sofasurfer
Active Member
When building a pc many parts are stated to be used with windows. Is there a site dedicated to linux users that helps with component selection?
Where to verify component compatibility with linux?
- Thread starter sofasurfer
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Brickwizard
Well-Known Member
There are several so-called lists, but many are very short, so all i will say is that over 90% of machines and hardware made since 2008 and is 64 bit with min twin core CPU, will work with Linux, the problems come with the latest machines/components, as the manufacturers don't give much if any support for their products the latest cutting edge kit can cause problems as it is then down to the voluntary work of the boys and girls who back engineer drivers, this can take anything from 6 months to a year or more.
Unfortunately there is no single database which includes all the hardware that linux is able to use without issue. The usual approach here when investigating linux compatible hardware is to search online for the item with the query about how it may work in linux. Often a user somewhere on the internet will have reported some experience in a forum, a blog, a linux news site or a mailing list etc. Then the reader is left to evaluate what they've read, in particular to assess whether the details are sufficient for a reasonable judgement to be made about whether a particular item will work with their own set up.
Here are a number of sites covering different hardware which have been accessed from here with some success by different people, but there are no guarantees of course:
Printer List | OpenPrinting - The Linux Foundation
www.openprinting.org
This site has a lot of discussion and recommendations. It's anecdotal and untested but nevertheless some information can be useful.
https://wireless.docs.kernel.org/en/latest/en/users/drivers.html --- existing linux wifi drivers
GitHub - morrownr/USB-WiFi: USB WiFi Adapter Information for Linux
USB WiFi Adapter Information for Linux. Contribute to morrownr/USB-WiFi development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
This site lists supported digital cameras.
Bear in mind that there can be lots of subtleties with hardware. Sometimes manufacturers use different chipsets on models with the same model number. Version numbers of hardware can be significant despite the same general model number because different versions may use different chipsets.
For flawless linux performance on hardware, there are the companies that sell computers and laptops with linux installed, e.g. system76, tuxedo.
One way of assessing whether hardware will perform under linux is to boot a live disk on the machine and check the performance of each item of interest. One needs a cooperative companion to allow this, whether it's a colleague or other person who runs the hardware of interest. In the case of a shopkeeper who sells such hardware, one needs cooperation.
The most extensive way of seeing which hardware linux can use, is to take a vanilla kernel from kernel.org and run through its configuration operations, say with menuconfig, and actually see the numerous drivers that exist to run hardware. One can look at just the area of interest, for example, wifi drivers. Then there's the matching of chipsets with actual items which can be a laborious business. Perhaps not a task for the faint of heart. BTDTBTTS.
Hi
Not to state the obvious but I have had some luck just googling "xxxx-part linux" , look for reviews or opinions on linux users with such part before actually buying it. If you already have the part(s), just try it, linux continues to amaze me making work almost anything I throw at it.
Not to state the obvious but I have had some luck just googling "xxxx-part linux" , look for reviews or opinions on linux users with such part before actually buying it. If you already have the part(s), just try it, linux continues to amaze me making work almost anything I throw at it.
