Dreamcast Runs Linux

Daikak writes "Just saw this news post on Zophar's about a guy running Linux on his Dreamcast." Update: 07/16 9:37 AM by CN : Looks like the links here ended up broken, so they've been removed. Who reads old articles anyway?

Comments

Re: Dreamcast Runs Linux

[sargon]

I continue to be amazed at the ever-broadening array of boxes on which Linux runs.

What will Linux NOT run on these days?

The ultimate port:

[David Gerard]

- porting Linux to a coffee cup.

This can open some *serious* doors for the DC.

[jbuilder]

First, let me say, as an anti-Sega person for the last 10 years that the more I use the DC the more I LOVE the DC. It's a great game system. It's got a solid, well understood CPU, great graphics and sound. All in all, it's a very cool system.

This applies to any of the consoles out there, but the only problem I see with any of these game systems is that the tools to write games for them are so expensive that it's prohibitive to try. Indrema has the right idea: use Linux for the development hardware. Hopefully this will lead to freeware/cheapware linux-based game development on the DC and extend the overall life and interest in the product.

I wonder...

[ocie]

If you could run MAME on this.

Re:I wonder...

[Genom]

Hmm - a lil' bootloader, a small kernel, MAME, and 600 someodd megs of vintage videogames to play on the Dreamcast.

Mmmm...crunchy!

Re:I wonder...

[Typingsux]

That's a great idea Genom.

LMK if you ever see anything like that come around.

Re:And the benefit of this would be?

[minkeyboodle]

Now I can burn a CD with a minimal system, and MP3 player, and a whole group of MP3's. I plop the CD in and off I go!

Re:And the benefit of this would be?

[Kagato]

Well, the largest benifit would be people could actually port software over to the dream cast with out paying any fees. Sega sells the dream cast at cost or less than cost in order to get people to buy the system. The games in turn, which probally cost 3 dollars in materials, and maybe 10 dollars in RD also pay sega a percentage. Just to get your hands on the development information costs you an arm and a leg. Now if you're activision, or capcom this really doesn't matter.

If you're joe shmoe user then this is a big deal. You could actually make your own shareware dreamcast game. People could download it over the internet. We go back to the days of the Apple II and C64 where big game makers started out of someones basement.

From a business stand point this is also a "Good Thing" (TM). If a number of game systems run Linux (Dreamcast, PS2, etc.) then the cost of porting could become cheaper. A company like Loki would do one main port of a game, then a could mini ports to tweak the games. The plus side to the linux comunity is games could be avalible on Linux x86 before the windows version is complete.

Just some stuff that should get you wondering.

The point is Linux video games.

[yerricde]

Who really gives a rat's ass if your Dreamcast, or toaster, or microwave, or TV set can run Linux? I purchased these devices with these respective intentions in mind - to play video games, make toast, and reheat foods.

Yes, but Linux on a console lets the average Joe develop software for that console. With Ethernet drivers and a port of XFree, you get a cheap X terminal (with a joystick for a mouse). And with the portable Allegro library, you can download games from the Internet, compile them for Dreamcast, burn them to a CD-R, and play your heart out.

Re:Clustering!

[enrico_suave]

Thanks for not using the "B" word =P

Re:Damm, now we have "of course it runs Linux.."

[niklaus]

I remember seeing a slashdot article saying that some guy got NetBSD running on his Dreamcast quite some time ago. I'm too lazy to find that link, but there's no reason for you to be pissed off.

Watch it boot... then what?

[antoniol]

I would imagine for this thing to be of any use, use would need a port of gcc. Does anyone know what the status of that is? From the "assortment" of screenshots, I seems it has a running bash. Other than that? The boot messages say something about a framebuffer device, I think. Does that mean it will run X? Antonio.

Re:Backups... backups...

[jidar]

I doubt it. Techniques to do that exist already and he probably even had to use some of them to get the port working.

Re:Searching....searching....

[Tuzanor]

People have been moving linux to so many plaotforms because Microsoft loves to say that linux doesn't have the expanability that windows does. SO to prove them wrong they prot them from everything from watches, to PDAs, to IBM mainframes...

another mirror here http://209.233.130.20/slashdot

[CiXeL]

http://209.233.130.20/slashdot/
nice and tar gzippd for easy downloading

Cool...

[kdgarris]

...maybe there's a chance of running some decent games on it now!

:-)

Re:Now give DC a keyboard, mouse, X & a browser!

[Zemran]

and don't forget the internal modem...

Re:And the benefit of this would be?

[ErikJson]

Total world domination!

/E

Re:Damm, now we have "of course it runs Linux.."

[duke_h3]

Yes people, NetBSD is running unofficially on the DC aswell. But no they wern't first. The first documented Linux port apeard in July and this kernel is from August. The NetBSD arrived in October so Yes this time Linux beat them to it. And when we start talking about a released port there now telling whos going to make it there first.

Re:And the benefit of this would be?

[kinnunen]

Isn't the DC supposed to have some kind of Internet connectivity option?

A DC distributed.net / seti@home client might be a cool thing to have (true, no real benefit in there either but consoles are basicly just toys, so what do you expect).

I suppose you could make a DCLinux-distribution with some productivity tools and turn your console into Network Computer.

--

My cat has a favorite scripting language

[Hairy_Potter]

purrrrl

Re:And the benefit of this would be?

[pallex]

"... so what? "

Well, for starters there are more good games out for Linux that for Dreamcast... :)

Re:This could very well be a HOAX

[Svenne]

You are wrong, trust me. I've seen it running for weeks. /per

Re:Could have used stylesheets for extra irony

[2ms]

Actually, you pretty much have it exactly backwards:

1. Search engines would still ignore it (you really think porn sites haven't thought of that and that search engines haven't thought of porn sites thinking of that?) - search engines look at style definitions just as they look at plain html
2. CSS would be providing the "hide" function not the "retrieve" function. He's using &ltfont&gt's color attribute to hide the code. If he hadn't set this value equal to the bgcolor value, then the code wouldn't have been hidden (bgcolor default = white, foreground color default = black). If he'd used CSS instead, then the CSS would have been hiding the code.

But thanks for playing.

gaming

[Docrates]

well, what if people started writing games for dreamcast booting on a linux kernel (after all the OS can reside on every CD or GDROM, like the almost never used winCE): wouldn't that make gaming for linux desktops way closer to reality? we could have a set of drivers a la DirectX as an abstraction layer that would make the difference between PC hardware and Dreamcast hardware almost irrelevant....

Re:gaming

[jidar]

That is true, but the benefits of porting existing API's to the architecture is that it would make porting existing software that uses those API's very easy. If we could get SDL on Linux on Dreamcast, then all of the SDL software out could be easily ported giving Linux game software a larger market.

Re:gaming

[OverCode@work]

How 'bout SDL? There's been some discussion about this on the SDL mailing list lately. It's not too terribly difficult to add support for new architectures to SDL, and it does a good job of abstracting possible hardware acceleration features where they exist. It also has support for creating OpenGL contexts.

If someone would port OpenGL to the Dreamcast (does it exist?), SDL could take care of the rest in short order.

-John (an SDL zealot)

Re:gaming

[cculianu]

Yeah, that's called opengl!

Re:gaming

[ion]

moderate the parent up, the AC has a point, it's
a console, no need for an API as ALL the hardware is identical.

I'm not convinced. . ..

[ishpeck]

Until I can play SoulCalibur on Linux.

Call me messed up, but Sophitia strikes me as significantly more attractive than human women. . . . and until the "source" for Sophitia is opened, life won't be good enough.

Re:Searching....searching....

[Vryl]

Errr ... proof of concept of readiness for the much heralded, but still largely invisible 'Internet Appliances' market.

From memory, they have had NetBSD running on dreamcast for a while, not to mention WinCE.

It is another market, another great place for an Open Source, Free, GPL'd operating system to be, uhhh, operating in.

Re:TuxRacer and an anti-WinCE statement

[TheMoog]

It's a much overstated, and wrong, point that the Dreamcast has a WinCE layer - it doesn't - unless you specifically link with it. WinCE is just another library to a console developer; if you don't use it (which frankly you'd be foolish to do so, imho) it doesn't get loaded, or even mastered onto the final disk.

Very few serious games use WinCE, but MS insisted on Sega putting the logo on the box, which has confused a few people into thinking the whole thing runs on CE. The truth is you get hardware-level access without CE, which allows you to register vertices as fast as you can generate them straight to the gfx processor.

The DC is a lovely little machine; I wish I had had time to attempt a linux port (I have a dev-kit sat on my desk here right now which would make it a bit easier than the guys using a vanilla DC), so good luck to the future linux development I say!

Re:Or try Allegro, but watch out for i-opener effe

[Taurine]

Any commercial developer that tried this would have trouble producing and distributing their software. To be legitimate they have to get Sega to produce the GD-ROMs for them. If they try to produce their own disks they will be using licensed code without a license, so they will get sued. This is because for a disk to be bootable, it has to contain a chunk of code in its bootstrap that is byte-for-byte identical to some code held on ROM. That is the code that displays the Dreamcast logo and 'licensed by Sega' message (see here and here).

So don't expect Linux or any other alternative operating system to kill Sega anytime soon.

Personally, I think it is pretty cool that Sega chose such a relatively easy to circumvent copy-protection scheme in the first place. It allows them to sue any violator they choose, and at the same time allows grass-roots home coders to do their own thing and learn how to code on some serious gaming hardware. This also makes it easier for import gamers, as you can easily create boot disks that let you play any-region disks (such as the Action Replay CDX). Sega 'did the right thing' in this respect with the Saturn too. Its region control was done by jumpers, so it took very little expertise or technology to make your Saturn capable of playing foreign games.

Re:This is pathetic.

[Octal]

The simple reply to this would be, "Hey, NetBSD did it first! And we're beating them!"

There was a DreamCast gap, and we couldn't just let those dirty commies win could we? They must be commies! Their mascot is covered entirely in red!

*slap*

Sorry, got carried away.

Could have used stylesheets for extra irony

[yerricde]

1. Search engines are starting to ignore text drawn in the same color as the background, so that "xxx xxx porn free sex" type stuff doesn't spam the listings.
2. MPAA uses CSS (content scrambling system) to hide movie data from us. Think about it, the author could have chosen to use CSS (cascading stylesheets) to hide the DeCSS (content scrambling system) code from casual users, requiring the Other DeCSS (cascading stylesheets) to retrieve it.

another mirror @ http://209.233.130.20/slashdot/

[CiXeL]

http://209.233.130.20/slashdot/
all the files including screenshots nice and tar gz'd for easy downloading. enjoy.

Cheap distributed computing platform?

[cloudscout]

A few people have requested ports of the Distributed.net client software for the Dreamcast architecture. Assuming this Linux port would allow you to access the VMUs for storage, this might be a way to accomplish that goal and utilize the DC for something other than gaming. While many people would question the value of such a function, I would love to set my Dreamcast loose on finding Optimal Golomb Rulers or folding proteins or searching for aliens or whatever else floats your boat.

I already have plans for this puppy!

[MrBlue VT]

I've written a touch-screen mp3 jukebox that I have hooked up to my stereo down near the TV. It is now running on an extra linux box. However if I could get my Dreamcast running linux, I could put it on that and get rid of that computer sitting there.

Mmmmmm. I can imagine it already. And I wouldn't have to use the crappy SB16 card in there now that produces some feedback on the stereo.

-Steve

Re:Damm, now we have "of course it runs Linux.."

[T-Punkt]

Not true, NetBSD had a single user shell on the dreamcast in October.

Re:Searching....searching....

[Defiler]

Thanks for the great quote, man:
"Figuring out that something runs Linux means that it can and will be hacked"
I couldn't have said it better myself. Microsoft should put that quote in their literature.

Re:another mirror @ http://209.233.130.20/slashdot

[bludstone]

cixel you sucka. why arnt you on irc anymore? msg me on efnet. bitch.

Re:Now give DC a keyboard, mouse, X & a browser!

[ZZane]

You can buy both a keyboard and mouse for the Dreamcast. They've been around for quite some time. Unfortunately they're proprietary because DC doesn't have USB or Firewire.

-Zane

Re:another mirror @ http://209.233.130.20/slashdot

[CiXeL]

bitchface i cant get on efnet cuz all of home.com is blocked im me at CiXeL78

Re:And the benefit of this would be?

[Anonymous Coward]

Did it ever occur to you that perhaps the person(s) who developed this port didn't sign any contracts with Sega?

~~~

How about my PDP-10?

[Suzuran]

I have a DECsystem-2020 that's going to run ITS, but booting Linux on it once would be good for laughs...

Here are pictures of it. :P

My cat runs linux

[maccroz]

My cat runs linux. Oh...if only I had the picture scanned online. It is a picture of this monitor on top of my cat running linux. What a crafty cat he is, I never thought he had the storage, but I was tinkering around with him one day and decided to install it.

Re:My cat runs linux

[PD]

Well my two little dogs run Linux too.

They are a Beowolf cluster.

Re:My cat runs linux

[dsginter]

Don't you mean "Beo-woof"?

Re:My cat runs linux

[george3]

Shouldn't that be Beowoof cluster?

Re:My cat runs linux

[gdiersing]

Clever, I never thought of installing on my cat (hi fluffy!), I recently installed linux on a head of lettuce. I had some wicked screen shots, but they wilted before I could scan them.

Seriously, I am looking at a picture of linux on a TV with some game consoles sitting on top. Oh yeah, I'm convinced, he is a genius. Oh wait, I think my bic has some RAM available, I have to work to do.....screen shots to follow.

dreamcast is a computer after all!

[mushrooms]

Well, most home users don't really need full-blown-computers for most of their surfing &c, so why not get better web enablement for them - the linux/qt /qte model should work pretty well - especially if you chuck in a good browser.

alternately, surely there is scope for a mozilla based webtop?

I have tried the dreamcast browser - it is apalling, with a linux sitting under it its far easier to get the more interesting plugins etc. provided for users so that they just slip the relavent boot cd and run from there - get larget memory capacities in the controller memory packs, and you can even start to flash into them!.

of course, this opens up the whole terminal/.net thing again, but using a more flexible lightweight computing platform than whatever redmond are able to do.

Byte-for-byte copying may be fair use here

[yerricde]

This is because for a disk to be bootable, it has to contain a chunk of code in its bootstrap that is byte-for-byte identical to some code held on ROM.

Fair use; no functional part of the game is being copied. The boot sector is simply a 14 KB magic cookie for "Dreamcast format CD" that happens to be executed. There are ways to route around the trademark issue also, such as displaying "NOT" right above any instance of "Licensed by Sega" as soon as your program gets control in Bootstrap 1. Case in point: Sega tried this with the Sega Genesis console (a "Trademark Security System"), resulting in Sega v. Accolade. From what I've read, this byte-for-byte copying is considered fair use; otherwise, what amounts to a perpetual patent could be achieved through copyright law.

Re:Byte-for-byte copying may be fair use here

[UberLame]

Even if you were correct (and I'm not sure you are), whose has the money to spend on lawyers to stand up to Sega in court?

Re:Searching....searching....

[Funky Jester]

To each their own...

It's better that there's such a diversity of interest.
What fun would it be if everybody focused on the same thing?

herm

[fjordboy]

until it can brew a cup of coffee too, i don't want it.

I think this is sorta neat though, because the dreamcast is able to go on the net, so I think the next thing to come out of this project is a sega dreamcast webserver.. That would be sweet. I suppose it could work pretty easily...the sega's come with a 56k modem and all..and you can get network interface for it.....I think that this guy should try running his dreamcast as a server..that would rule.

Re:herm

[rograndom]

I think this is sorta neat though, because the dreamcast is able to go on the net, so I think the next thing to come out of this project is a sega dreamcast webserver.. That would be sweet. I suppose it could work pretty easily...the sega's come with a 56k modem and all..and you can get network interface for it.....I think that this guy should try running his dreamcast as a server..that would rule.

hmm, 25,000+ or so people with ISDN/DSL/Cable/T1/T3, etc connections trying to view a web page on a dreamcast with a 56k modem... It would take like, what, five people to slashdot it?

Re:Backups... backups...(storage)

[Mall0]

Well, The GD-ROM stands for Gigabyte Disc, as it stores 1.2 gig. Sooo, there is still the space limitation..Which has always been solved by stripping out good stuff! I'll continue to support my Sega, thanks

Re:And the benefit of this would be?

[dsplat]

OK, so Linux can run on this device and that device and this watch and that shoe

[nasal voice] "Hello, Chief"

[short pause while listening]

"Why yes, I am taking to you on my new Shoeix sneaker-phone."

[another short pause]

"No, Chief, I don't think that's what they meant when they called it portable."

Re:Searching....searching....

[the_ph0x]

Sometimes ideas come to us whilst doing obscure things.
Like say trying to get an OS on a smaller device for portability (PDA's).

.ph0x

Re:Searching....searching....

[mihalis]

What's this "point" and "we" crap? There doesn't have to be a "point" and "we" aren't spending any time running Linux on obscure anything.

If I had a Dreamcast, or for that matter a room full of supercomputers, or a digital watch with a cpu, I might think it was fun to try to run Linux on it. Or some kind of BSD, or BeOS, or whatever.

It's not for you to tell me not to because that effort should be spent on making Linux commercially ready. What happens if I couldn't care less for commerciality, desktop-focus or robustness? Nothing. It's my hardware, my time, my effort. If I do something useful in my efforts, then the other linux efforts may benefit, if not, then tough!

No offence intended, but that's how I feel.

Re:Now give DC a keyboard, mouse, X & a browser!

[mattbee]

Is there any easy way to connect any sort of standard keyboard and mouse to a dreamcast (like firewire or usb, maybe?). I know the ps2 has these ports, so it should be very possible to turn a ps2 into a really versatile computer with *STANDARD* components, right?

Well obviously Sega make quite a bit of money in you buying their gear, but the people at LikSang, a Hong-Kong based firm, make all sorts of hacky bits of hardware including a combined PS/2 keyboard and Playstation joypad adaptor, a memory card which plugs into your parallel port to store saves on your hard drive and a serial cable for you to download your own code onto the machine (which is how most guerilla development seems to be going on). All seems quite cheap, and they're very UK/US friendly, despite the $25 minimum order charge and `postage on application' policy :-) Try Jules' site for some more information and links to amateur Dreamcast development development. I'm just getting into it myself, though I think my DC is one of the very first which won't boot CDRs (grr mumble mutter etc.)

The point is...

[Coins]

With a wide array of devices working on an open OS, it is possible to choose any device you want when faced with a project. For example, a palm computer is first and foremost A COMPUTER. If you could run a familiar and open OS on it, it could effectively be used as a specialized controller in a slew of different situations. The more devices that can run Linux, the more options we have. If MS wanted to port to a bunch of different devices, that would be cool too. The difference is that they'll wait until they have a good business reason...which will probably be inspired by articles like this.

We need a board of lawyers

[green pizza]

Not really.

And a letter from Sega saying cease and desist

[mr]

Would *NOT* have a chilling effect on such a port?

Look at how simple a cue:cat is, and yet legal staff threw about all kinds of letters, helping to prevent cue:cat code distro.

If EVERY OTHER developer needed to sign a NDA, and the nature of the NDA would stop the creation of BSD/Linux distro running on a Dreamcast, do you think a judge will believe this distro had *NO* help from NDA'd documents?

Re:Kernel site /.'ed - mirror

[Optic]

No source. So much for the GPL. :)

Re:I hacked your firewall

[fatboy]

umm....i hope that's sarcasm, but in case it isn't: 127.0.0.1 is your local computer. it's a magical ip address that always goes to the computer that you are looking at it. (if it is sarcasm, ignore said comment)

No, it's the l337 server that /. keeps it warez on. See http://warez.slashdot.org ;)

Snicker

Gorebot Runs Linux

[anonymous cowerd]

What will Linux NOT run on these days?

...Al Gore, George W. Bush, OR Ralph Nader...

Wrong-O! Linux was ported to the Gorebot by IBM; their version can run hundreds and even thousands of instances of Linux simultaneously.

Or to quote it itself:

FOOLISH HUMANS! DO YOU NOT RECOGNIZE THE SUPERIOR PROCESSING CAPABILITIES OF MY ADVANCED NEURAL NETWORK?

Yours WDK - WKiernan@concentric.net

That is plain *wrong*

[Steinar]

The screenshots show a single user boot. NetBSD first booted single user on the Dreamcast October 17th this year.

Look at this mail

Re:That is plain *wrong*

[Octal]

Prior to posting, I checked the NetBSD page to make sure they hadn't reached single user. The latest update on the sh3 page said they were approaching single user mode, but hadn't reached it yet.

Re:That is plain *wrong*

[Steinar]

That update is from July. Newsflashes like that is not regularly updated, (nor is slashdot postings) and Dreamcast is not the most important part of the SH3 port. Use the mailarchives, Luke! ;-)

Re:That is plain *wrong*

[Octal]

Well, the longer I looked, the farther down on the story my comment would show up, so I had to act quickly, lest my comment end up at the bottom and no moderator get bored enough to set it to troll/flamebait. I had just figured that I'm generally around enough Dreamcast lovers/BSD users that I would have been told the second it got to any usermode, be it multiple or single. So I only did a moderate fact-checking. I am not a NetBSD user, and I didn't know to check the mail archives, and I only did a preliminary google search on "NetBSD dreamcast" and only found posts relating to when the kernel booted but it couldn't mount root.

Gigadisc ripping made easier.

[Sarin]

This will allow easier gameripping for pirates, just let the linux-dreamcast mount the gigadisc, then mount it with another machine that's connected via the serial port to the dreamcast, and boom you have direct access to the otherwise inaccessable gigadisc format.

Re:Now give DC a keyboard, mouse, X & a browser!

[Neon Spiral Injector]

The mouse is out too. Have one at my house. Has a wheel and everything. Too bad it doesn't work with the current version of their web brower software.

Re:The Konami Code

[GlassUser]

Oh fond memories of god codes - live virtually forever! (actually, when I first started playing Contra, that would increase my average game time from 20 sec to almost three minutes)

Linux Hacker Needs Help

[SubtleNuance]

Everyone go back and have a look at this pic that was provided above. Pay special attention to the reflection in the TV of the room the photographer is in... it looks like the guy is living in a rail-car!

Lets have a collection and send this Geek-in-Need some dough, or invite him to live in a warm basement where he can learn and grow. Where is Sally Struthers when you need her! Don't fret little DC geek; help is on the way!

I was there...

[delay]

This year at LinuxKongress (two months ago in Erlangen, Germany), I saw the presentation of the Linux-port to the SuperH-processor. This port was not ment to make Linux run on Dreamcast, but rather to make it run on the SuperH, which is an processor developped for embedded devices. So Linux could be used to run your tv or something (you wouldn't notice normally *g*). The fact that Linux now runs on Dreamcast is just a neat side-effect. I talked to one of the main-developpers (Yutaka Niibe, I think), and he said there even might be a SuperH Debian distrib in some time. RedHat is not very interested, because for them there's no money to earn. Well, I also asked, whether it is possible to hook up a hard-drive to a dreamcast, to get a nice and cheap linux-computer, but he told me that they didn't know how to do this because the Dreamcast is a closed architecture no one but Sega really understands... Well: we really need open standarts, even for video-games...

Re:I was there...

[axioun]

That looks like documentation on the SH and PowerVR, which are nice and all, but aren't very helpful when trying to figure out how to put a harddrive in the DC. You need to know how the harddrive will interface with the Dreamcast, which deals with the system bus and not the GPU or CPU.

Re:I was there...

[Legion303]

he told me that they didn't know how to do this because the Dreamcast is a closed architecture no one but Sega really understands

Maybe he shouild look here.

-Legion

X... yuck!

[the_tsi]

Now, who's gonna want to write and debug X drivers for the PVR2? :)

And after that, who's gonna want to write/debug DRI/GLX/whatever 3D drivers you need for it?

This certainly is a cool hack, but all you've made yourself an expensive TV-based vt100 terminal that can probably get a shitload of distributed.net keys. :)

Come to think of it, maybe d.net on here WOULD make them worth buying...

-Chris
...More Powerful than Otto Preminger...

Re:X... yuck!

[piku]

I think the games make the Dreamcast worth buying.

Re:X... yuck!

[John_Booty]

Come to think of it, maybe d.net on here WOULD make them worth buying...

Well, the CPU on the dreamcast only runs at ~200mhz. Supposedly it's got great floating-point performance, but then again, d.net (at least the RC5 challenge) pretty much relies on integer calculations only. So your keyrate on here would be nothing to write home about.

But then again, suppose you found the winning key on a Dreamcast? LOL. Now that would be a marketing coup for Sega. ;)

http://www.bootyproject.org

Re:yeah, it's not clear

[afree87]

So we can call it a kind of meta-violation... or semi-violation...

--

Re:Dreamcast

[cheetham]

yeah, I just cracked into it to, you are one sick perverted person! *resolves 127.0.0.1 to localhost* *realises what he's done* errrmmm.... this isn't my computer, I'm.. err... at a friends house.. yeah, that's right, a friend, he name is John. The sheep porn isn't mine, really... *runs off*

Dreamcast Linux

[Cable]

Ok so it runs Linux. Does it also run XFree86 and GNOME? Do you use the Controller as a pointing device? Can you hook up a hard drive to it, or is it limited to a CDR?

give me an image!!

[babz]

this is very cool, don't care what anyone here says... is there a discjuggler image of the disc, we can just burn--to play around with?

Linux has run on the DC for awhile now

[jordan_a]

Linux runs on the Dreamcast with little changes at all. This guy has already got Linux working on the DC and is working on a custom OS.

Re:And the benefit of this would be?

[infra-red]

Personally, I think its very cool that people are trying to see if they can get this or that working on this or that. They aren't doing it to benefit anyone, just too see if it can be done. Unix was created in a similar fashion.

The more that corporate and/or commerical intrestes get invested into Linux the more people are critical of projects that they don't see benefiting themselves. I would suggest that if you (refering to everyone here) don't see value in a specific project, then just ignore it.

Re:Linux on HP48?

[am 2k]

Thanks!

Mull THIS one over...

[Crash Culligan]

Three simple words:

"Linux on Xbox."

I can practically hear the screams from Redmond now.
---

Re:Mull THIS one over...

[cheetham]

oh the irony!

Re:ok, I'm dumb....

[zeropanic]

You need a bootloader disc (Like Utopia's) I cannot tell you where to get this.. Legal reasons! :)

I hacked your firewall

[chainsaw1]

You left filesharing on with read write access to all your drives... some firewall you have!

Even _my_ security is better than that!

Re:I hacked your firewall

[chainsaw1]

It is sarcasam. Just a funny to brighten your day; though I learned about localhost from some guys on USENET that convinced me that Marathon IV's test server was running on 127.0.0.1...

I was a bit suprized and thrilled when it pinged back... :-)

(Marathon is a FPS game series developed by Bungie Software)

Re:I hacked your firewall

[IanCarlson]

C'mon man, even the moderators got it.

Re:What I really want to know is...

[falcomadol]

/me loads up Linux on DC.

/me types cat /proc/cpuinfo

cpu family :SH-4
cache size :8K-byte/16K-byte
bogomips :199.48

Machine: dreamcast
CPU clock: 200.00MHz
Bus clock: 100.00MHz
Peripheral module clock: 50.00MHz

Whether all of this is accurate or not...I have no idea.

Guess I'll go back and tar up some more directories, gzip them, and then check the contents of them again...no gcc, although I do seem to have vi. I can write some text in a file, then cat it back. Too bad that when I type Shift-Backslash I get a Capital 'N' instead of a pipe, so even though more seems to exist, it isn't useful for much.

Or, I could symlink some stuff. Of course, any changes go away if/when I reboot...so...

Re: Dreamcast Runs Linux

[BrK]

What will Linux NOT run on these days?

Linux won't run on the new breadmaker I bought. I was kinda disappointed, I was looking forward to a weekly crontab for BananaNut Bread.

Re:NetBSD

[Jack9]

Since the emulation scene has no bias or interest in the differences between different flavor's of *nix, I'm not going to wade through a bunch of old mail archives to hear someone claim they booted BSD up on the DC earlier than a linux OS. The only accomplishments that are, are those which are known.

Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.

ISO's a bunch of links and stuff

[nft]

I posted sort of a follow up on my website <a href="http://www.35thave.com/article.php?sid=5&am<nobr>p<wbr></wbr></nobr> <nobr> <wbr></wbr></nobr>;mode=thread&order=0" target="_blank">35thave.com</a>. It's got an ISO images to burn your own, links to more DC info, and an exclusive movie of linux booting up on a dreamcast. Check it out, it's kinda cool.

Excellent!

[ScratchDot]

Now I can run Quake III on my Dreamcast!

oh, wait...

Tux Racer

[jimmcq]

How long til I can play Tux Racer on my Dreamcast?

Re:Tux Racer

[UberLame]

I'd be happy to do the port if someone wants to donate the dreamcast hardware.

I was wrong (I'm dumb!)

[zeropanic]

I jumped the gun a bit on this one.. It appears that a bootloader disc won't do the job.. You have to make a bootable disc! (I wish I'd pay attention to what I write more).

Now give DC a keyboard, mouse, X & a browser!

[poopie]

Great! I really like the idea of a "real" $99 computer, and what better hardware to use than a console system where the hardware is standardized and they're sold everywhere.

Is there any easy way to connect any sort of standard keyboard and mouse to a dreamcast (like firewire or usb, maybe?). I know the ps2 has these ports, so it should be very possible to turn a ps2 into a really versatile computer with *STANDARD* components, right?

I can almost envision a day when the 'PC' will lose the low end and much of the gaming market to PDAs and Consoles.

Re:Now give DC a keyboard, mouse, X & a browser!

[dial0g]

Well, they won't hook up to your PC, but the DC has a keyboard and mouse. Also, you can buy a box that lets you hook up a normal keyboard (not sure if USB, PS/2, or AT) to your DC... don't think it supports a mouse though.

Re:Now give DC a keyboard, mouse, X & a browser!

[slaughts]

Not standard keyboards and mice, but Sega has been selling a keyboard since the release of the Dreamcast (or shortly thereafter), and a mouse is
on its way, mainly driven by the Q3 and UT ports...

Re:Searching....searching....

[FortKnox]

TiVo runs linux also.
It started off as that.
Now there are lots of hacks that improve the TiVo (bigger harddrives, etc...). Figuring out that something runs Linux means that it can and will be hacked, mostly to improve the item.
I agree with you, though, that a toaster running linux is pointless, and that /. freaks out when something runs linux, but sometimes it is worth it...

--

Re:Try these on for size...

[Tycho]

> 4. My Toyota runs Linux because I heard that you don't crash as much with Linux. Sounds good to me!

Seriously how many cars built after 1985 actually have anything more than an embedded Z80 in it? Or worse 7400 series TTL logic. I'm curious what car models have which types of processors. Specifically a 1991 LE Camry or any others for that matter. I bet the factory radios in most cars have more processing power than what ever computer is in the rest of the car.

Video games @ home!

[delysid-x]

I gotta get a dreamcast now so I can run MAME and SNES9X on it. Play 1000's of arcade and console games at home on 1 console. Uhh... If you legally own the roms... yeah.... ;)

Re:And the benefit of this would be?

[connorbd]

Fact remains -- you have a hacked platform you will have Linux on it. From there it doesn't take a great leap of faith to realize that contracts and IP don't mean jack when you have a clean room to play in.

If this is all for real Sega I think will very shortly be stuck with the same problem Digital Convergence has -- obscene demand for the hardware and negative profit margins eating them alive. The Dreamcast will go from second-stringer to being the coolest game platform on the planet and Sega will be having fits because they aren't getting a cut of any of it.

Copyright is truly dead...

/Brian

I think the jargon file put it the best....

[PenguiN42]

hack value n.

Often adduced as the reason or motivation for expending effort toward a seemingly useless goal, the point being that the accomplished goal is a hack. For example, MacLISP had features for reading and printing Roman numerals, which were installed purely for hack value. See display hack for one method of computing hack value, but this cannot really be explained, only experienced. As Louis Armstrong once said when asked to explain jazz: "Man, if you gotta ask you'll never know." (Feminists please note Fats Waller's explanation of rhythm: "Lady, if you got to ask, you ain't got it.")

-------------
The following sentence is true.

Re: Dreamcast Runs Linux

[-=[ SYRiNX ]=-]

What will Linux NOT run on these days?

• Various kinds of fruit and vegetables
• Small furry woodland creatures
• My analog watch
• An abacus
• Freshly waxed floor tiles
• Pornographic magazines
• My Uncle Bob
• Al Gore, George W. Bush, OR Ralph Nader
• Movie theater projectors
• 90% of the stuff you can buy at CompUSA or Best Buy

Re:This one summer at band camp...

[CurlyG]

Christ, dude!

Go read ZDNet or something and leave our geeky toys alone. -S.R.

Re:yeah, it runs winCE too

[connorbd]

You better be posting as an AC. I almost accuse you of trolling.

To say NetBSD is dead strictly on numbers is meaningless (thus the suspicion that you live under a bridge and eat billygoats). The three systems have vastly different missions, especially what with NetBSD essentially being an OS of last resort, ported to hell and back even more thoroughly than Linux.

Get a life.

/Brian

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:And the benefit of this would be?

[rabtech]

In all fairness, you can download DirectX and WinCE development kits for C++ and Visual Basic. It just takes more work to get things figured out than if you bought all the docs and stuff directly from Sega


-----

This could very well be a HOAX

[hakker]

Ok. If any of you have ever seen a pirated dreamcast game boot, you will note that there is either a seperate bootdisc, or a selfbooting loader on the game that has been added. This bootloader can look ANYWAY the author wants it to. Some of them have big spinning animations, some have graphics of the team who created it, etc. There is no reason why it wouldn't be possible for me to make a bootloader(with the right equip) that looks like Linux booting up. IT WOULD BE EASY AS HELL. I fear that this may be the case, givin the lack of website, a 10 user limit on their ftp server, and only 2 developers listed on the Sourceforge site which also have zero comments, zero CVS commits, and no software. The "binary kernel" is also shady and the fact that they only distribute it in a scrambled CDRWIN .bin only adds to the suspicion.

Anyway.. I hope I'm wrong.
- jon

Re:Mirror

[xantho]

Mirrors of the screenshots are here, here, here, and here.

Man, this reminds me of the "Not Without My Anus" episode of South Park, where the delivery man tells Terrence (or is it Philip) "Sign hnyah, and hnyah, and hnyah, and hnyah........ and hnyah."

OK, so none of you guys care about that anyway... umm, nevermind.

--Xantho

Re:DeCSS Source Code

[cant_get_a_good_nick]

Hidden from casual human viewing yes. But not computers. It's just a font tag, meaning you can't see it, but search engines will. Anyone really doing a net search will find it.

Re:No souce.

[Rico_Suave]

If copyright laws are subject to the whim of the user (a la Napster), then why should the GPL be any different...

--

Re:No souce.

[UberLame]

Hmm, good point. I'd consider suing, but none of my code appears in the kernal, so I have no right to sue.

Must be an error.

[toriver]

A well-behaved Dreamcast isn't supposed to run anything else than Soul Calibur.

And what usefulness does this have?

[AFCArchvile]

So you can now tweak your Dreamcast to turn it into a Linux box. What good is that? Can you use it as a remote client for telnet/ssh or other uses? No; for that to be done, there would have to be an interface connector. Someone would have to write a driver for the modem, and I don't think that Sega is going to release that information. Besides, it might even be a Winmodem, or even worse, it might be connected to an alien, non-16550/8250 UART controller.

So basically, this "Linux Dreamcast" consists of a CD-ROM/GigaDisc drive, some system for the keyboard, and maybe support for the controller. So what? Without any drivers for the PowerVR2 on there, this "Dreamcast Linux" would be worthless.

Either way, I'm wondering if that thing segfaulted at some point and he refused to take a picture of that. As you already know, the press only shows us what it wants us to see.

Re:And what usefulness does this have?

[Mantrid]

The NIC should be out for DC soon which should help this along.

Backups... backups...

[Amadawn]

There is an evident point to this, and it is to be able to easilly copy Dreamcast games, which are stored in a propietary "CD-ROM" format (called GD-ROM) into normal CD-ROMS.

Maybe the guy did it just for fun, but I wouldn't be surprised if he "also" wanted to be able to make "backups" of his games! ;-)

Cheers,

Angel

Re:Kernel site /.'ed - mirror

[Xofer D]

Maybe it's on the original site - I don't know because I couldn't even log in. I would expect that Zophar's is just mirroring the binaries because it was fater than grabbing the source too and the idea was to quickly pull the load off the beleagured server. With any luck, the original server will be open again soon and people who want the source can go there.

Re:Spend a little less time posting..

[tallpaul]

I think "we" should spend a little less time posting our verbal spew on Slashdot and making LINUX more commercially ready. Or maybe not. Maybe "we" should spend our time how we want.

Maybe *you* are not the same as "we." You are lumping yourself in with this guy who did a port to dreamcast, and what have you yourself done besides this worthless post to Slashdot? Hopefully something. But if not, *I* don't care. Because *I* am spending my time posting a worthless followup to your waste of energy post. Because that is what *I* want to do.

And I should think that is exactly why this port to dreamcast was created. Because it was what he wanted to do.

So if *you* _think_ at all, and you _think_ that time should be put into making LINUX commercially viable (maybe, maybe not. That's not what Linus had in mind when he made it after all. Or maybe I don't know what Linus had in mind) then *you* will have to be the one to do it.

Re:Dreamcast

[Juggle]

(OB Reply to firewall challange)

Hey I did too and all I found was porn, porn, porn, and more porn. And all stuff I'd seen before!

(Oh well, I didn't really need that Karma for anything anyway did I? Let's just hope enough people understand the joke in all of this.)

Re:Because it's there...

[Erasmus Darwin]

It's not done because it's practical.

While I agree with you on the issue that hacking certainly doesn't have to be practical, I suspect that there's at least one practical application of this one: making games.

We've already got some games being developed for Linux, such as the previously slashdotted Tux Racer. It wouldn't be that much more a leap, once Linux-on-Dreamcast matures, to create a Dreamcast port of Tux Racer.

Re:And the benefit of this would be?

[mr]

>Total world domination!

Yes, but only when the BSD code is used as the example.

Windows "Where do you want to go today?"
Linux "Where do you want to go tomarrow?"
BSD "Hey, are you guys comming or what?"

It may *NOT* matter if this port exists or not....depending on how the IP was obtained to make the port, it *MAY* be in violation of the contracts signed to develop for the dreamcast.

The gamming market is a 'sell at a loss market, make it up selling games' market. Selling a Dreamcast then loading it with a X term CD using BSD or Linux as the base isn't going to thrill the staff at Sega.

Hopefully someone who has seen the contracts for doing Sega development will be able to comment on how hard getting a BSD or Linux version to 'ship pubically' on a Dreamcast.

Or on a Playstation, or N64.

XBox runs Linux

[Pac]

Redmond, WA - Graphics guru and senior XBox developer Michael Abrash announced this afternoon that he was able to install and run a modified version of the Linux kernel in the XBox specification documents.

"Look" said a grinning Abrash, "this thing here is still basically vapour. We have plans, we have specs and we have lots of Powerpoint presentations. So it was pretty easy to tweak the specs until there was enough degrees of freedom to aloow a theoretical kernel to compile in a theorical port of gcc and run. Piece of cake".

Abrash is now said to working on a port of the XBox specs that will run MacOS X.

Re:And the benefit of this would be?

[stilwebm]

Maybe now that someone made a Sega Dreamcast kernel level framebuffer driver they will be able to make a framebuffer driver for my Savage 4.

Well, you get the point...

Access to GD-ROM and file transfers??

[Beatbyte]

Just wondering if it is feasible to pull off a transfering of DC game to computer via this way. As in setting up a "dial up server" and ftp'ing into it with access to a DC game.

Am I dreaming or is this possible?

As far as I'm concerned this is about the only thing useful about this. Savegames and GD-ROM backup!

Re:Access to GD-ROM and file transfers??

[zhensel]

Sure, just load linux into RAM rather than running it off the disc, then swap out the cd for your game of choice. Than just ftp to your favorite locale using the included modem or potentially the soon to be released ethernet add-on and do a cp /dev/gd-rom_or_whatever/* mounted_remote_file_system and you are set. Really shouldn't be that difficult assuming whatever cd-drivers this thing uses work correctly with the DC's drive. Alternatively you could make a serial link-up using the data port on the back of the machine to score bonus points.

Re:Dreamcast

[Drone-X]

This reminds me of the kernel patch that is out that allows you to use your joystick to properly shutdown your system in the event of keyboard/network lockout.

Hm, I don't see what's useful about that really.

What is useful is programming your joystick to shut down X as it's about the only input device that's not controlled by the X-windowing system.

Re:This one summer at band camp...

[bflame]

Just what is wrong with posting something on /. for the geek factor? After all /. is News for Nerds. Many of us like reading about the geeky things like running Linux on some new hardware.

Re:Better would be...

[Riskable]

huh? Oh, you must mean...

I didn't see this non-news post on Slashdot about a woman running Windows on her PS2

Or perhaps you mean...

Just saw this news post on Zophar's about a Dreamcast running Linux on this guy.

Maybe...

Just saw this Dreamcast on his Linux about a guy on Zophar's.

Who knows?
--------------------------
-Riskable

ok, I'm dumb....

[psxndc]

How'd he do it? I just burned a CD with the 3 binaries and my DC didn't do squat. It asked me for a game disc... maybe a DCLinux HOWTO??

psxndc

Mirror

[Kevin DeGraaf]

I've mirrored the screenshots here, here, here, and here.

Kernel files are here.

ctum Why port to Dreamcast Linux

[yerricde]

as if any major game manufacturers besides id want to port to Linux

You forgot Loki. <ot>(Too bad Tribes 2's online registration is an invasion of privacy similar to that of MS Office 2000; the program accesses the manufacturer's server when the app is first started, possibly sending personal information.)</ot>

Anyway, the goal of any for-profit corporation is to make a profit; that's where the term "bottom line"[?] comes from. If a game house can release games for Dreamcast without paying Sega royalties, the company saves several dollars on every unit shipped. This. Adds. Up. Big. Time.

cheap redundant hardware

[Zers]

I can see this has benefits both in the gameing market and as cheap PC's. However one problem I see is that as the pace of gameing console developement increases, linux hackers are going to be constantly chasing the cat trying to keep up with the new consoles out on the market.

On the other hand, it means that these cheap consoles which can be used as PC's will be even cheaper, quicker, because they will be redundant so soon (in terms of being the latest and greatest console) resulting in them hopefully being adopted as *really* cheap PC's with a free OS

yeah, it's not clear

[dalinian]

It says that source is not available yet, and then gets more obscure: it says that source may not be available ever. If I am correct, this is not a violation yet, but they should release the source as quickly as they can.

Re:It's NOT a hardware modem!!!

[cybrthng]

The modem is hardware based. The modem is also replaceable by a hardware based 10/100mbit ethernet adaptor.

There is a serial port as well as ports under the dreamcast, which under current hacking tests all show high speed thouroughput.

The modem doesn't consume 5% of the cpu either, adding support for online games & software ip stack consumes the 5% of the cpu.

Re:....Found

[Mr Z]

And why doesn't Linux work on your spacious machine? I started out with a 486 DX/33 with 8MB RAM, and I even ran X. (Well, ran probably isn't the right verb, but you get the idea.)

--Joe
--
Program Intellivision!

MAYBE IT'S JUST ME...

[jmccay]

A picture doesn't garentee that it actually works! Anyone remember the potatoe powered computer? All you need to is hide the computer out of view. Notice there are no screen shots of anything really useful.
Let's assume it is for real. Ok so you can load the Kernel and BASH? So what. What good is it if you can't use the graphics processing. Where would you store real programs? You might be able to use it for great graphics processing--especially if you connected it to a real computer.

I am not convinced this is true.

What I really want to know is...

[commander salamander]

How many BogoMIPS does this thing get???

Re:What I really want to know is...

[cbwsdot]

On the debian linux-sh devel list, someone posted that they had to comment out bogomips calculation in order to for the kernel to load properly.
I know... its seems strange.

--

Re:Damm, now we have "of course it runs Linux.."

[Chagrin]

Don't forget that linux has been ported to a number of Cisco routers as well. NetBSD is definitely turning into "old school".

Re:dreamcast's vga out

[twilight]

Yes and no. There are converters to take care of the VGA->sync-on-green problem as well as the conversion to 13w3, which is probably what the connection to the Sun monitor uses. BUT - that thing is going to only be able to run a few resolutions. If it's like my two Sun GDM-20D10's, then it'll work at 1024x768-75Hz through 1280x1024-76Hz or so.. give or take a few Hz. If you could get 640x480 running at 284823479827472934 Hz refresh, it would probably work. Otherwise, it will be out of the sync band the monitor supports. (usually those fixed freq monitors were not really fixed freq, but multisync within a REALLY small clock range)

Jeff

probing dreamcast perfs.

[_DaPinG_]

and how many kernel/hour can a dreamcast recompile??? ... i'm just curious ;D

Re:probing dreamcast perfs.

[bobv-pillars-net]

I was wondering this too, and researching the answer when Netscape 4.76 vaporized, taking my accumulated notes with it.
(sigh)
Anyhow, it runs a Hitachi SH-4 processor at 200 Mhz, which according to one source (Won't look up the link again for fear of re-vaporization) specs at 360 MIPS and 1.4 GFLOPS. Apparently, it's of the same heritage as the Sun SPARC processors. You won't find a bogomips rating because the author of the port had to comment out the bogomips testing code in order to get the kernel to compile.
Do a Google search for "Dreamcast Bogomips" and "Hitachi SH-4" and you'll find plenty of info. However, based on previous experience on an UltraSparc with probably double the performance, I'd say about one kernel per hour, YMMV.

Re:Dreamcast

[hal9000]

oh my lord, i have found the world's largest asshole!

Damm, now we have "of course it runs Linux.."

[jon_c]

this pisses me off as a BSD supporter. NetBSD is supposta be the number #1 ported OS, and here we have linux working on dreamcast before NetBSD?

fudge.

just makes me made.

Re:new game...

[leperjuice]

Troll?

It's been done.

This one summer at band camp...

[Aetrix]

This one summer at band camp...
This one time at band camp...

This one time I put linux on my...
Dude! You'll never believe I got linux running on my...
Yeah, I've got a (Insert kitchen implement here) that is running linux!
Remember that time you and I put linux on your mom's (insert fashionable gadget here)...?

Isn't it going a little far. It's obvious to me that the Linux installations on various game systems and small appliances is SOLELY for improved GF (Geek Factor).

Re:This one summer at band camp...

[starling]

>Isn't it going a little far. It's obvious to me that the Linux installations on various game systems and small appliances is SOLELY for improved GF (Geek Factor).

And just what's wrong with that? If people enjoy doing stuff like this for a hobby then more power to them.

But, if you insist that everything anyone does should serve a "useful" purpose (as far as I'm concerned doing something because it's fun seems pretty useful but let that slide...) here are a few :

- helps the Linux SH project, making Linux more portable
- looks good on a resume if you want a job
- hones skills which will come in useful in said job
- annoys clueless people

Because it's there...

[Christopher B. Brown]

I'm not going to go out and buy a Dreamcast just because I could run Linux on it. (Mind you, it very well might "tilt the scales" towards my buying one one of these days...)

The real point of this is that it actually brings some truth to the Linux for N64 April Fools joke of a few years ago.

It's not done because it's practical.

It's done because it's a "cool hack."

IBM didn't make put a Linux port onto a wristwatch because they wanted to sell wristwatches. (I'm a little confused, mind you, as to why IBM are now selling 2.4GHz wireless phones, and getting into a market typically fought over by Sony and Panasonic...) They built the watch because it was a cool hack that would get them publicity.

Give an extra generation for the video game units to get a bit more powerful and this actually starts being realistically useful; while the video game may lack a hard drive, if it has:

• Wireless networking
• A keyboard
• Is dirt cheap

That could make for nice "disposable" desktop boxes. Certainly not relevant this year, just as the Linux-based PDAs aren't powerful enough this year to be tremendously viable.

But if someone prototypes it on this year's wimpy models, this may make them quite ready to build something more useful based on next year's hardware...

Clustering!

[Jeppe Salvesen]

If we can get DC machines to talk to each other, and have a few file servers, we might see some pretty good performance for the bucks. The DC has high performance floating point arithmetic and such, right?

Now if that guy would just release the source, we could get cracking..

Re:And the benefit of this would be?

[drin]

Actually, that would be Shoe-nix.

dreamcast

[maruchan]

Besides being a great console, with games like DoA2, Soul Calibur, MvC2, CvS, Grandia 2, Skies of Arkadia, Shenmue etc.... Someone ported quake, and also their are emulators for SNES/SF, GB/GBC, NGPC, PSX... and i think someone porting MAMECE aswell... you can check this stuff out at dcemulation.com

Re:Dreamcast

[TheKodiak]

Actually, I think he was trying to remember the old Capcom cheat code.

Re:NetBSD

[Flynn]

Wow... once again u post this as an anon coward.... sure good thing you have that cut and paste feature down solid... I have seen this exact quote on several different sites with regards to the BSD's... You may want to check your facts out there boyo..... Not quite sure where you got the hard on against the BSD's from but I don't believe an article discussing the merits of Linux running on a Dreamcast has anything to do with user statistics of BSD's etc.
"Major marketing surveys..." Hmm.. indeed... and they would be where?

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Linux on HP48?

[tantrum]

nope, there is no linux for the hp 48 calculator series. You could try Shell-OS, though. It is a linux/unix clone with some functionality (grayscale, multiprocessing etc.) It need a 32 kb memory card in port one. It's even got it's own filesystem :) URL: http://www.multimania.com/shellos/ It is kinda cool

Re:Flamebait

[RoscoHead]

P.S. This is my "Take THAT, BSD!" post, and I expect it to get down to Score: -1, flamebait or troll.

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that trolling / flamebait which has disclaimers like this always seems to get moderated up as "funny"?

I see nothing at all funny here...

Re:NetBSD

[Octal]

Ahh... you have no sense of sarcasm... I was demonstrating the literary effect known as "hyperbole" in which you exaggerate your claims, because, to the best of my knowledge, Linux had beat NetBSD to booting to a prompt on a dreamcast. The point of this post was to be a reverse of a common BSD troll stating that BSD delivers results when Linux only delivers hype. I'm sorry I've had to explain myself so many times here, but I guess my sense of humor is a different style than /. readers are used to. Of course, the fact that I had to explain everything has ruined the joke, and I'll attempt to dumb down my jokes in the future so everyone can enjoy them equally.

Re:This is pathetic.

[festers]

If tinkering around with products for the sake of learning and experimenting is "zealotry", then I pray for more zealots. Attitudes like yours are illogical at best, and accomplish nothing but suffocating creativity.


--------

Bootlegger's Valhalla

[kenthorvath]

This actually seems like it could be a little dangerous for Sega. How hard would it be for somebody to hook the Dreamcast up to their pc via serial or ethernet and do something like this?

dd if=/dev/gdrom of=/dev/serial

or

mount -t gdrom /dev/gdrom /mnt/SOME_GAME
ftp ftp.mywarezsite.net
send /mnt/SOME_GAME/*.*

etc... etc...

Well, you get the point. The bootlegged games are already flowing from special groups on the net with the equiptment to make backup images, but this can just put the power in all of our hands. Oh wait, that could be a good thing! Besides, I can't wait for a port of XArchon for the DC!

Re:Bootlegger's Valhalla

[aderusha]

not really a big deal. this has been going on for some time, although in not quite as convenient a fashion. you can make a serial cable to read data off the gd already, but that's been superceded by a hacked firmware for some of the newer yamaha cdrw's that will allow these units to read gd-roms directly.

any info on how to do it?

[roche]

Is there any info on how he pulled this off? a kernel is nice, but info is better!

roche

Re:It looks like a farce to me.

[aderusha]

umm... did you also notice the first lines where it detected the dreamcast vga adapter? sega (and some 3rd parties) sell a unit to run the dreamcast on your monitor.

Re:And the benefit of this would be?

[fedos]

Of course, anyone who has read Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis series will know that cancer is an untapped benefit to the human race.

Or try Allegro, but watch out for i-opener effect

[yerricde]

The free, easy-to-code-for Allegro library already runs on DOS, Windows, Linux framebuffer, and X11; they've started on BeOS. As soon as Mesa3d or some other OpenGL-compatible library is ported to Dreamcast...

...Sega is going to realize that its revenue stream (game royalties) has been cut off. Think i-opener. We're going to see Sony PS2 become cheap in comparison, as Sega tries to make a profit on consoles as games are ported to Debian GNU/Linux for Dreamcast Consoles.

Re: Dreamcast Runs Linux

[VAXman]

VAX'es.

TurboChannel Alpha's.

universal drivers

[bbqBrain]

Check out SDL, the Simple DirectMedia Layer. It is available for a bunch of platforms already (including Win32 and Linux, of course). I've played a couple games, Defendguin being my favorite, and was impressed. It probably has progress to make before being suitably robust for the really complex games, but I think it has definite potential.

sweet sause

[bswick]

With console makers already selling their systems below cost, this is a great deal for fun little personal system. DC already has keyboards and mice available, a 56k modem and plans for a broadband device in the near future. The PS2 sweetens the deal with it's USB and firewire connections and very accommodating expansion bay (in the US version at least). Though, it's custom 3D hardware may hamper the development of any decent OpenGL drivers for a while.

It's a $99 Computer with Fast 3D!

[Brian Ristuccia]

So you can now tweak your Dreamcast to turn it into a Linux box. What good is that? Can you use it as a remote client for telnet/ssh or other uses? No; for that to be done, there would have to be an interface connector. Someone would have to write a driver for the modem, and I don't think that Sega is going to release that information. Besides, it might even be a Winmodem, or even worse, it might be connected to an alien, non-16550/8250 UART controller.

It's a real hardware modem. There's also a serial cable you can hook up to the same slot. See http://mc.pp.se/dc/serifc.html.

So basically, this "Linux Dreamcast" consists of a CD-ROM/GigaDisc drive, some system for the keyboard, and maybe support for the controller. So what? Without any drivers for the PowerVR2 on there, this "Dreamcast Linux" would be worthless.

There's also example source code floating around for using the hardware 3d accelerator. It's only a matter of time before someone hacks support into Mesa. See http://mc.pp.se/dc/files/tatest.tar.gz.

Either way, I'm wondering if that thing segfaulted at some point and he refused to take a picture of that. As you already know, the press only shows us what it wants us to see.

There's no reason why portable C programs should segfault on the SuperH. The GCC SH-4 target is relatively mature.

See http://mc.pp.se/dc/ for more details on Dreamcast development.

Re:This is pathetic.

[sqlrob]

Why did he cross it?
Cost of Sega/OS, CE on the game disk $$$$

Cost of Linux: $ (support / learning curve, no licensing)

It's gonna piss Sega off, but it adds more options, and adds the ability for smaller development houses to make stuff for DC

X is done.

[dangermouse]

That looks like a framebuffer console, to me. If so, then X is already ready already. Maybe a bit slow, but that's ok.

Re:uh oh.

[Yog-Soth]

I'm getting the sense that the kernel was "ripped" off another cd -- meaning the author of the README doesn't have access to source. someone is holding out.

Re:dreamcast's vga out

[Wag]

I'm pretty sure the DC can also output 800*600 with the VGA box, the games just have to support it.

Re:Congratulations!

[gdiersing]

And what point would that be?, that among all us dorks in dorkdom you have the fastest refresh finger?

Well whoopty whoo.

On second thought I would like to nominate medicthree as the Prime Minister of the Republic of Trolls. Your key duties as PM of ROT is to refresh constantly so you can take your whack at FP, you will also have to link goatse.cx and speak of hot grits whenever possible. You will have to lead by example with snide and off color comment about Hemos and CmdrTaco, as well as attack any karma whores that try to add anything useful to any topic.

Do you think you can handle it? I mean after your stunning display of FP abilities, we don't want a flash in the pan. What other skills do you possess besides modesty?

And the benefit of this would be?

[chancycat]

OK, so Linux can run on this device and that device and this watch and that shoe... so what? I think it's great exploration, and a wonderful way for the folks doing the dev work to learn a huge amount about the low-level guts of the device they're working with and Linux, but... what then?
Is there a hope that someone will just hit on the right combination of Linux and Z-device? Maybe I'm just an outsider with less perspective (just reads Slashdot and works for "Huge Internetish Company" as an engineer, but this Linux on __ stuff is starting to get me wondering.

Re:And the benefit of this would be?

[Anonymous Coward]

The dreamcast hardware is fairly powerful and inexpensive.

One suitable use for dreamcast hardware would be a network MP3 player. At $200 for the console plus ethernet you get a nicely packaged computer with plenty of power for playing back MP3. Yes, a suitable PC could be found that is cheaper, but it would not be the same form factor. Linux or NetBSD (a NetBSD port for dreamcast is also being worked on) provides a platform that mere mortals can easily develop to.

Running mozilla or Opera on the dreamcast also makes for a cheap internet terminal (of course there is also the Dreamcast browser, but it is not as fully featured).

There is no reason not to think of modern consoles are inexpensive general purpose computers. Their small form factor and high power for the price makes them more suitable than PCs for many applications. Ethernet support in the dreamcast makes this even more so.

I look forward to being able to use NetBSD or Linux on my dreamcast for internet appliance applications.

alex

Re:And the benefit of this would be?

[Kagato]

You're missing the big picture. It's not that anyone would actually make the games on the Dreamcast. It's that the games you'd create would run on the Dreamcast. Like it or not Linux is not easy for a lot of people to deal with on the PC. A console takes care of these problems. Since the OS is only memory resident you can have is directly boot into the game.

Re:And the benefit of this would be?

[jidar]

An mp3 player for the dreamcast has existed already for quite awhile. It's called "dcmp3", but last I checked their official page was down. You might want to read more about it at www.dcemulation.com (where I think it can be downloaded). And so long as you are there, check out gypplay, the DC movie player. Neat stuff.

Re:And the benefit of this would be?

[Lawbeefaroni]

If you're joe shmoe user then this is a big deal. You could actually make your own shareware dreamcast game. People could download it over the internet. We go back to the days of the Apple II and C64 where big game makers started out of someones basement.

Joe Shmoe user isn't going to be making any games, let alone one worth the download. Joe Shmoe and most everyone else won't buy the dreamcast to make games. And "big game makers" could still be starting out of someone's basement--using Linux and running on a *gasp* PC. But they're all busy trying to run Linux on blenders or Atari consoles.

Re:And the benefit of this would be?

[Ondo]

Indrema is trying to get the same thing without the hacking, as their console natively runs Linux.

However, they are currently royally screwing up with the certification scheme (you have to pay $50-200 dollars to get your game certified, and you can't even test in on the console until you do so), so it remains to be seen if it can actually do this.

Dreamcast

[Mr. Flibble]

This reminds me of the kernel patch that is out that allows you to use your joystick to properly shutdown your system in the event of keyboard/network lockout.

I wonder if this is in the Dreamcast kernel?

Bob: "Hey, you have to see this great combo I mastered for Ryu!"
Bill: "Ok, fire away!"
Bob: "Ok, Up, Up, Down, Down-Left, Back, A+B"
Linux: "This system is going down for a reboot NOW!"
Bob: "Err, oops."

It's very clear.

[mindstrm]

The GPL is quite specific.. I don't see how it's unclear.

If you release binaries, you must also provide source.

Mirror

[Racher]

Mirrors of the screenshots are here, here, here, and here.

...and I'm not sure we should trust this Kyle Sagan either.

That's an interesting interpretation.

[mindstrm]

I mean, I agree to a point.
IF you distribute binaries (isn't making it available to a million interent users 'distributing'?) you must distribute source.

On the other hand... does it mean I can't ever let *anyone* check out my modifications in binary form without providing source? Hmm...

Re:That's an interesting interpretation.

[BenLutgens]

Yes, that's a "Derivaitive" work.:wq

i wonder

[kz45]

what kind of processing power does a dreamcast have (comparable to an X86)?? and how much do they cost? Kz45

This will succeed where N64 Linux failed

[Anonymous Coward]

For those of you who don't remember, Linux was ported to the Nintendo 64 a while back, but you hardly hear anything about it anymore. Why? It just didn't have the marketshare needed to thrive.

I don't mean the N64 didn't have a good marketshare; it did. But there wasn't any considerably-sized pool of developers willing to develop for an alternative OS on a console that was already suitable. Dreamcast, on the other hand, already has many development tools available, and the garage-band linux developers among us have already taken a look and decided they like what they see. Besides, there's always the benefits of developing for a platform that doesn't require expensive proprietary chip-based memory cartridges, in favor of cd-based systems.

I just hope it succeeds where the N64 Linux port failed. We need more alternatives in the gaming market.

Re:Try these on for size...

[tsangc]

Actually, you'd be surprised. IIRC the 94 model year Ford Thunderbirds have embedded 486's, some Japanese imports run AMD29000's...

Calum

Better would be...

[kerrbear]

Just saw this news post on Zophar's about a guy running Linux on his Dreamcast

Would that only the opposite were true :-)

If he can do that

[11thangel]

Maybe my clock radio can run DOS!

Re:If he can do that

[DA_MAN_DA_MYTH]

I guess then your clock radio will need a memory upgrade, and then some more everytime you upgrade the OS...

"If you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten."
-- George Carlin

NetBSD

[Octal]

As far as I can tell, the NetBSD for Dreamcast project hasn't even been able to anywhere near this far. So once again, BSD delivers hype but Linux delivers results.

P.S. This is my "Take THAT, BSD!" post, and I expect it to get down to Score: -1, flamebait or troll.

Re:No souce.

[segmond]

It is not a violation, anyone can use GPL source for personal modification, I can take Linux and modify it for my own use, I am sure the guy who did this didn't do it to sell it, so he is not violating anything, and chosing to release the source is optional to him.

Re: Dreamcast Runs Linux

[am 2k]

Does anybody know if there's a Linux for a HP48 calculator? It would be rather complicated to get linux into 128k (no disk).

dreamcast's vga out

[2ms]

For those of you who didn't already know it, Sega offers an add-on VGA out (640X480) for the Dreamcast (http://www.sega.com/pc/segastore/SegaProduct.jhtm l?PRODID=257).

Does anybody happen to know whether or not it would work with an old 21" Sun monitor (fixed frequency, sync-on-green, Trinitron)?

There seem to be zillions of these kinds of monitors out there that no one knows what to do with.

buy your dreamcast NOW

[drwiii]

An employee of SEGA has commented on the dcdev mailing list on more than one occasion that the Dreamcast will be modified to disallow booting from CDRs in the very near future. This is to calm the licensed developers down after the whole piracy scare. In other words, get your CDR-capable DC while you still can. Besides, at US$150 you can't go wrong.

The Konami Code

[dcheng]

That reboot sequence bears a striking resemblance to:

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A

Look familiar?

Re:The Konami Code

[scotch]

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A

Or, for vi users:
kkjjhlhlba

DeCSS Source Code

[IanCarlson]

If you look at his homepage, you'll find the DeCSS sourcecode at the bottom. He appears to be quite the crafty Dreamcast hacker.

You'll have to highlight the text to see the code, or just look at the HTML document in a text editor. I think it's a pretty neat way to get the source code out with some degree of stealth.

Well, at least it was pretty stealthy.

Doo bee doo bee doo.....

[DukeofURL]

I got linux to run on a bottle of Bud Ice...

Of course it runs NetBSD too. (link)

[yerricde]

need to whore myself past the Kap -- >
<karmawhore>
Slashdot previously ran this story about getting NetBSD to run on the Dreamcast console.
</karmawhore>

Try these on for size...

[vex24]

Let's see here:

1. I loaded the Palm OS on my cell phone so I could transfer messages between my pants pockets!

2. I have apache loaded into the ROMs in my floor lamp, plugged in to the clapper(TM). Site up!(clap,clap), site down!(clap, clap), Apache!

3. My Tivo runs Oracle to ensure that I'll have a robust and scalable platform with which I'll never record anything due to the difficulty of entering a freakin' date field!

4. My Toyota runs Linux because I heard that you don't crash as much with Linux. Sounds good to me!

Re:well

[Mr Z]

Actually, my computer won't detect > 8.4GB, and there's no BIOS upgrade for it either. (It's a Gateway OEM version of a prereleased Intel board. The final release Intel mobo has BIOS upgrades available, but the Gateway version does not.) Anyway, I refused to install any of that EZ-BIOS / MaxBlast / Whatever crap on my system to avoid the exact problems you're having booting multiple OSes.

The funny thing is, I can't so much boot a DOS / Windows floppy let alone boot Windows if my 17GB Maxtor is enabled in the BIOS. It hangs right after "Starting MS-DOS..." or "Starting Windows..." when it goes to query the BIOS for drive info. Whoo hoo! Even funnier is the fact that LILO has no issues with the drive, and I just tell Linux what the correct geometry is and life is good for Linux.

So, what I do is this: In those rare (about twice a year) cases that I boot Windows, I just disable the IDE controller in the BIOS and boot from my SCSI drives. (Yes, I have both in my system -- SCSI for all the important stuff, IDE for my CD-ROM master images and other non-critical bulk storage.) To boot Linux, I re-enable the IDE and LILO takes over from there. Tada!

Anyway, I feel your pain. If you want to dual-boot Linux / Windows on your EZ-BIOS machine, I'm sorry, but you can't. (At least, no way that I know of.)

--Joe
--
Program Intellivision!

Re:No souce.

[BenLutgens]

Yes.

Kernel site /.'ed - mirror

[Xofer D]

Zophar's mirroring the kernel stuff now, so you might want to try using the "100Mbps of bandwidth" behind these links:

• README
• 1ST_READ.BIN
• dc_linux.elf
• IP.BIN

In other news, flagging sales of the Dreamcast were given a significant boost... :)

Searching....searching....

[iceT]

I am FRANTICALLY searching for a point to running LINUX on Dreamcast.... I think we need to spend a little less time trying to run LINUX on obscure platforms, and spend more time to make LINUX more commercially ready, whether that be through a desktop-focus, or a (even more) robust server platforms....

Re:Searching....searching....

[MikeBabcock]

It seems to me that the mentality that would try to install a kernel on a console gaming platform is the same mentality that would try to build an OS from the ground up because the others were too expensive ...

... they just go together ;-)

And to all those who don't understand: it makes sense to many of us.

ObComment

[BrK]

Can you imagine a Beowulf cluster of these!!! That would be kewl, then multiplayer gaming would be kick-ass. I hear there is also a SETI@Home card for the dreamcast that interfaces to an espresso machine!

Re:No souce.

[jlu]

sure it is - it weren't, if he didn't distribute binaries, but as he distributes binaries he also has to the source (GPL 3a).

Jo

It's NOT a hardware modem!!!

[baboyer]

The modem is not a hardware modem, and in fact steals approx. 5% or so of the main CPU whenever it is in use. In fact, this is one of the major issues with poor network performance on the DC.

The serial cable in that URL does not attach to the modem port. There is actually a separate serial port on the Dreamcast that has nothing at all to do with the modem.

uh oh.

[mushroom blue]

seems that even though linux is (and will always be) covered under the GPL, where it states that the source code needs to be provided to any app that's included under the licence, the wording of the README file seems to state that this guy doesn't know when the source will be released... IF AT ALL. I'm just as happy about this development as you are (I REALLY need a dreamcast now), but if it violates the GPL, it's all in vain.

What Linux on Dreamcast could mean

[StupiDiot]

1)Using an embeded version of konqueror/netscape
2)Using a mini embeded version of Koffice
3)Beeing able to use an embeded cut down Xserver on dreamcast thus making it into an Xterminal
I don't know about you, but I think the above features REALLY upgrade the value of a DreamCast!

But what i would like to see is a Distribution for PSX2, since that puppy will have a Hard disk as well, I don't see why it can't be used as a normal mini PC, somthing like the i-opener perhaps?

--

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

No souce.

[Auckerman]

Says here that it is available in binary form only. No source is available. Do we have a GPL violation here?