Linux Hardware Compatibility HOWTO

Steven Pritchard

Southern Illinois Linux Users Group
3.1.3

2001-12-30

Revision History
Revision 3.1.3 2001-12-30 Revised by: sjp
Updated video card section and other minor cleanups and updates.
Revision 3.1.2 2001-12-21 Revised by: sjp
Update location for GS-4500 software in the scanners section. (Thanks to Jan Willamowius for pointing out that the page had moved.) Begin updating RAID controller section by separating SCSI RAID and IDE RAID.
Revision 3.1.1 2001-12-14 Revised by: sjp
List printers with a "F" or missing grade from the linuxprinting.org database in the incompatible hardware section.
Revision 3.1.0 2001-12-12 Revised by: sjp
Fix/remove more broken/dead links. Import printer listing from linuxprinting.org.
Revision 3.0.7 2001-10-18 Revised by: sjp
Started fixing dead links. (Thanks to Rob Janssen, Shaul Karl, Charles McColm, and Paul Stephenson for the corrections.)
Revision 3.0.6 2001-09-14 Revised by: sjp
Started cleaning up incompatible hardware section.
Revision 3.0.5 2001-09-04 Revised by: sjp
Updated CPU and motherboards sections. Added WAN Cards section and removed old "Frame Relay", "X.25", and "Synchronous PPP, Cisco HDLC" sections under Network adapters.
Revision 3.0.4 2001-06-25 Revised by: sjp
Updated Network adapters and Controllers (multiport) sections to include current Cyclades products. (Thanks to Ivan Passos at Cyclades for the update.)
Revision 3.0.3 2001-05-28 Revised by: sjp
Added USB section. Added note on non-x86 hardware to CPU section. Updated Motherboards section. Added a link to the Sound HOWTO in the Sound cards section. Folded Related sources of information section into introduction and removed dead links.
Revision 3.0.2 2001-05-10 Revised by: sjp
LDP-requested cleanup.
Revision 3.0.1 2001-05-07 Revised by: sjp
Updated modems section.
Revision 3.0.0 2001-04-22 Revised by: sjp
First DocBook version. Various updates.

This document attempts to list most of the hardware known to be either supported or unsupported under Linux.


Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1. Notes on binary-only drivers
1.2. Notes on commercial drivers
1.3. System architectures
1.4. Related sources of information
1.5. Known problems with this document
1.6. New versions of this document
1.7. Feedback and corrections
1.8. Acknowledgments
2. Computers/Motherboards/BIOS
2.1. Specific system/motherboard/BIOS
2.2. Unsupported
3. Laptops
3.1. Specific laptops
3.2. PCMCIA
4. CPU/FPU
4.1. Intel
4.2. AMD
4.3. Cyrix
4.4. IDT
4.5. Transmeta
4.6. Misc. notes
5. Memory
6. Video cards
6.1. XFree86
6.2. Commercial X servers
6.3. Kernel Framebuffer (fbdev)
6.4. SVGALIB (graphics for console)
7. Controllers (hard drive)
7.1. Alpha, Beta drivers
8. Controllers (SCSI)
8.1. Supported
8.2. Alpha, Beta drivers
8.3. Unsupported
9. SCSI RAID Controllers
10. IDE RAID Controllers
11. Controllers (I/O)
12. Controllers (multiport)
12.1. Non-intelligent cards
12.2. Intelligent cards
13. Network adapters
13.1. Supported
13.2. Alpha, Beta drivers
13.3. Unsupported
14. Sound cards
14.1. Supported
14.2. Alpha, Beta drivers
14.3. Unsupported
15. Hard drives
15.1. Unsupported
16. Tape drives
16.1. Supported
16.2. Alpha, Beta drivers
16.3. Unsupported
17. CD-ROM drives
17.1. Supported
17.2. Alpha, Beta drivers
17.3. Notes
18. CD-Writers
19. Removable drives
20. Mice
20.1. Supported
20.2. Alpha, Beta drivers
20.3. Notes
21. Modems
22. Printers/Plotters
22.1. Ghostscript
23. Scanners
23.1. Supported
23.2. Alpha, Beta drivers
23.3. Unsupported
24. USB
24.1. Digital Cameras
24.2. Miscellaneous
25. Other hardware
25.1. Amateur Radio
25.2. VESA Power Savings Protocol (DPMS) monitors
25.3. Touch screens
25.4. Terminals on serial port
25.5. Joysticks
25.6. Video capture boards / Frame Grabbers / TV tuner
25.7. Digital Camera
25.8. UPS
25.9. Multifunction boards
25.10. Data acquisition
25.11. Watchdog timer interfaces
25.12. Miscellaneous
26. Appendix A. S3 cards supported by XFree86 3.3.x.
27. Appendix B. Supported PCMCIA cards
27.1. Ethernet cards
27.2. Fast Ethernet (10/100baseT) adapters
27.3. Token-ring adapters
27.4. Wireless network adapters
27.5. ISDN
27.6. Modem and serial cards
27.7. Memory cards
27.8. SCSI adapters
27.9. ATA/IDE CD-ROM adapters
27.10. Multifunction cards
27.11. ATA/IDE card drives
27.12. ATA/IDE Interface Cards
27.13. Parallel port cards:
27.14. Miscellaneous cards
27.15. Working on ...
27.16. Unsupported
28. Appendix C. Supported Parallel Port devices
28.1. Ethernet
28.2. Hard drives
28.3. Tape drives
28.4. CD-ROM drives
28.5. Removable drives
28.6. IDE Adapter
28.7. SCSI Adapters
28.8. Digital Camera
28.9. PCMCIA parallel port cards
29. Appendix D. Plug and Play devices
30. Appendix E. Linux incompatible Hardware
31. Glossary