Compatible hardware

[diem]

Ok, let me start this by saying the following. I found out about Raspberry Pi just today and I am incredibly excited. I have been wating for something like this to pop up! And now it is finally happening. Congratulations to the team. What you\'re doing is not only amazing. It\'s noble in my opinion. Great work, I\'m looking forward to getting my hands on one of the boards. I just hope that the project does not die due to lack of funds...

Now, given that the Pi offers incredible possibilities and one way to expand it - the simplest - is through USB ports, I\'d like to ask about compatible hardware.
That is, will normal mice/keyboards be compatible out of the box?
Could you suggest some out of the box compatible USB Wifi and Bluetooth dongles?
Will the board be able to read reasonably fast from - say - a 500GB drive?
Will it function well with multiple peripherals attached? i.e. 5 on the usb ports: mouse, keyboard, wifi, bluetooth, hdd.
And one more thing, what are the differences of Model B compared to A? Besides the Ethernet port, that is.

Thanks in advance guys. I am really looking forward to this and I sure will tell anyone I know. I\'ve already found people in my univ. that were delighted with the idea. So please, do amaze us and make this happen.

thanks,
diem

[radu]

I would guess any device that has open source Linux drivers should work on it. Keyboards and mice should work out of the box. USB sticks and drives should also work out of the box. You would need a powered USB hub for serious stuff, of course.
Model B has 256 ram instead of 128, and I think an extra USB connector.

[obarthelemy]

There are a few tested Wifi dongles in the wiki (see my sig). There\'ll be more once it\'s released.
A server config is dicussed for example here: http://www.raspberrypi.org/forum?mingle ... opic&t=199 . There\'s more, use the search function ^^

[bnolsen]

For wireless I think this one was used for testing (please correct me if I\'m wrong here):
http://www.microcenter.com/single_produ ... id=0316240 (tenda w311u)
I\'d guess that most if not all bluetooth adapters are compatible.
Your main issue with driving lots of USB will be power, esp for HDD.
You\'ll probably want a powered hub OR a powered USB enclosure.

My guess is that whatever USB device you can plug into an x86 linux box will also work on an R-Pi.

[obarthelemy]

[quote]My guess is that whatever USB device you can plug into an x86 linux box will also work on an R-Pi.[/quote]

Not quite. Drivers for some basic devices (basic mouse, basic keyboard, basic sound...) are pretty much built-in into the basic USB support package right in the OS, so will work without separate drivers, since those are already included. Other stuff *will* require specific drivers, and for them to work on the Pi, those drivers must be available for ARMv6 and the OS variant used by the Pi, or open source and compilable on the Pi. Much more touchy situation ^^
Which drivers are built into the basic OS depends on the OS, I think. Mouse and KB are safe, so is mass storage, next would be sound ?

[normanlove]

Will there be any plans to put together \"kits\" of various peripherals and devices that will be officially (or even unofficially) supported by the RasPi?

For example, you could buy your Pi, and then spend and extra $20-30 or so (if you so choose) and receive a keyb/mouse, powered USB Hub, Micro USB PSU, and a supported Wi-Fi dongle. Even though most of the people that currently browse this website are enthusiasts and will most probably be happy sourcing these things themselves, you must admit that once the \"masses\" get wind of such a cheap internet capable device (or should i say \"Facebook capable\"?) then there is likely to be a huge influx of people less educated in this area that just want to spend as little as possible and get their PC going, who can\'t really be bothered to do the research on sourcing these things themselves.

[toxibunny]

dunno about kits, but there\'ll be various peripherals available from the raspi store, yes.

[normanlove]

Well, it may be something worth looking at. I remember a time working in sales, when news of the very first netbook came floating by. The sheer amount of interest it garnered from people who didn\'t really give an f about PC\'s and just \"wanted something cheap that must do Facebook and MSN\" as opposed to people that genuinely had a use for a computer that size was almost unbelievable. This is one of the reasons i personally believe the RasPi is going to be VERY successful in its intention to educate kids in \"proper\" computing, because a hell of a lot of kids are going to get one of these for crimbo when their parents can get on cheaper than an iPod.

Personally, i think if intended (and even if its not, really) that this strategy of educating kids is nothing short of absolute genius. I remember a time back in school when kids would use their computing time in IT class to do nothing but play flash games, to which the network admin would find out and block. The kids would then, without fail, find a way to circumvent said block and keep playing flash games. every single time, without fail. I honestly think the kids got much, MUCH more worthy computing experience from doing this than being sat down for an hour and taught how to type words in MS Office programs.

[diem]

thnx for the replies people. I do hope there is some kinda of guidance for the peripherals that work. Any in any case, the community can be self-informed when something cheap and compatible is found.