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MoBo Manufacturer Foxconn Refuses To Support Linux
Noodlenose notes a thread up on the Ubuntu forums, where a user is questioning the practices of hardware manufacturer Foxconn. The user describes how his new Foxconn motherboard caused his Linux install to freeze and fire off weird kernel errors. He disassembles the BIOS and concludes that a faulty DSDT table is responsible for the errors. Even though the user makes Foxconn aware of the problem, they refuse to correct it, as 'it doesn't support Linux' and is only 'Microsoft certified.' The user speculates darkly on Foxconn's motives. Read the forum, read the code, and come to your own conclusions. "I disassembled my BIOS to have a look around, and while I won't post the results here, I'll tell you what I did find. They have several different tables, a group for Windows XP and Vista, a group for 2000, a group for NT, Me, 95, 98, etc. that just errors out, and one for LINUX. The one for Linux points to a badly written table that does not correspond to the board's ACPI implementation.' The worst part is Foxconn's insistence that the product is ACPI compliant because their tables passed to Windows work, and that Microsoft gave the the magic WHQL certification."
In my workplace we run Windows, OS X, and Linux. I have the expectation of being able to use Linux on any x86 kit we buy. Absent an explanation or attitude change from this vendor, I won't recommend their kit here for Windows use either. That seems somewhat important so I'll repeat it:
I will not buy Foxconn kit for Windows use if Linux compatibility is impaired.
Although this vendor seems definitely not trying to support Linux with it's BIOS, the hard truth is that it's not so easy even for those who try. For more information, there is currently a thread on the LKML disussing this and how to improve the situation.
In particular, latest kernels claim to be every versions of Windows at the same time, and not Linux! That's not easy to handle for the BIOS writer...
Foxconn has no obligation to support
They went out of their way and expended extra effort to prevent Linux from working on their system. This moved beyond "not supporting", to "breaking" hardware that should have functioned without any effort at all on foxconns part, using what was probably considerable effort on their part to detect what kernel was booting, then developing a fake ACPI table to show only when it detected linux.
The interesting part is that a year or so back, there was an article here about how Microsoft floated a letter around manufacturers asking how to make ACPI harder for Linux to implement. Everyone asserted that we were just paranoid and the only reason ACPI was hard for Linux was because "Linux developers suck", but now it seems we know.
This is more a case of *Microsoft* not being ACPI compliant. The different versions of Windows have historically broken ACPI in hilariously random and catastrophic ways. You can decompile any BIOS on the market and find a similar table. If you're willing to rule out malicious sabotage on the part of Foxconn (which would be a pretty ballsy move given that they manufacture Intel's reference motherboards), the fault can probably be traced back to their BIOS vendor - either AMI or Award, if memory serves.
I would almost guarantee that somewhere inside the next computer you build will be Foxconn logo. They are a hugely popular supplier of mobo components like usb or network ports. Not buying Foxconn is definitely an active pass time.
CheShA: Manchester Breakcore / Drill and Bass Yes I'm a s
If Windows had a functional command shell, it would probably get used quite a bit, too -- it's a fast, efficient way of interacting with the computer, and it provides an easy way to tell people exactly what to do (just cut and paste the following commands...).
But Windows' built-in shell is a piece of shit; it's simply painful to use. (PowerShell is better, but it's not part of most Windows installs.)
That everything has to be done through the GUI in Windows isn't a feature, it's a flaw.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
What scenario would Grandma Maybel need to even know about the registry?
That one is easy for me. I used to do technical Support for Norton Antivirus.
Grandma purchased a Dell computer with 128 megs of RAM running Windows XP. She has 10 things running in the tray and the computer is crawling. She knows just enough to know that viruses are bad. Someone at Staples tells her that the $79.00 copy of Norton Antivirus will fix her computer right up.
Well there are 5 things that will pooch a Norton Install. One of them would be having a nasty virus like Klez on your system. Another is a bad hardware. Another is a corrupted windows installer system. The one that gets granny however is lack of system resources. NAV should only be installed on a system with 70% of system resourcess free, may install on a system with 60% free.
So now Granny calls for support. She can't uninstall. She is going to have to do a manual uninstall. So we email her a document with a procedure to run the computer in safe mode. Delete a bunch of files and folders AND then run regedit and pound a bunch of entries out of the registry
Trust me. I took at least 2 or 3 calls like that a day. The only ones better are the 35 year old moms trying to figure out how they got porn popups on their computer. After all the only people to ever use that computer is her and her 15 year old son.
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