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NetBSD/Dreamcast Official Port

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the thats-pretty-sweet dept.

sparcv9 writes: "The NetBSD/sh3 developer Saitoh Masanobu, who was able to boot the NetBSD/sh3 kernel on his Sega Dreamcast last summer, has now officially forked a NetBSD/dreamcast port. The Dreamcast effort will focus specifically on supporting the Dreamcast hardware, rather than just the Super-H processor contained within. Currently, it only boots into single-user mode, and the only function hardware is the serial port, but, hey -- it's a start." This project ranks right up there with all the tivo hacking going on in my eyes. When all is said and done, we could have really inexpensive, but reasonably powerful machines to play with.

12 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. ignorance + questions by zencode · · Score: 3
    this is a legitimate question, so please don't flame the bajesus out of me (i'm even posting non-anon to show goodwill. =)

    what uses would the dreamcast have once this project is reasonably advanced and what might this resulting machine compare to in standard pc-ish language in regards to speed (or anything else you care to compare it to).

    basically, as a linux neophyte, i'm wondering if i should get on the mailing list and trying it out once it gets to a semi-useful phase.

    My .02,

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    My .02,
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  2. Re:Uh... by localroger · · Score: 4
    Previously, everyone stated that Sega was able to make a profit with each unit sold. Then Sony came along, announcing huge losses with each PS2 sold. It makes me wonder which is the truth.

    Both are the truth. Sega makes a profit, though a small one, on each DC. Sony loses a ton on each PS2, partly because of Rambus and partly because it's just plain more expensive to build. This article explains it in some detail, along with a few pokes at the alleged superiority of the PS2.

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  3. Calling All Linguists! by NMerriam · · Score: 3

    This project ranks right up there with all the tivo hacking going on in my eyes.

    When did CmdrTaco get the Tivo implanted in his eyes?...

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  4. Re:Low cost home PCs? by be-fan · · Score: 3

    It has a 128 bit(!)
    >>>>>>>>>>
    We've had 128 bit processors ever since the PIII came out. Console manufacturers will use the widest thing on the chip to talk about the "bitness" of a console. Thus, the reason PS2 is a 128bit console is the fact that the vector pipes are 128bits. Using that logic, Intel could call a Pentium an 80bit chip (the FPU is 80 bits), and Intel and Motorola could call the P4 and the G4 (respectively) 128 bit chips (because both SSE2 and AltiVec are 128bit vector pipes.) PC companies stopped doing this after Neomagic came out with a 256bit graphics chip (the memory bus was 256bits) for laptops.

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  5. DC the most versatile console yet... by SuiteSisterMary · · Score: 5

    There's a surprising number of apps being written, by random people, for the dreamcast. MP3 players, emulators for other consoles, it's all good. Try dcemulation.com for a start.

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  6. Shhhhh! by jhines · · Score: 5

    Keep this quiet, otherwise Saddam will snap them all up for his supercomputer cluster, like he did with the PS2.

  7. Re:Uh... by Robotech_Master · · Score: 3

    That could be so, if everybody started doing it, but I think the number of people who are going to want to run Unix on their Dreamcast is going to be quite small, perhaps even unnoticeable, compared to the number who just want to play games on it. They'll probably "lose" more Dreamcasts to warranty replacement than to hackers.
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  8. Linux works well on these by Alcoholist · · Score: 3
    I suspect that we will see Linux more often on little machines requiring OSes. It's the ideal choice really -- Linux can be freely hacked until it is very small, fast, and compatible. It has proven to be reliable, and with the RT Linux stuff starting to get more mature I imagine that it will gain more ground with embedded systems too, though unfortunately at the expense of the QNX people (QNX is neat).

    It will probably also run nicely on on the X-Box. :)

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  9. Re:Uh... by stripes · · Score: 3
    With everyone hacking their Dreamcasts to run BSD, and noone buying games, and Sega losing money on each piece of hardware sold, won't this drive Sega into further money problems?

    Sure, if enough prople did it. But I expect most people buying a Dreamcast will buy some games even if they want to hack a Unix onto it. Plus if enough people were hacking Unix onto it to be a problem, Sega could "just" build the system profit into the Ethernet (roumored to be on sale RSN). Unix geeks can't resist an ethernet, can they? :-)

    Most video game systems break even when two games are bought for it. I have nine (and and 4 Sega controler purchases, and two VMUs), so I can handle at least 3.5 free loaders. Who wants to sign up?

    Seriously Sega has a much smaller problem here then iOpener, or web-runner because even if we hack the box, they still provide a service. I mean it would be cool to play nethack ont he dreamcast on my TV, but it isn't going to replace Sega Bass Fishing now is it?

  10. Linux for Dreamcast by glrotate · · Score: 4

    Don't forget that Linux is at a much further stage of development for the Dreamcast. It's available at http://linuxdc.sourceforge.net/

  11. This is really cool.... by kastaverious · · Score: 4
    but how long is it likely to be before we see something useful come out of this. That said, with QT/embedded rolling along, I think it would be quite easy to have the DC running BSD running QT running whatever.

    The only big show stopper for me is thwe lack of storage. Unlike tyhe ps2, the DC has now usb or firewire ports, which means that adding a hdd ain't going to be easy. In fact, does anyone know if adding a HDD to the DC is doable?

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  12. hmmm... More on this? by GC · · Score: 4

    My understanding was that the Dreamcast had a proprietary "GD-ROM" drive that has a capacity of 1Mb or so I asked Is this being used a the boot device for NetBSD?

    So I dug around, it looks like the DC is actually capable of booting off a standard ISO-9660 CD-ROM.

    Interesting? I thought so... Here are some really interesting links on Dreamcast Software Programming and Hardware programming.

    It's incredible what's going on. What else has been ported to the DC?