# Debian 13 on the TS-7600
**TL;DR:** I have Debian 13.6 (Trixie) running on the TS-7600 with Linux kernel 6.12.103.
The current build work is here:
https://github.com/FOSSBOSS/ts7600
The disk image is here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p21ueJPkhPx4INDcByq-NH8UcWIWjE1u/view?usp=drive_link
$sha256sum:
65a00e832057635705f4197064f0b000ab7696ce83c241a809c067fd3a0f167d deb13_ts7600.img.tar.xz
User: root
passwd: ts7600
(lfs on github is being a pain RN. total compressed image size about 900MB )
## About the TS-7600
https://docs.embeddedts.com/TS-7600
The TS-7600 is a single-core, 32-bit ARM Linux SBC with 256 MB of RAM, running at 450 MHz.
Lol. Junk, right?
Well... not exactly.
It has some genuinely neat hardware:
- 66 GPIO
- 5 V logic
- Analog I/O
- An onboard FPGA
- Very low power consumption
- A pile of hardware interfaces intended for embedded/industrial use
It isn't really a consumer SBC, and it was never trying to compete with something like a Raspberry Pi.
The problem for a long time has been software.
Support was largely stuck around Linux 3.14, with some parts of the software stack being considerably older than that. The hardware was still useful, but doing anything remotely modern with it meant fighting an increasingly ancient userspace and kernel.
The last time I seriously messed with these boards was around 2020. At the time I tried to get a newer kernel running and didn't get particularly far.
Today went a little better. The board is now running:
- **Linux 6.12.103**
- **Debian 13.6 / Trixie**
- **Python 3**
- **GCC 14**
On a 450 MHz ARM9.
Which is kind of ridiculous, and also pretty cool.
## The Hardware
[TS-7600 photo]
[UART wiring photo]
[GPIO / DIO connector photo]
My local makerspace has received a few hundred of these boards.
And strangely, this isn't even the first time we've received TS-7600s as a donation in the hundreds.
I'm honestly not sure where these things keep coming from. Apparently there are a *lot* of them sitting around somewhere.
Until now, the age of the software made it difficult to figure out what to do with them beyond using them for very specific embedded projects.
Modern Debian support changes that equation quite a bit.
These are still slow computers. There is no getting around 256 MB of RAM and a 450 MHz ARM CPU.
But now we have a modern kernel, a modern userspace, current Python, current GCC, and access to an enormous amount of software that was previously impractical or impossible to run.
Combined with the FPGA, analog I/O, 5 V GPIO, low power consumption, and the sheer quantity of boards we have available, that opens up some interesting possibilities.
## Where the Software Is Right Now
Full disclosure: there is still some whacky stuff going on in the build process.
I am making a working disk image available, but the Docker build process is currently basically broken.
I only got the final image working by combining pieces from a couple of different builds. So while I can reproduce most of what is required, this is not yet a nice clean:
git clone
docker build
make image
sort of project. That is where I want it to end up.
Right now, the important part is that the resulting system actually boots and runs on the hardware.
There are also still some hardware-support problems to solve.
The FPGA control utility is currently broken. I tested it on a newer kernel build and it was working,
but when I updated the userspace it broke!
I had it compiled and did some basic testing before putting everything onto the board, but once I started doing the actual hardware tests it became obvious that something is still missing or incorrect. I can read the FPGA, but hardware control seems to not work? Everything was working correctly. For example, the updated `tshwctl` can control the onboard LEDs and read the CPU temperature. When I included it into the latest build process it stopped working so well. I can read CPU temp, but not control the LEDs.
The FPGA-related functionality is another story.
There is probably a missing dependency, kernel interface, userspace component, or some other piece of the old Technologic Systems environment that I haven't accounted for yet.
At this point I'm also too tired to keep staring at it today.
So the current state is roughly:
**Working:**
- Debian 13.6 boots
- Linux 6.12.103 boots
- Networking
- Python 3
- GCC 14
- Modern Debian packages
- Basic `tshwctl` functionality
- LEDs
- Temperature monitoring
**Still needs work:**
- Clean/reproducible image build
- Docker build process
- FPGA control utility
- More complete hardware testing
- Figuring out which pieces of the old TS userspace are actually still required
But the hard part, at least from my perspective, was getting this old ARM9 board onto a modern kernel and modern Debian release in the first place.
That part works.
## What Next?
The obvious next step is cleaning up the build process so somebody other than me can reproduce the image without having to understand all of the weird things I did to get there.
After that, I want to work through the TS-7600 hardware and verify what works with the new kernel, what needs patching, and what old utilities need to be rebuilt or replaced.
With a few hundred of these sitting around, I'd like to find some interesting uses for them.
They aren't fast.
They aren't new.
They definitely aren't going to run your desktop.
But a tiny, ultra-low-power Linux board with an FPGA, analog I/O, 66 GPIO, 5 V logic, and a modern Debian installation?
That's a lot more interesting than it was yesterday.
