On Tue, Aug 27, 2024 at 09:10:21AM -0500, Richard Owlett wrote:
On 08/27/2024 08:14 AM, Dan Ritter wrote:
Richard Owlett wrote:
I'm looking for for where *Debian* documents which processors support
current Debian release.
I have three machines whose processors are 64 bit capable.
Processors identified by running lscpu:
Machine 1:
Architecture: i686
Model name: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU M 540 @ 2.53GHz
Machine 2:
Architecture: x86_64
Model name: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T7300 @ 2.00GHz
Machine 3:
Architecture: i686
Model name: Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU E5300 @ 2.60GHz
Will the OS linked to by https://www.debian.org/ run on all three?
[For historical reasons I currently run 32 bit on all.]
https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/amd64/ch02s01.en.html
That was the USELESS page prompting the question!
and
[snip more rudeness]
OFF-TOPIC: I explicitly asked for *DEBIAN DOCUMENTATION*.
and
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/30774/intel-celeron-processor-540-1m-cache-1-86-ghz-533-mhz-fsb.html
says that the M540 also has that, so will also run amd64.
OFF-TOPIC: I explicitly asked for *DEBIAN DOCUMENTATION*.
All of these CPUs should run Debian amd64.
Weak point there is the word "should". Based on *your* background.
I was looking for documentation that *does not* assume the reader has
some unspecified expertise.
Did the documentation tell you to run lscpu and do something with the
architecture field? It seems to me that you're doing your own thing in
your own way and expecting us to accomodate that, which seems at least
somewhat unreasonable. For background: the lscpu architecture field
doesn't tell you what kind of cpu you're running. Instead, it tells you
the architecture of the system on which lscpu is running, and more
specifically, what architecture the *kernel* is built for. If you run
lscpu on a bookworm i386 system with the default kernel, it will say
i686. If you reboot the system with an amd64 kernel, it will say x86_64,
even though it's the same i386 install! You can see why giving us this
line is completely USELESS? (So how would an amd64 kernel get on an i386
install? Two ways: in older versions, there were multiple kernel options
like i486, i686, and amd64, and the user could select any of them. The
benefit of using an amd64 kernel on an i386 install was that you could
utilize more memory efficiently. With a current release if you want to
do the same thing you can set up a multiarch system or just install the
amd64 deb and force the architecture.)
As others have suggested, the bottom line is that debian doesn't know
whether *your machine* can run debian amd64. In general most computers
from the past 10+ years can, even many from the past 20+ years. The cpu
manufacturer documentation will give you some information (e.g., intel
ark says for the E5300: "Intel® 64 Yes"). But it's possible that a
computer might not support 64 bit mode even if the cpu does (not common
now, but was a thing once upon a time) so you'd need to also check the
computer manufacturer's documentation. The practical answer, because
documentation for old computers is hard to find and mostly was terrible
when it was written, is to simply run the amd64 netinst or live image:
if 64 bit mode isn't supported, it won't run.
FWIW, there isn't any reasonably general x86 OS that maintains a
comprehensive list of every possible computer model it will run on.
There may be a list of machines it was tested on, but that will be a
subset of all possible machines. The odds that your specific old machine
is on any such list for a current OS is fairly small, whether from
debian or anyone else.
