Re: Support CPUs/boards?
+++ Tim Nelson [2010-04-21 15:34 -0500]:
> Greetings- Is there a list or compatibility matrix somewhere that
> shows which ARM CPUs/boards are compatible with the Debian ARM
> port? I'm diving into the world of embedded development on the
> ARM and would like to know which board/CPU I should seek out. Thanks!
Almost anything is 'compatible' in the sense that the debian armel
port will run on it (anything armv4t or later). A relatively small
number of boards have Debian kernels built for them -generally the
more widely-available-to-consumers ones. I'm not aware of a good
'which devices do we suply kernels for' list. There doesn't seem to be
one in the release notes. This may be the best one:
http://www.debian.org/ports/armel/ (note that footbridge is supported
in the old 'arm' port (v3 or later), but not in armel because they are
v4 CPUs). iop32, ixp4xx and orion5x, versatile (ARM.com dev boards)
are all supported in armel. Kirkwood (sheevaplug) has been added in
squeeze.
I guess this is definitive:
http://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=linux-image&searchon=names&suite=stable§ion=all&arch=armel
but that doesn't tell you which boards those kernels correspond to.
It's pretty easy to make a kernel for any mainline-supported board and
then stick Debian on top (assuming it has sufficient storage). Limited
installer support for MTD makes it harder for machines that only have
flash.
I use Debian and Emdebian on balloonboard which isn't in mainline
much, and uses a rootfs not in mainline, but apart from some fiddling
to get the rootfs onto the device, using bog-standard Debian on it
works just fine.
So it depends how much fiddling you consider acceptable what could
reasonably be described as 'compatible'.
Wookey
--
Principal hats: iEndian - Balloonboard - Toby Churchill - Emdebian
http://wookware.org/
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