Differences between revisions 9 and 10
Revision 9 as of 2011-06-14 09:54:10
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Comment: DigiKey is just the distributor.
Revision 10 as of 2011-08-08 10:18:44
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Comment: Add Nokia N900 andToshiba AC100 to "Others" as WIP
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 1. Nokia n800/n810 tablets (TI omap2) [[http://www.internettablettalk.com/wiki/index.php?title=Debian|install instructions]]  1. Nokia N800/N810 tablets (TI omap2) [[http://www.internettablettalk.com/wiki/index.php?title=Debian|install instructions]]
 1. Nokia N900 tablet / mobile phone: Work in Progress, see the [[pkg-n900|Nokia N900 Packaging Team]]
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 1. Toshiba AC100 Netbook: Work in Progress, see [[http://lists.debian.org/debian-arm/2011/07/msg00049.html|this thread on the Debian ARM mailing list]] and especially [[http://lists.debian.org/debian-arm/2011/07/msg00064.html|this mail with installation instructions]]

Debian ARM Port

Arm is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reduced_instruction_set_computing|RISC Architecture] originally created for the Acorn Archimedes and subsequent desktop machines. These days Arm targets low-powered embedded systems, such as phones and routers and PDAs and is the most popular CPU architecture on the planet. Systems capable of running Debian/Arm are cheap and easily available, but usually with limited ram and IO, which makes finding buildd-suitable machines hard.

ARM ABI variants

Debian ARM has traditionally been compiled to the 'old' arm-linux ABI and for the arm v3 instruction set, allowing it to run on machines as old as the Acorn Risc PC and Psion 5. This is designated by the suffix 'arm' in Debian packaging.

A new 'EABI' variant is being prepared which which will use the newer ABI. This is designated 'armel' in Debian packaging. From lenny onwards this will be the only supported variant.

Supported hardware

Debian/armel can be run on ARMv4t and any newer systems where a Linux kernel exists and enough memory (32MB+) and storage space (1GB+). The official Debian kernel only supports a tiny subset of the systems.

ixp4xx

ixp4xx is a low-end xscale based ARM network processor from Intel. It includes ethernet and usb on the same chip, allowing manufacturers to create cheap, if somewhat slow, network attached Linux systems.

  1. Linksys NSLU-2, nickname "slug", the most popular Debian/Arm device. install instructions

  2. Freecom FSG-3

There is a bunch of others ixp4xx platforms supported in Debian kernel, but their status and install instructions are unknown at the moment.

iop3xx

IOP 3xx series is a 400-600Mhz xscale based ARM core from intel. The IOP series of chips is a particularly interesting platform to run Debian since it has a focus on storage and therefore usually offers SATA and plenty of memory unlike most embedded systems.

  1. Thecus N2100 Install guide

  2. IO-Data glan tank Install guide

  3. Intel boards: EM7210 (SS4000E NAS), IQ31244, IQ80321, EP80219. support included in kernel, status unkown.

Other NAS devices based on intel IOP3xx chips exist, Such as Thecus N4100, but their kernel haven't been included in mainline (Linus's kernel) yet.

Marvell orion

Orion is a system on a 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. They make nice home servers that are fairly powerful, pretty quiet and don't consume too much electricity. Orion based devices are a great platform to run Debian and together with Debian they can be a very powerful environment.

  1. Qnap TS-109, TS-209, TS-409. Install instructions

  2. HP mv2120 Install instructions

  3. Buffalo Kurobox Linkstation pro/live
  4. D-link DNS323 (kernel only)

A bunch of other orion platforms are being included to mainline Linux soon

Others

These platforms are not supported officially (at least yet). However instructions and user communities exist.

  1. Sharp zaurus (pxa2xx)install instructions

  2. Openmoko Freerunner (samsung arm core)install instructions

  3. Nokia N800/N810 tablets (TI omap2) install instructions

  4. Nokia N900 tablet / mobile phone: Work in Progress, see the Nokia N900 Packaging Team

  5. Texas Instruments Beagleboard (TI omap3) install instructions

  6. Toshiba AC100 Netbook: Work in Progress, see this thread on the Debian ARM mailing list and especially this mail with installation instructions

Porting to new platforms

Unlike x86, each and every arm platform boots in a slightly different way. Thus, most of work of getting Debian running will involve dealing with bootloader and Kernel. Which is not really debian-specific work. After that, people can start working porting debian-installer for the system in question.