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><DIV
CLASS="SECT1"
><H1
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
NAME="INTRO"
></A
>1. Introduction</H1
><P
> This document lists most of the hardware components (not whole
computers) known to be supported or not supported under Linux, so
reading through this document you can choose the components for your
own Linux computer and know what to avoid. As the list of components
supported by Linux changes constantly, this document will never be
complete. If a component is not mentioned in this HOWTO, I simply
have not found support for the component and nobody has told me about
support.
</P
><P
> Subsections titled 'Alpha, Beta drivers' list hardware with alpha or
beta drivers in varying degrees of usability. Note that some drivers
only exist in alpha kernels, so if you see something listed as
supported but isn't in your version of the Linux kernel, upgrade.
</P
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="BINARY-ONLY"
></A
>1.1. Notes on binary-only drivers</H2
><P
> 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.
</P
><P
> Linus Torvalds says <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"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."</SPAN
> (See
<A
HREF="http://lwn.net/1999/0211/a/lt-binary.html"
TARGET="_top"
>http://lwn.net/1999/0211/a/lt-binary.html</A
>
for the rest of the message.)
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN37"
></A
>1.2. Notes on proprietary drivers</H2
><P
> 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.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="ARCH"
></A
>1.3. System architectures</H2
><P
> This document primarily deals with Linux for x86-based platforms.
For other platforms, check the following:
<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
> <A
HREF="http://www.alphalinux.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>Alpha</A
>
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> <A
HREF="http://www.arm.linux.org.uk/"
TARGET="_top"
>ARM</A
>
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> <A
HREF="http://developer.axis.com/"
TARGET="_top"
>CRIS (Axis
Communications ETRAX 100LX embedded CPU)</A
>
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> <A
HREF="http://www.linuxia64.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>IA-64</A
>
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> <A
HREF="http://www.linux-m68k.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>m68k</A
>
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> <A
HREF="http://www.linux-mips.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>MIPS</A
>
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> <A
HREF="http://www.parisc-linux.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>PA-RISC</A
>
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> <A
HREF="http://www.penguinppc.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>PowerPC</A
>
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> <A
HREF="http://oss.software.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/linux390/"
TARGET="_top"
>S/390</A
>
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> <A
HREF="http://www.linux-sh.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>SuperH</A
>
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> <A
HREF="http://www.ultralinux.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>SPARC</A
>
</P
></LI
></UL
>
There are also the <A
HREF="http://elks.sourceforge.net/"
TARGET="_top"
>ELKS</A
> and <A
HREF="http://www.uclinux.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>uClinux</A
> ports, which are
forks of the mainstream kernel source designed for MMU-less
(mostly very low-end and embedded) systems.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="RELATED"
></A
>1.4. Related sources of information</H2
><P
> <P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
> The LDP has an <A
HREF="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/hardware.html"
TARGET="_top"
> index of hardware-related HOWTO documents</A
>.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> <A
HREF="http://www.pricewatch.com/"
TARGET="_top"
>Price Watch</A
>
(street price search engine, also useful for finding specs on
various bits of hardware)
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> <A
HREF="http://guide.sbanetweb.com/"
TARGET="_top"
> Guide to Computer Vendors
</A
>
</P
></LI
></UL
>
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN92"
></A
>1.5. Known problems with this document</H2
><P
> 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:
<P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
> 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...
</P
><P
> 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...
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> URLs in this document need updating. I've begun to do that,
but it is a big job... Diffs are welcome.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> 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 <TT
CLASS="EMAIL"
><<A
HREF="mailto:steve@silug.org"
>steve@silug.org</A
>></TT
>) and grep for "FIXME".
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> Lists in this HOWTO that are available in other HOWTOs or
FAQs need to be either updated here or dropped completely
from this document.
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> 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?)
</P
></LI
><LI
><P
> And, of course, random hardware that just isn't listed in
this document needs to be added.
</P
></LI
></UL
>
</P
><P
> All of this is going to require a lot of work. If this happens to
interest you, please email <TT
CLASS="EMAIL"
><<A
HREF="mailto:steve@silug.org"
>steve@silug.org</A
>></TT
>. I can
use the help. :-)
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN112"
></A
>1.6. New versions of this document</H2
><P
> The latest version of this document can be found on <A
HREF="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Hardware-HOWTO.html"
TARGET="_top"
>the Linux
Documentation Project home site</A
> or any of its many mirrors.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="FEEDBACK"
></A
>1.7. Feedback and corrections</H2
><P
> If you have questions or comments about this document, please feel
free to email Steven Pritchard at <TT
CLASS="EMAIL"
><<A
HREF="mailto:steve@silug.org"
>steve@silug.org</A
>></TT
>.
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.
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN120"
></A
>1.8. Acknowledgments</H2
><P
> 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.
</P
><P
> Recent versions of this document contained the following:
<A
NAME="AEN124"
></A
><BLOCKQUOTE
CLASS="BLOCKQUOTE"
><P
> 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.
</P
></BLOCKQUOTE
>
</P
><P
> Many thanks to all those who have contributed to this document over
the years.
</P
><P
> In addition, I'd like to thank the many members of the <A
HREF="http://www.silug.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>Southern Illinois Linux Users
Group</A
> and the <A
HREF="http://www.luci.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>Linux Users
of Central Illinois</A
> 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. :-)
</P
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="SECT2"
><H2
CLASS="SECT2"
><A
NAME="AEN130"
></A
>1.9. Revision History</H2
><P
> The following is the revision history of this document since I
(Steven Pritchard) took over maintenance.
<DIV
CLASS="REVHISTORY"
><TABLE
WIDTH="100%"
BORDER="0"
><TR
><TH
ALIGN="LEFT"
VALIGN="TOP"
COLSPAN="3"
><B
>Revision History</B
></TH
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revision 3.2.4</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>2007-05-22</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revised by: sjp</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
COLSPAN="3"
>Fixed or removed a ton of bad links.
(Fix SANE links.
Fix tuxmobile.org link.
Drop outdated links to network card drivers.
Replace links to dandelion.com with dandelion.sourceforge.net.
Probably others I've forgotten...)
Drop some old notes on proprietary X servers.
Add a link to the Linux Incompatibility List.
Update links to CD/DVD burning applications.</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revision 3.2.3</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>2005-07-12</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revised by: sjp</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
COLSPAN="3"
>Fix link for AlphaLinux project.
Add some laptop notes.
Add information about the 3ware 9000-series cards.</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revision 3.2.2</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>2004-01-30</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revised by: sjp</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
COLSPAN="3"
>Opteron/Athlon64 information added.
Fixed up some of the video card entries.
Add notes about 3ware 8000-series cards, SATA, and the WD
drive "configuration update".</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revision 3.2.1</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>2002-11-12</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revised by: sjp</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
COLSPAN="3"
>Replaced "commercial" with "proprietary" in most cases. (I
should probably go one more step and make that "proprietary,
closed-source" or something similar. Comments and
suggestions are appreciated.)
Added placeholder <A
HREF="ieee1394.html"
>IEEE 1394</A
>
section.
Updated various other sections.
Thanks to Rick Moen for prompting this revision with various
updates and suggestions.</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revision 3.2.0</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>2002-08-13</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revised by: sjp</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
COLSPAN="3"
>Removed a lot of cruft.
Added information direct from pcmcia-cs.sourceforge.net on
supported PCMCIA cards.
Added a section on <A
HREF="dvd.html"
>DVD drives</A
>.
Thanks to Tom Hanlin for pointing out that there was no mention
of them before.
Replaced all references to metalab with ibiblio, and all
references to linuxdoc.org with tldp.org.
Probably other changes I'm forgetting, which should teach me
not to wait so long between releases.</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revision 3.1.5</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>2002-03-28</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revised by: sjp</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
COLSPAN="3"
>Moved revision history to
<A
HREF="intro.html"
>Introduction</A
> section.
More dead link fixes and other corrections. Thanks to Lin
Hung-Ta, Silviu Tamasdan, and various others.</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revision 3.1.4</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>2002-02-17</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revised by: sjp</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
COLSPAN="3"
>Added note about CRIS architecture.
Updated <A
HREF="nic.html#WAN"
>WAN Cards section</A
>.</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revision 3.1.3</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>2001-12-30</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revised by: sjp</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
COLSPAN="3"
>Updated <A
HREF="video.html"
>video card section</A
> and
other minor cleanups and updates.</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revision 3.1.2</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>2001-12-21</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revised by: sjp</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
COLSPAN="3"
>Update location for GS-4500 software in the
<A
HREF="scanners.html"
>scanners section</A
>. (Thanks to
Jan Willamowius for pointing out that the page had moved.)
Begin updating RAID controller section by separating SCSI RAID
and IDE RAID.</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revision 3.1.1</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>2001-12-14</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revised by: sjp</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
COLSPAN="3"
>List printers with a "F" or missing grade from the
<A
HREF="http://www.linuxprinting.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>linuxprinting.org</A
>
database in the <A
HREF="incompatible.html"
>incompatible
hardware</A
> section.</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revision 3.1.0</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>2001-12-12</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revised by: sjp</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
COLSPAN="3"
>Fix/remove more broken/dead links.
Import printer listing from
<A
HREF="http://www.linuxprinting.org/"
TARGET="_top"
>linuxprinting.org</A
>.</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revision 3.0.7</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>2001-10-18</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revised by: sjp</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
COLSPAN="3"
>Started fixing dead links. (Thanks to Rob Janssen, Shaul Karl,
Charles McColm, and Paul Stephenson for the corrections.)</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revision 3.0.6</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>2001-09-14</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revised by: sjp</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
COLSPAN="3"
>Started cleaning up <A
HREF="incompatible.html"
>incompatible
hardware</A
> section.</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revision 3.0.5</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>2001-09-04</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revised by: sjp</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
COLSPAN="3"
>Updated <A
HREF="cpu.html"
>CPU</A
> and <A
HREF="motherboards.html"
>motherboards</A
> sections.
Added <A
HREF="nic.html#WAN"
>WAN Cards</A
> section and removed old
"Frame Relay", "X.25", and "Synchronous PPP, Cisco HDLC" sections
under <A
HREF="nic.html"
>Network adapters</A
>.</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revision 3.0.4</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>2001-06-25</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revised by: sjp</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
COLSPAN="3"
>Updated <A
HREF="nic.html"
>Network adapters</A
> and
<A
HREF="multiport.html"
>Controllers (multiport)</A
> sections to
include current <A
HREF="http://www.cyclades.com/"
TARGET="_top"
>Cyclades</A
>
products. (Thanks to Ivan Passos at Cyclades for the update.)</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revision 3.0.3</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>2001-05-28</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revised by: sjp</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
COLSPAN="3"
>Added <A
HREF="usb.html"
>USB</A
> section.
Added note on non-x86 hardware to <A
HREF="cpu.html"
>CPU</A
>
section.
Updated <A
HREF="motherboards.html"
>Motherboards</A
> section.
Added a link to the Sound HOWTO in the <A
HREF="sound.html"
>Sound cards</A
> section.
Folded <A
HREF="intro.html#RELATED"
>Related sources of information</A
>
section into <A
HREF="intro.html"
>introduction</A
> and removed
dead links.</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revision 3.0.2</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>2001-05-10</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revised by: sjp</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
COLSPAN="3"
>LDP-requested cleanup.</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revision 3.0.1</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>2001-05-07</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revised by: sjp</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
COLSPAN="3"
>Updated <A
HREF="modems.html"
>modems</A
> section.</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revision 3.0.0</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>2001-04-22</TD
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
>Revised by: sjp</TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
ALIGN="LEFT"
COLSPAN="3"
>First DocBook version.
Various updates.</TD
></TR
></TABLE
></DIV
>
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