[lug] RE: LUG Digest, Vol 62, Issue 13

Michael J. Hammel mjhammel at graphics-muse.org
Thu Dec 18 10:41:51 MST 2008


On Thu, 2008-12-18 at 09:44 -0700, philburt stortsky wrote:
> Is there a hardware  compatibility list for linux that list all the
> currently supported hardware that i could download and pring? 

The problem with such lists is that they often include hardware that you
can no longer purchase from retails outlets.  So it's easier to get a
list of what the outlets have available and then search the list rather
than get the list and take it with you to the store.

The other problems is that there isn't really just a single list.  You
generally have to try different web sites for different types of
hardware.  Worse, hardware like sound cards and video cards are often
listed by what chipset they support and not by model name of the cards
currently on the market (though this isn't so bad with TV tuners).  And
the boxes at the store seldom list the chipset (at least not in a way
that makes it easy to match what you know to be supported).

With that said, you can take a look at this Linux.com article which has
links to a number of different sites.  
http://www.linux.com/feature/118497

For printers, I go to LinuxPrinting.org (which is now under the
LinuxFoundation web site).  At least with printers you search by printer
model names instead of generic chipsets.

> currently i'm specifically interested in wifi and video cards.  I'd
> also like to know if any
> of the digital tv recievers are compatible.  

wifi:  
http://madwifi-project.org/wiki/news/20081106/new-primary-project-domain
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/
http://intellinuxwireless.org/?p=iwlwifi

Video cards:
2D is no problem.  Any card will work.  3D support is good, but some
cards are better than others.  Since I don't use 3D (don't play games) I
can't say what cards would be best in that arena.

NVidia has their own drivers while X.org provides open source drivers
for the same cards.  I used the former for a long time until an update
earlier this year started causing my cards to lock up the window manager
(but just the window manager for some odd reason).  I haven't been able
to use them since.  The open source drivers didn't support dual monitors
very well (compared to the way they were supported under NVidia's
drivers).

x.org drivers page:
http://xorg.freedesktop.org/wiki/Projects/Drivers?action=show&redirect=VideoDrivers

I switched to a ATI Radeon 7000/VE at work using open source drivers
which works well with dual monitors but has a slight flicker problem on
one screen when I move windows around.  It also doesn't play nicely with
the paint tools under GIMP (leaves a trail of debris when you move
around an image window).

Digital TV Receivers:
I think the best bet here is likely to be the Hauppauge HVR 1600.  It's
available off the shelf and appears to be supported by Hauppauge under
Linux, or so they say.  I haven't got one yet, but it's on my list for
early next year.  See
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Hauppauge_HVR-1600

You can get good info on tuner cards from these two sites:
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Video_capture_card
http://linuxtv.org/v4lwiki/index.php/Main_Page

Good luck.
-- 
Michael J. Hammel                               
mjhammel at graphics-muse.org / http://www.graphics-muse.org
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