Debian does not impose hardware requirements beyond the requirements of the Linux or kFreeBSD kernel and the GNU tool-sets. Therefore, any architecture or platform to which the Linux or kFreeBSD 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/mips/ for more details on Mipsel architecture systems which have been tested with Debian GNU/Linux.
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 GNU/Linux 7.0 supports eleven major architectures and several variations of each architecture known as “flavors”.
Architecture | Debian Designation | Subarchitecture | Flavor |
---|---|---|---|
Intel x86-based | i386 | ||
AMD64 & Intel EM64T | amd64 | ||
ARM | armel | Intel IOP32x | iop32x |
Intel IXP4xx | ixp4xx | ||
Marvell Kirkwood | kirkwood | ||
Marvell Orion | orion5x | ||
Versatile | versatile | ||
ARM with hardware FPU | armhf | Freescale | mx5 |
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 | ||
MIPS (little endian) | mipsel | Cobalt | cobalt |
MIPS Malta (32 bit) | 4kc-malta | ||
MIPS Malta (64 bit) | 5kc-malta | ||
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 | ||
64bit IBM S/390 | s390x | IPL from VM-reader and DASD | generic |
IPL from tape | tape |
Debian GNU/kFreeBSD 7.0 supports two architectures.
Architecture | Debian Designation |
---|---|
Intel x86-based | kfreebsd-i386 |
AMD64 & Intel EM64T | kfreebsd-amd64 |
This document covers installation for the Mipsel architecture using the Linux kernel. 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 supports the following platforms:
Cobalt Microserver: only MIPS based Cobalt machines are covered here. This includes the Cobalt RaQ, Qube2 and RaQ2, and the Gateway Microserver.
MIPS Malta: this platform is emulated by QEMU and is therefore a nice way to test and run Debian on MIPS if you don't have the hardware.
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-mips mailing list.
All MIPS based Cobalt machines are supported with the exception of the Qube 2700 (Qube 1).
Debian's support for graphical interfaces is determined by the underlying support found in X.Org's X11 system. Most AGP, PCI, PCIe, and PCI-X 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 7.0 ships with X.Org version 7.6.
Almost any network interface card (NIC) supported by the Linux kernel should also be supported by the installation system; modular drivers should normally be loaded automatically.
Linux supports a large variety of hardware devices such as mice, printers, scanners, PCMCIA and USB devices. However, most of these devices are not required while installing the system.
The Cobalt RaQ has no support for additional devices but the Qube has one PCI slot.