Posted by
CmdrTaco
on from the before-and-after-ready-to-rumble dept.
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?
Re:And the benefit of this would be?
by
Kagato
·
· Score: 5
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.
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....
--
There are two kinds of people in the world: Those with good memory.
Re:Damm, now we have "of course it runs Linux.."
by
T-Punkt
·
· Score: 4
Not true, NetBSD had a single user shell on the dreamcast in October.
Re:And the benefit of this would be?
by
dsplat
·
· Score: 3
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."
-- The net will not be what we demand, but what we make it. Build it well.
Re:Searching....searching....
by
mihalis
·
· Score: 4
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!
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.
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...
Linux has run on the DC for awhile now
by
jordan_a
·
· Score: 4
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?
by
infra-red
·
· Score: 3
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.
Now give DC a keyboard, mouse, X & a browser!
by
poopie
·
· Score: 3
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.
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.
Damm, now we have "of course it runs Linux.."
by
jon_c
·
· Score: 5
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.
-- this is my sig.
It's a $99 Computer with Fast 3D!
by
Brian+Ristuccia
·
· Score: 4
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.
And the benefit of this would be?
by
chancycat
·
· Score: 4
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.
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."
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!
--
People shape laws. Not the other way around.
Kernel site /.'ed - mirror
by
Xofer+D
·
· Score: 5
Zophar's mirroring the kernel stuff now, so you might want to try using the "100Mbps of bandwidth" behind these links:
Slashdot Mirror
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.
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....
There are two kinds of people in the world: Those with good memory.
Not true, NetBSD had a single user shell on the dreamcast in October.
[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."
The net will not be what we demand, but what we make it. Build it well.
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.
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.
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...
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.
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.
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.
-This sig intentionally left blank
Now I can run Quake III on my Dreamcast!
oh, wait...
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.
Hmm - a lil' bootloader, a small kernel, MAME, and 600 someodd megs of vintage videogames to play on the Dreamcast.
Mmmm...crunchy!
(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.)
--- Juggle juggle@hitesman.com
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.
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.
this is my sig.
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.
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.
Evan - needs to hit preview before submitting
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."
Try to hack my 31337 firewall!
Mirrors of the screenshots are here, here, here, and here.
...and I'm not sure we should trust this Kyle Sagan either.
Just saw this news post on Zophar's about a guy running Linux on his Dreamcast
Would that only the opposite were true :-)
C'mon man, even the moderators got it.
aÍÍ©ÍÌÍ£Ì'̽ͩÌÍzÍYÌÍÌY
That reboot sequence bears a striking resemblance to:
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A
Look familiar?
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!
People shape laws. Not the other way around.
- README
- 1ST_READ.BIN
- dc_linux.elf
- IP.BIN
In other news, flagging sales of the Dreamcast were given a significant boost...The Signal/Noise ratio can be improved in two ways. Remaining silent is the OTHER way.
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
Hi! I'm the infamous
Says here that it is available in binary form only. No source is available. Do we have a GPL violation here?
Burn Hollywood Burn