Linux Friendly Hardware Database ??

[Brian Chadwick]

Michael A. Peters wrote:
> Many moons ago I bough a Sony DVD burner.
> It worked in Linux from day one - worked extremely well.
>
> I finally ran out of my supply of DVD-R and bought another 50 spindle.
> It will not burn to them - first spitting out the disk and sucking 
> back in, and then failing when it comes to the burn.
>
> I googled the error and found that my drive is old enough that for the 
> new media types, I need to update the firmware on the drive. Went to 
> get the new firmware, and read the instructions. You can not update 
> the firmware from a DOS boot floppy, you update the firmware from 
> within Windows.
>
> That's a bit of a problem for me, I do not have windows, and this is 
> NOT the kind of task I would expect to work in wine (though I may be 
> wrong, I kind of doubt it would).
>
> So I'm on the hunt for a new DVD burner, but I'd like to find one that 
> allows firmware updating via boot floppy or bootable flash drive. I'm 
> having trouble finding one.
>
> Is there a hardware database of Linux friendly hardware that takes 
> into account things like firmware updates?
> I hate having to replace hardware that otherwise functions perfectly, 
> but just needs new firmware.
>
i dont know of one ... maybe some else does ... i am interested