Foxconn deliberately sabotaging their BIOS to destroy Linux

[LinuxMint-4]

Foxconn deliberately sabotaging their BIOS to destroy Linux ACPI

A VERY Hot topic at The Ubuntu Forums

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=869249

[LinuxMint-4]

Foxconn snubs Linux users

http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=2292

[LinuxMint-4]

Foxconn owns up to dodgy BIOS crippling Linux

Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 11:23 am

http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=2307


The other day I blogged about how the Foxconn G33M-S motherboard didn’t play nicely with Linux because it broke ACPI support. Well, as it turns out the problem isn’t a Foxconn one but it’s down to American Megatrends (AMI) having shipped a defective BIOS. Also, as it turns out, other boards are also affected.

Here’s the current state of play:

* The issue has been reported to Ubuntu.
* The buggy BIOS also allegedly affects the following motherboards:
- MSI P965 Platinum
- Asus P5K-E
- Asus P5E WS
- Asus P5E WS PRO
* Foxconn say that an update will be released for the motherboard in the next few days.
* No ETA for a fix from other vendors.
* Nothing here points to any kind of conspiracy theory to lock Linux out of the game. The issue seems to be a bug, and this was made much worse than it needed to thanks to a poor tech support representative working for Foxconn. If tech support had logged the fault rather than argue that the board was Vista only, none of this would have been a problem as it would have been just another bug.