Determining Linux Hardware Compatibility

Getting started with Linux can be a very exciting experience. It can also be a very painful experience if you aren't properly prepared for it. The first step to installing Linux is just to figure out whether Linux will run on your computer. Chances are that it will, but it can be quite frustrating to be halfway into the install process before discovering otherwise. Before you go out spending money or valuable download time obtaining Linux, you should check to make sure Linux supports your hardware.

Grab a copy of the Linux Pre-Installation Checklist, an excellent tool provided by the Algologic Research & Solutions . It is a simple question and answer form that will help you prepare the information you will need for Linux installation. Once you have the form, this page will help you determine what kind of hardware you have, so that you can answer the questions on your checklist.

Once you know all about your hardware, you need to check the Linux Hardware Compatibility HOWTO to make sure it is all supported. The latest list of supported video cards is available online courtesy of the XFree86 Project.

What You Need to Know

These are the minimum things you will need to know to get Linux installed and running.

CPU Type: Intel 386, Pentium, AMD K6, etc. Don't worry too much about this. Virtually any Intel compatible chip should work fine. If you're installing on a DEC Alpha or some other type of CPU, you'll need some special help.

Expansion Bus Type: ISA, PCI, VLB (VESA Local Bus), EISA, MCA, etc. The vast majority of PCs will be PCI, ISA, or both. Older machines (486's) may have VLB. Laptop or notebook computers may have PCMCIA. Newer PC's may have a special AGP bus for high speed graphics cards. All these are supported.

Memory: Not vital, but it is helpful to know how much RAM you have in your PC.

Drive Types: Most store-bought PCs will have IDE, Enhanced IDE or ATAPI (all pretty much the same) hard drives and CDROMs. More expensive models may have SCSI devices. Most (but not all) SCSI devices are supported. Check the list for yours. Some older CD-ROM drives use a proprietary interface. A few of these are supported as well.

Video/Graphics card: This is perhaps the most important thing to know. Get this right if nothing else. Without this information, you may be unable to use the X Window System, the Linux graphical user interface. This means you'll be stuck on the command line forever. (This is okay with some people, but not me!) So be sure to check the list of supported video cards for yours. In most cases you will need only the brand name and model number, but you may also need to learn the "chip set". It is also helpful and sometimes necessary to know the amount of Video RAM on the card.

That's the required stuff. Of course you probably have other hardware that you need supported:

• Sound Card
• Network Card
• Printer
• Tape Backup Drive
• Scanner/Digital Camera
• Zip Drive (and the like)

All these devices can be supported under Linux, but you'll need to know exactly what model you have. Once you are armed with that knowledge, the Linux Hardware Compatibility HOWTO should point you to drivers and support.

Identifying Your Hardware

In order to determine whether your computer is Linux compatible, you have to have some detailed knowledge about your hardware. If you built the PC yourself, you probably already have this info. If you purchased the PC "pre-packaged", you may need to do some digging to get this info.

If your computer is currently running Windows 95 or Windows 98, Windows should be able to tell you quite a bit about your hardware. Open the Control Panel (Start -> Settings -> Control Panel), double click on the System icon. The General tab here should state how much memory is installed in your system. After recording this, select the Device Manager tab. Here you will see a list of hardware that Windows recognizes on your system, listed by category. Click the plus sign next to a category to reveal the devices in that category. You can get detailed information on any device by double-clicking it, or selecting it and clicking the "Properties" button.

For each device, you should record the brand name and model number. If there is a "Resources" tab under the device properties, you should record the "Input/Output Range" and "Interrupt Request" settings. Also note if any of the devices say "PnP". Plug and Play devices may require some special handling under Linux.

If you aren't running Windows, or if Windows doesn't provide you with all the information you need, there are a few utilities available that may help determine some of this info. MS-DOS ships with a program called MSD that can tell you a little about your configuration. Norton Utilities has a utility called sysinfo. Certainly there are others that I don't know about. If none of these gives you all the information you need, you'll have to get it the old fashioned way, by digging through the documentation that came with your hardware, or possibly even (gasp!) opening up the box and seeing for yourself what's in there. Good luck!

Windows-Only Hardware

Most hardware is compatible with any operating system as long as there is a proper driver for that operating system. Typical expansion cards and peripheral devices have some level of intelligence built into them, allowing them to operate separately from the host operating system. Often they have their own processor and memory, which makes them function more efficiently and takes some load off of your computer's main processor. However, there is a class of hardware that does not work this way. Some hardware is designed to work only with Windows.

Hardware manufacturers realized they could save a little money by stripping intelligent components off of their hardware and making the computer's main processor and memory do the work instead. The most common of these "dumb" devices is the "WinModem", but there are also printers and other peripherals that work the same way. These devices will not work under Linux or any other operating system (not even DOS), because they require special software written specifically for Windows by the hardware manufacturer.

Be very wary of this type of hardware. It is usually on the low end of the price scale (and similarly poor in quality). If you get stuck with a WinModem or other such hardware, you will not be able to access it from Linux, unless you can convince the manufacturer to rewrite the software to work under Linux (not likely). I highly recommend that if your computer came with such hardware pre-installed, you should complain to your computer manufacturer as well as the manufacturer of the card. Not only are these devices not portable to different operating systems, but they slow the performance of your computer and add complexity to an already unstable Windows environment.