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debian-installer support for ARM



I'd like to start a discussion about the devices that should be
supported by debian-installer for ARM.  I'm aware that for many ARM
devices you won't use debian-installer but simply take some .debs and
unpack them, but there are a number of devices that benefit from
having an easy to use installer, and I'd like to find out which they
are.

At the moment, debian-installer has support for:
 - footbridge: Netwinder (well tested) and CATS (should work, cannot test
   due to lack of hw)
 - ixp4xx: NSLU2 (almost done, works well), Loft (work being started soon)
 - s3c2410: BAST (untested, probably has bit rot)
 - LART (completely untested, has no 2.6 kernel in Debian)

First I'd like to address LART and RiscPC.  At the moment, the 2.4
kernel packages in Debian provide an image for LART and there's some
(untested) code in debian-installer.  2.6 no longer builds an image
for LART.  I suggest simply dropping support for LART.  If there are
any people still interested in this platform, please say so now.

RiscPC is in a similar situation.  While it has 2.6 images, there's
only incomplete and completely untested debian-installer support.  I
just emailed the only two people I could find who expressed interest
in Debian on RiscPC over the last two years, and we'll see if they
want to help me get debian-installer working.  Is there anyone else
who uses Debian on RiscPC or Riscstation?

On the other hand, there are many new devices, in particular those
based on the ixp4xx and s3c2410 chips, which we don't support.  Is
there interest in a particular device?

As I see it at the moment, debian-installer in Etch (the next release
of Debian) will support Footbridge (Netwinder and CATS) and ixp4xx
(NSLU2 and Loft), and supply kernels for a few other platforms (riscpc
and s3c2410 at the moment).  If other targets should be supported,
please give a shout out now.  I'm happy to work with people to get
debian-installer support done.
-- 
Martin Michlmayr
http://www.cyrius.com/



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