Linux Hardware Compatibility HOWTO

1.1. Notes on binary-only drivers

Some devices are supported by binary-only modules; avoid these when you can. Binary-only modules are modules which are compiled for ONE kernel version. The source code for these modules has NOT been released. This may prevent you from upgrading or maintaining your system. It will also prevent you from using the component on alternate (usually non-x86) architectures.

Linus Torvalds says "I allow binary-only modules, but I want people to know that they are _only_ ever expected to work on the one version of the kernel that they were compiled for." (See http://lwn.net/1999/0211/a/lt-binary.html for the rest of the message.)

1.2. Notes on proprietary drivers

Various proprietary drivers for sound, video, etc. exist for Linux. Tracking these proprietary drivers is beyond the scope of this document. These drivers might be mentioned at various points in this document, but note that no effort has been made to make sure that this information is current.

1.3. System architectures

This document primarily deals with Linux for x86-based platforms. For other platforms, check the following:

• Alpha

• ARM

• CRIS (Axis Communications ETRAX 100LX embedded CPU)

• IA-64

• m68k

• MIPS

• PA-RISC

• PowerPC

• S/390

• SuperH

• SPARC

1.4. Related sources of information

• The LDP has an index of hardware-related HOWTO documents.

• Price Watch (street price search engine, also useful for finding specs on various bits of hardware)

• Guide to Computer Vendors

1.5. Known problems with this document

This document can't possibly be up-to-date at all times. I would like to see this document be a useful reference again. The following items need to be fixed for that to happen:

• Old cruft needs to be eliminated. Much of this document was written in 1995, give or take, when PCI was new and not supported terribly well, and ISA PnP was seen as something evil. Oh, how the times have changed...

  Also, many of the model numbers listed in this document are no longer available, and are probably not of much interest to the vast majority of people. Personally, I think hardware that hasn't been available for more than 5 years or so can safely be removed. Old versions of this document will always be available on the Internet...

• URLs in this document need updating. I've begun to do that, but it is a big job... Diffs are welcome.

• In the process of updating and converting this document to DocBook, some cruft was introduced. If anyone wants to help clean up this, get the latest source (preferably by emailing me at <steve@silug.org>) and grep for "FIXME".

• Lists in this HOWTO that are available in other HOWTOs or FAQs need to be either updated here or dropped completely from this document.

• Newer interfaces such as USB need to be added into the list. (Would a USB-attached hard drive go under "USB", "Removable drives", "Hard drives", or all of the above?)

• And, of course, random hardware that just isn't listed in this document needs to be added.

All of this is going to require a lot of work. If this happens to interest you, please email <steve@silug.org>. I can use the help. :-)

1.6. New versions of this document

The latest version of this document can be found on the Linux Documentation Project home site or any of its many mirrors.

1.7. Feedback and corrections

If you have questions or comments about this document, please feel free to email Steven Pritchard at <steve@silug.org>. I also welcome corrections and additions. At some point in the near future, I plan to set up a web interface for adding components to this document. In the mean time, please just use the word "hardware" somewhere in the subject when sending corrections or additions.

1.8. Acknowledgments

This document has passed through many hands. I don't know if he wrote the first version, but in 1993 Ed Carp was maintaining it. In August of 1994, FRiC (Boy of Destiny) took over. After he fell off the face of the planet in late 1995 or early 1996 (and we all miss him from IRC, I might add), Patrick Reijnen took over (sometime in 1997) and continued to maintain this document until late 1999.

Recent versions of this document contained the following:

Thanks to all the authors and contributors of other HOWTO's, many things here are shamelessly stolen from their works; to FRiC, Zane Healy and Ed Carp, the original authors of this HOWTO; and to everyone else who sent in updates and feedbacks. Special thanks to Eric Boerner and lilo (the person, not the program) for the sanity checks. And thanks to Dan Quinlan for the original SGML conversion.

Many thanks to all those who have contributed to this document over the years.

In addition, I'd like to thank the many members of the Southern Illinois Linux Users Group and the Linux Users of Central Illinois for giving me so many interesting problems to solve over the years, and, of course, my wife Kara for putting up with me all these years. :-)

1.9. Revision History

The following is the revision history of this document since I (Steven Pritchard) took over maintenance.

2.1. Specific system/motherboard/BIOS

Please note that this is by no means a complete list. Please send updates.

The following are old notes and are probably out of date.

• IBM PS/2 MCA systems

  Supported since kernel version 2.0.7, but only for the stable kernel releases. For information you can look at the Micro Channel Linux Home Page. Software for MCA systems can be found here. Information on the MCA SCSI subsystem can be found here.

• EFA E5TX-AT motherboard has a solvable problem with RedHat Linux 5.0 and possibly other versions of Linux. It spontaneously reboots while probing hardware. To solve, update BIOS to version 1.01. Get the BIOS update here.

• The Zida 6MLX motherboard with PII Intel LX chipset is mentioned only to work with Linux when the PII cache is disabled in BIOS. BIOS upgrade does not solve the problem. Symptom is random reboots during or shortly after system boot.

2.2. Unsupported

• Supermicro P5MMA with BIOS versions 1.36, 1.37 and 1.4. Linux will not boot on this motherboard. A new (beta) release of the BIOS which makes Linux boot, is available here.

• Supermicro P5MMA98. Linux will not boot on this motherboard. A new (beta) release of the BIOS which makes Linux boot, is available here.

• DataExpert Corp. ExpertColor TX531 V1.0 motherboard with chipset ACER M1531 (Date: 9729, TS6) and ACER M1543 (Date: 9732 TS6) seems to present not reproducible segmentations faults, kernel oops and kernel hangs under heavy load and tape access. The problem seems to be the PCI-bus, respectively the ACER chipset.

3.1. Specific laptops

• Compaq Concerto (pen driver)

• Compaq Contura Aero

• IBM ThinkPad

• IBM Thinkpad 770 series

• NEC Versa M and P

• Tadpole P1000

• Tadpole P1000 (another one)

• TI TravelMate 4000M

• TI TravelMate 5100

• Toshiba Satellite Pro 400CDT

3.2. PCMCIA

See the PCMCIA/Cardbus section and the Linux PCMCIA HOWTO for more information on PCMCIA and Cardbus cards.

4.1. Intel

Intel 386SX/DX/SL, 486SX/DX/SL/SX2/DX2/DX4, Pentium, Pentium Pro, Pentium II, Pentium III (regular and Xeon versions), Pentium 4, and Celeron (including mobile versions of all of the above) are all supported.

4.2. AMD

AMD 386SX/DX, 486SX/DX/DX2/DX4, K5, K6, K6-2, K6-3, and Athlon (all varieties, including MP) are all supported. Older versions of K6 should be avoided as they are buggy. Setting "internal cache" disabled in bios setup can be a workaround. Some early K6-2 300Mhz have problems with the system chips.

AMD's 64-bit Opteron and Athlon64 processors, as well as the mobile Athlon64 (or Turion64), are also supported, running either in 32-bit or 64-bit mode. For 32-bit mode, compile a kernel for i386, optionally optimized for Athlons, since that's essentially what these processors look like in 32-bit mode. For 64-bit mode, compile a kernel for x86_64. It will still run 32-bit binaries, assuming all the appropriate libraries are available. Opteron and Athlon64 systems use standard PC hardware, so the information in this HOWTO still applies.

The old NexGen processors are also supported.

A few very early AMD 486DX's may hang in some special situations. All current chips should be okay and getting a chip swap for old CPU's should not be a problem.

4.3. Cyrix

Cyrix 386SX/DX, 486SX/DX, 5x86, 6x86, and MediaGX are all supported.

• enable cache on Cyrix processors

• Cyrix software cache control

• Cyrix 5x86 CPU register settings

4.4. IDT

IDT Winchip C6-PSME2006A processors are supported under Linux.

4.5. Transmeta

The Transmeta Crusoe processors are supported.

4.6. Misc. notes

Linux has built-in FPU emulation if you don't have a math coprocessor.

Linux supports SMP (multiple CPUs) in all 2.x kernels. See the Linux SMP HOWTO for more information.

ULSI Math*Co series has a bug in the FSAVE and FRSTOR instructions that causes problems with all protected mode operating systems. Some older IIT and Cyrix chips may also have this problem.

There are problems with TLB flushing in UMC U5S chips in very old kernels. (1.1.x)

6.1. XFree86

The following is a list of cards known to work with XFree86 versions 3.3.6 and/or 4.1.0. See the XFree86 web site for more information.