Arch Linux

T-Dawg

Forum Fellow

From: Charlotte, NC

Registered: 2005-01-29

Posts: 2,736

Mobo chipsets that play nice with Linux?

Hey guys,
  I'm looking to build a new system for my desktop machine at home. I know having a motherboard with chipsets that have issues with Linux can be a real pain. So, I'm asking you guys to share any bad or good experiences with manufacturer (not model) chipsets on mobos. I don't do any gaming or run performance specific applications so again, stability and reliability are my primary concern.
  I'm not going to mention what I've been looking at or what little I've heard because I don't want the scope of the discussion limited.
Let's hear your two cents

FUBAR

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2004-12-08

Posts: 1,029

Website

Re: Mobo chipsets that play nice with Linux?

I'm running/'ve run Linux on these chipsets:
- nVidia nForce 4: sucky nVidia onboard NIC, but it sucks in Windows aswell so I use the second Broadcom NIC instead
- VIA KT133A
- ServerWorks CSB5
- IBM T43 laptop (not sure which chipset)
- Compaq Proliant 1500R (not sure which chipset): needs extra boot options to make all 256MB memory available, documented in the kernel docs
- ALi 15** (Pentium 200MMX)
all without issues.

If you don't buy bleeding edge hardware, I don't see where you might run into trouble. Maybe if you want to use the onboard RAID-controller's RAID functionality (which is a bad idea anyway), it's a different story.

---

A bus station is where a bus stops.
A train station is where a train stops.
On my desk I have a workstation.

iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: Mobo chipsets that play nice with Linux?

Intel chipsets tend to have a better record. Partially because intel have more of an interest in linux than other vendors -- there's a lot of @intel emails on LKML, so even if you did run into a problem, it'd be fixed much quicker.

I know some smarty is going to reply and say "but i had problem X with intel board Y". No vendor's record is perfect, and it can depend on whether the mobo manufacturer has messed something up, but i've found intel to be more reliable, both in experience, and just observation.

The Core 2 duo's are great. Lower power usage and fast, there's not much to dislike. The chipsets and related hardware are now thoroughly supported too.

James

t12ek

Member

Registered: 2007-07-15

Posts: 9

Re: Mobo chipsets that play nice with Linux?

I'm running Arch Linux on an nVidia 650i chipset motherboard, the only issues I've had with it was due to bad ram. I don't use onboard audio however, so I don't know if that works or not. Everything else seems to work just fine.

I previously ran both Gentoo and Ubuntu on the same machine with no issues.

Last edited by t12ek (2007-08-09 12:59:00)