Installation Manual Patches #5: i386 supported architecture update
This mainly updates the information to reflect that real-i386 support
is gone. In addition I added a reassuring line for people who might
be intimidated by the bus information, and a couple of other similar
things. I think I got the important stuff up front so that it's not
too intimidating to newbies, while putting the interesting stuff in
footnotes.
I release all these changes to the public domain.
Um, this is en/hardware/supported/i386.xml. I've just noticed that
my 'svn diff's are not appending much directory information, hmmm.
Index: i386.xml
===================================================================
--- i386.xml (revision 39542)
+++ i386.xml (working copy)
@@ -14,11 +14,42 @@
<sect3><title>CPU</title>
<para>
-Nearly all x86-based processors are supported; this includes AMD and
-VIA (former Cyrix) processors as well. Also the new processors like
-Athlon XP and Intel P4 Xeon are supported. However, Linux will
-<emphasis>not</emphasis> run on 286 or earlier processors.
+Nearly all x86-based (IA-32) processors still in use in PCs
+are supported, including all varieties of Intel's "Pentium" series;
+this includes AMD and VIA (former Cyrix) processors as well,
+and the new processors like Athlon XP and Intel P4 Xeon.
+</para><para>
+
+However, Debian GNU/Linux will <emphasis>not</emphasis> run on 386 or
+earlier processors. Despite the architecture name "i386", Debian
+&release has <emphasis>dropped support</emphasis> for actual 80386
+processors (and their clones), which were supported by the previous
+release.
+
+ <footnote>
+We tried to avoid it, but this was necessary due a
+unfortunate series of issues with the compiler and the kernel, starting
+with an bug in the C++ ABI provided by GCC. You should still be able to
+run Debian GNU/Linux on actual 80386 processors if you compile your own
+kernel and compile all packages from source, but that is beyond the
+scope of this manual.
+ </footnote>
+
+(No version of Linux has ever supported the
+286 or earlier chips in the series.) All i486 and later processors are
+still supported.
+
+ <footnote>
+Many Debian packages will actually run slightly faster on modern computers
+as a positive side effect of dropping support for these old chips. The
+i486, introduced in 1989, has three opcodes (bswap, cmpxchg, and xadd)
+which the i386, introduced in 1986, did not have. These could not
+previously be easily used by most Debian packages; now they can.
+ </footnote>
+</para><para>
+
+
</para>
</sect3>
@@ -29,7 +60,7 @@
communicate with peripherals such as storage devices. Your computer
must use the ISA, EISA, PCI, the Microchannel Architecture (MCA, used
in IBM's PS/2 line), or VESA Local Bus (VLB, sometimes called the VL
-bus).
+bus). Essentially all PCs sold in recent years use one of these.
</para>
</sect3>
--
Nathanael Nerode <neroden@fastmail.fm>
A thousand reasons. http://www.thousandreasons.org/
Lies, theft, war, kidnapping, torture, rape, murder...
Get me out of this fascist nightmare!
Reply to: