mothorboard Linux compatibility

[DENNIS1940]

What up to date mother board are you using? Did it run Linux as it came to you"
Are the new motherboards much different from the old ones that ran Linux easily?(not perfectly but easily)


Being cautious, before sending money, I asked Asrock tech support if their motherboards will run Linux their reply was "our drivers are wrong for Linux" and "our bios is wrong for Linux"
"and if you run anything but Windows 10 or 11 we can not provide support"

So i asked B&H, a large store that has a lot of motherboards listed for sale. They said "we don't know". They tried to find out but could not contact MSI. then Asus said"not Linux". She directed me to Gigabite and one reply was "ask the chipset vendor for linux drivers". The store tech person did not know what or who a chipset vendor was neither did I. She was trying to help and suggested that I ask Asus, Gigabite , and MSI directly .I replied "the manufacturer has no incentive to reply to me but they do have incentive to reply to you."

dennis

[filip]

I'm not an expert but the most motherboards should just work. There might be some that require a boot parameter or proper setting in BIOS/UEFI for unessential functions but they should be rare.

[artenox]

You'd better ask the Linux community. Avoid motherboards that are too new. In December 2011 I bought a new computer and installed openSUSE 12.1 KDE4 32 bit with green chameleon (release date November 2011) and I had to disable ACPI at boot that it worked. But as a result, I was unable to power down with the hardware button. I would power down from KDE and then press the hardware button (as it was in Windows 98: you can now power down the computer). My brother laughed at me. That was my experience. But then it was fixed. Also, the new Nvidia card was slow with the proprietary driver.

[sturmvogel]

Under linux, chipset drivers are built into the kernel. You don't need separate chipset drivers like with MS windows. The only linux drivers which maybe are relevant are the wifi and sound drivers. But there are only a handfull of unsupported sound/wifi chips (avoid crazy, cheap, noname, fake, chinese brands from alibaba or so...).

More important is that you chose a motherboard brand with support for update of the UEFI BIOS indepentend from the used operating system. MSI, GIGABYTE, ASUS as example provide up to date BIOS implementations which you can also update with/under linux (you attach a USB stick with the update (*.CAP file) to a special USB port and update from within the existing BIOS). Avoid motherboard brands which only support BIOS updates under MS Windows (only provision of *.exe update files).
All manufacturers provide informations if they support BIOS updates indepentend from the used operating systems (except for the mentioned crazy, cheap, noname, fake, chinese brands from alibaba...)

So the answer from filip was already the correct one...


P.S.: If you want to build a gaming rig with fancy RGB lights you wont have much fun. As there is no standard and all motherboard manufactures brew their own implementation (non standard implementation, closed source), there exists no linux drivers which can be shipped or provided by any linux distribution. Some experimental linux drivers for a handfull motherboards exist on github but there is zero support from the manufacturers for it...

[doktor5000]

You'd better ask the Linux community.

We are a linux community, no ?

[morgano]

Right now i Installed Mageia 9 (using inofficial pre beta 2 installer ISO) on an ASROCK P55 Pro manufactured 2009.
Runs nicely.
This is actually now my work machine... The one I used until three days ago broke the mainboard, just 11 years old.
This ASROCK P55 Pro have been used by three members in my family before me...
Too slow to be used to waste time on games with it.
- Today you need the fastest computers to waste most time

I have never had a "PC" this millenium that a Linux installer did not work on, new or old.
(Well if the CPU is really old style like pre i586 you need to look around more to find a suitable distro)

Anyway, I would not support that B&H shop if they care that little they seem to do about customers, and not ASROCK either nowadays by that reply they gave you...

[mrmazda]

IME what matters is that the components used by motherboard manufacturers are supported by the manufacturers of those components. Most components do get Linux support eventually, if not early in their lives, because it's usually kernel components that provide the support, the linux kernel is open source, the manufacturers are able to participate in development of support, and it's usually in their best interest to contribute.

The above translates into just about every x86_64/amd64 motherboard more than a year old either is already supported, or will be fully supported before it has been 18-20 months since it's newest component was originally released for motherboard manufacturer inclusion. Most don't take that much time, and may be supported before 6-9 months have passed since newest component release.

IME, if you wish to purchase latest technology you need to become a development "guinea pig", meaning you must choose (a) pre-release distro(s), report any bugs you find that haven't already been reported, and expect periods when something can't be made to work right, until yours has aged enough for all the worst bugs to have been found and dealt with.

I have motherboards from ASRock, ASUS, Biostar, Dell, eCS, EVGA, Gigabyte, HP, Intel, MSI and Toshiba, and a few from defunct manufacturers. None have ever posed a material problem for use with Mageia, though some components have had poor support. Those problems have typically been weak or absent graphics support for GPUs not manufactured by AMD, Intel or NVidia, and it's not Mageia to blame when it has happened, but absent or poor upstream support, and the same applies to other problem components.

[DENNIS1940]

Thanks for your considerate and detailed replies. I've used linux for 20 years and the versions that I used ran well enough that I did not need to know much. My computer was a Dell made in 2006 it was about to die from bulging capacitors. I Killed it trying to solder in new capacitors. I had on hand a friend's 2014 ( MSI A75A-G3 mothorboard ) computer. It had been a Windows 10 computer and now runs Linux. As Flip wrote, after installing Linux, it just runs. Stormvogel's information on chipset drivers was both incisive and very helpful to my understanding. Isn't the UEFI someting to avoid if dual booting? ( I dualboot with windows to have a way to run equipment not made for Linux.) Morgano, I broke a motherboard too, it was on the floor unseen and as I stepped on it, there were crunching sounds. With the poor help that I received from some manufacturers, I will avoid buying their products. Mrmazda,your advice is encouraging, thanks, I needed to "hear" it.

Your support is unmatched by any other group and I am indeed grateful. I left SUSIE many years ago. SUSIE became bloated and their forum was hostile. I am greatly appreciative of your considerate and compassionate help, you are remarkable.

[filip]

Thanks for your nice words!

Isn't the UEFI someting to avoid if dual booting?

No. UEFI is very well supported in Linux for about a decade (it depends on the distro). As in BIOS you have to avoid same settings ("Secure boot")

I dualboot with windows to have a way to run equipment not made for Linux.

May I ask what equipment? As that is rare nowadays.

[DENNIS1940]

Printers sometimes worked with my Susie but after a while no longer did. I just gave up and used my wife's windows 7 computer for printing on a HP printer that just worked. I usually set a computer up to Dual boot. When i tried Zorin in dual boot, it raised havoc with dual booting the other distribution in the computer. Sad though, Zorin had such a pretty background image.
This forum is easily the best I've ever encountered. Those giving advice go to great effort to help the hapless.
Dennis