This section contains information about what hardware you need to get started with Debian. You will also find links to further information about hardware supported by GNU and Linux.
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 3.0 supports eleven major architectures and several variations of each architecture known as 'flavors'.
Architecture | Debian Designation / Flavor
---------------------+----------------------------
Intel x86-based | i386
| - vanilla
| - idepci
| - compact
| - bf2.4 (experimental)
|
Motorola 680x0: | m68k
- Atari | - atari
- Amiga | - amiga
- 68k Macintosh | - mac
- VME | - bvme6000
| - mvme147
| - mvme16x
|
DEC Alpha | alpha
| - generic
| - jensen
| - nautilus
|
Sun SPARC | sparc
| - sun4cdm
| - sun4u
|
ARM and StrongARM | arm
| - netwinder
| - riscpc
| - shark
| - lart
|
IBM/Motorola PowerPC | powerpc
- CHRP | - chrp
- PowerMac | - powermac, new-powermac
- 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/I2 | - r4k-ip22
|
MIPS (little endian) | mipsel
- DEC Decstation | - r4k-kn04
| - r3k-kn02
|
IBM S/390 | s390
| - tape
| - vmrdr
|
---------------------+----------------------------
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.
This is the first official release of Debian GNU/Linux for the Mipsel
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
Mipsel platform. It can be necessary to use the debian-mipsel mailing
list as well.
Complete information regarding supported mips/mipsel machines can be found at
Linux MIPS
HOWTO. The purpose of this section is to describe the systems
supported by the boot disks.
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:
Debian
System Type CPU Code-name subarchitecture
=================================================================
DECstation 5000/1xx R3000 3MIN r3k-kn02
DECstation 5000/150 R4000 3MIN r4k-kn04
DECstation 5000/240 R3000 3MAX+ r3k-kn02
DECstation 5000/260 R4400 3MAX+ r4k-kn04
Linux/MIPS also works on the following DECstations, but this is not supported by the Debian installation system currently:
System Type CPU Code-name
================================================
DECstation 5000/200 R3000 3MAX
Personal DECstation 5000/xx R3000 Maxine
Personal DECstation 5000/50 R4000 Maxine
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"). 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 would like to have support for other subarchitectures, please contact
the debian-mips
mailing list.
If you have a Linux system to use as serial terminal, an easy way is to run cu
(part of the uucp package) 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).
Debian's support for graphical interfaces is determined by the underlying
support found in XFree86's X11 system. The newer AGP video slots are actually
a modification on the PCI specification, and most AGP video cards work under
XFree86. Details on supported graphics buses, cards, monitors, and pointing
devices can be found at http://www.xfree86.org/. Debian 3.0
ships with X11 revision 4.1.0.
CD-ROM based installation is supported for some architectures. On machines which support bootable CD-ROMs, you should be able to do a completely floppy-less installation. Even if your system doesn't support booting from a CD-ROM, you can use the CD-ROM in conjunction with the other techniques to install your system, once you've booted up by other means; see Booting from a CD-ROM, Section 5.2.
On DECstations, booting from CD-ROM requires a SCSI CD-ROM drive capable of working with a logical blocksize of 512 bytes. Many of the SCSI CD-DROM drives sold for the PC market do not have this capability. If your CD-ROM drive has a jumper labeled "Unix/PC" or "512/2048", place it in the "Unix" or "512" position.
CD 1 contains the installer for the r3k-kn02 subarchitecture (the R3000-based DECstations 5000/1xx and 5000/240), CD 2 the installer for the r4k-kn04 subarchitecture (the R4x00-based DECstations 5000/150 and 5000/260).
To boot from CD, issue the command boot #/rzid on the firmware prompt, where # is the number of the TurboChannel device from which to boot (3 on most DECstations) and id is the SCSI ID of the CD-ROM drive. If you need to pass additional parameters, they can optionally be appended with the following syntax:
boot #/rzid param1=value1 param2=value2 ...
Installation system booting from a hard disk is another option for many architectures.
You can also boot your system over the network. Diskless installation, using network booting from a local area network and NFS-mounting of all local filesystems, is another option — you'll probably need at least 16MB of RAM for a diskless installation. After the operating system kernel is installed, you can install the rest of your system via any sort of network connection (including PPP after installation of the base system), via FTP, HTTP, or NFS.
The Debian boot disks contain a kernel which is built to maximize the number of systems it runs on. Unfortunately, this makes for a larger kernel, which includes many drivers that won't be used for your machine (see Compiling a New Kernel, Section 9.5 to learn how to build your own kernel). Support for the widest possible range of devices is desirable in general, to ensure that Debian can be installed on the widest array of hardware.
You must have at least 12MB of memory and 110MB of hard disk space. For a minimal console-based system (all standard packages), 250MB is required. If you want to install a reasonable amount of software, including the X Window System, and some development programs and libraries, you'll need at least 400MB. For a more or less complete installation, you'll need around 800MB. To install everything available in Debian, you'll probably need around 2 GB. Actually, installing everything doesn't even make sense, since some packages conflict with others.
Due to kernel limitations only the onboard network interfaces on DECstations are supported, TurboChannel option network cards currently do not work.
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. This section contains information about peripherals specifically not supported by the installation system, even though they may be supported by Linux.
There are several vendors, who ship systems with Debian or other distributions of GNU/Linux pre-installed. You might pay more for the privilege, but it does buy a level of peace of mind, since you can be sure that the hardware is well-supported by GNU/Linux.
Whether or not you are purchasing a system with Linux bundled, or even a used system, it is still important to check that your hardware is supported by the Linux kernel. Check if your hardware is listed in the references found above. Let your salesperson (if any) know that you're shopping for a Linux system. Support Linux-friendly hardware vendors.
Some hardware manufacturers simply won't tell us how to write drivers for their hardware. Others won't allow us access to the documentation without a non-disclosure agreement that would prevent us from releasing the Linux source code.
Since we haven't been granted access to the documentation on these devices, they simply won't work under Linux. You can help by asking the manufacturers of such hardware to release the documentation. If enough people ask, they will realize that the free software community is an important market.
Installing Debian GNU/Linux 3.0 For Mipsel
version 3.0.23, 16 May, 2002