Subject: Linux Hardware Nightmare!

I do not at all think that Linux should support all (crappy) hardware that is out there. It is perfectly okay with me, if Linux supports a decent selection of properly designed hardware, and does it _flawlessly_. "Flawless" is what Linux, for the most part, is known for anyway.

However, I have had this TERRIBLE X-freeze problem with my machine. After _much_ research, I realized that it is probably a bug (hardware or driver related) that will never go away :(

You see, I have some VIA chips, and they seem buggy (or Linux does.) I found posts such as this:
http://groups.google.ca/groups?q=linux+hardware+excuse+wearing+thin&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=20010329071729.B16495_auckland.ac.nz%40ns.sol.net&rnum=1

plus _many_ more VIA "DMA bug" related posts. Could not read them all.

I tried the suggestions that I could, like hdparm -d0 to turn off DMA on my disk. The bug _always_ persisted. This is despite the fact that my machine is _much_ better behaved under Win98!!

NOW: That is behind me! I have decided to buy a new system. But understandably, I _really_ need a FULLY Linux compliant system. You know, something that doesn't crash. I know I'm not asking too much, and Linux can make me just as happy as it has made countless others.

But I go to RedHat Hardware compatibility list, and voila: No motherboards listed:
http://www.redhat.com/software/rhl9_hcl.html
Please understand: ALL I am asking for, is an actual listing of product IDs that will not freeze/crash under Linux. But the RedHat site does not appear to list even _one_ RH9 compatible motherboard. So how can I _possibly_ be expected to make a decision?

I would be very grateful, and you would make my new year a really happy one, if you help me just a bit.

Kindly give _exact_ motherboard names/numbers, that you know work _flawlessly_ with Linux. Other hardware NOT listed on the RedHat
site: RAM, Hard, Mouse, Keyboard, CDROM. What do we do about those? Part numbers? Please suggest.

This particular machine will be on the cheap end: no super fancy games or anything, and no cutting edge features are necessary. Main use:
software development. Reasonably fast PC (2.6 GHz),
but very _very_ stable, and reliable. Fully Linux ready.

Thank you for all help in advance.

Regards, Reza.

Are you sure it isn't a RAM problem or something like that? While probably all chipsets on the market are buggy, I don't see any hangs with Linux (with VIA or non-VIA chipsets). I'm using VIA MVP3 with AMD K6, VIA 686B with dual PIII, VIA KT266A and KT333 with Athlons XP. The video cards are various older S3, NVidia GFIIs with XFree86 driver, ATI Radeon 8500.

It might be a problem with the video card as well, are you using NVidia drivers by chance?

Krzysztof Halasa, B*FH