Broadcom hardware (WiFi cards an webcams in particular).
Plus there are quirks with some proprietary driver version not building against some kernel version…
With unsupported hardware and closed drivers you are always on the lookout for some breakage.
And it’s not a Linux problem nor a complaint on distro maintainers. It’s manufacturers that are shit.
HP Reverb G2 for me. Still waiting on Monado to get it fully working but no such luck yet. Hugely appreciative to the dev team for all of their amazing work, of course.
Peripheral devices, mostly. I have some half-supported, like Logitech mouse (G-shift doesn’t work), and for some I rely on open-source devs (like Corsair keyboard for certain keys/modes/connectivity fix). Sure, you can say just buy compatible devices, but it’s not always viable to replace everything you owned before moving to Linux.
I was able to get mine working by setting it up as a network printer via windows and then just accessing it like that through Linux. But yeah, if I ever change wifi ssids I would need to factory reset it go back into windows and configure it again. (ET2400)
I’ve got some LianLi case fans that aren’t supported by anything Linux that I’ve been able to find. I run a barebones VM just to control their features.
Off the top of my head, my case is a LianLi O11, but I was talking about my case fans, which are… Oh lord, their naming is so obnoxious, the… TM LCDs I think?
lconnect just isn’t linux friendly, which is kinda surprising. I’ve got the 8.8 universal screen, which I could just toggle into a second display and get all the system data that way when running under linux.
Oh yeah I gave up trying to run LConnect on linux a while ago. I then looked into alternative tools people have made, of which there are a few and they seem great, but none of which (when I looked last) support my specific fan models. So my current solution is Windows 11 in a barebones VM that autostarts. It literally just runs Lconnect and nothing else, and the only things passed through to it are the USB controls for the fans. It has allowed me to at least control the colours, and screens, though not fan profiles or stats.
My case: I have an nvidia GTX 980. It’s old but it’s what I have.
Nvidia dropped its support from driver version 595.
Driver 580 is what I need, it worked until 7.0 but no longer in 7.1 (was using Fedora 44). Since my hardware is old I switched to Debian Trixie.
Another example is the facetime HD Webcam of macbook pro: to make it work you have to install OSx or download a recovery image, compile a C program to extract a specific binary blob, then use that blob to recompile the driver on your kernel.
There are lots of examples: it’s a big world, with lots of hardware and mostly no producer interested in the Linux world.
Absolutely not.
Signed, owner of half-supported hardware.
Out of curiosity what hardware are you using that’s not supported?
Broadcom hardware (WiFi cards an webcams in particular). Plus there are quirks with some proprietary driver version not building against some kernel version…
With unsupported hardware and closed drivers you are always on the lookout for some breakage.
And it’s not a Linux problem nor a complaint on distro maintainers. It’s manufacturers that are shit.
Audio gear.
HP Reverb G2 for me. Still waiting on Monado to get it fully working but no such luck yet. Hugely appreciative to the dev team for all of their amazing work, of course.
Certain fingerprint readers and touchscreens
ex. Goodix
It’s not the fault of Linux, it’s the hardware manufacturers. Still, you need to consider it before buying the device
Peripheral devices, mostly. I have some half-supported, like Logitech mouse (G-shift doesn’t work), and for some I rely on open-source devs (like Corsair keyboard for certain keys/modes/connectivity fix). Sure, you can say just buy compatible devices, but it’s not always viable to replace everything you owned before moving to Linux.
Printers 🤣
In my experience, the only OS where printers won’t have drivers is Windows.
But I don’t deal often with dark demoniac systems, so there are probably lots of niche hellish devices that I don’t know the details.
BS, I have gotten HP printers to work on Linux with no problems.
They work better on Linux ,more prints than on windows ,same Cartwright. Installing was plug play (Office jet 6950)
My Epson inkjet is a paperweight without w*ndows
How old is it? Almost all relatively recent printers should support driverless network printing by now.
Epson seems to supply Linux drivers according to their website and some Linux users when I searched around
I was able to get mine working by setting it up as a network printer via windows and then just accessing it like that through Linux. But yeah, if I ever change wifi ssids I would need to factory reset it go back into windows and configure it again. (ET2400)
I’ve got some LianLi case fans that aren’t supported by anything Linux that I’ve been able to find. I run a barebones VM just to control their features.
What case are you using? I’ve got a LianLi Lancool 216. It’s a little loud but it runs just fine for me.
Off the top of my head, my case is a LianLi O11, but I was talking about my case fans, which are… Oh lord, their naming is so obnoxious, the… TM LCDs I think?
lconnect just isn’t linux friendly, which is kinda surprising. I’ve got the 8.8 universal screen, which I could just toggle into a second display and get all the system data that way when running under linux.
Oh yeah I gave up trying to run LConnect on linux a while ago. I then looked into alternative tools people have made, of which there are a few and they seem great, but none of which (when I looked last) support my specific fan models. So my current solution is Windows 11 in a barebones VM that autostarts. It literally just runs Lconnect and nothing else, and the only things passed through to it are the USB controls for the fans. It has allowed me to at least control the colours, and screens, though not fan profiles or stats.
What Linux kernel are you running which isn’t supporting your hardware?
My case: I have an nvidia GTX 980. It’s old but it’s what I have.
Nvidia dropped its support from driver version 595.
Driver 580 is what I need, it worked until 7.0 but no longer in 7.1 (was using Fedora 44). Since my hardware is old I switched to Debian Trixie.
Another example is the facetime HD Webcam of macbook pro: to make it work you have to install OSx or download a recovery image, compile a C program to extract a specific binary blob, then use that blob to recompile the driver on your kernel.
There are lots of examples: it’s a big world, with lots of hardware and mostly no producer interested in the Linux world.