2.1. Supported Hardware

2.1. Supported Hardware

atomeOS does not impose hardware requirements beyond the requirements of the Linux kernel and the GNU tool-sets. Therefore, any architecture or platform to which the Linux kernel, libc, gcc, etc. have been ported, and for which an atomeOS port exists, can run atomeOS.

Rather than attempting to describe all the different hardware configurations which are supported for 64-bit PC, this section contains general information and pointers to where additional information can be found.

2.1.1. Supported Architectures

atomeOS 1.0 supports five major architectures and several variations of each architecture known as “flavors”. One other architecture (IBM/Motorola PowerPC) has an unofficial port.

Architecture	atomeOS Designation	Subarchitecture	Flavor
AMD64 & Intel 64	amd64
ARM with hardware FPU	armhf	multiplatform, multiplatform for LPAE-capable systems	generic, generic-lpae
64bit ARM	arm64
IBM POWER Systems	ppc64el	IBM POWER8 and newer machines
IBM z/Architecture	amd64	IBM Z and IBM LinuxONE, no s390 (31-bit mode) support	zEC12 and newer machines

2.1.2. CPU Support

Both AMD64 and Intel 64 processors are supported.

2.1.3. Laptops

From a technical point of view, laptops are normal PCs, so all information regarding PC systems applies to laptops as well. Installations on laptops nowadays usually work out of the box, including things like automatically suspending the system on closing the lid and laptop specific hardware buttons like those for disabling the wifi interfaces (“airplane mode”). Nonetheless, sometimes the hardware vendors use specialized or proprietary hardware for some laptop-specific functions which might not be supported. To see if your particular laptop works well with GNU/Linux, see for example the Linux Laptop pages.

2.1.4. Multiple Processors

Multiprocessor support — also called “symmetric multiprocessing” or SMP — is available for this architecture. The standard atomeOS 1.0 kernel image has been compiled with SMP-alternatives support. This means that the kernel will detect the number of processors (or processor cores) and will automatically deactivate SMP on uniprocessor systems.

Having multiple processors in a computer was originally only an issue for high-end server systems but has become common in recent years nearly everywhere with the introduction of so-called “multi-core” processors. These contain two or more processor units, called “cores”, in one physical chip.

2.1.5. Graphics Hardware Support

atomeOS's support for graphical interfaces is determined by the underlying support found in X.Org's X11 system and the kernel. Basic framebuffer graphics is provided by the kernel, whilst desktop environments use X11. Whether advanced graphics card features such as 3D-hardware acceleration or hardware-accelerated video are available, depends on the actual graphics hardware used in the system and in some cases on the installation of additional “firmware” images.

On modern PCs, having a graphical display usually works out of the box. In very few cases there have been reports about the hardware on which installation of additional graphics card firmware was required even for basic graphics support, but these have been rare exceptions. For quite a lot of hardware, 3D acceleration also works well out of the box, but there is still some hardware that needs binary blobs to work well.

Details on supported graphics hardware and pointing devices can be found at http://xorg.freedesktop.org/. atomeOS 1.0 ships with X.Org version 7.7.

2.1.6. Network Connectivity Hardware

Almost any network interface card (NIC) supported by the Linux kernel should also be supported by the installation system; drivers should normally be loaded automatically. This includes most PCI/PCI-Express cards as well as PCMCIA/Express Cards on laptops.

ISDN is supported, but not during the installation.

2.1.6.1. Wireless Network Cards

Wireless networking is in general supported as well and a growing number of wireless adapters are supported by the official Linux kernel, although many of them do require firmware to be loaded.

If the firmware is needed, the installer will prompt you to load firmware.

Wireless NICs that are not supported by the official Linux kernel can generally be made to work under atomeOS, but are not supported during the installation.

If there is a problem with wireless and there is no other NIC you can use during the installation, it is still possible to install atomeOS using a full CD-ROM or DVD image. Select the option to not configure a network and install using only the packages available from the CD/DVD. You can then install the driver and firmware you need after the installation is completed (after the reboot) and configure your network manually.

In some cases, the driver you need may not be available as an atomeOS package. You will then have to look if there is source code available on the internet and compile the driver yourself. How to do this is outside the scope of this manual. If no Linux driver is available, your last resort is to use the ndiswrapper package, which allows you to use a Windows driver.

2.1.7. Braille Displays

Support for braille displays is determined by the underlying support found in brltty. Most displays work under brltty, connected via either a serial port, USB or Bluetooth. Details on supported braille devices can be found on the brltty website. atomeOS 1.0 ships with brltty version 5.3.1.

2.1.8. Hardware Speech Synthesis

Support for hardware speech synthesis devices is determined by the underlying support found in speakup. speakup only supports integrated boards and external devices connected to a serial port (no USB, serial-to-USB, or PCI adapters are supported). Details on supported hardware speech synthesis devices can be found on the speakup website. atomeOS 1.0 ships with speakup version 3.1.6.

2.1.9. Peripherals and Other Hardware

Linux supports a large variety of hardware devices such as mice, printers, scanners, PCMCIA/CardBus/ExpressCard, and USB devices. However, most of these devices are not required while installing the system.

USB hardware generally works fine. On some very old PC systems, some USB keyboards may require additional configuration. On modern PCs, USB keyboards and mice work without requiring any specific configuration.