OpenIndiana Hardware Compatibility

majekla

Hello everyone,

As a daily OpenIndiana Hipster user, I thought I could share some hardware that I have tested and that works with OI (Desktop or CLI).
It may help some people.
A big DB exists about components for illumos and also on OI's website, but not everything published actually works.
I test laptops and mini-pc most of the time.
All the hardware following has been carefully tested with the latest version of OpenIndiana Hipster (including version 2023.10)

LAPTOPS (With Mate Desktop)

Lenovo ThinkPad T470 (14")
System Configuration: LENOVO 20HES0EV0A
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7300U CPU @ 2.60GHz U3E1

Keyboard OK
Ethernet OK
Touchpad OK
Wifi NO
Integrated webcam NO

Lenovo ThinkPad T495 (14")
System Configuration: LENOVO 20NKS0HN1N
AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 3500U w/ Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx FP5

Technically working, but too slow because of AMD

Keyboard OK,
Ethernet OK
Touchpad OK
Wifi NO
Integrated Webcam NO

Dell Precision 7720 (17")
System Configuration: Dell Inc. Precision 7720
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7820HQ CPU @ 2.90GHz U3E1 w/ Intel HD Graphics

Keyboard OK
Ethernet OK
Touchpad NO (have to use USB/bluetooth dongle for a mouse)
Wifi NO
Integrated Webcam NO

Dell Precision 7520
System Configuration: Dell Inc. Precision 7520
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7920HQ CPU @ 3.10GHz U3E1

Keyboard OK
Ethernet OK
Touchpad NO (have to use USB/bluetooth dongle for a mouse)
Wifi NO
Integrated Webcam NO
For this installation, depending on the NVIDIA graphics inside, you will need the 05/2023 Live ISO, not the 10/2023 because of the driver version.
Or install the desktop from minimal ISO with Nvidia 470 version.

Lenovo ThinkPad T530
(reported to work, but not personnally tested)

MINI-PC (With Mate Desktop)

Futjistu Esprimo Q920
System Configuration: FUJITSU ESPRIMO Q920
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590T CPU @ 2.00GHz SOCKET 0

Those Q920 are amazing, compatible with absolutely everything... Refurbed, they cost less than 100€.

Dell OptiPlex 7040
SystemConfiguration: Dell Inc. OptiPlex 7040
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6500T CPU @ 2.50Ghz Socket 0

Very affordable too.

Lenovo ThinkCenter M93p USDT Tiny Quad Core
SystemConfiguration: LENOVO 10AAS4EN00
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590T CPU @ 2.00Ghz Socket 0

Lenovo Thinkstation p520 with nvidia p1000
(reported to work, but no personnally tested)
Xeon 2135

MINI-PC (CLI only)

OpenIndiana can be installed on many devices. Here are just those that I have tested or that have been tested by trusted people. Off course, when it works with Desktop, it works with CLI !

Chuwi HeroBox
Intel N5100

HP Z440
Xeon 1650v4
(be carefull, the nvidia NVS 510 is supposed to be working... but is actually not recognized ! Although it works with Solaris 11.4)

HPE ProLiant Microserver gen10 (tested by Toasterson)

COMPONENTS

WEBCAM :
I did not find any WEBCAM working on OpenIndiana
I tested every webcam indicated on the hardware compatibility web page. None is working.

USB/ETHERNET adapter
I did not find any USB/ETHERNET adapter working on OpenIndiana
I tested more than 10 products available on Amazon.

WIFI/USB adapter
I did not find any WIFI/USB adapter working on OpenIndiana
I tested 8 products on Amazon.
But you can use Vonets wifi bridges (WIFI -> ETHERNET). It works well !

Ethernet Cards

PCI Express Gigabit pour Puce Intel 82576

PRINTERS
I only use PRINTERS with PPD file configuration from openprinting.org
It works very well.. A few tricks to configure cups in order to use system-config-printer but works with no problem.
I only use Network printers (ethernet).
For example :

Ricoh SP330DN

INSTALLATION MEDIA

For Live DVD image :
Honestly, the only way that doesn't give unpredictable results is to burn the Live .ISO image to a real DVD, then use the integrated DVD reader of the computer or a portable USB one.
It could seem strange but now that I have tested a few computers, I can say that it's the best way.
I never had any error with DVD.
Burning a USB key (no matter .iso or .usb OpenIndiana's image) with Ventoy, BalenaEtcher, Rufus (etc..) or dd give unpredictable results, no matter BIOS/UEFI parameters you try.

nortonham

majekla

thanks for doing this. Looks like wifi isn't so great.......

majekla

Until now, I never found any device compatible with wifi nor USB/ethernet dongle. But, you can use a Vonets wifi bridge (the Vonets catches the wifi and sends it to ethernet cable connected to your computer).

JuvenalUrbino

majekla Until now, I never found any device compatible with wifi nor USB/ethernet dongle

Due to the very limited number of contributors and the difficulty cater to a wider slice of audience in the desktop market (thus to possibly monetize the effort) desktop support on illumos is almost stuck to Sun's days (pre-2010) and reflects the demise of UNIX workstations.
Intel accelerated graphics are now supported up to Haswell; Nvidia also keeps releasing drivers for SunOS (recommended). A supported high-speed Ethernet NIC on a tower desktop is probably what most new user should be seeking out when approaching to Solaris desktop these days. Otherwise, greatest hope with wifi should be put in with either iwn(4d) or ath(4d) drivers. Mind, these are only going to work with very old models.
I had the privilege to own a couple of laptops with supported wireless in the past and it was great to travel around with an illumos-based computer as daily driver.

Solaris and illumos didn't diverge that much desktop-wise throughout the years, so it's worth also checking out the Solaris Hardware Compatibility List.

Tagging @Assassink because they may be interested in this thread.

majekla

JuvenalUrbino
Thank you very much for your answer.
You're right. I already know this situation, thanks to Toasterson who took the time to explain it to me when I started working with OI.
I actually tried a few USB/WIFI adapters from 2010-2015, it did not work.. But I will try others soon !

If I showcase desktop compatibility hardware, it is because I personally think that an OS as no future if desktop availability disappears (even if it is server oriented usage), moreover when the learning curve between popular OS and the new one is enormous.
I will post others howto for OpenIndiana, for basic things (I already posted a basic ZFS howto yesterday). If something is not perfect, I hope that UnitedBSD will notice it and help me improve. I have a lot of howtos for OpenIndiana.

OI offers a reasonable desktop solution (obviously, a lot of things are missing).
But anyway, nowadays, if you have a good browser (firefox) up to date, a good mail client (thunderbird), a good office suite (libreoffice), and virtualization ability (bhyve, virtualbox), then it's not the end !
I wish for this operating system to be able to take flight as it offers entirely credible functionalities today (at least for server use); I started on FreeBSD (I'm still on FreeBSD), but I really appreciate OI.

joany

Thank you for posting this!

nortonham

So do you use Open Indiana as your daily driver currently?

majekla

Yes.
I have it on my Dell Precision 7720 laptop.
It works very well (but no wifi and no webcam).
To me, webcams are the biggest lack for users.
I must use another laptop for conferences (with FreeBSD)

Some icons are missing for packages, some links (to the Trash for example) are broken in Mate, but that's not a big problem. You can easily fix them.

I also have it installed on a big server for virtualization.
I wrote a bhyve manager with ZFS snapshots possibility and use it for my students' VM labs every day.
I also wrote ZFS and Storj backup scripts (rclone).
In fact, I wrote hundreds of procedures for web servers, mariadb, ITSM installations... (for OpenIndiana)
It's a very good OS.
Maybe a bit heavy, but stable.
To me, the way Sun thought administration tasks is far better than on any other Unix. And I work everyday on debian, centos and off course FreeBSD.

nortonham

majekla

yeah no wifi is a big one for me

the bhyve manager sounds interesting.

you should post your guides here, or host your own site with howto's/guides

As a casual user some of the documentation for illumos os's isn't great imo

majekla

Ok.
I started to translate it in english (I'm french) a few days ago.
You can manage VMs entirely with dialog boxes with it.
Create, Duplicate, Replicate entire labs preserving network entanglement between the VMs, change VNC display, manipulate vnics, etherstubs, import, export, change resources (RAM, vCPU) etc.. create ZFS snapshots and restore etc...

It will take me a few days to finish translating then I'll be back and show it.

I started it as hobby a few weeks ago, just for fun.. but anyway, I use it in production now... And despite the fact that it's just a script, it's rather stable lol.

JuvenalUrbino

Came across this by chance:
https://illumos.org/hcl/