Foxconn "deliberately sabotaging their products" against Linux usage

[Kryten]

Apparently, anyway:

Foxconn deliberately sabotaging their BIOS to destroy Linux ACPI - Ubuntu Forums

Courtesy of:

Digg - Foxconn deliberately sabotaging their BIOS to destroy Linux


Not sure what to think of it myself, I've thought fairly highly of Foxconn for many years for their work in OEM and reference hardware. Either way, thought it might be worth sharing for anyone looking at using Ubuntu or other linux distributions.

From what I can gather in laymans terms, it appears Foxconn have mucked up some of the BIOS call tables so specifically ACPI isn't handled correctly by Linux based OS's. Nasty stuff. Should be fairly simply fixed with a bios update/change/3rd party hack, but shouldn't really be necessary. Waiting to see what Foxconn are going to say about it, it's certainly getting some coverage.

 

[Draylor]

For deliberately sabotaging read 'implementing differently for different OSs to work around their own unique bugs, but as with every piece of software its not perfect and they, like basically every hardware manufacturer, dont give a fuck about linux'.

 

[Kryten]

Indeed, hence the "apparently"

More of a heads up for any linux users that might be shopping for the boards to expect difficulty than a "let's all point fingers at Foxconn" thing. Personally I can't imagine one manufacturer is going to just start alienating users, financially it'd do them no good whatsoever. Just keeping an eye on it now and will update as and when I hear anything else.

 

[Yaka]

not giving a crap about linux is bad thing, so we are lucky its not every manufacturer. btw that thankly you list is preety big for the thread.

 

[Draylor]

More of a heads up for any linux users that might be shopping for the boards to expect difficulty than a "let's all point fingers at Foxconn" thing.

Its foxconn, which to me means not particularly cheap, not particularly cheerful, piss poor support.

Seems folks are getting what they deserve.

 

[Sar]

Yeah I had problems with my last mobo, which was a foxconn, trying to get linux of any flavour running on it.

Now I know why ffs.


Thankfully I went all out on my current mobo, an Asus Maximus Formula SE. Rock solid, although it doesn't like running my Ballistix PC8500 in 1066 mode. Probably more a fault of the ram rather than the board though.