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/mipsel/ for more details on Mipsel architecture systems which have been tested with Debian.
Rather than attempting to describe all the different hardware configurations which are supported for Mipsel, this section contains general information and pointers to where additional information can be found.
Debian 3.1 supports eleven major architectures and several variations of each architecture known as “flavors”.
| Architecture | Debian Designation | Subarchitecture | Flavor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intel x86-based | i386 | vanilla | |
| speakup | |||
| linux26 | |||
| Motorola 680x0 | m68k | Atari | atari |
| Amiga | amiga | ||
| 68k Macintosh | mac | ||
| VME | bvme6000 | ||
| mvme147 | |||
| mvme16x | |||
| DEC Alpha | alpha | ||
| Sun SPARC | sparc | sun4cdm | |
| sun4u | |||
| ARM and StrongARM | arm | netwinder | |
| riscpc | |||
| shark | |||
| lart | |||
| IBM/Motorola PowerPC | powerpc | CHRP | chrp |
| PowerMac | pmac | ||
| PReP | prep | ||
| APUS | apus | ||
| HP PA-RISC | hppa | PA-RISC 1.1 | 32 |
| PA-RISC 2.0 | 64 | ||
| Intel ia64-based | ia64 | ||
| MIPS (big endian) | mips | SGI Indy/Indigo 2 | r4k-ip22 |
| r5k-ip22 | |||
| Broadcom BCM91250A (SWARM) | sb1-swarm-bn | ||
| MIPS (little endian) | mipsel | Cobalt | cobalt |
| DECstation | r4k-kn04 | ||
| r3k-kn02 | |||
| Broadcom BCM91250A (SWARM) | sb1-swarm-bn | ||
| IBM S/390 | s390 | IPL from VM-reader and DASD | generic |
| IPL from tape | tape |
This document covers installation for the Mipsel architecture. If you are looking for information on any of the other Debian-supported architectures take a look at the Debian-Ports pages.
Debian on Mipsel currently supports three subarchitectures:
DECstation: various models of the DECstation are supported.
Cobalt Microserver: only MIPS based Cobalt machines are covered here. This included the Cobalt Qube, RaQ, Qube2 and RaQ2, and the Gateway Microserver.
Broadcom BCM91250A (SWARM): this is an ATX form factor evaluation board from Broadcom based on their SiByte processor family.
Complete information regarding supported mips/mipsel machines can be found at the Linux-MIPS homepage. In the following, only the systems supported by the Debian installer will be covered. If you are looking for support for other subarchitectures, please contact the debian-mipsel mailing list.
Currently only DECstations with R3000 and R4000/R4400 CPUs are supported by the Debian installation system on little endian MIPS. The Debian installation system works on the following machines:
| System Type | CPU | Code-name | Debian subarchitecture |
|---|---|---|---|
| DECstation 5000/1xx | R3000 | 3MIN | r3k-kn02 |
| DECstation 5000/150 | R4000 | 3MIN | r4k-kn04 |
| DECstation 5000/200 | R3000 | 3MAX | r3k-kn02 |
| DECstation 5000/240 | R3000 | 3MAX+ | r3k-kn02 |
| DECstation 5000/260 | R4400 | 3MAX+ | r4k-kn04 |
| Personal DECstation 5000/xx | R3000 | Maxine | r3k-kn02 |
| Personal DECstation 5000/50 | R4000 | Maxine | r4k-kn04 |
All Cobalt machines are supported which have a serial console (which is needed for the installation).
The Broadcom BCM91250A evaluation board comes with an SB1250 chip with two SB-1 cores which are supported in SMP mode by this installer.
Serial console is available on all supported DECstations (9600 bps,
8N1). For using serial console, you have to boot the installer image
with the console=ttySx kernel
parameter (with x being the number
of the serial port you have your terminal connected to — usually
2, but 0 for the Personal DECstations).
On 3MIN and 3MAX+ (DECstation 5000/1xx, 5000/240 and 5000/260) local console
is available with the PMAG-BA and the PMAGB-B graphics options.
If you have a Linux system to use as serial terminal, an easy way is to run cu[2] on it. Example:
$ cu -l /dev/ttyS1 -s 9600
where the option -l (line) sets the serial port to use
and -s (speed) sets the speed for the connection (9600
bits per second).
Both Cobalt and Broadcom BCM91250A use 115200 bps.
Debian's support for graphical interfaces is determined by the underlying support found in XFree86's X11 system. Most AGP, PCI and PCIe video cards work under XFree86. Details on supported graphics buses, cards, monitors, and pointing devices can be found at http://www.xfree86.org/. Debian 3.1 ships with XFree86 version 4.3.0.
The XFree86 X11 window system is supported on some DECstation models. The Broadcom BCM91250A evaluation board has standard 3.3v PCI slots and supports VGA emulation or Linux framebuffer on a selected range of graphics cards. A compatibility listing for the BCM91250A is available.
[2]
In Woody this command was part of the uucp package,
but in later releases it is available as a separate package.