218
230
&supported-s390.xml;
219
231
&supported-sparc.xml;
233
<sect2 arch="x86" id="laptops"><title>Laptops</title>
236
Laptops are also supported and nowadays most laptops work out of the box.
237
In case a laptop contains specialized or proprietary hardware, some specific
238
functions may not be supported. To see if your particular laptop works well
239
with GNU/Linux, see for example the
240
<ulink url="&url-x86-laptop;">Linux Laptop pages</ulink>.
245
<sect2 condition="defaults-smp">
246
<title>Multiple Processors</title>
249
Multiprocessor support — also called <quote>symmetric multiprocessing</quote>
250
or SMP — is available for this architecture. The standard Debian
251
&release; kernel image has been compiled with SMP support. The standard
252
kernel is also usable on non-SMP systems, but has a slight overhead which
253
will cause a small reduction in performance. For normal system use this
254
will hardly be noticable.
258
In order to optimize the kernel for single CPU systems, you'll have to
259
replace the standard Debian kernel. You can find a discussion of how
260
to do this in <xref linkend="kernel-baking"/>. At this time
261
(kernel version &kernelversion;) the way you disable SMP is to deselect
262
<quote>&smp-config-option;</quote> in the <quote>&smp-config-section;</quote>
263
section of the kernel config.
268
<sect2 condition="smp-alternatives">
269
<title>Multiple Processors</title>
273
Multiprocessor support — also called <quote>symmetric
274
multiprocessing</quote> or SMP — is available for this architecture.
275
The standard Debian &release; kernel image has been compiled with
276
<firstterm>SMP-alternatives</firstterm> support. This means that the kernel
277
will detect the number of processors (or processor cores) and will
278
automatically deactivate SMP on uniprocessor systems.
280
</para><para arch="i386">
282
The 486 flavour of the Debian kernel image packages for &arch-title;
283
is not compiled with SMP support.
288
<sect2 condition="supports-smp">
289
<title>Multiple Processors</title>
292
Multiprocessor support — also called <quote>symmetric
293
multiprocessing</quote> or SMP — is available for this architecture.
294
However, the standard Debian &release; kernel image does not support
295
SMP. This should not prevent installation, since the standard,
296
non-SMP kernel should boot on SMP systems; the kernel will simply use
301
In order to take advantage of multiple processors, you'll have to
302
replace the standard Debian kernel. You can find a discussion of how
303
to do this in <xref linkend="kernel-baking"/>. At this time
304
(kernel version &kernelversion;) the way you enable SMP is to select
305
<quote>&smp-config-option;</quote> in the <quote>&smp-config-section;</quote>
306
section of the kernel config.
311
<sect2 condition="supports-smp-sometimes">
312
<title>Multiple Processors</title>
315
Multiprocessor support — also called <quote>symmetric
316
multiprocessing</quote> or SMP — is available for this architecture,
317
and is supported by a precompiled Debian kernel image. Depending on your
318
install media, this SMP-capable kernel may or may not be installed by
319
default. This should not prevent installation, since the standard,
320
non-SMP kernel should boot on SMP systems; the kernel will simply use
325
In order to take advantage of multiple processors, you should check to see
326
if a kernel package that supports SMP is installed, and if not, choose an
327
appropriate kernel package.
331
You can also build your own customized kernel to support SMP. You can find
332
a discussion of how to do this in <xref linkend="kernel-baking"/>. At this
333
time (kernel version &kernelversion;) the way you enable SMP is to select
334
<quote>&smp-config-option;</quote> in the <quote>&smp-config-section;</quote>
335
section of the kernel config.
221
340
<sect2 id="gfx" arch="not-s390"><title>Graphics Card Support</title>
222
341
<para arch="x86">
283
<sect2 arch="x86" id="laptops"><title>Laptops</title>
286
Laptops are also supported. Laptops are often specialized or contain
287
proprietary hardware. To see if your particular laptop works well
288
with GNU/Linux, see the
289
<ulink url="&url-x86-laptop;">Linux Laptop pages</ulink>
294
<sect2 condition="defaults-smp">
295
<title>Multiple Processors</title>
298
Multiprocessor support — also called <quote>symmetric multiprocessing</quote>
299
or SMP — is available for this architecture. The standard Debian
300
&release; kernel image was compiled with SMP support. This should not
301
prevent installation, since the SMP kernel should boot on non-SMP systems;
302
the kernel will simply cause a bit more overhead.
306
In order to optimize the kernel for single CPU systems, you'll have to
307
replace the standard Debian kernel. You can find a discussion of how
308
to do this in <xref linkend="kernel-baking"/>. At this time
309
(kernel version &kernelversion;) the way you disable SMP is to deselect
310
<quote>&smp-config-option;</quote> in the <quote>&smp-config-section;</quote>
311
section of the kernel config.
316
<sect2 condition="smp-alternatives">
317
<title>Multiple Processors</title>
321
Multiprocessor support — also called <quote>symmetric
322
multiprocessing</quote> or SMP — is available for this architecture.
323
The standard Debian &release; kernel image was compiled with
324
<firstterm>SMP-alternatives</firstterm> support. This means that the kernel
325
will detect the number of processors (or processor cores) and will
326
automatically deactivate SMP on uniprocessor systems.
328
</para><para arch="i386">
330
The 486 flavour of the Debian kernel image packages for &arch-title;
331
is not compiled with SMP support.
336
<sect2 condition="supports-smp">
337
<title>Multiple Processors</title>
340
Multiprocessor support — also called <quote>symmetric
341
multiprocessing</quote> or SMP — is available for this architecture.
342
However, the standard Debian &release; kernel image does not support
343
SMP. This should not prevent installation, since the standard,
344
non-SMP kernel should boot on SMP systems; the kernel will simply use
349
In order to take advantage of multiple processors, you'll have to
350
replace the standard Debian kernel. You can find a discussion of how
351
to do this in <xref linkend="kernel-baking"/>. At this time
352
(kernel version &kernelversion;) the way you enable SMP is to select
353
<quote>&smp-config-option;</quote> in the <quote>&smp-config-section;</quote>
354
section of the kernel config.
359
<sect2 condition="supports-smp-sometimes">
360
<title>Multiple Processors</title>
363
Multiprocessor support — also called <quote>symmetric
364
multiprocessing</quote> or SMP — is available for this architecture,
365
and is supported by a precompiled Debian kernel image. Depending on your
366
install media, this SMP-capable kernel may or may not be installed by
367
default. This should not prevent installation, since the standard,
368
non-SMP kernel should boot on SMP systems; the kernel will simply use
373
In order to take advantage of multiple processors, you should check to see
374
if a kernel package that supports SMP is installed, and if not, choose an
375
appropriate kernel package.
379
You can also build your own customized kernel to support SMP. You can find
380
a discussion of how to do this in <xref linkend="kernel-baking"/>. At this
381
time (kernel version &kernelversion;) the way you enable SMP is to select
382
<quote>&smp-config-option;</quote> in the <quote>&smp-config-section;</quote>
383
section of the kernel config.
402
&supported-peripherals.xml;
406
<sect1 arch="not-s390" id="hardware-firmware">
407
<title>Devices Requiring Firmware</title>
410
Besides the availability of a device driver, some hardware also requires
411
so-called <firstterm>firmware</firstterm> or <firstterm>microcode</firstterm>
412
to be loaded into the device before it can become operational. This is most
413
common for network interface cards (especially wireless NICs), but for example
414
some USB devices and even some hard disk controllers also require firmware.
418
In most cases firmware is non-free according to the criteria used by the
419
&debian; project and thus cannot be included in the main distribution
420
or in the installation system. If the device driver itself is included in
421
the distribution and if &debian; legally can distribute the firmware,
422
it will often be available as a separate package from the non-free section
427
However, this does not mean that such hardware cannot be used during an
428
installation. Starting with &debian; 5.0, &d-i; supports loading
429
firmware files or packages containing firmware from a removable medium,
430
such as a floppy disk or USB stick.
431
See <xref linkend="loading-firmware"/> for detailed information on how to
432
load firmware files or packages during the installation.