Ask Slashdot: Linux-Friendly Motherboard Manufacturers? 352
dotancohen writes "I am tasked with building a few Linux machines for a small office. However, many the currently available motherboards seem to be Linux-hostile. For instance, in addition to the whole UEFI issue, my last install was a three-day affair due to the motherboard reporting a Linux-supported ethernet device (the common RTL8168) while it was actually using a GbE Ethernet device that does not work with the legacy drivers and didn't even work with a test Windows 7 install until the driver disk was installed. There are no current hardware compatibility lists for Debian or Ubuntu and I've received from Asus and Gigabyte the expected reply: No official Linux support, install Windows for best experience. I even turned to the two large local computer vendors, asking if they could provide Linux-compatible machines ready to go, but neither of them would be of any help. What globally-available motherboards or motherboard manufacturers can you recommend today?"
Raspberry Pi (Score:3, Funny)
I heard the Raspberry Pi is very Linux compatible, in fact it doesn't even run Windows.
Re:Raspberry Pi (Score:5, Insightful)
Commenting to remove crap moderation! Pfff....Slashdot, why cant I change my mind!
Re:Raspberry Pi (Score:4, Funny)
Because it is a well known fact that forces recrut on /. to pilot drone. You can't change your mind after firing at something. Hence, it is part of the training.
Re:Raspberry Pi (Score:5, Funny)
I thought it was because we Slashdotters are known to never make mistaks.
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Raspberry Pi (Score:5, Informative)
"I am tasked with building a few Linux machines for a small office." I'm not sure how much your labor is worth but you can buy a built server on the cheap ($599).
http://www.dell.com/ca/business/p/poweredge-t110-2/pd [dell.com]
Operating System
Microsoft® Windows® Small Business Server 2011
Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 Foundation R2 SP1
Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 SP2, x86/x64 (x64 includes Hyper-V)
Microsoft® Windows Server® 2008 R2 SP1, x64 (includes Hyper-V v2)
Novell® SUSE® Linux® Enterprise Server
Red Hat® Enterprise Linux®
Re:Raspberry Pi (Score:5, Insightful)
"...my last install was a three-day affair due to the motherboard reporting a Linux-supported ethernet device (the common RTL8168) while it was actually using a GbE Ethernet device that does not work with the legacy drivers"
So how much money did this journey save the company? Just slap in an intel card and be done with it for f's sake! Then it will support proper VLANs, jumbo frames and probably just work smoother than some cheap onboard NIC anyways.
Re:Raspberry Pi (Score:5, Insightful)
...or just buy from a Linux vendor.
Re: (Score:3)
...or just buy from a Linux vendor.
...which don't seem to exist locally. The national LUG couldn't even suggest a local vendor from which to buy Linux-friendly parts.
Re:Raspberry Pi (Score:5, Insightful)
Stop being a troll. You know full and well that Linux is the server of choice for most large sites. Moron.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Stop being a troll. You know full and well that Linux is the server of choice for most large sites. Moron.
Actually, these are desktop machines for a small office. Windows is a viable choice, if one can consider the Windows ecosystem viable. At least all the software that we will be using is in fact available for Windows.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
...or just install a real OS.
I know that you're trolling, but there is definitely a push to just 'install Windows' due to the lack of a viable motherboard. If I were a weaker man, and there are plenty of weaker men, installing Windows would be the 'solution'.
Re:Raspberry Pi (Score:5, Interesting)
So just to clarify, you are not a "weaker man" because you are choosing a tool that is more difficult to acquire & has no official support... for what purpose again?
Pretty much for KDE and X mouse pasting. There are some mouse pasting solutions for Windows, but none are as good as X. Furthermore, I rely very heavily on many of KDE's small but useful features, such as Keep on Top functionality, the wonderful panel configuration, and some other small features. They add up.
Without knowing more about what the ultimate goal is, it seems like you are just being pig-headed & stubborn, pushing your own personal agenda / Windows vendetta over the priorities of The Company.
Not at all. Everyone already has a Windows computer and now that a new office is opening some people want to use the features that they see me using. This is a case of people wanting to use specific features that they cannot get on Windows, not of some fosstard pushing his ideology on others. Its not even about the cost or security of Windows.
Re: (Score:2)
So how much money did this journey save the company?
Submitter here. The three-day affair was my mother-in-law's machine, not a work machine. I agree that just throwing the motherboard in the trash and starting over with a known-good board would have been better, but the fact remains that there are no known-good boards anymore. Hence, this Ask Slashdot question.
Re:Raspberry Pi (Score:5, Interesting)
Intel has stopped giving out information on memory management configuration like EDAC, and is pushing EFI BIOS control. If you want to own your PC instead of licensing it from Intel it's better to use an AMD processor. Intel NICs are still good though.
Re:Raspberry Pi (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm not sure how much your labor is worth but you can buy a built server on the cheap ($599).
Plus you'll be supporting a vendor who "officially" supports Linux. It looks like Dell has their motherboards custom-made by Intel, which is another open-source-friendly company.
If Asus and Gigabyte don't want your money, then don't give it to them.
Re: (Score:2)
"I am tasked with building a few Linux machines for a small office." I'm not sure how much your labor is worth but you can buy a built server on the cheap ($599).
http://www.dell.com/ca/business/p/poweredge-t110-2/pd [dell.com]
Thanks. I should have mentioned that these will be desktop workstations, not servers. The company servers are actually on Amazon Web Services (EC2) and let me take this opportunity to say how happy I am with that decision!
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
We use beefier PowerEdges at work and one major thing I like about them is that - like the t110-2 you linked to - you can order them with no OS! If you're intending to run Linux and don't need hand-holding, installing the OS yourself is a good idea. The only thing to be wary about PowerEdges is that I've never known any of them to be silent.
Now you might get lucky and the t110-2 is quiet or silent, but whenever I see "server" and "Dell" together, it's an excuse to have the noisiest system fans in the univer
Re:Raspberry Pi (Score:5, Informative)
Theyre also several times their component cost, and horribly cost-ineffective if you are throwing OSX out the window.
Intel chipsets tend to be supported very well. Generally if you want to know compatibility, dont look @ "is this motherboard supported", just look at whether:
* The northbridge is supported
* The southbridge is supported
* The NICs are supported
Generally Intel stuff is VERY well supported, and GENERALLY year-old chips are supported fairly well. Try to stay away from brand new stuff unless youve done the research to make sure the kernel supports it. Googling something like "Linux support RTL8187" or "linux support P77" should give you some ideas. I wouldnt sweat it too much tho, just pilot one machine and if it goes well roll the config out.
Im not super clear on why UEFI would cause a big issue for a Linux install, but I also havent paid that much attention to it. I have an ASUS UEFI mobo, and I believe it had an option to pretend to be a normal BIOS or something, though Im using Win8 and havent really messed with it.
Any Intel Z77 motherboard (Score:5, Informative)
According to Phoronix [phoronix.com], the Intel DZ77GA-70K and the ECS Golden Board Z77H2-A2X are fine for Linux. It is implied that almost any motherboard with the Intel Z77 chip set should be OK for linux. They did a longer follow-up review on the ECS Z77H2-A2X Ultimate Golden Edition Extreme [phoronix.com] with linux.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
This is also only a problem if you insist on using 64 bit Linux, which means you can't use Flash, Skype, or anything else that's 32 bit only, and your Linux ends up less compatible with all the content on the Internet than it usually is.
I dunno what distros have this limitation. At least gentoo installs as multilib by default allowing 32bit apps to run just fine. There are also 32bit library wrappers allowing 64bit browsers to use 32bit plugins. This has been true for years.
Re:Raspberry Pi (Score:4, Informative)
Strange, I use 64 bit Linux pretty much exclusively and use quite a lot of 32 bit software, including Flash.
Re:Raspberry Pi (Score:5, Insightful)
That's an odd post. You seem to have all kinds of in depth knowledge about UEFI boot processes, how Linux screws it up, and how to patch it etc.
But then you don't seem to know some really mundane easy stuff like: Flash actually works just fine* on a 64bit Linux system.
* By that I mean as well as it does on a 32bit Linux system at least.
Re: (Score:2)
Depends weather or not the keyboard has a numeric pad.
Re:Raspberry Pi (Score:4, Funny)
On rainy days, they don't work well.
In the sun, much better.
Re: (Score:2)
Awww, cutest spelling error observation ever.
Re: (Score:3)
I'd hate to rain on your parade and steal your thunder, but if you search the cloud, many more will will spring up.
Re: (Score:2)
Considering that this is a nerd site, calling someone out for illiteracy (or at least, aliteracy) is warranted, especially if done humorously. Educated people don't have trouble with homophones. If you don't know the difference between weather and whether you're probably a high school dropout, how much credence can you give to the ignorant in a forum such as this?
Re: (Score:3)
I'm glad this is the case. However, I must admit that I'm not immune to pressing the keys too lightly and not checking - that's forgivable (but embarrassing), I think... but homophones are so easy, I completely agree their.... (sic)...
Re: (Score:2)
Only if you use one of those ridiculous "condensed" keyboards. The only issue I've ever had is when actually using OS X where the modifier keys for some common actions are inconsistent with other OSes so that it's not possible to get a perfect remapping of common keystrokes.
Moreover, one of the nice things about desktop computers (clearly the context being discussed) is that it's *really* easy to replace the keyboard, in fact considering the crappy $5 versions that ship with pretty much every computer on t
Re:Raspberry Pi (Score:4, Informative)
Except Macs have odd keyboards that are missing keys such as PgUp, PgDn, Home, End, Del/Backspace and have a special "flower power" key which does nothing on Linux.
Reading this I glanced down at my keyboard, I'm typing this on a MacBook Pro, and what do I see? I see Page Up, Page Down, Home, End, and Delete, which is Backspace on Linux and Windows PCs, keys. Now if I hold "fn" while pressing Delete I get the normal Delete. I dual-boot my MacBook, Snow Leopard and Ubuntu 12.04 and I've used the "flower power" when booted into Ubuntu. Without remapping the keyboard. I have not had a problem doing in Ubuntu what I do in Snow Leopard.
Falcon
Intel? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Intel? (Score:5, Informative)
Or just search Google. The reviews on sites like Newegg or Amazon might also indicate Linux friendliness or just the general level of quality. Then there are sites like Phoronix.
In other words: Just search Google. It's not 1996.
Someone mentioned System76. There's also Zareason.
Once again: Just search Google. It's not 1996.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Agreed. I normally end up with an Asus workstation board with an Intel NIC chipset and it's always worked out fine.. and your point is well taken. I vetted it through Google (and Newegg's customer feedback) before pulling the trigger.
I've never had a problem with an Intel chipset, but as mentioned in the OP I've had issues with the LAN drivers. Also, UEFI is a potential stumbling block.
Re: (Score:3)
Actually, in 1996 you would have gotten good results for this question from Google. Sure it was an infant, but guess who used it and what they ran it on? Linux was there too.
Re:Intel? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: Search Google? (Score:2)
Pardon me, but you do not "search" Google. You use Google to do a search.
It's like saying, "I need some groceries, so I am going to drive to my car."
And the other responses are correct. SEO and fraudulent reviews didn't exist in 1996. I can no longer count all the times all the reviews for a product said it was good, until just about the time the one I bought started F'ing up. Then suddenly all the reviews are bad. In some ways the internet is worse than the wild west because in the wild west you didn't hav
Re: (Score:2)
Many times my searches result in some obscure forum where desired content is only mentioned. And when I question about where to look for the content, someone speaks (and generally in a arrogant manner) "search on Google". But what is the point of search on Google if you already have arrived in the forum exactly as result from seeking on google?
Re:Intel? (Score:4)
Nonsense. A number of people have noted that various Asus and Gigabyte boards are quite well supported. They have also provided 3rd party sources. I have a couple of Gigabyte boards of my own that I'm very satisfied with.
You might have to do a little homework first but that's hardly a great burden considering that you're obviously building a machine from PARTS.
This whole thing boils down to "I am shopping for motherboards but I am a helpless ninny".
Ready made systems are specifically marketed for people that are unwilling or unable to do the modern equivalent of cracking open a magazine like Consumer Reports.
Re:Intel? (Score:4, Informative)
My office exclusively uses Intel motherboards (for SecureBIOS) and I have yet to have any compatibility issues with Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, RHEL5, and CentOS.
Re: (Score:3)
You're not going to flamebait by posting something people agree with.
Re: (Score:3)
My office exclusively uses Intel motherboards (for SecureBIOS) and I my extreme lack of knowledge coupled with my inability to use Google have prevented us from using Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, RHEL5, and CentOS. I recommend you buy a Gateway 2000 PC with Windows 98 installed, because you can never go wrong with a classic. Plus the cow pattern is so pretty!
Better?
Re: (Score:2)
Agreed. I have yet to see an Intel board cause any real problems beyond "this driver has issues" sort of stuff that you might get with anything. I think once I had to install a kernel with NOAPIC set for some obscure reason, years ago.
Re: (Score:2)
The driver issues I have encountered are not OS problems, but firmware problems. A certain Intel Motherboard (DZ77BH-55K) has some RAM issues. You can only use specific brands/types of RAM in a dual-channel configuration. It's a very strange problem, as two types of RAM from the same manufacturer will fail to work. After firmware, I tried tweaking the voltages to no avail. I'm still waiting for a firmware update to allow for 4 RAM sticks instead of 2.
Re: (Score:2)
Thank you, finally an informative answer! I will see from where I might acquire an Intel motherboard locally. I don't think that I've ever come across an Intel board to be honest, so I have a suspicion that they are not sold here.
Re: (Score:2)
See my other comment about one Intel motherboard that has RAM issues. I would avoid that one if you plan on using more than 2 RAM slots.
For the motherboards, they do have them on Newegg for sale. I find it much easier to purchase the CPU/MB combos on there because you will know the MB has the correct slot. The Intel brands are a bit more expensive than your generic Sparkle (or other knock-off type), but they are worth the money. Better to spend an extra $20 than to have to replace motherboards every 2 y
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
pretty much anything runs "out of the box" though yes if you want decent graphic speed and 3d with ati or nvidia you do have to install a driver ... + few people really care about the whole political whoo ha, they just want shit that works.
Re: (Score:3)
This. In my, admittedly limited, hardware building experience intel boards are not only very open source friendly, but come with the best documentation and least-flaky BIOSes. And of course their SATA controllers and NICs are class leaders.
I've built a few NAS/NAS + HTPC mITX units using two of Intel's newer boards, running either debian stable or testing, and found both of these to be excellently supported OotB:
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/motherboards/desktop-motherboards/desktop-board-dh77df.ht [intel.com]
system 76 (Score:2, Informative)
I have heard good things about system 76
Hardware to support software? (Score:3)
Re:Hardware to support software? (Score:5, Insightful)
When vendors don't publish drivers or specs how is that supposed to happen?
Hardware is dime a dozen these days. If I can't run the OS I want on it, I will not buy it.
You sign the vendor's non-disclosure agreement ... (Score:2)
When vendors don't publish drivers or specs how is that supposed to happen?
You sign the vendor's non-disclosure agreement and then they provide the specs. So in a way this is a "cost" of being open source, some won't buy into your model. Everything has a cost.
FWIW, as many others have commented, I've been buying Intel motherboards and NICs for over a decade and I've never had a problem.
Re: (Score:2)
That is what I do for the most part.
Even put an intel nic into my AM3+ build. But that is because I had a nice quad port server nic laying around at work and no use for it. Yes, I had them sell it to me. For $10.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, but more often than not the best (or only) way to get the drivers that allows software to support hardware is from the hardware vendor itself.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Isn't the software suppose to support the hardware?
Isn't the husband supposed to support the wife?
I think that this is a two-way street.
Easy (Score:5, Informative)
I have yet to try a motherboard which is not Linux-friendly in recent years. Every single server board I have ever tried has worked flawlessly. Every true hardware RAID controller (be it integrated or PCI-X, PCI-E, or PCI) has been supported natively, and software/hybrid/fakeraid controllers have always been supported in JBOD mode. Integrated Intel or Matrox video works fine.
Workstation/desktop boards? Aside from bluetooth, wifi, or weird video chipsets, they are supported fine. Ethernet ports used to require some tweaking (especially for Marvell controllers) but even those enjoy good support. If you want a good, fast board check out the GA-Z77X-UD5H-WB
As far as UEFI is concerned - if you run 32-bit RHEL/CentOS/Scientific Linux, you won't be able to boot the 32-bit disc with UEFI enabled, but why would you forgo the flat memory space of a 64-bit board now that RAM is dirt cheap? Boot 64-bit disc and it works just fine. I have UEFI enabed on my GA-Z77X-UD5H-WB and it is fully supported out of the box by OpenSUSE and both Centos and RHEL 6.3. It's more work to get full support in Linux, actually, because the Linux install Just Works(TM). To boot Windows 7, I had to make a Windows 7 USB key. It booted 64-bit Linux just fine.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Thank you. Two years ago I build my current desktop, and everything worked fine. This summer I built the mother-in-law's home system and had a terrible time with the 1000 MBit ethernet controller as the driver has not yet been including in the Linux kernel, and to make it worse the board was reporting a different controller whose driver was in the kernel!
I know that there are Gigabyte *77* boards available locally, I will look at those. Thank you very much.
If you have to ask... (Score:2, Funny)
Just do a little research. (Score:4, Insightful)
It's all about chipsets. Figure out what chipset a given motherboard has, do a few googles, and you'll likely have your answers.
I have no problem with either of the manufacturers that you mentioned. Were you perhaps trying to do an AMD solution? I'd just stick with Intel chips and chipsets at this point in the game.
Re: (Score:3)
I've bought about 2 dozen Asus AMD motherboards, and they all work fine in Linux.
dotancohen is just too lazy to do a little research, so instead he's looking for the impossible: a hardware manufacturer that needs to sell millions of units, but no matter how in demand a chipset or feature is, will refuse to release the product without Linux drivers.. a manufacturer who would turn away 95% of his customers (by not releasing a product) because 2% of them won't be able to use it.
ASUS is *not* Linux friendly. (Score:3)
I've bought about 2 dozen Asus AMD motherboards, and they all work fine in Linux.
Consider yourself fortunate.
ASUS doesn't consider Linux support a priority, and goes out of their way to stymie support for their motherboards. [asus.com] Note that there is *still* no resolution for this issue: the current patch is a hack that "kind of" works, which is the best that can be expected without a datasheet.
Typical motherboard tech specs don't list the SMBus/IO chipsets. So, if you want to ensure your motherboard will have support in Linux, you have to do ridiculous thngs like going online and searching f
Re: (Score:3)
No, not unlucky.. just incompetent. The board he says he purchased says in the manual that it has an RL8111E/RL8111F nic. and in the summary he says it's a 8168. No idea where he got that from, and then he turns around and blames Asus.
http://dlcdnet.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/LGA1155/P8H61-M_LX_R2.0/E7241_P8H61-M_LX_R2_Series.pdf [asus.com]
He also says he couldn't attach a nic because the board does not have a PCI slot, just 4 PCIe slots.
http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_1155/P8H61M_LX_R20/#overview [asus.com]
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
How come?
From my research AMD appears to support virtualization on most of their hardware, while Intel hold these features back on some of their hardware.
Re: (Score:3)
...the plot thickens.
We've got quite an incompetent box builder here. Not only is he experiencing all sorts of rather bizarre problems. He also didn't bother to put any expansion options into this custom build of his.
You really have to go out of your way to avoid having some sort of expansion card available. Even low profile boards have expansion cards on them.
Re: (Score:3)
Are you fucking serious? It has 4 PCIe slots!!!!!!!!!
You're looking for a MB with a PCI slot in 2012??????
A gb nic w/ a pcie slot is $10.
You obviously have no idea wtf you are doing.
This MB worked (Score:5, Informative)
I just built an HTPC and this is what I used for my mb/cpu
MSI FM2-A75MA-E35 mATX FM2 A75 DDR3 1PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 1PCI SATA3 HDMI DVI USB3.0 Motherboard
AMD A8-5600K APU Quad Core Processor Socket FM2 3.2GHZ 4MB 100W Retail Box
works fine here right out of the box with no BIOS settings. I have Linux Mint 14 Mate running on it. The only issue I had was getting audio over HDMI but for some reason downloading and installing the AMD propitiatory drivers wouldn't install Catalyst. I had to go and install the CCC through the package manager. Reboot and audio over HDMI worked.
If you want to stick to the open source drivers and want to have sound over HDMI (if it doesn't work) try this
Edit to /etc/default/grub and add
radeon.audio=1
to
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
To make it look like this
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash radeon.audio=1"
Haven't tried it with my HTPC but did it with my sons laptop. Also with the laptop I had to disable two settings in the BIOS and create an EFI partition but the install of Linux Mint 14 KDE went smoothly an games seem to be running good with the open source drivers.
Re: (Score:2)
Canonical does have a compatible/certified list (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/ [ubuntu.com] shows desktops and servers classified by vendor, distro, etc
Re: (Score:3)
I'm typing this on a Dell Latitude E6410, which is on that list (albeit with nVidia graphics I think, but Intel support is better, right? That's why I ordered it, anyway). When I first got this machine, it was also on the list, but Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (the most recent LTS) wouldn't even boot on it, just gave a black screen. Apparently there were multiple issues with the Intel graphics drivers, with both the E6410 and the E6510. Now it did seem that Canonical was giving those bugs some attention, but it still t
Re: (Score:3)
Canonical only certifies hardware that's sent by vendors and they usually send complete systems. There is a tab above called Component Catalog http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/catalog/ [ubuntu.com] it does not have complete motherboards tough but discrete components.
What? (Score:3, Interesting)
due to the motherboard reporting a Linux-supported ethernet device (the common RTL8168) while it was actually using a GbE Ethernet device that does not work with the legacy drivers and didn't even work with a test Windows 7 install until the driver disk was installed.
Model and manufacturer, please! Sounds like bullshit to me.
Re: (Score:2)
I switched to Intel boards (Score:3)
I've used Tyan (although my last one was a dual P3), Gigabyte and Asus and I finally just switched to Intel boards, primarily to not have to ever use a Realtek (aka Realdreck) ethernet chipset again.
My Gigabyte and Asus boards used Realtek ethernet chipsets and they were total shit, both at the hardware level and at the software level. I ended up buying Intel cards and disabling/uninstalling the Realtek shit as much as possible.
Now I just buy Intel boards and get a decent Intel NIC, although Intel can be a PITA about releasing server OS drivers for what they call "consumer" NICs. The side benefit has been less weird shit and documentation in better English.
Intel boards may not be great "values" (relative to maximum features or overclockability) but they have always been super stable and worked right.
Save yourself some trouble... (Score:4, Insightful)
how? (Score:2)
I recently built an FM2 system around an Abit F2A85X-UP4 without any issues.
Flawless migration from my previous box (ga-ma770-ds3 & AMD 9550).
Open source radeon video driver w/ 3D accelleration.
No chips that are not working.
Re: (Score:2)
Not able to find complete systems? (Score:2)
Dell will sell you Ubuntu machines preloaded (give them a call, ignore their website). I personally like System76 and ZaReason, but there are many others..
http://linuxpreloaded.com/ [linuxpreloaded.com]
Suggest you find a better local shop (Score:2)
My local shop would build me what I asked them to, and it would work.
They've got people who know what each week's new motherboards can and can't do - there's no way I could keep up with that.
Of course manually built-to-order is slightly more expensive than buying commodity-boxes-designed-for-Windows off the shelf, but sometimes you get what you pay for.
Re: (Score:2)
hmm (Score:2)
Test and/or compromise (Score:2)
For years I've been using Asus motherboards and have never had any major problems. Perhaps some of the reasons for this are that I never go for the flagship models and/or the latest chipsets, never expect everything to work and am always willing to compromise. By the latter I mean in particular that I often end up adding things like sound cards when the Linux kernel I'm using (usually not the latest version) doesn't include support for the one on the motherboard. Graphics cards? Never expect too much or bu
System 76 (Score:2)
https://www.system76.com/ [system76.com]
what? (Score:4, Insightful)
how the hell do you make such a huge mountain out of a molehill?
AMD, Intel, Nvidia, Realtech, VIA
all have been supported in linux as system chipsets for a long fucking time, where the hell are you getting these crackhead mobos you speak of?
SuperMicro (Score:2)
Built systems with their E5 series motherboards (i.e.X9DA) that made my HP vendor cry in the corner asking for his mama.
Must have saved like close to 20 grand by whiteboxing a system spec I slotted from HP for 60 Grand.
-Hack
Asus P8Z68-V LX works fine for me (Score:3)
I've got a couple of PCs with the Asus P8Z68-V LX running 64-bit CentOS 6.3 and/or Ubuntu 12.04 without any issues at all. Newegg [newegg.com] has them for $80 and they support 32GB RAM, SATA 3, USB 3 and have decent onboard graphics (with plenty of slots for beefier cards). I don't see anything in this price range that a) works 100% with Linux and b) has good specs like this MB.
One nice thing - the BIOS is dead easy to upgrade - none of this Windows-only (or DOS-on-a-floppy!) rubbish: there's a built in filestore navigator in the BIOS and it picks up a .ROM file off a USB stick without any problems. And, yes, Asus do BIOS updates even for MBs like these which aren't that new or anywhere near the top of their range.
It should be noted that it's an LGA 1155/Z68 MB, which may or may not work with Ivy Bridge CPUs (I used a "lowly" i7 2600 Sandy Bridge in mine). I'm sure there must be an Asus equivalent to this MB that does.
ASUS Linux "compability list" (Score:3)
I might be late with this, but if you are considering ASUS motherboards, this can help:
http://www.asus.com/websites/global/aboutasus/OS/Linux.pdf [asus.com]
Re:It's about components on the board (Score:5, Interesting)
You should really be getting intel NICs pretty much no matter what. Dell sells them as an additional cost for a reason. The reason being broadcom sucks.
Re: (Score:2)
So you're saying that Windows 8 is fast enough to get the First Post every time? Are you sure you don't work for Microsoft marketing?
Re: (Score:2)
Re:MS controls the purse strings (Score:4, Insightful)
If Microsoft demands it, motherboard makers will fall in line in order to stay in business.
This probably also signals the beginning of the end of Microsoft.
Mighty empires always fall.
There's wholesale motherboards and retail motherboards. Wholesale motherboards are mostly destined for name-brand computers where MS-Windows will be pre-bundled.
However, when you buy retail, I'd venture that a lot of those motherboards have to be Linux-friendly, because Windows doesn't come "free" with them the way it does with mass-market computers and therefore I'd expect a much higher percentage of such motherboards to be destined for non-Windows machines, and since I have grave doubts about them becoming Apple machines, that leaves Linux as pretty much the largest market left.
In any event, so far Asus, Shuttle, MSI and BioStar have all worked fairly well for me. Occasionally an integrated peripheral will be problematic, but as far as it goes, I really wouldn't expect top-of-the-line integrated peripheral support from a retail mobo even on Windows. Especially considering what the Windows device driver development process has become.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
They also work with Debian, Slackware, and Ubuntu (as long as you're not working with too old a kernel).