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Unix & LinuxHardware ( motherboards, specifically ) compatibility with Linux
[+3] [1] Netan
[2023-04-29 09:34:06]
[ drivers hardware hardware-compatibility ]
[ https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/744447/hardware-motherboards-specifically-compatibility-with-linux ]

Note: I thought about it and really felt like it belongs here. It's not about hardware, such as it is about Linux drivers/compatibility. Am I wrong?

I'm not new to Linux - but I mostly administered VMs here and then.

While considering which board to buy for my new PC (, and while thinking of Microsoft's announce about 22H2 being the last Windows 10 update ), I started to entertain with the thought of installing Linux on my main workstation.

I will probably buy the AMD 7900X CPU, and am considering these motherboards:

I'm mostly wondering about the motherboard/chipset compatibility with Linux, since the rest ( HDD, SSD, GPU, RAM ) should already be supported. I guess it will work, but I preffer to buy something that'll work better.

Where can I find such info? Did anybody had an experience with one of these motherboards?

Thanks for the help!

I suspect you'll find this question is off-topic here - Chris Davies
I thought about it and really felt like it belongs here. It's not about hardware, such as it is about Linux drivers/compatibility. Am I wrong? - Netan
(2) Most motherboards generally work well with linux as most of them use well-known, well-supported components with good linux drivers available as standard in the kernel. Occasionally, a m/b will have some weird, poorly supported or just fundamentally broken/sub-standard component (e.g. some of the realtek nics from several years ago are garbage, but most are OK now). Some really new & unusual components may require you to compile and install a driver (if you're lucky, there'll be a dkms package for your distro), and some hardware requires non-free firmware (which is often packaged by distros) - cas
You're more likely to have compatibility issues with add-on hardware - e.g. USB or PCI/PCI-e devices for serial ports, wireless or ethernet NICs, web cams, audio devices, etc. Many of these will work just fine, but it's worth remembering that manufacturers, often change the underlying hardware in the device without changing the device's name (or even the USB/PCI device IDs) without warning. This sucks but works OK-ish on Windows because the manufacturers supply the drivers. Linux tends to have generic drivers for the device's chipset, not for specific brand/model names. - cas
(2) AFAIK, there's nothing in the X670 or B650 chipsets that isn't supported by Linux (although you may need to ensure you're running a recent kernel). AMD is pretty good about linux m/b support. Intel too. Extra stuff added to the motherboard by the vendor may or may not be supported - so that's the stuff you really need to research....google the motherboard brand/model + "linux", find out what extra non-chipset stuff a particular m/b adds and google for that + linux. - cas
by "google" I mean it as a generic verb for "search". I haven't used google for years, but duck-duck-go sucks as a verb. - cas
haha Thanks for the detailed answerr. I did tried to bing that ( JK, it is Google Search for me ) but couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. I figured that's because most users buying these products are doing it to run games on Windows and not much more ( I mean... nobody buys a 300$ motherboard just to run Chrome/Firefox and watch netflix ) - Netan
But, in-light of your comment, I will consider the lack of google-results a good thing. - Netan
I’m voting to close this question because shopping recommendations are offtopic here. - muru
(2) Again, I am asking for your experience and knowledge about compatibility and drivers, but if you don't care to read the actual post, than you can do whatever you want AFAIC. This stackexchange-sub is best suited to answer this question. - Netan
And I disagree - what you're asking is just a thinly veiled shopping recommendation. We get lots of these, for example: "which USB WiFi adaptor should I buy that will work with Linux?", and those are also always asking about drivers and compatibility. This site isn't for predicting how something will work for you, but for solving actual problems when you come up against them. - muru
As I said, I'm pretty new around, but this query isn't related to performance but to compatibility with Linux. I'm sorry if it feels below your level, but most SuperUser's users ( for example... ) are not using equipped to answer this question as you guys! - Netan
(1) I have GAMING V2 and the only thing that is not working under Ubuntu is the sensors - I cannot get RPM and voltages. Rest is working fine (including the WiFi and sound). - Konrad Gajewski
@KonradGajewski thanks! I've actually bought the hardware but still using windows 10 on my main computer, mostly for gaming. Let's hope SteamOS will get better and better! - Netan
[+1] [2023-10-04 17:51:58] ron [ACCEPTED]

I thought about it and really felt like it belongs here. It's not about hardware, such as it is about Linux drivers/compatibility. Am I wrong?

no I think you are 100% correct

Did anybody had an experience with one of these motherboards?

with one of those boards specifically - no. But my asrock z97 board on home pc, the sound works with RHEL/Centos 7.9 but not with RHEL 9. I've also experienced outright failure of linux to install on certain motherboards particularly new'ish ones (this was a few years back). It seems like it's a probability, nothing more, that older motherboards have a better chance of working with linux than newer ones. Especially with consumer home desktop pc's, not so much Dell or HP style desktops that you would find in a business setting.

I don't think what you're asking is a thinly veiled shopping recommendation. It's a very good, specific question - will [a specific version & distribution of] Linux run on my hardware. If it don't and you require linux, you have a problem and have to get different hardware or you're not going to function.

sorry I couldn't provide you an actual answer to your question, but I too

would like to see an official list, somehow, that shows for a given Linux version and distribution its compatibility with hardware it is planned to be run on. Is such a thing soley a requirement of the Linux kernel, that distributions such as Redhat or Ubuntu then decide to use? Or is it at the distribution level and not the kernel choice that will determine whether Linux will work, because my experience of sound working in RHEL 7.9 then not in RHEL 9 - did the kernel folks forget to include a driver or did Redhat? And then if the answer there is just use Ubuntu instead then I don't know if that will work until I try which is unacceptable (certainly unacceptable in a business environment). We just assume and take for granted linux will/should work, and that's the problem!


Thank you for the answer and encouragement!!! Yeah, I'm working as sysadmin/cyber-security so I know that I usually have to try, but I wondered if someone had experience with it. I'm currently with Windows 10, but I wil not install 11 on my machine, so I'm gonna do tha change sometime in the near future. - Netan
Regarding your last paragraph: I honestly just thought about drivers for new hardware... I don't see a reason for any bootable OS - to not boot on a standart PC. There might be issues with drivers ( maybe for the disk or eth ), or just a setting within the UEFI/BIOS... BUT YEAH, IMHO, such a list will encourage many to try Linux and help many others. - Netan
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