From e9fca06a726db8f2e010e396fff87754c4f0a8f8 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Steve McIntyre <93sam@debian.org>
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 2015 01:33:07 +0000
Subject: Multiple small tweaks to ARM support
* Clarify support for X-Gene
* flash-kernel knows how to deal with U-Boot for X-Gene
* Spelling fixes
* Minor wording fixes
---
en/hardware/supported/arm.xml | 127 ++++++++++++++++++++++--------------------
1 file changed, 67 insertions(+), 60 deletions(-)
(limited to 'en/hardware')
diff --git a/en/hardware/supported/arm.xml b/en/hardware/supported/arm.xml
index 9ea342df1..b7007b92d 100644
--- a/en/hardware/supported/arm.xml
+++ b/en/hardware/supported/arm.xml
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
-ARM systems are much more heterogenous than the i386/amd64-based PC
+ARM systems are much more heterogeneous 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.
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ 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
+multiplatform kernel, but for several older systems a separate
specific kernel is still required.
@@ -48,16 +48,18 @@ flavour name on 64-bit arm64).
-The ARM architecture has evolved over time and modern ARM processors provide
-features which are not available in older models. &debian; therefore
-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. &debian;/arm64 works on processors which implement at least the ARMv8 architecture (which is 64bit).
-
+The ARM architecture has evolved over time and modern ARM processors
+provide features which are not available in older models. &debian;
+therefore 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.
+&debian;/arm64 works on processors which implement at least the ARMv8
+architecture (which is 64bit).
-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.
-
+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.
Platforms supported by Debian/arm64
@@ -102,32 +104,35 @@ only little-endian systems.
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.
+ multiplatform support in the arm64 Linux kernel also 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 U-Boot) you will
+ probably also need some manual steps to make the system bootable.
-The following platforms are known to be supported by &debian;/arm64 in this release. There is only one kernel, which supports all platforms.
+The following platforms are known to be supported by
+&debian;/arm64 in this release. There is only one kernel, which
+supports all the listed platforms.
- Applied Micro (APM) Mustang/X-gene
+ Applied Micro (APM) Mustang/X-Gene
- 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.
-
+ 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 CPU, with ethernet,
+ USB, serial. A common form-factor looks just like a
+ desktop PC box, but many versions are expected. Most of
+ the hardware is supported in the mainline kernel, but USB
+ support is lacking in the &releasename-cap; kernel.
@@ -135,14 +140,14 @@ only little-endian systems.
ARM Juno Development Platform
-
-
+
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,
+ bring-up 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.
+ hardware is supported in the mainline kernel and in
+ &releasename-cap;.
@@ -150,10 +155,11 @@ only little-endian systems.
- When using &d-i; on non-UEFI systems, you will have to manually
+ When using &d-i; on non-UEFI systems, you may 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;.
+ &d-i;. flash-kernel knows how to set up an X-Gene system booting
+ with U-Boot.
@@ -181,7 +187,7 @@ only little-endian systems.
The Versatile Express is a development board series from ARM
consisting of a baseboard which can be equipped with various CPU
- daughterboards.
+ daughter boards.
@@ -242,7 +248,7 @@ only little-endian systems.
Using a local display is technically possible without native
display drivers via the simplefb
infrastructure
in the mainline kernel, which relies on the
- u-boot
bootloader for initializing the display
+ u-boot
bootloader for initialising the display
hardware, but this is not supported by the u-boot version in
&debian; 8.
@@ -299,9 +305,10 @@ only little-endian systems.
- When using &d-i; on such systems, you 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;.
+ When using &d-i; on such systems, you may 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;.
@@ -313,15 +320,14 @@ only little-endian systems.
EfikaMX
-The EfikaMX platform (Genesi Efika Smartbook and Genesi EfikaMX nettop) has
-been supported in &debian; 7 with a platform-specific kernel, but is not
-supported anymore from &debian; 8 onwards. The code required to build the
-formerly used platform-specific kernel has been removed from the
-upstream Linux kernel source in 2012, so Debian cannot provide newer
-builds.
-
-Using the armmp multiplatform kernel on the EfikaMX platform would require
-device-tree support for it, which is currently not available.
+The EfikaMX platform (Genesi Efika Smartbook and Genesi EfikaMX
+nettop) has been supported in &debian; 7 with a platform-specific
+kernel, but is no longer supported from &debian; 8 onwards. The code
+required to build the formerly used platform-specific kernel has been
+removed from the upstream Linux kernel source in 2012, so Debian
+cannot provide newer builds. Using the armmp
+multiplatform kernel on the EfikaMX platform would require device-tree
+support for it, which is currently not available.
@@ -416,10 +422,11 @@ test and run &debian; on ARM if you don't have the hardware.
Intel's I/O Processor (IOP) line is found in a number of products
related to data storage and processing, such as the GLAN Tank from IO-Data and the
-Thecus N2100. &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.
+Thecus N2100. &debian;
+has supported the IOP32x platform in &debian; 7, but does not support
+it any longer from version 8 on due to hardware constraints of the
+platform which make it unsuitable for the installation of newer
+&debian; releases.
@@ -431,7 +438,7 @@ which make it unsuitable for the installation of newer &debian; releases.
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.
+any more from Debian 8 onwards.
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