Hardware and Compatibility
Get to know your hardware and find out if it is compatible with Linux before you begin to install.
What hardware do you have?
Make a list of your hardware. Check to see if it is compatible with Linux. Have this list on hand when you install. If you already have Windows installed on your computer, you can look at the Device Manager and gather information from there on much of this.
One free tool available for determining your hardware on a windows machine is Everest Home Edition
Hardware List:
- Computer. Knowing the make and model can be helpful if you cannot otherwise determine the hardware contained in your computer. You can often search on the Internet to find the information by searching on your computer make and model, especially at the website of your computer’s manufacturer.
- Disk Drive. Is it IDE or SCSI? How big is it? Most computers these days have plenty of room.
- Memory and Processor. You need to have enough RAM for the distro you are installing. You can find the requirements for RAM and Processor at the website of your chosen distro. How much RAM do you have? What type of Processor and what speed is it?
- CD-ROM: What type is it? - ATAPI is the usual Does your CD-ROM also write !CDs?
- Sound Card: What make and model of card do you have? You may not have a card. Many computers now have a chipset that takes care of sound, video, or networking.
- Monitor: Make and model. If you have the Horizontal and Vertical refresh ranges in your monitor manual, write those down. Most makes and models are included in the listing when you configure X, but you may need these numbers.
- Video Card: Make & Model? Here again, this may be a chipset and not a card. How much Video Memory in Mb?
- Mouse: What kind is it? How many buttons? A wheel? Does it plug into a mouse port or into USB?
- Network Card: What is the make and model or chipset for this?
Is your hardware compatible with Linux?
- After you have made your list of hardware, check to see if it is compatible with Linux. Check the Hardware Links page for more help,
Please add any hardware that you needed to know about to do your install and/or links to information on Linux hardware compatibility to this page or write to us to let us know so that we can add your information.
–by Anita
Copyright (c) by the authors.
Prior to editing, authors agreed to license their contributions by the terms of the GPL.
See our licensing page for details.
Linux® is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
tutorials/pre/hardware_and_compatibility.txt · Last modified: 2007/11/16 12:24
Welcome to LinuxBasics.org - The online community that helps people to get Linux installed and running.
During this tour, we will guide you through our website, which has many facets which wait to be explored
The biggest project we are running is our Linux course, based on the LBook.
The book is stored in wiki-format, which enables us to update and correct it as we go.
Discussion for the course is on our Forum
Our mailing-list is for any Linux-related question.
The questions and answers from the list are stored in the list's archives in order to help others with the same problems.
Every weekend, we meet to chat in IRC. These meetings are NOT mandatory, but are a nice chance to get to know each other better.
IRC is also a great tool to solve many problems, since it is very quick and easy to ask for more details if you need them.
The tutorials are one of the oldest sections on the LBo-website.
Here you find explanations on how to do specific tasks in Linux. Many of the tutorials were created after a certain problem
has been discussed (and usually solved :) on the mailing-list.
The tutorials are categorized in
In the links section, you find outbound links to other valuable resources.
One of our later additions to the site. We maintain a mirror of the Linux Documentation Project. This is our contribution to the "home of the HOWTOs"
Another later addition is the LBlog which focuses on how to do stuff on the Linux Desktop. It begins with the basics on installing Ubuntu.
Using the integrated site-search, you can search the tutorials, the LBook and all other wiki-pages
Simply type the search term into the box in the upper-right corner of our webpages
As a community, we depend on your feedback and collaboration. So, if you have something to share with others, please contact us. If you have a suggestion for a topic you would like to see covered here, please add it on the Wishlist.
There are many ways to contribute: You can answer questions on the mailing-list, you can write a complete tutorial or just a step-by-step documentation on how you completed a specific task using linux. Ask questions if the information on this site is not clear, tell us if we got something wrong, spell-check our writings, whatever.
We are looking forward to meeting you at LinuxBasics.org
Anita, Jisao, Sam and Stefan