On Tue, Apr 20, 2004 at 11:44:25PM +1000, Harald Richard Ashburner wrote: > Matthew Palmer said: > > >Basically, there's no shortage of hardware that works with Linux. If you > >buy truck tyres, do you complain because they don't fit on your Datsun? No. > >So why do people insist on complaining because they picked hardware that > >doesn't have Linux support? > > How is this done? > I've not yet come accross a decent tutorial or HowTo doc that takes an > idiot (ie me) through the process of buying hardware that will work with > linux.
There used to be (presumably still is) a hardware compatibility HOWTO which detailed how to go about this. > My method failed when I ordered a computer with SoundBlaster Live! > soundcard (hey it's right there in make menuconfig right?) only to > discover that Dell had actually butchered the card so that it would not > work with the linux drivers and getting to work may not have actually > involved soldering and/or x-rays of the circuitboard, but then again I > can't be too sure. Well, that's where you start talking "merchantability" and "fitness for purpose" to Dell. You're going to get those sorts of problems when hardware manufacturers start playing silly buggers. There's an Adaptec SCSI card that's like that, too - the OEM card got a butchered chipset. It's useless under Windows, too - the OEM card gets detected as the retail version, the retail drivers get loaded, card goes "Pfft". Deep into Consumer Affairs territory, that one. > Stuff that confuses a goose like myself are words like any foo with the > bar 'chipset.' Where I guess I want a list by type (graphics, wireless, > whatever) of $model $manufacturer that is reccomended by 9 out of 10 > hackers to Just Work(tm) Well, I recently got a 802.11g PCMCIA card for my lapdog. I googled for the model number of the card I was looking at and the word "linux". First hit was the compatibility list at prism54.org, which listed my card's model number and a "yeah it works" designation. I got that one, and I'm happily sending e-mails all over the place with it now. <grin> In the instance where the manufacturer doesn't list Linux compatibility, that's the sort of thing that you have to do. Best thing to do is to actively support vendors which support linux. If you want to help out the "next generation" of linux users, that's the way to go. Send a message that linux support *is* worth working for. And I'm sure Anthony and Grant at EverythingLinux wouldn't mind the extra business... <grin> > It's probably all quite straightforward once you know > how. I haven't googled anything useful yet. If anyone knows one please > link. Or alternatively tell me it doesn't exist and it's not a stupid > & ignorant idea for me to research & write it. I can't give you the definitive reference for hardware compatibility under Linux, but there are documents out there on the topic. If you can't find one worth reading, then yes - you would be doing the community a great service to write something useful on the topic. Maintaining a comprehensive compatibility list is likely to be a maddening exercise for even a small subset of all the possible hardware out there, though, so probably best to stick to general purpose "how do I find linux-compatible hardware". - Matt -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
