Linux Hardware Compatibility HOWTO

Steven Pritchard

Southern Illinois Linux Users Group

steve@silug.org

3.0.5

Copyright © 2001 by Steven Pritchard

Copyright © 1997-1999 by Patrick Reijnen

2001-09-04

Revision History
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

3.1. Specific laptops
3.2. PCMCIA

4.1. Intel
4.2. AMD
4.3. Cyrix
4.4. IDT
4.5. Transmeta
4.6. Misc. notes

6. Video cards

6.1. XFree86
6.2. SuSE X-Server
6.3. Commercial X servers
6.4. Kernel Framebuffer (fbdev)
6.5. SVGALIB (graphics for console)

7. Controllers (hard drive)

7.1. Alpha, Beta drivers

8. Controllers (hard drive RAID)

9. Controllers (SCSI)

9.1. Supported
9.2. Alpha, Beta drivers
9.3. Unsupported

10. Controllers (I/O)

11. Controllers (multiport)

11.1. Non-intelligent cards
11.2. Intelligent cards

12. Network adapters

12.1. Supported
12.2. Alpha, Beta drivers
12.3. Unsupported

13. Sound cards

13.1. Supported
13.2. Alpha, Beta drivers
13.3. Unsupported

14. Hard drives

14.1. Unsupported

15. Tape drives

15.1. Supported
15.2. Alpha, Beta drivers
15.3. Unsupported

16. CD-ROM drives

16.1. Supported
16.2. Alpha, Beta drivers
16.3. Notes

17. CD-Writers

18. Removable drives

19. Mice

19.1. Supported
19.2. Alpha, Beta drivers
19.3. Notes

21. Printers/Plotters

21.1. Ghostscript

22. Scanners

22.1. Supported
22.2. Alpha, Beta drivers
22.3. Unsupported

23. USB

23.1. Digital Cameras
23.2. Miscellaneous

24. Other hardware

24.1. Amateur Radio
24.2. VESA Power Savings Protocol (DPMS) monitors
24.3. Touch screens
24.4. Terminals on serial port
24.5. Joysticks
24.6. Video capture boards / Frame Grabbers / TV tuner
24.7. Digital Camera
24.8. UPS
24.9. Multifunction boards
24.10. Data acquisition
24.11. Watchdog timer interfaces
24.12. Miscellaneous

25. Appendix A. S3 cards supported by XFree86 3.3.x.

26. Appendix B. Supported PCMCIA cards

26.1. Ethernet cards
26.2. Fast Ethernet (10/100baseT) adapters
26.3. Token-ring adapters
26.4. Wireless network adapters
26.5. ISDN
26.6. Modem and serial cards
26.7. Memory cards
26.8. SCSI adapters
26.9. ATA/IDE CD-ROM adapters
26.10. Multifunction cards
26.11. ATA/IDE card drives
26.12. ATA/IDE Interface Cards
26.13. Parallel port cards:
26.14. Miscellaneous cards
26.15. Working on ...
26.16. Unsupported

27. Appendix C. Supported Parallel Port devices

27.1. Ethernet
27.2. Hard drives
27.3. Tape drives
27.4. CD-ROM drives
27.5. Removable drives
27.6. IDE Adapter
27.7. SCSI Adapters
27.8. Digital Camera
27.9. PCMCIA parallel port cards

28. Appendix D. Plug and Play devices

29. Appendix E. Linux incompatible Hardware

30. Glossary

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