On Wed, Sep 9, 2009 at 3:22 PM, steve <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Mayank, > > On 09/09/2009 10:56 AM, Mayank wrote: > > Hi, > > Maybe the question has been asked already and I could find one of > the > > [...snip...] I know that's more of a > > management issue then technical but if there is someway through which I > can > > find compatibility of Debian with different servers provided by various > > vendors (primarily HP, Dell and IBM) then it would be really helpful for > me > > in decision making. > I don't know about Debian in particular, but in general if any one distro. > supports some hardware, it is quite likely that all of them do. Especially > since > hardware support is (mostly) a kernel issue. Here I am assuming that with > support you mean: > - The device is recognized by the OS > - There is application software that allows you to use the recognized > device > (device support normally comes into the kernel much before applications > capable > of making use of the device appear) > - The drivers+applications are not proprietary (which implies availability > and > support only from the vendor). > > > I tried to install Debian 5.0 on a HCL Infinity Global > > Line 2700 series server and the installation went hassle free, however > when > > I did lspci -n and tried to verify the compatibility using the web based > > utility provided at http://kmuto.jp/debian/hcl I was surprised to see > > several hardware components as not being supported. Can I consider the > > report displayed by http://kmuto.jp/debian/hcl as final and dump my idea > of > > installation of Debian > Well, considering what you wrote in your other mail, i think you are > barking up > the wrong tree ...that page has a very clear disclaimer: > """ > * This database uses the PCI map of Debian kernel 2.6.30-1-686 . > * The result does NOT guarantee your hardware works perfectly. > * This database only verifies the PCI devices at this time. X drivers, > ISA, > USB, IEEE1394 or any other devices are out of the focus. > """" > So, not only is it kernel version and architecture specific, it tests only > PCI > devices (not USB, which is what you were looking at) by looking at the PCI > Ids. > > I would not take that page as a final word, although it might help in > filtering > out some of your options. > > > or will the lack of support for some of the drivers > > won't have much effect on functioning of my system. This is the question > > which is worrying me the most as of now, because I don't want my servers > to > > hang up in middle of operations at later stage and it would be really > nice > > if someone can help me out on this front. > Lack of support for components that are non-essential to your server > operations > obviously will not have any effect on the functioning of your system. Even > in > the worst case scenario, where you might have limited or experimental > support > for some non-essential hardware, it is easy to disable loading of those > specific > modules to ensure that they do not affect the system negatively. > > > > > Also if possible please let me know how to find which all hardware is > > supported by a specific kernel. For e.g. I'm using kernel 2.6.22-3-486 > and > > would like to know which all hardware components does it support. If > there > > is someway to find a categorical list of such hardware components then > that > > would be lot more helpful. > > I think you are going about it the wrong way. The linux kernel these days > has > support for the largest number of devices compared to any other OS[1]. So, > I > would recommend that you first decide on your hardware and that check to > see the > state of the support (a first step would be to check the various HCL > lists[2] > and maybe also ask here). > > cheers, > - steve > > [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2SED6sewRw > [2] https://hardware.redhat.com/ > http://www.ubuntuhcl.org/ > http://en.opensuse.org/Hardware > -- > random non tech spiel: http://lonetwin.blogspot.com/ > tech randomness: http://lonehacks.blogspot.com/ > what i'm stumbling into: http://lonetwin.stumbleupon.com/ > -- > http://mm.glug-bom.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxers >
Thanks Steve and Krishnakumar for sharing your thoughts. @Steve 1. What I'd mentioned was a USB Controller and not a USB device and thus I think it does not fall under USB device category. 2. Thanks for providing link for http://www.ubuntuhcl.org. This is the kind of list I was looking out for. 3. You made a point that if hardware is supported by a particular kernel then it doesn't matter which distribution we choose. Does that mean, if a vendor claims that their server is compatible with say Redhat Enterprise Linux 4.0, and I find of kernel version for RHEL 4.0 and install a Debian Linux with same kernel version than everything should work out of the box as happened in case of RHEL 4.0 ? Thanks and regards, Mayank -- Today is tommorrow I was so worried about yesterday ... -- http://mm.glug-bom.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxers
