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Asrock GNU/Linux Support
I would like Asrock to provide GNU/Linux support for their products. What is their policy on this? Why don't they do it?
For example, on the Asrock Z87 Extreme6/ac page, there are no .deb or .rpm files and no mention of GNU/Linux at all. I think that it would not cost Asrock very much in time or money to have a couple of their engineers test their systems using a popular distribution, like Ubuntu, Fedora or Trisquel. If I ran Asrock, I would want to do this as a matter of pride in my products. The engineers could then have some files put on the web page and on the CD that comes with the board, since one can't reach any webpages in the first place, in order to download things.
Asrock should do this with all their products.
In the case of the Extreme6/ac:
1) Ethernet Adapter
The LAN ethernet adapter is not recognized by Debian Wheezy, for example. (I believe that the required Broadcom driver, tg3, which is released under GPL, can be found here.)
With Ubuntu 13.04 Raring RIngtail, the ethernet is detected automatically during installation, and the machine can reach the internet throughout the process.
2) VGA Drivers
These are not detected with Wheezy. GNOME3 does not load and defaults to a GUI using Gnome Fallback, which does not require 3D capability. With Raring, video worked right away. This is fortunate, as Unity, the Ubuntu GUI, there is no 2D fallback, as far as I know. (This makes Ubuntu painfully slow if using it in a virtual machine without 3d capability.)
Somebody has kindly checked the extreme4 for functionality here.
4) Bluetooth
Bluetooth did not work after installation of Wheezy. Drivers must be required.
5) Dual Boot
Windows 8 (sorry!) was already installed on another disk, from which the system was booting. After installing Wheezy alongside Windows, the system kept booting to Windows! It was difficult to get it to boot to GNU/LInux. Evenutally, I was able to solve this by:
i) unplugging the Windows disk, so that it was not powered on during boot, after GNU/Linux was installed.
ii) booting the system - it found the GNU/Linux installation
iii) selecting to boot into GNU/Linux
iv) after reaching the desktop, shut down
v) plug in the Windows disk
vi) set BIOS to boot from GNU/Linux disk
vii) boot as usual, and select GNU/LInux or Windows
This worked for Wheezy and Raring
(The problem I had was that after installing GNU/Linux, this disk disappeared from the UEFI boot options.)
I will update this post, if I find some useful information.
For example, on the Asrock Z87 Extreme6/ac page, there are no .deb or .rpm files and no mention of GNU/Linux at all. I think that it would not cost Asrock very much in time or money to have a couple of their engineers test their systems using a popular distribution, like Ubuntu, Fedora or Trisquel. If I ran Asrock, I would want to do this as a matter of pride in my products. The engineers could then have some files put on the web page and on the CD that comes with the board, since one can't reach any webpages in the first place, in order to download things.
Asrock should do this with all their products.
In the case of the Extreme6/ac:
1) Ethernet Adapter
The LAN ethernet adapter is not recognized by Debian Wheezy, for example. (I believe that the required Broadcom driver, tg3, which is released under GPL, can be found here.)
With Ubuntu 13.04 Raring RIngtail, the ethernet is detected automatically during installation, and the machine can reach the internet throughout the process.
2) VGA Drivers
These are not detected with Wheezy. GNOME3 does not load and defaults to a GUI using Gnome Fallback, which does not require 3D capability. With Raring, video worked right away. This is fortunate, as Unity, the Ubuntu GUI, there is no 2D fallback, as far as I know. (This makes Ubuntu painfully slow if using it in a virtual machine without 3d capability.)
Somebody has kindly checked the extreme4 for functionality here.
4) Bluetooth
Bluetooth did not work after installation of Wheezy. Drivers must be required.
5) Dual Boot
Windows 8 (sorry!) was already installed on another disk, from which the system was booting. After installing Wheezy alongside Windows, the system kept booting to Windows! It was difficult to get it to boot to GNU/LInux. Evenutally, I was able to solve this by:
i) unplugging the Windows disk, so that it was not powered on during boot, after GNU/Linux was installed.
ii) booting the system - it found the GNU/Linux installation
iii) selecting to boot into GNU/Linux
iv) after reaching the desktop, shut down
v) plug in the Windows disk
vi) set BIOS to boot from GNU/Linux disk
vii) boot as usual, and select GNU/LInux or Windows
This worked for Wheezy and Raring
(The problem I had was that after installing GNU/Linux, this disk disappeared from the UEFI boot options.)
I will update this post, if I find some useful information.
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