With the release of PA-RISC architecture in Debian 3.0
(aka Woody), a major improvement was
made in term of quantity and quality of hardware support.
Since 0.9.3 released[1], the kernel has been
greatly improved, so that much unsupported hardware by the time 0.9.3 went out
is now handled. That's why even if your model is not listed here, you might
give it a try and report your result to the mailing list:
<parisc-linux@lists.parisc-linux.org>.
Mind that as of this document's publication date, the 2.4 series of the Linux kernel are deemed obsolete, and no development happens in that branch. Any new comer to the PA-RISC/Linux port should look at the 2.6 kernel series, which supports much more hardware than the 2.4 does. Accordingly, one will not try to use the now aging Woody release and will instead focus on its successor: Sarge, or even better, the upcoming Etch.
The following PA-RISC machines should work just fine, provided that you follow the instructions of the present document. Please note that this list can change at any time. The best way to get an up to date version is to look at http://www.pateam.org/list.html. This is the place to find relevant information about a specific model, including special boot procedures. More hardware information can be found on OpenPA.
SMP machines should work with SMP kernels (and UP ones, of course) unless stated otherwise.
All 712 models.
All 715 models including Strider series.
All 705, 710, 720, 730, 750 models should work.
Some 725, 735 (no HVD SCSI), 755 models are now working. But since there was not a lot of feedback about these machines, we can not be more explicit.
The VME-like systems are supported. This includes 742 and 743.
A180 and similar.
A500, and similar (rp2400 series).
BXXX models like B132, B160 and B180. These boxes can be used in the framebuffer mode through the Standard Text Interface.
BXXXX models like B1000, B2000 and B2600. These boxes can be used with
STI_CONSOLE, but framebuffer only works with VIS-EG cards.
FX adapters are not supported.
CXXX models like C100, C110, C160, C180, C200, C240, C360.
CXXXX models. Indeed, BXXXX and CXXXX are the same kind of machines, based on Astro/Elroy (aka SBA/LBA) chipsets with varying CPU speeds, number of memory/PCI slots. C3000, C3600, C3750 are reported to be working.
D class works unless you have a Remote Management Card installed. Even then, it still kind of works, it's just that ttyS0 gets assigned to the second serial port and you have to switch cables around.
J class is quite well supported. It has the same split as C class, i.e. JXXX and J2240 are U2/Uturn based and JXXXX are Astro/Elroy. It is the SMP version of CXXXX models.
K class is supported if you are using recent ISO images (e.g. Sarge ones).
L class and similar (rp5400 series).
N class: N4000 (some rp7400 series are reported to work).
R class is basically the same as D class.
These are not really working yet but work is being carried on.
The current 8-way (and bigger) machines using SX1000 chipset and pa8800 (or pa8900) processors do not work yet. Similarly, smaller 2-socket and 4-socket platforms using ZX1 chipset and pa8800 (or pa8900) such as rp3400 series do not work correctly yet either.
No plan to get the following hardware completely supported in the near future:
E class: E35 and E55 are known to work diskless. The SCSI support is not expected to work anytime soon.
F,G,H,I classes: Currently not supported.
SuperDome: It boots "single-cell", multi-IOMMU doesn't work.
T 5XX and V class: Nobody is working on it at the moment.
rp8400: these are cell based and probably don't work yet.
The following hardware might never work:
T600.
Vis-FX graphic adapters.
[1] Before the first release of Debian on hppa, there has been unofficial releases of Woody snapshots, entitled "PA/Linux releases", and numbered 0.x. Immediately after the release of Woody, the PA/Linux port switched to the normal Debian numbering scheme. In other words, Debian 3.0 is consecutive to PA/Linux 0.9.3.