Very Computer

Hi,

Some of my PC's hardware is not listed in the RedHat Linux compatibility
list. Namely my HP Colorado 20GB internal tape drive, my NEC CD-ROM and
my IBM hard disk (no IBM hard disks are listed at all). Also I have no
idea what my modem is and think I'll have to open up my machine to find
out. My video card and network card are both listed in the hardware
compatibility list.

Does RedHat Linux (7.2) have generic drivers that will/might be able to
handle these pieces of hardware? [NOTE: HP have no Linux driver
downloads for my tape drive nor does the NEC site for my CD-ROM.]

I don't want to buy or download RedHat if I'm not likely to be able to
get my hardware running with it, especially -obviously- my hard disk and
CD-ROM.

Finally does another flavor of Linux support more types of hardware than
RedHat?

Thanks and regards,

..matthew

I can almost guarantee that both your harddrive and CD will work as long
as they are "normal" devices.
If the modem is a "winmodem" it might work but it could take some tweaking.
Search google.com for winmodem for further info about this stuff.
I have no idea about the Tape drive though.

--
Stefan
I don't reply to top-posters!

Possibly.  Linux will, as a rule, support any IDE hard disk attached
to a supported controller; it will, as a rule, support any ATAPI
CD-ROM attached to a supported controller.  Linux should support all
SCSI hard disks and CD-ROMs attached to a supported controller.

I can't comment on the tape drive, but I've seen options for things
like "ATAPI tape drive support" in the kernel.  I've never used them.
I find it extremely likely that Linux supports all SCSI tape drives
attached to a supported controller.

Quote:> I don't want to buy or download RedHat if I'm not likely to be able to
> get my hardware running with it, especially -obviously- my hard disk and
> CD-ROM.

Download a RedHat rescue disk and try booting with it.  If it starts
up and seems to recognize all your hardware, you're good to go.

Quote:> Finally does another flavor of Linux support more types of hardware than
> RedHat?

No.  "Linux" is an operating system kernel and is what provides
support for all these devices.  _As a rule,_ distributions ship
with "vanilla" Linux kernels.  While there's nothing to stop Mandrake,
for example, from including support for 300 other devices, it's
extraordinarily unlikely.

--

"I woke up this morning and realized what the game needed: pirates,
pimps, and gay furries."  - Rich "Lowtax" Kyanka

I don't trust hardware compatibility lists too much. They can't possibly
list all available hardware devices - there are just too many. And you
can't expect the people who write drivers to write one for every single
model of hardware out there. So it helps to understand how these things
work.

Your hard disk will be a standard IDE or SCSI one. All internal hard
disks around today are compatible with one of these standards (depends
which plug is on your disk; most likely IDE). And Linux supports both
standards of hard disk. So the make/model doesn't matter - all are
compatible. The same applies to CD-ROMs. They all conform to a standard,
and if Linux supports one, it supports them all.

Modems and tape drives are slightly different though. There are
standards, but not all devices adhere to them. If the modem is a
"normal" one, it will work. If it is a WinModem, then it might.
(WinModems do much more "in the software" than normal modems, and
therefore require much more complex drivers which are specific to each
device.) Look at http://www.linmodems.org .

The tape drive... what interface? If it's SCSI, it'll almost certainly
work (standards again). If it's anything else, it depends. What
interface is it? Look around for people with this tape drive who use
Linux. Ask them what they did to get it working - or whether it worked
straight off.

Hope this helps,
Malcolm.

Many thanks for all your replies, they've been very informative.

Sorry -to some of the groups who don't like cross-posting- I'll avoid it
in future.

Thanks and regards,

..matthew