Hardware compatible with one or more linux distros. Will it work on all other distros

necromancer44 · 06-07-2010, 04:33 PM

The company says its hardware works with several linux distros but not the one I am using. Does this mean it might not work with the one I am using? Or does working with one distro mean it will work with all others? Will I have to do some tinkering to get it to work with my distro or it will be straightforward?

rweaver · 06-07-2010, 04:37 PM

It depends. Generally hardware will work on any distribution, likely the vendor you're talking to has only packaged it for deb or rpm based systems or alternately only supports its use on x y z distribution. If you download the packages with the drivers you need and install them as required the hardware will work on pretty much any distribution that has support for the architecture.

jlinkels · 06-07-2010, 06:28 PM

Sigh... SIGH

It would help if you stated which hardware, which distro you have in mind, which distro is said to be supported and how old that hardware is.

In general, hardware is said to be supported in RH, Suse and *buntu because it is tested with those distros. No serious manufacturer will state the fitness if he hasn't tested the distro he mentiones. If the hardware is older than 18 months your distro supports it as well.

Additionally you can google for it to see if other users had succes with this hardware.

jlinkels