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 Mips architecture systems which have been tested with Debian GNU/Linux.
Rather than attempting to describe all the different hardware configurations which are supported for Mips, this section contains general information and pointers to where additional information can be found.
Debian GNU/Linux 9 supports ten major architectures and several variations of each architecture known as “flavors”.
Architecture | Debian Designation | Subarchitecture | Flavor |
---|---|---|---|
Intel x86-based | i386 | ||
AMD64 & Intel 64 | amd64 | ||
ARM | armel | Marvell Kirkwood and Orion | marvell |
Versatile | versatile | ||
ARM with hardware FPU | armhf | multiplatform | armmp |
multiplatform for LPAE-capable systems | armmp-lpae | ||
64bit ARM | arm64 | ||
MIPS (big endian) | mips | MIPS Malta (32 bit) | 4kc-malta |
MIPS Malta (64 bit) | 5kc-malta | ||
Cavium Octeon | octeon | ||
MIPS (little endian) | mipsel | MIPS Malta (32 bit) | 4kc-malta |
MIPS Malta (64 bit) | 5kc-malta | ||
Cavium Octeon | octeon | ||
Loongson 3A | loongson-3 | ||
IBM/Motorola PowerPC | powerpc | ||
Power Systems | ppc64el | IBM POWER8 or newer machines | |
64bit IBM S/390 | s390x | IPL from VM-reader and DASD | generic |
This document covers installation for the Mips 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 Mips supports the following platforms:
SGI IP22: this platform includes the SGI machines Indy, Indigo 2 and Challenge S. Since these machines are very similar, whenever this document refers to the SGI Indy, the Indigo 2 and Challenge S are meant as well.
SGI IP32: this platform is generally known as SGI O2.
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/mips64el 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.
On SGI IP22, SGI Indy, Indigo 2 and Challenge S with R4000, R4400, R4600 and R5000 processors are supported by the Debian installation system on big endian MIPS. On SGI IP32, currently only systems based on the R5000 are supported.
Some MIPS machines can be operated in both big and little endian mode. For little endian MIPS, please read the documentation for the mipsel and mips64el architectures.
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 Section 8.6, “Compiling a New Kernel”. At this time (kernel version 3.16) the way you enable SMP is to select “Multi-Processing support” in the “Kernel type” section of the kernel config.
Debian's support for graphical interfaces is determined by the underlying support found in X.Org's X11 system, and the kernel. Basic framebuffer graphics is provided by the kernel, whilst desktop environments use X11. Whether advanced graphics card features such as 3D-hardware acceleration or hardware-accelerated video are available, depends on the actual graphics hardware used in the system and in some cases on the installation of additional “firmware” images (see Section 2.2, “Devices Requiring Firmware”).
Details on supported graphics hardware and pointing devices can be found at http://xorg.freedesktop.org/. Debian 9 ships with X.Org version 7.7.
The X.Org X Window System is only supported on the SGI Indy and the O2.
Almost any network interface card (NIC) supported by the Linux kernel should also be supported by the installation system; drivers should normally be loaded automatically.