I was going to buy a nuc8i3beh with an i3-8109u cpu until a look at the Intel product compatibility tool (see link below under ‘processor compatibility’ ) states Intel only supports Windows 10 and Osx for the i3-8109u.

Lack of Intel support could mean anything from the processor not working properly to Intel customer support simply not fielding questions on the processor. It might also mean there are no microde updates that cover Linux related security issues.

I want to install AMD64 Debian 10 on the above machine, but can only find reference to Unbuntu 'working' with the i3-8109u. Not sure if this is related to Intel’s lack of processor support making some distributions buggy.

I’d like to find out how serious a lack of Intel Linux support for a cpu is. Thanks!


https://compatibleproducts.intel.com...Compatibility#

I can only guess: there is a graphics chip inside, probably there is no driver for it.

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This url has spaces in it.
https://openbenchmarking.org/s/Intel Core i3-8109U

https://openbenchmarking.org/result/...STIC-191028823
https://openbenchmarking.org/result/...VE-LINUXMINT00

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mee too. I'm also making lots of errors

That is an interesting question. When the information on the official site is invalid....
But anyway, I'm also making a lots of errors.

maybeso,

Welcome to LQ forums.

This person has been running Ubuntu successfully on the nuc8i3beh with an i3-8109u cpu:
https://itsfoss.com/install-linux-on-intel-nuc/

Interestingly he makes the remark:

From SimplyNUC:

https://simplynuc.com/wp-content/upl...-NUC8i3BEH.pdf

Certified operating systems:
Various Linux including Ubuntu, Mint, openSUSE etc. (Contact SimplyNUC for specifics).

E-Mail: info@simplynuc.co.uk

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Intel has provided and still provides some of the best OEM support for linux.

It will run fine.

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------------------------------------------------


Sorry if my reply is not to spec, but I have to get used to this forum.

Thank you everyone for providing some background on this problem. I have little doubt that Linux will ‘work’ for certain Linux distributions with the i3-8109u, but there’s ‘just working for web browsing’, vs a high degree of compatibility with Linux such that I can run virtual machines and a broad variety of applications.

Intel validation of a processor for Linux seems to differ from their validation of the Intel Nuc machines (the Nuc validation process relies on feed-back from users who certify the machines.), so it’s not really an Intel driven process, it’s a community driven process.

Unbuntu has certified the 7th generation Intel nuc machines (7th refers to the 7th generation Intel processors), but, not to my knowledge the 8th generation Nucs (the 8 referring to the coffee lake processers)- see link below.


https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2018/06/...untu-certified

Intel refers to Canonical certification for the 7th and 9th generation Nucs (see below link). Why did they skip the 8th generation machines (coffee lake processors), if there weren’t issues? Nothing is worse than getting a machine that works perfectly, but has uncontrollable fan noise, or some other secondary problem. I just don't know, so I use the precautionary principle.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us...intel-nuc.html

Again, my original question was why Intel doesn’t support the i3-8109u processor for use with Linux ( whatever the word support means), when it clearly doesn’t hesitate to recommend many other processors for Linux. It could be that all of Intel Linux validations are community driven, and hence no one has bothered to certify the 8th generation machines yet - I really don’t know, hence the question.

Thank you everyone for your feedback!

Do you need it to be certified?

No, but I've owned PCs that were constantly buggy with certain Linux distributions, but bug free with others. I've always attributed that behavior to deep seated hardware issues. I wanted to know if anyone had any insight on Intel Linux hardware validations.

Why Intel would produce chips that are not fully Linux compatible is beyond me, since a visit to their website shows them pushing the Intel 'Clear' Linux operating system.

https://clearlinux.org/

You will find that ClearLinux is a "stateless" distro and much different than normal. It has claimed to run much faster in tests on both Intel and AMD processors than other distro's. It will work on the full Intel platforms listed in minimum hardware requirements.

"The following processor families have been verified to run Clear Linux OS:

Intel® Core™ processor family (2nd generation or greater)

Intel® Xeon® E3-xxxx processor

Intel® Xeon® E5-xxxx processor

Intel® Xeon® E7-xxxx processor

Intel Atom® processor C Series

Intel Atom® processor E Series
"



You are correct in that a complete system could be sold by a company as tested in Linux. It will only work correctly or is only warrantied to work correctly under some very few conditions. The enterprise hardware sold to companies use enterprise level distro's and at the factory they run deep tests to help warrant those machines.

Almost every system below enterprise is subject to failure in any OS. It is generally tested by consumer.

If you want, buy an enterprise level system that sells it with an OS and you can be reasonably assured that it will work.

I have to say this in a different way. Intel doesn't make processors for Linux. They make processors. Period. In order to sell them they do provide back end support. However most of the linux support is sideline to their regular profit markets.

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Thanks, your insightful comments have given me a much better idea of what I can expect from Intel with regard to Linux compatibility. Intel should define what it means by 'validation', 'support', and 'compatible'.

I'd assume that some processors (with fully supported motherboards) would be targeted towards enterprise level systems and therefor be more well tested. They have a business decision and I'd assume they made the choice to assign some level of support for one or another product.

Based on the link in the original post this processor is the only exception in a list of more than 30 i3 CPUs. Either the documentation is wrong or actually this CPU is somehow different.
I can't really imagine it does not work (because there must be no architectural/functional difference amongst these chips), and also I can't explain why is it not supported.
You can also find 3 unsupported i5 CPUs and 2 i7 CPU. All of them have the same built-in GPU: Intel® Iris® Plus Graphics 655 (and the others have something different, although I did not check all of them). see here.
But based on this page it is supported.

So most probably yes, you can install debian on it.

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