TODO: Hardware Compatibilty List Disclosure on WEBSITE

General Discussion
1

I am trying to get involved in your project over the course of a couple years and every time I do I get some strange issue which seems to result in hardware not being supported.

Your website seems to invite all people, and then they download and realize their Intel hardware is not supported! It is deceptive and wasting peoples time. You need to disclose what hardware your OS runs on it seems like very specific Intel platforms and even AMD platforms. I cannot seem to fathom why an OS by Intel only supports newer arches (circa ! when? and what families!) What requirements are needed BEFORE I am to download. (Your website invites EVERYONE!) when many of the regular Linux distros do it with ease. It is so discouraging when there’s so many older intel processors out there that need Linux performance to stay in service; which they are still very capable of doing. It almost looks like they can do it without Clear Linux or Intels support. Please at least put minimum hardware requirements on your website so people know what they are getting. You are assuming everyone who goes to your website and downloads the latest ISO that everyone with INTEL CPU should be able to use it which is not accurate and generally deceptive. You guys need to disclose your hardware requirements up front not let the users figure out if the project is right for them by running a “tool”. You have the horse before the cart and I am so discouraged I have to write this.

2

There’s a documentation page on minimum system requirement here: https://docs.01.org/clearlinux/latest/reference/system-requirements.html#system-requirements

Also, you can check your system compatibility: https://docs.01.org/clearlinux/latest/get-started/compatibility-check.html#compatibility-check

If you give specific information on your hardware and the problems you encountered, it’s easier for people to solve it.

3

Minimum System Requirement are fine for basic info and it may only be used a rough guide.

Now system compatibility check is only useful if existing hardware is on hand.

Useful addition to these document would be a list specific to provide us info for parts selection for the process of deploying a new build system.

Here is one particular instance I face currently.

I have a Supermicro X11SCZ-F with a Xeon E-2146G. The two existing documents give it a check of verified compatibility.

However, I wish to add an M.2 NVMe SSD to the boards’ M.2 Slot (JMD1) M-key PCI-E 3.0 x4

I have checked the hardware NVMe list of tested devices on Supermicro website, and typically those devices on the list are ancient, discontinued and unavailable to buy in Australia.

In Australia the main options plentiful available are:

Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus NVMe M.2
MZ-V7S1T0 (1 TB)
MZ-V7S2T0 (2 TB)

Samsung SSD 970 PRO NVMe M.2 1TB
MZ-V7P1T0BW

What is unknown, is will these NVMe SSDs once installed be operationally able to boot the system, Supermicro don’t know.

We can assume NVMe SSD in the M.2 slot, will boot with the tested devices listed as mentioned above on Supermicro site those can’t be bought.

However, a potential additional unknown complication is whether Clear Linux has a NVMe driver to allow the system to recognise the above available Samsung devices and thus boot.

As justification for this concern refer issue:

NVME not detected #392

https://github.com/clearlinux/distribution/issues/392

Now the Original posters logic board is an AMD based Asrock AB350 which at first assumption, I think is likely a conflict between Intel and their possible unwillingness to support AMD.

However first reply says:

“We appear to be missing a driver for your hardware - we’ll review and enable that.”

In the end it was never resolved.

So rewind back to the start, how will I or others know if if there is such NVMe drivers are available for a board of particular interest? How will I know the same situation is with my Supermicro X11SCZ-F board, where and who can clarify if Clear Linux is missing a driver for this?

Hopefully this scenario has enough credence to at least consider providing some resource to help us find the info we need.

Maybe, swupd can run and info of supported devices on a particular driver

swupd nvme list-suported-hardware

Those are my ideas.

Thanks for reading.