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 for more details on &arch-title; architecture systems which have been tested with Debian. Rather than attempting to describe all the different hardware configurations which are supported for &arch-title;, this section contains general information and pointers to where additional information can be found. Debian &release; supports eleven major architectures and several variations of each architecture known as flavors. ArchitectureDebian Designation SubarchitectureFlavor Intel x86-based i386 AMD64 & Intel EM64T amd64 DEC Alpha alpha ARM arm Netwinder and CATS netwinder armel Versatile versatile arm and armel Intel IOP32x iop32x Intel IXP4xx ixp4xx Marvell Orion orion5x 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 MIPS Malta (32 bit) 4kc-malta MIPS Malta (64 bit) 5kc-malta Broadcom BCM91250A (SWARM) sb1-bcm91250a Broadcom BCM91480B (BigSur) sb1a-bcm91480b MIPS (little endian) mipsel Cobalt cobalt MIPS Malta (32 bit) 4kc-malta MIPS Malta (64 bit) 5kc-malta 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 PowerMac pmac PReP prep Sun SPARC sparc sun4u sparc64 sun4v IBM S/390 s390 IPL from VM-reader and DASD generic IPL from tape tape This document covers installation for the &arch-title; architecture. If you are looking for information on any of the other Debian-supported architectures take a look at the Debian-Ports pages. This is the first official release of &debian; for the &arch-title; architecture. We feel that it has proven itself sufficiently to be released. However, because it has not had the exposure (and hence testing by users) that some other architectures have had, you may encounter a few bugs. Use our Bug Tracking System to report any problems; make sure to mention the fact that the bug is on the &arch-title; platform. It can be necessary to use the debian-&arch-listname; mailing list as well. &supported-alpha.xml; &supported-amd64.xml; &supported-arm.xml; &supported-hppa.xml; &supported-i386.xml; &supported-ia64.xml; &supported-m68k.xml; &supported-mips.xml; &supported-mipsel.xml; &supported-powerpc.xml; &supported-s390.xml; &supported-sparc.xml; Laptops are also supported and nowadays most laptops work out of the box. In case a laptop contains specialized or proprietary hardware, some specific functions may not be supported. To see if your particular laptop works well with GNU/Linux, see for example the Linux Laptop pages. Multiprocessor support — also called symmetric multiprocessing or SMP — is available for this architecture. The standard Debian &release; kernel image has been compiled with SMP support. The standard kernel is also usable on non-SMP systems, but has a slight overhead which will cause a small reduction in performance. For normal system use this will hardly be noticable. In order to optimize the kernel for single CPU systems, you'll have to replace the standard Debian kernel. You can find a discussion of how to do this in . At this time (kernel version &kernelversion;) the way you disable SMP is to deselect &smp-config-option; in the &smp-config-section; section of the kernel config. Multiprocessor support — also called symmetric multiprocessing or SMP — is available for this architecture. The standard Debian &release; kernel image has been compiled with SMP-alternatives support. This means that the kernel will detect the number of processors (or processor cores) and will automatically deactivate SMP on uniprocessor systems. The 486 flavour of the Debian kernel image packages for &arch-title; is not compiled with SMP support. Multiprocessor support — also called symmetric multiprocessing or SMP — is available for this architecture. However, the standard Debian &release; 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 . At this time (kernel version &kernelversion;) the way you enable SMP is to select &smp-config-option; in the &smp-config-section; section of the kernel config. Multiprocessor support — also called symmetric multiprocessing or SMP — is available for this architecture, and is supported by a precompiled Debian kernel image. Depending on your install media, this SMP-capable kernel may or may not be installed by default. 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 should check to see if a kernel package that supports SMP is installed, and if not, choose an appropriate kernel package. You can also build your own customized kernel to support SMP. You can find a discussion of how to do this in . At this time (kernel version &kernelversion;) the way you enable SMP is to select &smp-config-option; in the &smp-config-section; section of the kernel config. You should be using a VGA-compatible display interface for the console terminal. Nearly every modern display card is compatible with VGA. Ancient standards such CGA, MDA, or HGA should also work, assuming you do not require X11 support. Note that X11 is not used during the installation process described in this document. 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 . Debian &release; ships with X.Org version &x11ver;. The X.Org X Window System is only supported on the SGI Indy and the O2. The Broadcom BCM91250A and BCM91480B evaluation boards have standard 3.3v PCI slots and support VGA emulation or Linux framebuffer on a selected range of graphics cards. A compatibility listing for Broadcom evaluation boards is available. The Broadcom BCM91250A and BCM91480B evaluation boards have standard 3.3v PCI slots and support VGA emulation or Linux framebuffer on a selected range of graphics cards. A compatibility listing for Broadcom evaluation boards is available. Most graphics options commonly found on Sparc-based machines are supported. X.org graphics drivers are available for sunbw2, suncg14, suncg3, suncg6, sunleo and suntcx framebuffers, Creator3D and Elite3D cards (sunffb driver), PGX24/PGX64 ATI-based video cards (ati driver), and PermediaII-based cards (glint driver). To use an Elite3D card with X.org you additionally need to install the afbinit package, and read the documentation included with it on how to activate the card. It is not uncommon for a Sparc machine to have two graphics cards in a default configuration. In such a case there is a possibility that the Linux kernel will not direct its output to the card initially used by the firmware. The lack of output on the graphical console may then be mistaken for a hang (usually the last message seen on console is 'Booting Linux...'). One possible solution is to physically remove one of the video cards; another option is to disable one of the cards using a kernel boot parameter. Also, if graphical output is not required or desired, serial console may be used as an alternative. On some systems use of serial console can be activated automatically by disconnecting the keyboard before booting the system. &network-cards.xml; &accessibility-hardware.xml; &supported-peripherals.xml; Besides the availability of a device driver, some hardware also requires so-called firmware or microcode to be loaded into the device before it can become operational. This is most common for network interface cards (especially wireless NICs), but for example some USB devices and even some hard disk controllers also require firmware. In most cases firmware is non-free according to the criteria used by the &debian; project and thus cannot be included in the main distribution or in the installation system. If the device driver itself is included in the distribution and if &debian; legally can distribute the firmware, it will often be available as a separate package from the non-free section of the archive. However, this does not mean that such hardware cannot be used during an installation. Starting with &debian; 5.0, &d-i; supports loading firmware files or packages containing firmware from a removable medium, such as a floppy disk or USB stick. See for detailed information on how to load firmware files or packages during the installation.