Installation-Guide: Update the "Supported Hardware" section for arm64.

Patch by Wookey <wookey@wookware.org>,
https://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2015/04/msg00258.html
[Karsten Merker: some typo fixes]

1 files changed, 219 insertions, 135 deletions

diff --git a/en/hardware/supported/arm.xml b/en/hardware/supported/arm.xml
index baf0e32d8..0e896161d 100644
--- a/en/hardware/supported/arm.xml
+++ b/en/hardware/supported/arm.xml
@@ -6,184 +6,158 @@
 
 <para>
 
-ARM systems are a lot more heterogenous than the i386/amd64-based PC
-architecture, where all systems share a common system firmware (BIOS or/and
-UEFI) which handles the board-specific basic hardware initialization in a
-standardized way.
-
-The ARM architecture is used mainly in so-called <quote>systems-on-chip</quote> (SoCs). 
-These SoCs are designed by many different companies with vastly varying
-hardware components even for the very basic functionality required to bring
-the system up.  Systems using them usually lack a common system firmware
-interface and as a result, on ARM systems the Linux kernel has to take care
-of many system-specific low-level issues which are handled by the
-mainboard's BIOS in the PC world.
+ARM systems are much more heterogenous than the i386/amd64-based PC
+architecture, so whilst 64-bit ARM machines should boot in a
+standardised way, like PCs, the situation is more complicated for
+32-bit ARM machines.
 
 </para>
 
 <para>
+The ARM architecture is used mainly in so-called
+<quote>systems-on-chip</quote> (SoCs). These SoCs are designed by many
+different companies with vastly varying hardware components even for
+the very basic functionality required to bring the system up. System
+firmware interfaces have been increasingly standardised over time, but
+especially on older hardware firmware/boot interfaces vary a great
+deal, so on these systems the Linux kernel has to take care of many
+system-specific low-level issues which are handled by the mainboard's
+BIOS in the PC world.
 
-At the beginning of the ARM support in the Linux kernel, this resulted in
-the requirement of having a seperate kernel for each ARM system in contrast
-to the <quote>one-fits-all</quote> kernel for PC systems.  As this approach does not
-scale to a large number of different systems, work has started to be able to
-provide a single ARM kernel that can run on different ARM systems.  Support
-for newer ARM systems gets implemented in a way that allows the use of such
-a multiplatform kernel, but for several older systems a seperate specific
-kernel is still required.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+At the beginning of the ARM support in the Linux kernel, the hardware
+variety resulted in the requirement of having a separate kernel for
+each ARM system in contrast to the <quote>one-fits-all</quote> kernel
+for PC systems.  As this approach does not scale to a large number of
+different systems, work was done to allow booting with a single ARM
+kernel that can run on different ARM systems.  Support for newer ARM
+systems gets implemented in a way that allows the use of such a
+multiplatform kernel, but for several older systems a seperate
+specific kernel is still required.
+</para>
 
+<para>
 Because of this, the standard &debian; distribution only supports
-installation on a selected number of older ARM systems in addition to the
-newer systems which are supported by the ARM multiplatform (armmp) kernel. 
+installation on a selected number of older 32-bit ARM systems in
+addition to the newer (32 and 64-bit) systems which are supported by
+the ARM multiplatform kernels (called 'armmp' on 32-bit armhf, no
+flavour name on 64-bit arm64).
 
 </para>
 
 <para>
-
 The ARM architecture has evolved over time and modern ARM processors provide
 features which are not available in older models.  &debian; therefore
-provides two ARM ports, the &debian;/armel and the &debian;/armhf port. 
+provides three ARM ports: the &debian;/arm64 port for all 64-bit machines, and the &debian;/armel and the &debian;/armhf ports for 32-bit machines. 
 &debian;/armel targets older ARM processors without support for a hardware
 floating point unit (FPU), while &debian;/armhf works only on newer ARM
 processors which implement at least the ARMv7 architecture with version 3 of
 the ARM vector floating point specification (VFPv3).  &debian;/armhf makes
 use of the extended features and performance enhancements available on
-these models.
+these models.  &debian;/arm64 works on processors which implement at least the ARMv8 architecture (which is 64bit).
 
 </para>
 
 <!--
 <para>
 
-While it is technically possible to run the &debian;/armel userland programs
-on modern ARM processors, they cannot make use of several
-performance-enhancing features of the newer processors, so if your hardware
-fulfills the requirements of running the &debian;/armhf port, you should use
-it instead of the &debian;/armel port.  Mixing of armel and armhf packages
-on the same system is not possible, so you have to decide which port to use
-before installing the system.
+While it is technically possible to run the &debian;/armel userland
+programs on modern (ARMv7) ARM processors, they cannot make use of
+several performance-enhancing features of the newer processors, so if
+your hardware fulfills the requirements of running the &debian;/armhf
+port, you should use it instead of the &debian;/armel port.  Mixing of
+armel and armhf packages on the same system is possible (using
+multiarch), but is not normally recommended, so you need to decide
+which port to use before installing the system. Similarly both the
+32-bit ports (&debian;/armel and &debian;/armhf) will run on 64-bit
+ARMv8 hardware but will treat them as 32-bit machines, limiting
+maximum memory size and various newer hardware features, so you will
+normally want to install &debian;/arm64 on 64-bit capable
+hardware. The situation is a bit like that with i386/amd64 PCs, but
+unlike x86 world, it is rarely sensible to install a 32-bit
+userland on a 64-bit machine for ARM.
 
 </para>
 -->
 
 <para>
-Technically, several ARM CPUs can be run in either endian mode (big or little),
-but in practice the vast majority of currently available systems
-uses little-endian mode. Both &debian;/armhf and &debian;/armel support
+Technically, all currently available ARM CPUs can be run in either endian mode (big or little),
+but in practice the vast majority use little-endian mode. All of &debian;/arm64, &debian;/armhf and &debian;/armel support
 only little-endian systems.
 
 </para>
 
-<sect3 arch="arm"><title>Platforms supported by Debian/armel</title>
-
-<para>
-
-The following platforms are supported by &debian;/armel; they require
-platform-specific kernels.
-
-<variablelist>
-
-<varlistentry>
-<term>IXP4xx</term>
-<listitem><para>   
-
-The Intel IXP4xx processor series is used in network attached storage
-devices like the Linksys NSLU2.
-
-</para><para>
-
-While there is kernel support for this platform in &debian; 8, it is not
-supported by the &d-i;.  It is possible to do a <quote>dist-upgrade</quote>
-from Debian 7 to Debian 8 for existing installations, though.  Due to the
-low amount of RAM that systems based on the IXP4xx usually have, this
-requires that swap space is enabled prior to upgrading. Support for the
-IXP4xx platform will be dropped completely in &debian; 9.
-
-</para></listitem>
-</varlistentry>   
-
-<varlistentry>
-<term>Kirkwood</term>
-<listitem><para>
-
-Kirkwood is a system on a chip (SoC) from Marvell that integrates an ARM
-CPU, Ethernet, SATA, USB, and other functionality in one chip.  We
-currently support the following Kirkwood based devices: OpenRD
-(OpenRD-Base, OpenRD-Client and OpenRD-Ultimate), <ulink
-url="&url-arm-cyrius-sheevaplug;">plug computers (SheevaPlug, GuruPlug and
-DreamPlug)</ulink>, <ulink url="&url-arm-cyrius-qnap-kirkwood;">QNAP
-Turbo Station</ulink> (all TS-11x, TS-21x and TS-41x models), and LaCie
-NASes (Network Space v2, Network Space Max v2, Internet Space v2, d2
-Network v2, 2Big Network v2 and 5Big Network v2).
-
-</para></listitem>
-</varlistentry>
+<sect3 arch="arm"><title>Platforms supported by Debian/arm64</title>
 
-<varlistentry>
-<term>Orion5x</term>
-<listitem><para>
-
-Orion is a system on a chip (SoC) from Marvell that integrates an ARM CPU,
-Ethernet, SATA, USB, and other functionality in one chip. There are many
-Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices on the market that are based on an
-Orion chip. We currently support the following Orion based devices: <ulink
-url="&url-arm-cyrius-kuroboxpro;">Buffalo Kurobox</ulink>, <ulink
-url="&url-arm-cyrius-dns323;">D-Link DNS-323</ulink> and <ulink
-url="&url-arm-cyrius-mv2120;">HP mv2120</ulink>.
-
-</para></listitem>
-</varlistentry>
-
-<varlistentry>
-<term>Versatile</term>
-<listitem><para>
-
-The Versatile platform is emulated by QEMU and is therefore a nice way to
-test and run &debian; on ARM if you don't have the hardware.
+  <para>
+    Arm64/AArch64/ARMv8 hardware became available quite late in the
+    &debian; &releasename-cap; release cycle so not many platforms have had
+    support merged in the mainline kernel version in this release,
+    which is the main requirement to have &d-i; working on
+    them.
 
-</para></listitem>
-</varlistentry>
+  </para>
 
-</variablelist>
+  <para>
+    The tested platforms are listed below, but in general, the
+    multiplatform support in the arm64 Linux kernel allows running
+    &d-i; on arm64 systems not explicitly listed below, so long as the
+    kernel used by &d-i; has support for the target system's
+    components and a device-tree file for the target is available.  In
+    these cases, the installer can usually provide a working userland
+    installation, and so long as UEFI is in use, it should be able to
+    make the system bootable as well. If UEFI is not used (some 64-bit
+    machines have been shipped with uboot) it will not be able to make
+    the system bootable.
+    
+  </para>
 
+<para>The following platforms are known to be supported by &debian;/arm64 in this release. There is only one kernel, which supports all platforms.
 </para>
-</sect3>
-
-<sect3 arch="arm"><title>Platforms no longer supported by Debian/armel</title>
 
-<variablelist>
-<varlistentry>
-<term>IOP32x</term>
-<listitem><para>
-
-Intel's I/O Processor (IOP) line is found in a number of products
-related to data storage and processing, such as the <ulink
-url="&url-arm-cyrius-glantank;">GLAN Tank</ulink> from IO-Data and the
-<ulink url="&url-arm-cyrius-n2100;">Thecus N2100</ulink>.  &debian; has
-supported the IOP32x platform in &debian; 7, but does not support
-it anymore from version 8 on due to hardware constraints of the platform
-which make it unsuitable for the installation of newer &debian; releases.
-
-</para></listitem>
-</varlistentry>
-
-<varlistentry>
-<term>MV78xx0</term>
-<listitem><para>
-
-The MV78xx0 platform has been used on the Marvell DB-78xx0-BP
-development board.  It was supported in Debian 7 with a platform-specific
-kernel (based on the Linux kernel version 3.2), but is not supported
-anymore from Debian 8 onwards.
-
-</para></listitem>
-</varlistentry>
+  <variablelist>
+      <varlistentry>
+        <term>Applied Micro (APM) Mustang/X-gene</term>
+        <listitem>
+          <para>
+	    The APM Mustang was the first linux-capable ARMv8 system
+	    available. It uses the X-gene soc, since also used in
+	    other machines, which is an 8-core 16GB device, with
+	    ethernet, USB, serial. The form-factor is a desktop PC
+	    box. All the hardware is supported in the mainline kernel.
+	    
+          </para>
+        </listitem>
+      </varlistentry>
 
-</variablelist>
+      <varlistentry>
+        <term>ARM Juno Development Platform</term>
+        <listitem>
+          <para>
+	    
+	    Juno is a capable development board with a 6-core (2xA57,
+	    4xA53) ARMv8-A 800Mhz CPU, Mali (T624) graphics, 8GB DDR3
+	    RAM, Ethernet, USB, Serial. It was designed for system
+	    bringup and power testing so is neither small nor cheap,
+	    but was one of the first boards available. All the
+	    hardware is supported in the mainline kernel.
+          </para>
+        </listitem>
+      </varlistentry>
 
+  </variablelist>
 
+  <para>
+    When using &d-i; on non-UEFI systems, you will have to manually
+    make the system bootable at the end of the installation, e.g. by
+    running the required commands in a shell started from within
+    &d-i;.
+  </para>
 </sect3>
 
+
 <sect3 arch="arm" id="armhf-armmp-supported-platforms"><title>Platforms supported by Debian/armhf</title>
 
   <para>
@@ -332,7 +306,6 @@ anymore from Debian 8 onwards.
 
 </sect3>
 
-
 <sect3 arch="arm"><title>Platforms no longer supported by Debian/armhf</title>
 
 <variablelist>
@@ -358,5 +331,116 @@ device-tree support for it, which is currently not available.
 </sect3>
 
 
+<sect3 arch="arm"><title>Platforms supported by Debian/armel</title>
+
+<para>
+
+The following platforms are supported by &debian;/armel; they require
+platform-specific kernels.
+
+<variablelist>
+
+<varlistentry>
+<term>IXP4xx</term>
+<listitem><para>   
+
+The Intel IXP4xx processor series is used in network attached storage
+devices like the Linksys NSLU2.
+
+</para><para>
+
+While there is kernel support for this platform in &debian; 8, it is not
+supported by the &d-i;.  It is possible to do a <quote>dist-upgrade</quote>
+from Debian 7 to Debian 8 for existing installations, though.  Due to the
+low amount of RAM that systems based on the IXP4xx usually have, this
+requires that swap space is enabled prior to upgrading. Support for the
+IXP4xx platform will be dropped completely in &debian; 9.
+
+</para></listitem>
+</varlistentry>   
+
+<varlistentry>
+<term>Kirkwood</term>
+<listitem><para>
+
+Kirkwood is a system on a chip (SoC) from Marvell that integrates an ARM
+CPU, Ethernet, SATA, USB, and other functionality in one chip.  We
+currently support the following Kirkwood based devices: OpenRD
+(OpenRD-Base, OpenRD-Client and OpenRD-Ultimate), <ulink
+url="&url-arm-cyrius-sheevaplug;">plug computers (SheevaPlug, GuruPlug and
+DreamPlug)</ulink>, <ulink url="&url-arm-cyrius-qnap-kirkwood;">QNAP
+Turbo Station</ulink> (all TS-11x, TS-21x and TS-41x models), and LaCie
+NASes (Network Space v2, Network Space Max v2, Internet Space v2, d2
+Network v2, 2Big Network v2 and 5Big Network v2).
+
+</para></listitem>
+</varlistentry>
+
+<varlistentry>
+<term>Orion5x</term>
+<listitem><para>
+
+Orion is a system on a chip (SoC) from Marvell that integrates an ARM CPU,
+Ethernet, SATA, USB, and other functionality in one chip. There are many
+Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices on the market that are based on an
+Orion chip. We currently support the following Orion based devices: <ulink
+url="&url-arm-cyrius-kuroboxpro;">Buffalo Kurobox</ulink>, <ulink
+url="&url-arm-cyrius-dns323;">D-Link DNS-323</ulink> and <ulink
+url="&url-arm-cyrius-mv2120;">HP mv2120</ulink>.
+
+</para></listitem>
+</varlistentry>
+
+<varlistentry>
+<term>Versatile</term>
+<listitem><para>
+
+The Versatile platform is emulated by QEMU and is therefore a nice way to
+test and run &debian; on ARM if you don't have the hardware.
+
+</para></listitem>
+</varlistentry>
+
+</variablelist>
+
+</para>
+</sect3>
+
+<sect3 arch="arm"><title>Platforms no longer supported by Debian/armel</title>
+
+<variablelist>
+<varlistentry>
+<term>IOP32x</term>
+<listitem><para>
+
+Intel's I/O Processor (IOP) line is found in a number of products
+related to data storage and processing, such as the <ulink
+url="&url-arm-cyrius-glantank;">GLAN Tank</ulink> from IO-Data and the
+<ulink url="&url-arm-cyrius-n2100;">Thecus N2100</ulink>.  &debian; has
+supported the IOP32x platform in &debian; 7, but does not support
+it anymore from version 8 on due to hardware constraints of the platform
+which make it unsuitable for the installation of newer &debian; releases.
+
+</para></listitem>
+</varlistentry>
+
+<varlistentry>
+<term>MV78xx0</term>
+<listitem><para>
+
+The MV78xx0 platform has been used on the Marvell DB-78xx0-BP
+development board.  It was supported in Debian 7 with a platform-specific
+kernel (based on the Linux kernel version 3.2), but is not supported
+anymore from Debian 8 onwards.
+
+</para></listitem>
+</varlistentry>
+
+</variablelist>
+
+
+</sect3>
+
+
 
   </sect2>