Debian does not impose hardware requirements beyond the requirements of the Linux kernel and the GNU tool-sets. Therefore, any architecture or platform to which the Linux kernel, libc, gcc, etc. have been ported, and for which a Debian port exists, can run Debian. Please refer to the Ports pages at http://www.debian.org/ports/s390/ for more details on S/390 architecture systems which have been tested with Debian.
Rather than attempting to describe all the different hardware configurations which are supported for S/390, this section contains general information and pointers to where additional information can be found.
Debian 5.0 supports eleven major architectures and several variations of each architecture known as “flavors”.
| Architecture | Debian Designation | Subarchitecture | Flavor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intel x86-based | i386 | ||
| AMD64 & Intel EM64T | amd64 | ||
| DEC Alpha | alpha | ||
| ARM | arm | Netwinder and CATS | netwinder |
| armel | Versatile | versatile | |
| arm and armel | Intel IOP32x | iop32x | |
| Intel IXP4xx | ixp4xx | ||
| Marvell Orion | orion5x | ||
| HP PA-RISC | hppa | PA-RISC 1.1 | 32 |
| PA-RISC 2.0 | 64 | ||
| Intel IA-64 | ia64 | ||
| MIPS (big endian) | mips | SGI IP22 (Indy/Indigo 2) | r4k-ip22 |
| SGI IP32 (O2) | r5k-ip32 | ||
| MIPS Malta (32 bit) | 4kc-malta | ||
| MIPS Malta (64 bit) | 5kc-malta | ||
| Broadcom BCM91250A (SWARM) | sb1-bcm91250a | ||
| Broadcom BCM91480B (BigSur) | sb1a-bcm91480b | ||
| MIPS (little endian) | mipsel | Cobalt | cobalt |
| MIPS Malta (32 bit) | 4kc-malta | ||
| MIPS Malta (64 bit) | 5kc-malta | ||
| Broadcom BCM91250A (SWARM) | sb1-bcm91250a | ||
| Broadcom BCM91480B (BigSur) | sb1a-bcm91480b | ||
| IBM/Motorola PowerPC | powerpc | PowerMac | pmac |
| PReP | prep | ||
| Sun SPARC | sparc | sun4u | sparc64 |
| sun4v | |||
| IBM S/390 | s390 | IPL from VM-reader and DASD | generic |
| IPL from tape | tape |
This document covers installation for the S/390 architecture. If you are looking for information on any of the other Debian-supported architectures take a look at the Debian-Ports pages.
Complete information regarding supported S/390 and zSeries machines can be found in IBM's Redbook Linux for IBM eServer zSeries and S/390: Distributions in chapter 2.1 or at the zSeries page at the developerWorks. In short, G5, Multiprise 3000, G6 and all zSeries are fully supported; Multiprise 2000, G3 and G4 machines are supported with IEEE floating point emulation and thus degraded performance.
Multiprocessor support — also called “symmetric multiprocessing” or SMP — is available for this architecture. The standard Debian 5.0 kernel image has been compiled with SMP support. The standard kernel is also usable on non-SMP systems, but has a slight overhead which will cause a small reduction in performance. For normal system use this will hardly be noticable.
In order to optimize the kernel for single CPU systems, you'll have to replace the standard Debian kernel. You can find a discussion of how to do this in Section 8.6, “Compiling a New Kernel”. At this time (kernel version 2.6.26) the way you disable SMP is to deselect “Symmetric multi-processing support” in the “Processor type and features” section of the kernel config.
Almost any network interface card (NIC) supported by the Linux kernel should also be supported by the installation system; modular drivers should normally be loaded automatically.
The list of supported network devices is:
Channel to Channel (CTC) and ESCON connection (real or emulated)
OSA-2 Token Ring/Ethernet and OSA-Express Fast Ethernet (non-QDIO)
OSA-Express in QDIO mode, HiperSockets and Guest-LANs