SAT Hardware Compatibility Plan #

Email Summary #

From: saturnpatty (bogdanborisov02@gmail.com) -- @sat Subject: hardware Date: 2026-03-16

They are asking about support for:

• Device: ARDOR NEO G15-I5ND302
• CPU: 12th Gen Intel Core i5-12450H (Alder Lake)
• BIOS: InsydeH2O v.1.07.12TDC
• Note: "yeah not exactly asus acer etc" (lesser-known OEM brand)

The ARDOR NEO G15 is a budget laptop from a smaller brand (likely Chinese OEM). The i5-12450H is an Alder Lake mobile processor with 8 cores (4P + 4E), Intel UHD Graphics (integrated).

Current AC Native OS Hardware Profile #

Component	Tested On	Kernel Config
CPU	Intel Kaby Lake (7th gen)	x86_64, CONFIG_EFI=y
GPU	Intel i915 (Kaby Lake)	CONFIG_DRM_I915=y (built-in)
Audio	ALSA / HDA Intel	CONFIG_SND_HDA_INTEL=y, CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_REALTEK=y
WiFi	Intel iwlwifi	CONFIG_IWLWIFI=y, CONFIG_IWLMVM=y
USB	XHCI + EHCI	CONFIG_USB_XHCI_HCD=y, CONFIG_USB_EHCI_HCD=y
Boot	UEFI USB	CONFIG_EFI_STUB=y
Display	DRM direct + Wayland (cage)	CONFIG_DRM_I915=y

Compatibility Assessment: ARDOR NEO G15 (i5-12450H) #

CPU -- LIKELY COMPATIBLE #

The i5-12450H is x86_64 Alder Lake. AC Native OS runs on x86_64 with EFI stub boot. Alder Lake hybrid architecture (P-cores + E-cores) is supported in kernel 6.14.2 without special config. No issues expected.

GPU -- LIKELY COMPATIBLE (with caveat) #

The i5-12450H has Intel UHD Graphics (Alder Lake GT1). The i915 driver in kernel 6.14.2 supports Alder Lake. CONFIG_DRM_I915=y is already built-in and CONFIG_DRM_I915_FORCE_PROBE="" means it will auto-detect. This should work out of the box.

Caveat: If DRM_I915_FORCE_PROBE needs the Alder Lake PCI ID added, we would set it to the specific device ID (e.g., 4692 for UHD Graphics). Check dmesg on first boot.

Audio -- NEEDS VERIFICATION #

The current kernel has CONFIG_SND_HDA_INTEL=y and CONFIG_SND_HDA_CODEC_REALTEK=y. Budget laptops sometimes use different audio codecs. If the ARDOR NEO uses a Realtek HDA codec, it will work. If it uses an Intel SOF (Sound Open Firmware) based audio path (common on Alder Lake), we would need:

CONFIG_SND_SOC=y
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_TOPLEVEL=y
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_PCI=y
CONFIG_SND_SOC_SOF_ALDERLAKE=y
CONFIG_SND_SOC_INTEL_AVS=y  (possibly)

Currently CONFIG_SND_SOC is not set. This is the most likely failure point.

Action required: Boot the device and check dmesg | grep -i snd and aplay -l to determine the audio subsystem.

WiFi -- UNKNOWN, LIKELY NEEDS ADDITIONAL DRIVER #

Intel iwlwifi is built in (CONFIG_IWLWIFI=y), but the ARDOR NEO G15 (budget laptop) may use:

• Realtek WiFi (RTL8821CE, RTL8852BE, etc.) -- very common in budget laptops
• MediaTek WiFi (MT7921, MT7922) -- increasingly common

Neither Realtek nor MediaTek WiFi drivers are currently enabled in the kernel config. If the device does not have Intel WiFi, we would need to enable one of:

# For Realtek:
CONFIG_RTW88=y or CONFIG_RTW89=y
CONFIG_RTW89_8852BE=y  (or whichever chip)

# For MediaTek:
CONFIG_MT76=y
CONFIG_MT7921E=y

Action required: Check lspci | grep -i net on the device to identify the WiFi chipset. Also need firmware blobs in initramfs for the specific chip.

UEFI Boot -- LIKELY COMPATIBLE #

InsydeH2O is a standard UEFI firmware vendor (used by many OEMs including Lenovo, HP, Acer). CONFIG_EFI_STUB=y and CONFIG_EFI_HANDOVER_PROTOCOL=y are set. USB boot should work if Secure Boot is disabled in BIOS.

Note: Some InsydeH2O firmware versions have quirky boot menus. May need to press F2/F12/Del during POST to access boot device selection.

USB -- COMPATIBLE #

Alder Lake uses XHCI for USB 3.x. CONFIG_USB_XHCI_HCD=y and CONFIG_USB_XHCI_PCI=y are set. No issues expected.

Summary #

Component	Status	Blocking?
CPU (i5-12450H)	Should work	No
GPU (Intel UHD, Alder Lake)	Should work (i915)	No
Audio	May need SOF support	Possibly
WiFi	Likely needs non-Intel driver	Probably
UEFI Boot	Should work (InsydeH2O)	No
USB	Should work	No

Recommended Next Steps #

1. Get physical access to the device (or have @sat run lspci -nn and lsusb from any live Linux USB)
2. Identify WiFi chipset -- this determines whether a kernel config change is needed
3. Identify audio codec -- check if SOF is required for Alder Lake audio on this board
4. Test boot -- try current AC Native OS USB image; CPU/GPU/USB/UEFI should just work
5. Kernel config update -- add missing drivers based on findings, rebuild with ac-os build
6. Firmware blobs -- add any required firmware files (WiFi, audio) to initramfs

The device is x86_64 Intel, which is the same architecture AC Native OS targets. The main risks are WiFi and audio drivers for a budget OEM board. A quick lspci dump from @sat would resolve all unknowns.