Linux compatibility with integrated motherboards

[beer]

It's been about a year since I played with setting up and installing Linux. At the time, I built two Linux boxes, both for the same purpose - to give me a testing platform with which to verify and debug PHP components before I go live. In other words, I looked at it from a programming standpoint rather than a hardware standpoint.

Well the computer that i have been using has died. Since I work in an IT department, it was never an 'official' computer since it was more or less my toy. With this in mind, I need to request a new Linux box and most likely I am going to get a hand-me-down, which will be around a 1 GHz P3.

The problem is, our company is straight Dells and I'm likely to get an integrated motherboard unless I explicity tell them that it won't work. Last summer, if I recall correctly, I had a hard time getting an integrated LAN to work correctly, much less integrated audio and video. What is the official Linux compatibiltiy with these integrated solutions? Are they difficult to get working or does the Linux install see them the same as PCI cards?

Thanks in advance

 

[manly]

The short answer is: it usually will work about as well as with Windows.

The longer answer is, as always, it depends on the actual component(s). I'm not authoritaive on Dell systems, but for integrated video, you're probably looking at either ATI or Intel of some kind. For audio, it's likely to be Intel. Common commodity parts like those are going to be supported, and should be supported very well by now since they'll be roughly 3 years old.

I just built an nForce2 system, and it's supported pretty well under Linux even though it's fairly new. You'll probably want to use as recent a distro release as you can get away with (sometimes bleeding edge is not the best choice either). Any decent Linux installer will detect common hardware without any user intervention. Arguably, they can do a better job than the Windows installer, but Windows enjoys the advantage of 3rd party drivers from the manufacturers.

 

[chsh1ca]

Dell systems should work fine. All of their hardware that I've seen is pretty standard name-brand stuff. You've got your ATI/nVidia/Intel graphics, you've got your Intel/3Com onboard NIC, and you've got your onboard sound that should be supported just fine (dunno, never needed it in a workstation).

I've got 3 PowerEdge 1300s running linux, and a couple older OptiPlex GX-110 systems running RedHat as testbeds, and it detected all the hardware in those just fine.

 

[rmrf]

With my experience, Dell and IBM have been the best for installing linux and having it work. For those of you who are reading this forum topic, and are wondering about building a computer, I've found that the Biostar M7VIG PRO S/V/L motherboard specs and you can buy it here. I have gotten all of the onboard stuff to work (first motherboard to ever get sound working on!).

 

[beer]

Thanks for all your help. I'll let him know that the integrated solution should work lovely.

 

[anandfan]

what is all that whitespace in your message, your sig? I hate it!!! Hard to see the replies...

Anyway, like others said the newer distributions seem pretty versatile. I installed Mandrake 9.1 (with a little help from here) on an ECS K7S5a (SiS chipset) with integrated LAN and sound. Seems to work fine. I should think it would be even easier if you stay with Intel chipset solutions.