On Wednesday 09 Sep 2009, Mayank wrote:
Thanks for the support. Just to state my concerns here is an e.g. I've a Dell Server with 631xESB/632xESB/3100 Chipset UHCI USB Controller. Now upon looking up on http://kmuto.jp/debian/hcl I found that it was not supported.
I visited the site you have listed above. It clearly states and I quote "This database only verifies the PCI devices at this time. X drivers, ISA, USB, IEEE1394 or any other devices are out of the focus."
Besides, I consider the kernel source to be final say in what is supported and not supported; not some site which may not be complete in it's functionality.
So if I was to look out for support for this device on a Linux kernel, then how am I supposed to go about the problem.
[1] Make a list of the chipsets you are interested in; download the latest kernel (www.kernel.org) and go through the documentation or go through the exercise "make menuconfig" for the kernel and examine all the devices it presents to you and see if you are hardware is in the list. Also note that some drivers may support multiple incarnation of a chip.
And like this there are several other devices like PCI Express to PCI X Bridge, LPC bridge etc. for which I am unable to verify availability of support. So how do I go about finding support for these hardware components ?
See [1] above.
And yet another question would be "Are these components really critical for normal server operations ?"
It depends on the component!
As for seeking support from third party is concerned, that won't be possible because in that case I'd rather opt for RedHat or Suse which already provide support for their products. Sorry to disappoint
To the best of my understanding Redhat/Novell will not give you installation support directly - most likely you will have to hook with one of their partners. Besides, if your hardware is not in their HCL then you are back at square one. As already mentioned, this has more to do with the kernel rather than the distro.
IMO, your best bet is to work with the hardware vendor to get an eval piece and test your favourite distro on it with the latest kernel. The big guys may may do this if your order is large enough. In my case, I generally work with local system integrators who are more likely to work with you than the branded ones; plus you can specify the "best in class" components rather than the branded vendors dictating to you what you will get for your money (which is the typical case BTW).
HTH