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Tech Explained

Hardware Compatibility

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

auhtored by Shanker Balan and Avinash Shenoy

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Planning to buy some new

hardware and wondering whether it'll work under Linux? To find an answer

to this question, let's analyze the situation a little closely.

To get a device working under

any OS, we need to have system-specific device drivers written for it.

Almost all hardware manufacturers provide Windows drivers, as well as

drivers for other commercial operating systems like the MacOS and OS/2.

Providing Linux drivers, however, is of zero priority to most companies.

It's usually up to the

Linux community to develop these drivers. Most of the time, a piece of

hardware winds up in the hands of a Linux hacker and he writes a driver for

it on the basis of the programming specifications provided by the device

manufacturer. The driver code is merged with the unstable kernel development

tree and is peer reviewed and tested by other hackers. Once the code has

reached maturity, it's incorporated into the stable kernel tree for use in

a production environment.

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The main hurdle here is the

availability of programming specs from the manufacturer. Some manufacturers

make these readily available, others make it available subject to

restrictions and conditions, usually under a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA),

or even refuse altogether. Still others provide binary-only drivers.

However, Linux is currently

the fastest growing OS in the world, and this has made many companies sit up

and take notice. High-end hardware manufacturers like Matrox, Intel, 3Dfx,

Nvidia, 3Com, etc, provide all possible help for driver development. 3Dfx's

Glide drivers have been available for a long time, and have recently been

made open source. Low-end manufacturers like SiS, S3, and Trident had

initial hiccups about Linux support, but are slowly coming around.

Let's take the example of

the infamous SiS 6326/6215c display card. SiS refused to provide programming

specs initially, and as a result, proper drivers couldn't be developed.

The market was, however, flooded with SiS cards which didn't work under

Linux and even if they did, performance wasn't at par with that under

Windows. SiS was apparently aware of the situation and refused to help. But

ultimately, they had to give in to user pressure and published the specs.

Stable drivers for SiS cards are under development and should be released

soon. SiS's home page now even has a support section for Linux users.

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On the other hand, there's

3Dfx which makes the very popular Voodoo chipset. 3Dfx has been pro-Linux

since day one. The Linux version of Quake came bundled with Glide drivers

for hardware-accelerated 3D rendering. Initially, 3Dfx provided only binary

drivers. Very recently, they opened up the source for Glide and have placed

it under GPL. Similarly, in the case of Creative Labs, there were no Linux

drivers for their high-end SB Live! card. Then, they provided binary-only

drivers, which were quickly followed by GPL'd drivers.

Then there are companies who

simply refuse to provide any help. Yamaha, for instance, has refused to

provide the specs for their YMF724 PCI-based sound chipset, which is very

popular in India. So, unfortunately, there's currently no way to make it

work under Linux.

So, how do you go about

purchasing hardware for Linux? As a rule of thumb, check from the following

sources for what's supported and what's not:

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