MoBo Manufacturer Foxconn Refuses To Support Linux 696
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."
Re:1999 called and wants it's... (Score:5, Funny)
Foxconn apparently.
Re:Homework (Score:5, Funny)
Foxconn also accuses him of making "idle treats".
I want an idle treat.
Re:Homework (Score:5, Funny)
off-brand crap: -1, Duh (Score:3, Funny)
So he bought an off-brand cheapo board, and it sucked? Amazing.
Re:An the solution is.... (Score:3, Funny)
Bathing? What's that?
Re:Workaround (Score:5, Funny)
I didn't know Zaphod Beeblebrox read slashdot.
Re:Homework (Score:3, Funny)
I have one for you but it's just lying around here doing nothing
Re:Don't Buy Foxconn... (Score:5, Funny)
Where do we get a list of Foxconn motherboards?
Um, did you try the internet?
Um, well, isn't this the internet?
Re:An the solution is.... (Score:5, Funny)
I wasn't sure either but Wikipedia to the rescue [wikipedia.org]
Re:An the solution is.... (Score:5, Funny)
I've done some research, and it appears to be a form of watercooling, but for a person rather than a CPU. I've never overclocked myself to the point where I felt that I needed it, though.
Re:An the solution is.... (Score:3, Funny)
I never heard of Foxcon before. Is there a Henhousecon?
Re:Don't Buy Foxconn... (Score:5, Funny)
Where do we get a list of Foxconn motherboards?
Um, did you try the internet?
Um, well, isn't this the internet?
No, this is Abuse.
Re:Immature (Score:3, Funny)
"I'm running Linux."
"Is that like a version of Mac or something?"
Once, I was even told the Internet isn't compatible with Linux. Love those tech support centers.
Lack of professionalism, IMO (Score:4, Funny)
I read the thread on the Ubuntu forums, where the guy's correspondence with Foxconn was posted. What frustrates me time and time again is seeing these often immature, scathing, and/or accusatory emails being sent by self-proclaimed representatives of the Linux and/or open source community.
In particular, "Yeah, well, I allege that you guys thoroughly suck. Learn how to write a BIOS before you go selling hardware with falsified specs." Come on, how does that help the situation at all? Speculating on the motives of Foxconn and/or the BIOS provider is fine for forums like this. But when dealing with the manufacturer, keep it professional, and stick to the issues at hand. In this case, the issue is that the board claims to be ACPI compliant, and it is not. That can be proven and repeatably verified. In fact, Linux compatibility isn't even an issue here. That the BIOS fails to work with Linux is a side-effect (i.e. Linux assumes a working ACPI implementation, and this motherboard does not provide that).
Of course the bigger problem is that while a standard exists (i.e. ACPI), Microsoft can get away with using its weight to effectively subvert it. Like another poster here said, there are lots of motherboards with imperfect DSDTs that cause various degrees of headache with Linux. This Foxconn board appears to be one of the worst, however.
If I were to speculate, I doubt Foxconn or the BIOS provider (AMI) is actively trying to break Linux. I think it's just poor coding and/or lack of concern for adhering to the ACPI spec (which in turn breaks Linux). The big money is in supporting Microsoft Windows, so that's what the vendors will do. Ideally, there would be an official "ACPI certification" offered by ISO or some not-for-profit third party, and both the vendors and Microsoft would have to comply. But the reality is that while there is a standard, it's not closely followed, and instead has degraded into vendors and Microsoft working too close, effectively preempting the specification. In other words, a Microsoft certification does not imply ACPI compliance. It should, but Microsoft doesn't gain anything from enforcing that.
As for poor coding... I've seen plenty of code written by people who either didn't know what they were doing or didn't care. The result is that you get lots of crummy hacks to take care of special cases. Seriously, why would a company go out of their way to not work with Linux? Yes, conspiracy is a possibility. But I think the more likely reason is that the lousy support was either done by someone who didn't care or didn't know enough to do it correctly... and/or it was an after-thought, a total kludge that didn't go through the typical QA process.
Anyway... I give Foxconn credit for at least replying with readable, mostly grammatically correct, non-form letters. Many hardware vendors I've dealt with either reply with worthless form letters, broken, non-sense English, and/or don't reply at all. Given that this person actually had the ear of a presumably "real" person, I have to wonder: if he'd kept his dialogue more professional, left out the name-calling, accusations and allegations, and remained true to the crux of the matter (non-compliant ACPI implementation), perhaps Foxconn would have been more receptive.
Re:Don't Buy Foxconn... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Don't Buy Foxconn... (Score:3, Funny)
A couple weeks ago we received an HP machine and upon opening it to install some components we discovered a Foxconn employee identification card complete with logo.
Re:Simple, really (Score:4, Funny)
Do you know whats even more irritating than someone who constantly does the whole M$ thing?
The lifeless peanut who follows him around on slashdot telling everyone about it.
Re:Simple, really (Score:3, Funny)
Well, I rarely post more than once a day but today I had a lot of boring downtime and I seem to be enjoying myself. And who cares what twitter calls Microsoft? I didn't say anything about that, did I? In any case, he has a lot [slashdot.org] more time than I do. I swear no one with an 8-5 job could juggle all that crap just to post on a website. At least I post about other stuff and with only one account.
Anyway, thanks for the lifeless peanut thing, it made my day and my sig =)
Re:Fine. Won't use them for Windows either. (Score:1, Funny)
I find your ideas intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.