Hello,
I have assembled a HTPC using a MSI M250B motherboard with a Intel G4600 processor. I was curious if Linux would be compatible with this equipment. The MSI docs say that only windows 7 and newer is compatible, but I thought I would ask and see if there was a way around it.
Thanks in advance.
Hi Cody, and welcome again! I'm not a TV/movie person, so I had to look up what HTPC was... I'm always glad to learn new things too. And a Home Theater PC is something my wife might like to explore for our home as she is quite addicted.
So, I understand that your specialty is sound systems, but your question here is about a motherboard. Frankly, I've never heard of an Intel or AMD system that would not run Linux. Of course, I can be wrong (it happens a lot)... but maybe the documentation means rather that only Windows 7+ is "supported" versus "compatible."
Compatibility extends beyond the CPU too, though. And specifically, in your case, maybe you need to know more about the onboard sound. Or... maybe we need to know.... is your ODM/OEM audio systems producing your own brand sound cards that you want to include on HTPC systems? It seems that is where you are heading... to produce superior audio cards than those offered on the motherboards. Please clarify this for us, and we can all better focus on the heart of your questions.
The Linux kernel has built-in support for many hardware devices: mice, keyboard, video, audio, wired/wireless, and so on. But what I call "exotic" devices often fail to work because their manufacturers fail to provide device drivers needed for Linux. Specialty sound systems might certainly fall into the "exotic" category... but more frequently, I think, the problem is with special mice and keyboards developed for gaming. And my brief Googling shows that many HTPC systems also may do double duty as gaming systems. So, maybe you can see where I'm going with this.... if you are intending to provide a full computer system in an HTPC market, you may run into driver issues beyond just the audio section that you specialize in.
Finally, since you have the MSI motherboard in question (and maybe more than one).... can you set up a test machine just for Linux development? If so, I would recommend Ubuntu or Linux Mint as your initial test distro because they usually provide the best hardware support immediately after installing, and together they are very widely used in the general Linux audience. If you are developing a specialty sound card, you will likely need a programmer to create Linux drivers for the device since you say you don't have that skill (nor do I).
Cheers