LINUX HARDWARE COMPATIBILITY HOWTO ================================== Last updated: October 3, 1994 Welcome to the Linux Hardware Compatibility HOWTO. This file will hopefully list most of the hardwares supported by Linux and help you locate the necessary drivers. If you know of any Linux hardware (in)compatibilities not listed here please let me know. Thanks. Sections marked =others= list hardwares with alpha or beta drivers in varying degrees of usability or other drivers that aren't included in standard distributions. Drivers can usually be found on tsx-11.mit.edu and/or sunsite.unc.edu. Check the Linux Software Map, or check the html version of this file at . [The server that my httpd runs on is somewhat broken now so the page may be unreachable. The admins seem to have realized the problems so hopefully something will be done to fix it soon.] I need more info on: * video cards supported by XFree86 3.1 * PCMCIA support - PCMCIA SCSI and sound cards * sound cards - OPL4 cards, Orchid Soundwave, SB16 daughterboards * ... and anything else you can send me. Comments, additions, changes, etc., send mail or find me on irc. FRiC _________________________________________________________________ Computers/Laptops/Notebooks/Motherboards/BIOS ISA, VLB, EISA, PCI (but read the PCI HOWTO) PS/2 and Microchannel (MCA) is not supported in the standard kernel. ALPHA test PS/2 MCA kernels are available but not yet recommended for beginners or serious use. Laptops should be able to run Linux with no problems. There are various patches for laptops, including PCMCIA, APM, power savings (WD7600 chipset), non-blinking cursor, and more. PCMCIA drivers currently support Databook TCIC/2, Intel 82365SL, and Cirrus PD67xx chipsets. Some laptops have unusual video adapters or power management, it is not uncommon to be unable to use the power management. Some laptops with 2.88 meg drives need very recent kernels. _________________________________________________________________ CPU/FPU Intel/AMD/Cyrix 386SX/DX/SL/DXL/SLC, 486SX/DX/SL/SX2/DX2/DX4, Pentium. Basically all 386 or better processors will work. Linux has built-in FPU emulation if you don't have a math coprocessor. A few very early AMD 486DX's 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. 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 is a patch to enable cache on Cyrix processors. _________________________________________________________________ Video cards Linux will work with all video cards in text mode, VGA cards not listed below probably will still work with mono VGA and/or standard VGA16 drivers. If you're looking into buying a cheap video card to run X, keep in mind that accelerated cards (ATI, S3) are MUCH faster than unaccelerated or partially accelerated (Cirrus, WD) cards. Orchid Fahrenheit 1280+ (S3 801/805) and ATI Graphics Wonder (Mach32) are good low-end accelerated cards. Historically Diamond video cards were not supported by XFree86. However, as of September 27, 1994, Diamond has verbally agreed to provide The XFree86 Project, Inc. with detailed information about Diamond products. SVGALIB * VGA * EGA * ATI Mach32 * Cirrus 542x * OAK OTI-037/67/77, OTI-087 * Trident TVGA8900/9000 * Tseng ET3000/ET4000 XFREE86 3.1 Accelerated support (8 bpp unless noted) * ATI Mach8 * ATI Mach32 (16 bpp - doesn't work with all Mach32 cards) * Cirrus Logic 5420, 542x/5430 (16 bpp), 5434 (16/24 bpp), 62x5 * IBM 8514/A * IBM XGA, XGA-II * IIT AGX-010/014/015/016 * S3 911, 924, 801, 805/805i, 928/928-P, 864, 964 + S3 801/805, AT&T 20C490 (or similar) RAMDAC (16 bpp) Orchid Fahrenheit 1280+ VLB, Actix GraphicsENGINE 32 + S3 805 VLB, S3 GENDAC (16 bpp) Miro 10SD VLB/PCI + S3 805, Diamond SS2410 RAMDAC, ICD2061A Clockchip Diamond Stealth 24 VLB + S3 928, AT&T 20C490 RAMDAC (16 bpp) Actix Ultra + S3 928, Sierra SC15025 RAMDAC, ICD2061A Clockchip (16/24 bpp) ELSA Winner 1000 ISA/VLB/EISA + S3 928, Bt485 RAMDAC, ICD2061A Clockchip STB Pegasus VL + S3 928, Bt485 RAMDAC, SC11412 Clockchip (16 bpp) SPEA Mercury VLB + S3 928, Bt485 RAMDAC, ICD2061A Clockchip #9 GXE Level 10/11/12 + S3 928, Ti3020 RAMDAC, ICD2061A Clockchip #9 GXE Level 14/16 + S3 864, AT&T 20C498 or STG1700 RAMDAC, ICD2061A or ICS9161 Clockchip (16/24 bpp) ELSA Winner 1000 PRO VLB/PCI + S3 864, STG1700 RAMDAC, ICD2061A Clockchip (16/24? bpp) Actix GraphicsENGINE 64 VLB + S3 864, 20C498 RAMDAC, ICS2595 Clockchip (16 bpp) SPEA Mirage P64 DRAM + S3 964, AT&T 20C505 RAMDAC, ICD2061A Clockchip (16/24 bpp) Miro Crystal 20SV PCI + S3 964, Bt485 RAMDAC, ICD2061A Clockchip (16/24 bpp) Diamond Stealth 64 + S3 964, Ti3020 RAMDAC, ICD2061A Clockchip ELSA Winner 2000 PRO PCI + S3 964, Ti3025 RAMDAC, Ti3025 Clockchip (16/24 bpp) #9 GXE64 Pro VLB/PCI * Tseng ET4000/W32/W32i/W32p * Weitek P9000 (16/24 bpp) + Diamond Viper VLB/PCI + Orchid P9000 * Western Digital WD90C31/33 Unaccelerated * ATI VGA Wonder, 18800*, 28800*, 68800*, 88800 (Mach64) * Advance Logic AL2101 * Cirrus Logic 6420 * Compaq AVGA * Genoa GVGA * MCGA (320x200) * MX MX68000/MX68010 * NCR 77C22, 77C22E, 77C22E+ * OAK OTI067, OTI077 * Trident TVGA8800, TVGA8900, TVGA9xxx (not very fast) * Tseng ET3000, ET4000AX * VGA (standard VGA, 4 bit, slow) * Video 7/Headland Technologies HT216-32 * Western Digital/Paradise PVGA1, WD90C00/10/11/24/30/31/33 Monochrome * Hercules mono * Hyundai HGC-1280 * Sigma LaserView PLUS * VGA mono Work in progress * ATI Mach64 accelerated support * Compaq QVision * Number Nine Imagine 128 OTHER X SERVERS Commercial X servers may provide support for cards not supported by XFree86, and might give better performances. Only cards not supported by XFree86 are listed here. Contact the vendors directly or check the Commercial HOWTO for more info. Accelerated-X ($199, X Inside, Inc., info@xinside.com) * ATI Mach64 * Matrox MGA-I, MGA-II * Number Nine I-128 16/24 bit support for many cards Metro-X ($150, Metro Link, sales@metrolink.com) * Diamond SpeedStar, SpeedStar PRO, Stealth, Stealth PRO * Matrox MGA-I, MGA-II * TI 34020 16 bit support for S3 and Mach32 24 bit support for S3 and Matrox _________________________________________________________________ Controllers (hard drive) Linux will work with standard IDE, MFM and RLL controllers. When using MFM/RLL controllers it is important to use ext2fs and the bad block checking options when formatting the disk. ESDI controllers that emulate the ST-506 (that is MFM/RLL/IDE) interface will also work. The bad block checking comment also applies to these controllers. Generic 8 bit XT controllers also work. _________________________________________________________________ Controllers (SCSI) It is important to pick a SCSI controller carefully. Many cheap ISA SCSI controllers are designed to drive CD-ROM's rather than anything else. Such low end SCSI controllers are no better than IDE. See the SCSI HOWTO and look at UNIX performance figures before buying a SCSI card. * Adaptec AHA-1510 (ISA) * Adaptec AHA-152x (1510 with onboard BIOS) (all models) * Adaptec AHA-154x (ISA) (all models) * Adaptec AHA-174x (EISA) (in enhanced mode) * BusLogic (all models) * DTC 329x (Adaptec compatibility mode) * Future Domain TMC-16x0, TMC-3260 (PCI) * Future Domain TMC-8xx, TMC-950 * NCR 53c7x0, 53c8x0 (PCI) * ProAudio Spectrum 16 SCSI (ISA) * Seagate ST-01/ST-02 (ISA) * SoundBlaster 16 SCSI-II (Adaptec 152x) (ISA) * Trantor T128/T128F/T228 (ISA) * UltraStor 14F, 24F, 34F * Western Digital WD7000FASST SCSI =others= * Acculogic ISApport / NCR 53c406a * Adaptec AHA-274x/284x, AIC-7770 * Always AL-500 * Always IN2000 * DPT Smartcache (PM2011, 2012A, 2012B) * DPT Smartcache III (PM2021, 2022, 2122, 2322) * EATA-DMA protocol compliant SCSI (DPT/NEC/AT&T) * Iomega PC2/2B * Qlogic * Richoh GSI-8 * NCR53c400 / Trantor T130B AMI is writing a driver for their Fast Disk VLB Cache SCSI Controller. Drivers for New Media Bus Toaster and Qlogic Fast!SCSI (PCMCIA) are being written. Parallel port SCSI adapters are not supported. Non Adaptec compatible DTC boards (327x, 328x) are not supported. _________________________________________________________________ Controllers (I/O) Any standard serial/parallel/joystick/IDE combo cards. Linux supports 8250, 16450, 16550, and 16550A UART's. _________________________________________________________________ Controllers (multiport) * AST FourPort and clones * Accent Async-4 * Bell Technologies HUB6 * Boca BB-1004, 1008 (4, 8 port) - no DTR, DSR, and CD * Boca BB-2016 (16 port) * Boca IO 2by4 (4S/2P) - works with modems, but uses 5 IRQ's * PC-COMM 4-port * STB 4-COM * Twincom ACI/550 * Usenet Serial Board II =others= * Cyclades Cyclom-8Y/16Y asynchronous multiplexer DigiBoard COM/Xi and PC/Xe drivers are being worked on. _________________________________________________________________ Network adapters Ethernet adapters vary greatly in performance. In general the newer the design the better. Some very old cards like the 3c501 are only useful because they can be found in junk heaps for $5 a time. (*) indicates an ALPHA test driver (n) indicates a footnote * 3Com 3c501(1)(2), 3c503, 3c505(*), 3c507(*), 3c509/3c579 * AMD LANCE (79C960) / PCnet-ISA (AT1500, HP J2405A, NE1500/NE2100) (3) * Allied Telesis AT1700 * Cabletron E21xx * DEC DEPCA and EtherWORKS * HP PCLAN * Intel EtherExpress(*) * NE2000/NE1000 * Racal-Interlan NI5210(*) (i82586 Ethernet chip) * Racal-Interlan NI6510(*) (am7990 lance chip) - doesn't work with more than 16 megs RAM * PureData PDUC8028, PDI8023 * SMC Ultra * Schneider & Koch G16 * Western Digital WD80x3 EISA and onboard controllers * Ansel Communications AC3200 EISA * Apricot Xen-II Pocket and portable adapters * AT-Lan-Tec/RealTek parallel port adapter * D-Link DE600/DE620 parallel port adapter * Zenith Z-Note / IBM ThinkPad 300 built-in adapter * SLIP/CSLIP/PPP * PLIP (parallel port, using "LapLink cable" or bi-directional cable) =others= ISDN * Diehl SCOM card (4) * Sonix PC Volante - only in asynchronous mode, not useful for some applications * Teles ISDN card Amateur radio cards * Ottowa PI2 * Most generic 8530 based HDLC boards No support for the PMP/Baycom board PCMCIA cards * 3Com 3c589 * D-Link DE650 PCMCIA * IBM Credit Card Adapter * IC-Card * Linksys EthernetCard * National NE4100 * Network General "Sniffer" * Thomas-Conrad Ethernet * ... possibly more Xircom adapters are not supported. 1. Obsolete and not recommended. 2. Use the Linux 1.1.50 or higher driver for reliability. 3. Be careful with clones. Not all are good clones and bad clones often cause erratic lockups under Linux. 4. Requires an extensively modfied kernel by Matthais Urlich. _________________________________________________________________ Sound cards * 6850 UART MIDI * ATI Stereo F/X (SB compatible) * Adlib * Ensoniq SoundScape (SB/MPU-401 compatible, boot DOS to init card) * Gravis Ultrasound * Gravis Ultrasound MAX * Logitech SoundMan 16 (PAS-16 compatible) * Microsoft Sound System * MPU-401 MIDI * ProAudio Spectrum-16 (but see Incompatibilities) * PSS (ECHO-ADI2111) MIDI * SoundBlaster (version 1 and 2) * SoundBlaster PRO * SoundBlaster 16/ASP/MCD/SCSI-II * Sound Galaxy NX Pro * ThunderBoard (SB compatible) * WaveBlaster =others= * PC speaker / Parallel port DAC The ASP chip on SoundBlaster 16 series is not supported. SoundBlaster AWE32's special features (MIDI, effects) are not supported. _________________________________________________________________ Hard drives All hard drives should work if the controller is supported. (From the SCSI HOWTO) All direct access SCSI devices with a block size of 256, 512, or 1024 bytes should work. Other block sizes will not work (Note that this can often be fixed by changing the block and/or sector sizes using the MODE SELECT SCSI command) Large IDE drives will work fine with Linux. With kernels prior to about 1.1.47 you will need to run with LBA disabled which may confuse DOS if you wish to share the drive. Your boot partition must lie in the first 1024 cylinders due to PC BIOS limitations. _________________________________________________________________ Tape drives SCSI tape drives (From the SCSI HOWTO) Drives using both fixed and variable length blocks smaller than the driver buffer length (set to 32k in the distribution sources) are supported. Virtually all drives should work. (Send mail if you know of any incompatible drives.) * QIC-02 * QIC-117, QIC-40/80 drives (Ftape) + Most tape drive using the floppy controller should work. Check the Ftape HOWTO for details. + Colorado FC-10 is supported * these don't work... + Drives that connect to the parallel port (eg: Colorado Trakker) + Some high speed tape controllers (Colorado TC-15 / FC-20) + Irwin AX250L/Accutrak 250 (not QIC-80) + IBM Internal Tape Backup Unit (not QIC-80) + COREtape Light _________________________________________________________________ CD-ROM drives (From the CD-ROM HOWTO) Any SCSI CD-ROM drive with a block size of 512 or 2048 bytes should work under Linux; this includes the vast majority of CD-ROM drives on the market. * Kotobuki/Matsushita/Panasonic * Mitsumi * Sony CDU31A/CDU33A =others= * LMS/Philips CM 205/225/202 (does not work with CM 206) * NEC CDR-260 IDE CD-ROM drive * Sony CDU-535/CDU-531 PhotoCD (XA) is supported. All CD-ROM drives should work similarly for reading data. There are various compatibility problems with audio CD playing utilities. (Especially with some NEC drives.) Some alpha drivers may not have audio support yet. _________________________________________________________________ Optical/WORM/CD-R/Floptical/Removable drives All SCSI based drives should work if the controller is supported. Linux supports both 512 and 1024 bytes/sector optical disks. Iomega Bernoulli and LaserSafe drives attached to their proprietary PC2/2B SCSI adapters will work if the driver is installed. _________________________________________________________________ Mice * Microsoft serial mouse * Mouse Systems serial mouse * Logitech Mouseman serial mouse * Logitech serial mouse * ATI XL Inport busmouse * C&T 82C710 (QuickPort) (Toshiba, TI Travelmate) * Microsoft busmouse * Logitech busmouse * PS/2 (auxiliary device) mouse =others= * Sejin J-mouse Newer Logitech mice (except the Mouseman) use the Microsoft protocol and all three buttons do work. Eventhough Microsoft's mice have only two buttons, the protocol allows three buttons. The mouse port on the ATI Graphics Ultra and Ultra Pro use the Logitech busmouse protocol. (See the Busmouse HOWTO for details.) _________________________________________________________________ Modems All internal modems or external modems connected to the serial port. A small number of modems come with DOS software that downloads the control program at runtime. These can normally be used by loading the program under DOS and doing a warm boot. Such modems are probably best avoided as you won't be able to use them with non PC hardware in the future. PCMCIA modems should work with the PCMCIA drivers. Fax modems need appropriated fax software to operate. * Digicom Connection 96+/14.4+ - DSP code downloading program * ZyXEL U-1496 series - ZyXEL 1.4, modem/fax/voice control program _________________________________________________________________ Printers/Plotters All printers and plotters connected to the parallel or serial port should work. * HP LaserJet 4 series - free-lj4, printing modes control program Many Linux programs output PostScript files. Non-PostScript printers can emulate PostScript Level 2 using Ghostscript. Ghostscript supports these printers (and compatibles): * Apple Imagewriter * C. Itoh M8510 * Canon BubbleJet BJ10e, BJ200 * Canon LBP-8II, LIPS III * DEC LA50/70/75/75plus * DEC LN03, LJ250 * Epson 9 pin, 24 pin, LQ series, Stylus, AP3250 * HP 2563B * HP DesignJet 650C * HP DeskJet/Plus/500 * HP DeskJet 500C/520C/550C color * HP LaserJet/Plus/II/III/4 * HP PaintJet/XL/XL300/1200C color * IBM Jetprinter color * IBM Proprinter * Imagen ImPress * Mitsubishi CP50 color * NEC P6/P6+/P60 * Okidata MicroLine 182 * Ricoh 4081 * SPARCprinter * StarJet 48 inkjet printer * Tektronix 4693d color 2/4/8 bit * Tektronix 4695/4696 inkjet plotter * Xerox XES printers (2700, 3700, 4045, etc.) There is a patch for Canon BJC600 and Epson ESC/P color printers. SCSI printers? _________________________________________________________________ Scanners * A4 Tech AC 4096 * Genius GS-B105G * GS4500 handheld scanner * Logitech Scanman 32 / 256 * Mustek M105 handheld scanner with GI1904 interface Dr. G.W. Wettstein is working on support for Fujitsu SCSI-2 scanners. _________________________________________________________________ Others * Built-in support for 2.88 meg floppy drives * Joysticks * VideoBlaster, Rombo Media Pro+ * WinVision video capture card * VESA Power Savings Protocol (DPMS) monitors * APC Back-UPS (Read the Back-UPS HOWTO) _________________________________________________________________ Incompatibilities Both the ProAudio Spectrum-16 and the Adaptec 1542 use 16-bit DMA so they may have trouble working together. A program called SCSISEL.EXE may fix this. Check the Sound HOWTO for details. _________________________________________________________________ Acknowledgments Thanks to all the authors and contributors of other HOWTO's, many things here are shamelessly stolen from their HOWTO's; to Zane Healy and Ed Carp, the original author and maintainer of this list; and to everyone else who sent in updates and feedbacks. _________________________________________________________________ --end Trademarks are owned by their owners. No warranties.