2.1. 支持的硬件

Debian 不会超出 Linux 内核与 GNU 工具集所支持的硬件范围之外。因此,任何被移植了 Linux 内核、libc、gcc 等,并拥有对应的 Debian 移植版的硬件体系或平台都可以运行 Debian。请参考移植页面 http://www.debian.org/ports/arm/ 以了解更多已被 Debian GNU/Linux 测试过的 32-bit soft-float ARM 体系。

本章仅包含一些通用的信息,以及在何处可以获得更多信息的指导,而不是试图列出支持 32-bit soft-float ARM 的所有不同硬件配置。

2.1.1. 支持的体系

Debian GNU/Linux 9 supports ten major architectures and several variations of each architecture known as flavors.

体系 Debian 命名 子体系 Flavor
Intel x86-based i386    
AMD64 & Intel 64 amd64    
ARM armel Marvell Kirkwood and Orion marvell
Versatile versatile
带 FPU 的 ARM 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 来自 VM-reader 和 DASD 的 IPL generic

本文档主要讲述的是 32-bit soft-float ARM 体系下的安装。如果您在寻找其他 Debian 所支持的体系的信息,请访问 Debian-Ports 网页。

2.1.2. Three different ARM ports

The ARM architecture has evolved over time and modern ARM processors provide features which are not available in older models. Debian therefore provides three ARM ports to give the best support for a very wide range of different machines:

  • Debian/armel targets older 32-bit ARM processors without support for a hardware floating point unit (FPU),

  • Debian/armhf works only on newer 32-bit ARM processors which implement at least the ARMv7 architecture with version 3 of the ARM vector floating point specification (VFPv3). It makes use of the extended features and performance enhancements available on these models.

  • Debian/arm64 works on 64-bit ARM processors which implement at least the ARMv8 architecture.

Technically, all currently available ARM CPUs can be run in either endian mode (big or little), but in practice the vast majority use little-endian mode. All of Debian/arm64, Debian/armhf and Debian/armel support only little-endian systems.

2.1.3. Variations in ARM CPU designs and support complexity

ARM systems are much more heterogeneous than those based on the i386/amd64-based PC architecture, so the support situation can be much more complicated.

The ARM architecture is used mainly in so-called system-on-chip (SoC) designs. These SoCs are designed by many different companies with vastly varying hardware components even for the very basic functionality required to bring the system up. System firmware interfaces have been increasingly standardised over time, but especially on older hardware firmware/boot interfaces vary a great deal, so on these systems the Linux kernel has to take care of many system-specific low-level issues which would be handled by the mainboard's BIOS in the PC world.

At the beginning of the ARM support in the Linux kernel, the hardware variety resulted in the requirement of having a separate kernel for each ARM system in contrast to the one-fits-all kernel for PC systems. As this approach does not scale to a large number of different systems, work was done to allow booting with a single ARM kernel that can run on different ARM systems. Support for newer ARM systems is now implemented in a way that allows the use of such a multiplatform kernel, but for several older systems a separate specific kernel is still required. Because of this, the standard Debian distribution only supports installation on a selected number of such older ARM systems, alongside the newer systems which are supported by the ARM multiplatform kernels (called armmp) in Debian/armhf.

2.1.4. Platforms supported by Debian/armel

The following platforms are supported by Debian/armel; they require platform-specific kernels.

Kirkwood

Kirkwood is a system-on-chip (SoC) from Marvell that integrates an ARM CPU, Ethernet, SATA, USB, and other functionality in one chip. Debian currently supports the following Kirkwood based devices:

Orion5x

Orion is a system-on-chip (SoC) from Marvell that integrates an ARM CPU, Ethernet, SATA, USB, and other functionality in one chip. There are many Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices on the market that are based on an Orion chip. Debian currently supports the following Orion based devices: Buffalo Kurobox, HP mv2120 and QNAP TS-109, TS-209, TS-409 and TS-409U and variants.

Versatile

The Versatile platform is emulated by QEMU and is therefore a nice way to test and run Debian on ARM if you don't have real hardware.

2.1.5. Platforms and devices no longer supported by Debian/armel

IXP4xx

Support for the Intel IXP4xx platform has been dropped in Debian 9. The Linksys NSLU2 device is based on IXP4xx and is therefore no longer supported.

Orion5x

Support for the D-Link DNS-323 and Conceptronic CH3SNAS devices has been dropped from the Orion5x platform in Debian 9. The Linux kernel no longer fits into the flash on these devices. Other Orion devices, such as Buffalo Kurobox and HP mv2120, are still supported.

2.1.6. Graphics Hardware Support

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 第 2.2 节 “需要固件的设备”).

Nearly all ARM machines have the graphics hardware built-in, rather than being on a plug-in card. Some machines do have expansion slots which will take graphics cards, but that is a rarity. Hardware designed to be headless with no graphics at all is quite common. Whilst basic framebuffer video provided by the kernel should work on all devices that have graphics, fast 3D graphics invariably needs binary drivers to work. The situation is changing quickly but at the time of the stretch release free drivers for nouveau (Nvidia Tegra K1 SoC) and freedreno (Qualcomm Snapdragon SoCs) are available in the release. Other hardware needs non-free drivers from 3rd parties.

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.

2.1.7. 网络连接硬件

几乎所有被 Linux 内核支持的网卡 (NIC) 都被安装系统支持;驱动程序通常会自动加载。

32-bit soft-float ARM 上,支持大多数内置的以太网设备,并提供额外的 PCI 和 USB 设备模块。

2.1.8. 外围设备与其他硬件

Linux supports a large variety of hardware devices such as mice, printers, scanners, PCMCIA/CardBus/ExpressCard and USB devices. However, most of these devices are not required while installing the system.