Debian GNU/Linux 11 supports 9 major architectures and several variations of each architecture known as “flavors”.

This document covers installation for the 32-bit PC architecture using the Linux kernel. If you are looking for information on any of the other Debian-supported architectures take a look at the Debian-Ports pages.

Complete information concerning supported peripherals can be found at Linux Hardware Compatibility HOWTO. This section merely outlines the basics.

2.1.2.1. CPU

Nearly all x86-based (IA-32) processors still in use in personal computers are supported. This also includes 32-bit AMD and VIA (former Cyrix) processors, and processors like the Athlon XP and Intel P4 Xeon.

However, Debian GNU/Linux bullseye will not run on 586 (Pentium) or earlier processors.

	Note
	If your system has a 64-bit processor from the AMD64 or Intel 64 families, you will probably want to use the installer for the amd64 architecture instead of the installer for the (32-bit) i386 architecture.

From a technical point of view, laptops are normal PCs, so all information regarding PC systems applies to laptops as well. Installations on laptops nowadays usually work out of the box, including things like automatically suspending the system on closing the lid and laptop specfic hardware buttons like those for disabling the wifi interfaces (“airplane mode”). Nonetheless sometimes the hardware vendors use specialized or proprietary hardware for some laptop-specific functions which might not be supported. To see if your particular laptop works well with GNU/Linux, see for example the Linux Laptop pages.

Multiprocessor support — also called “symmetric multiprocessing” or SMP — is available for this architecture. The standard Debian 11 kernel image has been compiled with SMP-alternatives support. This means that the kernel will detect the number of processors (or processor cores) and will automatically deactivate SMP on uniprocessor systems.

Having multiple processors in a computer was originally only an issue for high-end server systems but has become common in recent years nearly everywhere with the introduction of so called “multi-core” processors. These contain two or more processor units, called “cores”, in one physical chip.

Debian's support for graphical interfaces is determined by the underlying support found in X.Org's X11 system, and the kernel. Basic framebuffer graphics is provided by the kernel, whilst desktop environments use X11. Whether advanced graphics card features such as 3D-hardware acceleration or hardware-accelerated video are available, depends on the actual graphics hardware used in the system and in some cases on the installation of additional “firmware” blobs (see Section 2.2, “Devices Requiring Firmware”).

On modern PCs, having a graphical display usually works out of the box. For quite a lot of hardware, 3D acceleration also works well out of the box, but there is still some hardware that needs binary firmware blobs to work well. In some cases there have been reports about hardware on which installation of additional graphics card firmware was required even for basic graphics support.

Details on supported graphics hardware and pointing devices can be found at https://wiki.freedesktop.org/xorg/. Debian 11 ships with X.Org version 7.7.

Almost any network interface card (NIC) supported by the Linux kernel should also be supported by the installation system; drivers should normally be loaded automatically. This includes most PCI/PCI-Express cards as well as PCMCIA/Express Cards on laptops. Many older ISA cards are supported as well.

ISDN is supported, but not during the installation.

Support for braille displays is determined by the underlying support found in brltty. Most displays work under brltty, connected via either a serial port, USB or bluetooth. Details on supported braille devices can be found on the brltty website. Debian GNU/Linux 11 ships with brltty version 6.3.

Support for hardware speech synthesis devices is determined by the underlying support found in speakup. speakup only supports integrated boards and external devices connected to a serial port (no USB, serial-to-USB or PCI adapters are supported). Details on supported hardware speech synthesis devices can be found on the speakup website. Debian GNU/Linux 11 ships with speakup version 3.1.6.

Linux supports a large variety of hardware devices such as mice, printers, scanners, PCMCIA/CardBus/ExpressCard and USB devices. However, most of these devices are not required while installing the system.

USB hardware generally works fine. On some very old PC systems some USB keyboards may require additional configuration (see Section 3.6.6, “Hardware Issues to Watch Out For”). On modern PCs, USB keyboards and mice work without requiring any specific configuration.