Hardware

Because of its modular concept, ipfire is very flexible in its hardware demands.

On this page, we will present possible setups, without making any claim to be complete:

• Intel D945GCLF2 - A miniITX-Board with one Intel-Atom-Processor.
• fit-PC2 - An embedded system with Intel-Atom-Z-Processor.

IPFire needs at least a i586 CPU (from Intel Pentium upwards).

Recommended are 333MHz or better.

Since version 2.9 it is also possible to use ARMv5-Based embedded Systems.

• HCL-Processors

From version 2.11, 256mb is the minimum but 512mb is recomended for extended usage of a Ramdisks to minimize disk-I/O. The system will also run with 2.1 recommendations, because of all the running services there will be extended Swapping.

Linuxs' excellent memory management can utilize an even higher quantity of memory but IPFire runs on a 32 bit Linux kernel by default.

• HCL-memory (RAM)

Mass storages are storage devices with a lot of capacity. They serve as media for backups or mass data storage with low access times. In IPFire there can be used different types of mass storage.

• HCL-Mass-storage

The basic system needs only a few megabytes (about 100mb), but the available space should not go below 1gb (recommended 2gb) because of the need for logfiles etc. Drives up to terrabyte-size can be necessary if you want to use IPFire as a fileserver. IPFire supports IDE, SATA and SCSI, but some users set it up in a RAID 1 and 5 environment.

It is recommended to use a CDROM-drive for installation, but is also possible from a USB-stick. More about that on installation manual. After installation, the CDROM-drive can be removed.

• HCL-drives

IPFire should have at least 2 network-cards available (see Network topology). About 99% of all available 100mbit-cards will work. 10mbit-cards will not be supported because of their speed, 1gbit cards are very well supported since version 2.3. Network-cards with a realtek chipset (recognized by the RTL on the chipset) will work flawless in all available speeds and are supported to the fullest.

ISA-cards are no longer supported, PCI-cards are supported without configuration issues as soon as they are inserted into the computer

• Performance leaks with passive network interface cards
• HCL-Network

Digital Video Broadcast. These cards are multimedia-addons for the reception of tv-channels. Some PCI and USB cards for DVB-S,T and C are supported.

• HCL-DVB