Re: How can I verify hardware compatibility?
[This message has also been posted to linux.debian.user.]
In article <7laBx-2mK-3@gated-at.bofh.it>, Grok Mogger wrote:
> I'm planning on buying components individually and piecing
> together a computer. I'd like to install Debian Linux on it.
> I'm not buying any of the latest and greatest stuff, and the
> hardware I have picked out is pretty standard fare, nothing too
> fancy. So I'm pretty sure everything will "just work" (TM), but
> I'd still kind of like to verify each piece before I just buy
> everything, slap it together, install and pray.
My experience has been CPUs, host bridges and wired Ethernet
"just work." Brand new video hardware, wireless, and modems don't,
unless you happen to get lucky.
When modems moved from the ISA slot to PCI, the convention of
having them emulate an external Hayes command set modem connected
to a serial port went away. You won't find a new "internal"
hardware modem at any US retailer today. They just aren't made
any more. Even the "controller-based with DSP" models won't
"just work" because they don't bother with looking like UARTs
any more. They've got proprietary interfaces, and you can't
tell from the packaging which chip they use, so you can't be
sure you're getting one we have a driver for. If you want a
dial-up modem that "just works", get an external modem.
Most of the motherboards I've seen in the last two years
with built-in video have used Nvidia, or the Intel or VIA
northbridges with the video built in. Intel "just works",
Nvidia and VIA don't, because the drivers are proprietary.
Knoppix will make graphics, but it's using the basic VESA
dumb frame buffer driver, not the drawing engine in the chip.
It's barely fast enough for office work and not fast enough
for games. So visit the XFree86 site for Debian 3.1 "sarge"
or the Xorg site for 4.0 "etch" and make sure your xserver
knows how to operate the particular video hardware that comes
with the motherboard you're looking at. Otherwise you'll
have to make do with software graphics, or stick an older
video card in an AGP or PCI slot until the free drivers
catch up, and there's no guarantee they ever will.
I haven't found a PCI wireless card that "just works" yet.
The best you'll do is find one whose Windoze driver works
with the Linux NDIS wrapper. You might actually do better
with wireless on a USB dongle.
Low end printers and all-in-ones probably won't work.
Even the printers that say "works pretty well"
at linuxprinting.org are going to have little
"anomalies" like spitting out a junk page in front
of each new print job. I had a customer with an
HP all-in-one with a "supported" HPIJ driver that did
that. You're safest getting a printer with Postscript
or PCL5 *in the printer* not in the printer driver.
Cameron
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