Hardware Compatibility Guide

This guide provides essential information about hardware compatibility for MiniOS. The system is based on Debian 13 "Trixie" with a Long-Term Support (LTS) Linux kernel, ensuring broad hardware support.

System Requirements

MiniOS is built for the amd64 (64-bit) architecture. The requirements vary by edition:

For Standard Variant:

• CPU: 1 GHz 64-bit processor
• RAM: 1 GB minimum (2 GB recommended)
• Storage: 2 GB to run the system (4 GB+ recommended for data storage)
• Graphics: VGA-compatible display adapter

For Toolbox Variant:

• CPU: 1.2 GHz 64-bit processor
• RAM: 2 GB minimum (4 GB recommended)
• Storage: 2 GB to run the system (8 GB+ recommended for data storage)
• Graphics: Graphics card with hardware acceleration support

For Ultra Variant:

• CPU: 1.5 GHz 64-bit dual-core processor
• RAM: 4 GB minimum (8 GB recommended)
• Storage: 2 GB to run the system (8 GB+ recommended for data storage)
• Graphics: Modern GPU with hardware acceleration

Component Compatibility

Processors

A wide range of 64-bit x86 processors from Intel (Core i3/i5/i7/i9) and AMD (Ryzen 3/5/7/9) are supported.

Graphics

• Intel: Integrated graphics (UHD, Iris Xe, Arc) are well-supported.
• NVIDIA: The open-source Nouveau driver is included. For modern cards, installing the proprietary driver is recommended for best performance.
• AMD: Modern Radeon RX series graphics are fully supported by the open-source AMDGPU driver.

Network

• Ethernet: Most wired controllers from Intel, Realtek, and Broadcom work out-of-the-box.
• Wi-Fi: A vast range of Wi-Fi adapters are supported through included firmware and automatically built DKMS drivers, especially common models from Intel, Atheros, and Realtek.

Storage

MiniOS is designed to boot from a variety of storage devices. The system's startup scripts automatically scan all available block devices, making it compatible with:

• USB Drives: All generations of USB are supported.
• SATA/IDE Drives: All standard internal hard drives and SSDs.
• NVMe Drives: Full support for modern NVMe SSDs.
• SD/MMC Cards: Supported if the card reader is recognized by the kernel.

Virtualization

MiniOS is fully optimized for use as a guest operating system in all major virtualization environments. The build process includes all necessary drivers in the initial ramdisk (initrd) to ensure maximum performance out-of-the-box.

• High-Performance Drivers: Support for paravirtualized storage controllers is built-in, including VirtIO (KVM/QEMU), VMware Paravirtual SCSI, and Hyper-V Storvsc. This allows for near-native disk I/O performance.
• Broad Compatibility: The system can also boot from emulated IDE and SATA controllers, ensuring compatibility with any hypervisor configuration.
• Guest Tools: For enhanced integration (such as seamless mouse, clipboard sharing, and dynamic resolution), the toolbox and ultra variants include open-vm-tools (for VMware) and hyperv-daemons (for Hyper-V).

For detailed setup instructions and platform-specific configurations, see the Virtualization Guide.