Question Best Linux-compatible motherboards in 2025 ?

[firstdraft]

I am hoping to find an ATX AMD Motherboard with two ethernet ports to build a replacement Debian Linux box to serve as a firewall, router, and server for home use. Asus has PROART CREATOR boards that seem to meet my needs, but apparently one needs to have Windows installed to be able to flash and possibly update the motherboard bios. Maybe the solution is create Windows bootable USB keys and use the keys to update the motherboard when necessary?

Is there a Linux compatible motherboard avaible to just put a Native Linux box together? Tech support at Asus seemed to indicate installing Linux with their motherboards would be a problem. I have built machines and run Linux in the past. Are the new motherboard bios requirements an insurmountable problem? I think I saw similar limitations on Samsung laptops in the recent past. I would like to install grub as the boot loader and only have Debian Linux as the OS. Thank you for any help and advice!

 

[COLGeek]

You know, you can just install a second network adapter in a vacant PCIe slot to get the second port?

Also, updating the BIOS doesn't happen all that often. In addition, nearly all modern motherboards can be updated via a utility in the BIOS. No MS Windows necessary.

 

[firstdraft]

Hi Cybernaut,

Thank you very much for your reply. I appreciate the help. Some of the ethernet cards I have tried in the past failed. I have had better luck and reliability with built-in ports. Is there a good value ethernet card that works with Linux?

Once the box is running, I try not to bother it, so you are right, I don't expect to update the BIOS frequently.

I think I feel intimidated as new motherboards under Linux often have features that may not work. I understand most companies don't support Linux, but the tech support at Asus sounded like perhaps Linux was being locked out?

Is there a list of something like Best Linux Compatible Motherboards 2025?

With gratitude,

FirstDraft

 

[COLGeek]

I am not aware of any such list. Most current motherboards work just fine, though

For example, my Linux Mint Ryzen 7 8700G/Gigabyte B650 Aorus Elite AX ICE rig ran perfectly right out of the box. Even on-board wireless works well. That includes the Radeon RX 7800 XT GPU in the same rig.

As far as a second NIC, just about any with an Intel or Realtek chipset will do.

When you say server, for home use, what kind of server do you mean?

 

[firstdraft]

Hi Cybernaut,

I bought an Intel 2 or 4 port card that I never got working. I bought another NIC from Thinkpenguin that is great, but by that time, our home was already working with a couple of USB ethernet dongles from Manhattan. They have been really helpful.

> When you say server, for home use, what kind of server do you mean?

For a server, one server ethernet port connects to our ISP through our cable modem. The home sever runs iptables as firewall and the second server ethernet port connects to a secured wired LAN. One of the dongles connects to a WiFi access point to provide insecure WiFi locally with Internet connects through the ISP. The server has two SATA drives in a RAID1 configuration. Luks is applied to 3 of 4 partitions on the RAID disks (tmp, swap, and 3rd partition). The third partition is then sub-divided over the LUKS encryption with LVM to layout the rest of the UNIX file heirarchy spec. There is another small vfat partition for uefi. The server also runs a mail transfer agent, an NFS file server, Bind9, Apache2 with WordPress, ssh, etc. We are not heavy gamers or streamers.

Software RAID1 has been really helpful during disk failures.

All suggestions are appreciated and I value your feedback. Thank you!

With gratitude,

FirstDraft

 

[dwd999]

Asus has PROART CREATOR boards that seem to meet my needs, but apparently one needs to have Windows installed to be able to flash and possibly update the motherboard bios.

No, refer to section 3.3 of the manual of the ProArt X570-CREATOR WIFI and it explains how to use the existing bios to upgrade to a new bios without any operating system being involved. (You may not even need a usb stick with the bios update on it since with many newer ASUS motherboards you can access any disk including internal disks to find the update bios file. At least that's how it works on the Z790 board I have.)

https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/..._UM_V2_WEB.pdf?model=ProArt X570-CREATOR WIFI

 

[COLGeek]

Hi Cybernaut,

I bought an Intel 2 or 4 port card that I never got working. I bought another NIC from Thinkpenguin that is great, but by that time, our home was already working with a couple of USB ethernet dongles from Manhattan. They have been really helpful.

> When you say server, for home use, what kind of server do you mean?

For a server, one server ethernet port connects to our ISP through our cable modem. The home sever runs iptables as firewall and the second server ethernet port connects to a secured wired LAN. One of the dongles connects to a WiFi access point to provide insecure WiFi locally with Internet connects through the ISP. The server has two SATA drives in a RAID1 configuration. Luks is applied to 3 of 4 partitions on the RAID disks (tmp, swap, and 3rd partition). The third partition is then sub-divided over the LUKS encryption with LVM to layout the rest of the UNIX file heirarchy spec. There is another small vfat partition for uefi. The server also runs a mail transfer agent, an NFS file server, Bind9, Apache2 with WordPress, ssh, etc. We are not heavy gamers or streamers.

Software RAID1 has been really helpful during disk failures.

All suggestions are appreciated and I value your feedback. Thank you!

With gratitude,

FirstDraft

This is not a beast of a system in terms of requirements. A fairly low-end rig, with 32GB (2x16GB) memory and a G-series Ryzen (since you asked about an AM4 motherboard) will do the trick. Something like a Ryzen 5 5600G (6 cores/12 threads).

 

[firstdraft]

No, refer to section 3.3 of the manual of the ProArt X570-CREATOR WIFI and it explains how to use the existing bios to upgrade to a new bios without any operating system being involved. (You may not even need a usb stick with the bios update on it since with many newer ASUS motherboards you can access any disk including internal disks to find the update bios file. At least that's how it works on the Z790 board I have.)

https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/SocketAM4/ProArt_X570-CREATOR_WIFI/E19234_ProArt_X570-CREATOR_WIFI_UM_V2_WEB.pdf?model=ProArt X570-CREATOR WIFI

Hi dwd999,

Thank you! RTM Such a newbie mistake on my end listening to tech support. The board I actually found available is a slightly different model, but you are so right! Start with the manual.

Are you running Linux on your Z790? If so, did you find any issues of note?

The manual really helps.

I sincerely appreciate your feedback!

With gratitude,

FirstDraft.

 

[firstdraft]

This is not a beast of a system in terms of requirements. A fairly low-end rig, with 32GB (2x16GB) memory and a G-series Ryzen (since you asked about an AM4 motherboard) will do the trick. Something like a Ryzen 5 5600G (6 cores/12 threads).

Cybernaut,

Thank you again. I always have more computing power than I really need. Your solutions sound really nice for the price. Per dwd999's suggestions, I need to download and review the user manuals for the Gigabyte board. Seems like a much better solution and much less overkill.

I appreciate your help and advice,

Thank you and good night,

FirstDraft

 

[dwd999]

Hi dwd999,

Thank you! RTM Such a newbie mistake on my end listening to tech support. The board I actually found available is a slightly different model, but you are so right! Start with the manual.

Are you running Linux on your Z790? If so, did you find any issues of note?

The manual really helps.

I sincerely appreciate your feedback!

With gratitude,

FirstDraft.

I always have a bootable linux usb for those occasions when Windows messes up and I use it as a last resort to save a file from a Windows inaccessible disk.