2.1. Supported Hardware

Ubuntu does not impose hardware requirements beyond the requirements of the Linux kernel and the GNU tool-sets. Therefore, any architecture or platform to which the Linux kernel, libc, gcc, etc. have been ported, and for which an Ubuntu port exists, can run Ubuntu.

Rather than attempting to describe all the different hardware configurations which are supported for AMD64, this section contains general information and pointers to where additional information can be found.

2.1.1. Supported Architectures

Ubuntu 6.10 supports four major architectures and several variations of each architecture known as “flavors”. Two other architectures (HP PA-RISC and Intel ia64) have unofficial ports.

Architecture Ubuntu Designation Subarchitecture Flavor
Intel x86-based i386    
AMD64 amd64    
Sun SPARC sparc    
IBM/Motorola PowerPC powerpc CHRP chrp
PowerMac pmac
HP PA-RISC hppa PA-RISC 1.1 32
PA-RISC 2.0 64
Intel ia64-based ia64        

2.1.2. Graphics Card

Ubuntu's support for graphical interfaces is determined by the underlying support found in X.Org's X11 system. Most AGP, PCI and PCIe video cards work under X.Org. Details on supported graphics buses, cards, monitors, and pointing devices can be found at http://xorg.freedesktop.org/. Ubuntu 6.10 ships with X.Org version 7.1.

2.1.3. Multiple Processors

Multi-processor support — also called “symmetric multi-processing” or SMP — is available for this architecture. However, the standard Ubuntu 6.10 kernel image does not support SMP. This should not prevent installation, since the standard, non-SMP kernel should boot on SMP systems; the kernel will simply use the first CPU.

In order to take advantage of multiple processors, you'll have to replace the standard Ubuntu kernel. You can find a discussion of how to do this in Section 8.4, “Compiling a New Kernel”. At this time (kernel version 2.6.17) the way you enable SMP is to select “Symmetric multi-processing support” in the “Processor type and features” section of the kernel config.