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 Intel x86, this section contains general information and pointers to where additional information can be found.
Ubuntu 7.04 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 |
Complete information concerning supported peripherals can be found at Linux Hardware Compatibility HOWTO. This section merely outlines the basics.
Nearly all x86-based processors are supported; this includes AMD and VIA (former Cyrix) processors as well. Also the new processors like Athlon XP and Intel P4 Xeon are supported. However, Linux will not run on 286 or earlier processors.
You should be using a VGA-compatible display interface for the console terminal. Nearly every modern display card is compatible with VGA. Ancient standards such CGA, MDA, or HGA should also work, assuming you do not require X11 support. Note that X11 is not used during the installation process described in this document.
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 7.04 ships with X.Org version 7.1.
Laptops are also supported. Laptops are often specialized or contain proprietary hardware. To see if your particular laptop works well with GNU/Linux, see the Linux Laptop pages
Multi-processor support — also called “symmetric multi-processing” or SMP — is available for this architecture, and is supported by a precompiled Ubuntu kernel image. Depending on your install media, this SMP-capable kernel may or may not be installed by default. 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 should check to see if a kernel package that supports SMP is installed, and if not, choose an appropriate kernel package. You can also build your own customized kernel to support SMP. You can find a discussion of how to do this in Section 8.5, “Compiling a New Kernel”. At this time (kernel version 2.6.20) the way you enable SMP is to select “Symmetric multi-processing support” in the “Processor type and features” section of the kernel config.