1.1. Overview

You just received this HP box you bought online or maybe you got it from your company surplus. Anyway, here comes the question of the operating system you are going to use. The PA/Linux project consists in porting Linux to the PA-RISC architecture. Take a look at this Howto and you will see that Linux could be the answer to this question. Anyway, we hope so.

In addition to port Linux, the development team is working on porting the Debian project to PA-RISC. In fact, around 95 % of packages are ported and up-to-date in the repository. The port can be consider as useful now. In Debian3.0r0 called woody, the flavour "hppa" has been released for the first time. Some Debian developers non involved in the port but yet curious reported that the port was one of the easiest to install since you feel like installing an i386 version.

For more information about the PA-RISC/Linux porting project, please see http://www.parisc-linux.org/, or a mirror like http://www.fr.parisc-linux.org/. This site deals with kernel development and improvement. For userspace troubles, please refer to hppa Debian's port pages.

In a few words, this HOWTO is aimed to anyone looking for some help and information about using Linux on a HP system based on PA-RISC architecture. No special knowledge is necessary but bases about how Debian packages work can be helpful.

If you care about just installing and you do not ask yourself about the way it works, the best advice is to try a Debian release including the PA-RISC port. The Woody version is now available for hppa architecture. If you experience any trouble, try the development netinst ISO images from the The PA/Linux ESIEE Team.

After listing the supported hardware, this HOWTO explains some commands of the basic console available at boot time. Then, the features of the PA/Linux kernel loader introduce another chapter showing many ways to get your system up and running. At the end, the text goes deep in the kernel compilation and configuration.