By Bruce Byfield

True, hardware support for GNU/Linux has improved greatly in the last decade. Today you can pick out any computer system and stand a strong chance of having it work out of the box with your distribution of choice. Yet enough gaps in support remain that doing research before buying remains a sensible idea.

The point of Ask Ubuntu is to collect answers, not links to answers. I will only manually award the bounty to a question that provides a step-by-step solution to make the BCM4313 work (if that works for similar chipsets too, that's fine and should be noted).
Introduction to Linux - A Hands on Guide This guide was created as an overview of the Linux Operating System, geared toward new users as an exploration tour and getting started guide, with exercises at the end of each chapter.
Install Mac drivers on Linux. Ask Question. Are you asking if you can install OSX drivers in Linux Mint? If so, the answer is no. These are entirely different operating systems; the drivers are not compatible. Browse other questions tagged mac drivers linux-mint or ask your own question. 3 years, 1 month ago.

I have a lot of files on an external hard drive that I wish to access on my (now) Linux-based computer. The computer is now running Mint 16 (Cinnamon). The drive is a SATA drive I pulled from my Windows computer.

These days, too, you can take support for many types of hardware for granted. Almost all motherboards, hard drives, keyboards, mice, network cards, DVD drives, and flash drives should work with GNU/Linux without any trouble. However, you should be wary of hardware that is operated by software rather than buttons, because the software is likely designed for Windows, or sometimes Mac OS X. Of course, if you think for a moment, you probably want to avoid such hardware anyway — a software-driven DVD drive, for example, is going to require a couple of extra reboots if you ever want to start your system from it.

Even when you can take so much support for granted, many pieces of hardware remain a gamble. Since few manufacturers mention GNU/Linux support on their packaging, let alone their Web sites, your only recourse is to search the Internet for information. Your results will inevitably include dozens of pages, many outdated or incomplete, all of which makes sorting and assessing the information a time-consuming, often confusing task full of jargon that only experts can fully understand.

What follows is an effort to list the sites with the most current information available about cards and peripherals. The information varies from the vague to the exhaustive, but, in all cases, represents the most succinct and complete resources of which I am aware.

Video cards

If you want to know whether a video card is supported, you have two main guides. For free drivers, check the X.org site’s list of supported cards. For proprietary drivers, check the manufacturers’ sites. Most people will be concerned with the proprietary drivers for Nvidia and ATI, the two leading video card manufacturers. You can also check the Nouveau project, which is developing free drivers for Nvidia. The Avivo project is also developing free drivers for the R500/R600 lines of ATI cards, but, so far, none have been released.

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If you have a choice between free and proprietary drivers, your choice may be based purely on your philosophical preferences. However, just as likely, your choice will involve a tradeoff of functionality. Broadly speaking, free drivers for ATI and Nvidia tend to lack 3-D support, while the proprietary drivers of ATI tend to be slow and buggy and those for Nvidia fast but variable in quality. In other words, none are completely satisfactory.

Another consideration is your distribution’s policy about which drivers it ships. Commercial distributions like Linspire and Xandros often ship the proprietary drivers, while Ubuntu uses the free drivers by default but includes a Restricted Drivers Manager from which you can easily install proprietary ones, and Debian offers proprietary drivers in the non-free sections of its repositories. Fedora 7 is one of the first to ship with the free Nouveau drivers for Nvidia cards. Whichever drivers are available in your distribution’s native package format and repositories will be the easiest for you to manage.

Sound cards

No single site contains complete information for the concerned consumer buying sound cards. For a succinct summary of GNU/Linux-compatible sound cards, you can go to the Linux Sound site. You may also be able to winnow out useful information from the mailing lists of Linux Audio Developers.

Another useful source for sound information is the Soundcard Matrix of the Advanced Linux and Sound Architecture project, whose work provides sound support for modern distributions. The matrix is no longer maintained as of May 5, 2007, but its port to a wiki is still incomplete as I write, so, for the time being, you should use the old page. The matrix gives detailed information about each driver for developers, but, so far as consumers are concerned, what matters most is whether a particular card is listed. If a card is listed and the Notes column has no comments about the state of support, then you can be confident that the card will work in modern distributions.

Printers

You should be able to get basic functionality in GNU/Linux from any printer that supports the PostScript printing language, thanks to Hewlett-Packard’s free drivers. However, if you want detailed information before buying — especially for multifunction printers — check the Linux Foundation’s Printer Compatibility Database, which is part of the Linux Foundation’s OpenPrinting project (formerly LinuxPrinting.org).

The Printer Compatibility Database is almost an ideal resource for printers. Its database of printers is close to complete, and you can search it by model, manufacturer, or driver. The support offered for each model is summarized on a four-point scale — Perfectly, Mostly, Partially, and Paperweight. The database holds information on the drivers that work with each printer, where to get detailed instructions on configuration, and information such as the resolutions supported and reader-contributed feedback. Alternatively, you can go to the Suggest Printers page, which recommends what manufacturers and models to buy based on your need and budget in the categories of color inkjets, monochrome lasers, color lasers, and high-end lasers. These recommendations are based in a large part on the reports in the OpenPrinting forums, so you can search them for more detaisl.

Scanners

If you scan from a multifunction printer, you can find information about it from the Printer Compatibility Database. However, the main source of compatibility information about all types of scanners is the SANE project’s Supported Scanners Search Engine, which will tell you whether a particular scanner is usable under GNU/Linux. Generally, the status is either complete or unsupported — but little additional information is available in many of the results that are more than two or three years old. Unfortunately, too, the search fields require you to know a specific manufacturer, model, or product ID, rather than providing drop-down lists to choose from. To get more detailed information, try the SANE project’s forums.

Digital cameras

Modern digital cameras have mostly abandoned the proprietary formats of the past in favor of open USB protocols that are easy for GNU/Linux to support. However, if you want to make sure that you aren’t considering an exception, gPhoto, which provides the main free libraries for camera support, maintains a list of 914 cameras as well as the state of their support. Another source is Hubert Figui√®re’s Digital Camera Support for Unix, Linux and BSD, which gives more detail about not only the cameras supported, but also how to configure them, what is not supported, and the issues involved in support. Both of these sites give their information in lists rather than searchable databases.

Wireless cards

A few years ago, modems were the major gap in hardware support. These days, it’s wireless network adapters. Moreover, frequent releases of new models makes support difficult. In some cases, two cards that are supposed to be the same model may have different firmware and require different drivers.

The best single site for keeping up-to-date on the

Linux Mint Restricted Drivers For Mac