||
MIPS (little endian) | mipsel | Cobalt | cobalt |
DECstation | r4k-kn04 | ||
r3k-kn02 | |||
Broadcom BCM91250A (SWARM) | sb1-bcm91250a | ||
Broadcom BCM91480B (BigSur) | sb1a-bcm91480b | ||
Motorola 680x0 | m68k | Atari | atari |
Amiga | amiga | ||
68k Macintosh | mac | ||
VME | bvme6000 | ||
mvme147 | |||
mvme16x | |||
IBM/Motorola PowerPC | powerpc | CHRP | chrp |
PowerMac | pmac | ||
PReP | prep | ||
Sun SPARC | sparc | sun4m | sparc32 |
sun4u | sparc64 | ||
sun4v | |||
IBM S/390 | s390 | IPL from VM-reader and DASD | generic |
IPL from tape | tape |
This document covers installation for the PA-RISC architecture. If you are looking for information on any of the other Debian-supported architectures take a look at the Debian-Ports pages.
There are two major support hppa flavors: PA-RISC 1.1 and PA-RISC 2.0. The PA-RISC 1.1 architecture is targeted at 32-bit processors whereas the 2.0 architecture is targeted to the 64-bit processors. Some systems are able to run either kernel. In both cases, the userland is 32-bit. There is the possibility of a 64-bit userland in the future.
Debian's support for graphical interfaces is determined by the underlying support found in X.Org's X11 system. Most AGP, PCI and PCIe video cards work under X.Org. Details on supported graphics buses, cards, monitors, and pointing devices can be found at http://xorg.freedesktop.org/. Debian 4.0 ships with X.Org version 7.1.
Multiprocessor support — also called “symmetric multiprocessing” or SMP — is available for this architecture. However, the standard Debian 4.0 kernel image does not support SMP. This should not prevent installation, since the standard, non-SMP kernel should boot on SMP systems; the kernel will simply use the first CPU.
In order to take advantage of multiple processors, you'll have to replace the standard Debian kernel. You can find a discussion of how to do this in Section 8.6, “Compiling a New Kernel”. At this time (kernel version 2.6.18) the way you enable SMP is to select “Symmetric multi-processing support” in the “Processor type and features” section of the kernel config.