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Dreamcast Modem Is Reverse Engineered
00_NOP writes "The hobbyist's favourite console - the Dreamcast - comes with one of those braindead Winmodems that have made it very difficult for those on the active DC development scene to use. But now all that is about to change. Thanks to a find on the internet and some heavy duty hacking - real modem support is almost here. This is fantastic news for the Linux and the NetBSD teams and for *nix advocates everywhere - as immediately millions more people could access these OSes and use them in a meaningful way to get online etc. Don't forget - four million plus of these things were sold in North America alone!"
But any kernel hackers interested in Linux on the DC are more than welcome at the #linuxdc channel on freenode/openprojects - irc.openprojects.net. Maybe you know about modems and you'd like to write us the driver?
While it is a great thing that the modem now works (better?) I would think an ethernet connection would be more exciting.
OK, pretend I'm not complaining, since I only just bought my dreamcast, and and trying to figure out what to do to make a good dreamcast linux cd.
Can someone figure out how to make a broadband adapter that doesn't cost $150 on ebay? Or even one that does, but doesn't cost $150 to make? (Step #n. Profit!)
fair.org counterpunch.com truthout.com indymedia.org salon.com
eff.org guerrilla.net debian.org gentoo.org
Wow, you mean you can hax0r one of these puppies for 56K dialup access? What's that sound? It's the sound of third-worlders cheering.
"I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq"
-- Paul Wolfowitz, 7/21/2003
But wouldn't it be smarter to develop the driver in a clean-room environment? That is without any reverse engineering or especially the use of documents that you probably aren't supposed to have? Frankly, it just seems like you're looking for a lawsuit.
but, how many people who have a DC now have gone and bought a PS2 or X-Box?
"Thanks to a find on the internet and some heavy duty hacking"
Since when is DOWNLOADING A DATA SHEET considered a hack (or even reverse engineering)?
They reverse engineered the DC modem?!
Soon, hack attacks from Dreamcasts will bring every network in the world to their very knees, society will break down, and World War III/Armageddon will erupt, leaving 6 billion dead in its wake, save for the 144,000 virgins (many of them slashdot users) who will be saved by Jesus Christ on judgement day!
You can find better stuff in other peoples garbage. Recently I found a PB 705 in some guy's garbage pile -- 2 gig disk, cd rom, Lucent win modem, 64M, S3 SVGA video, Win 98, and Cyrix PR 300. Run Linux, BSD, Windows, whatever. Why would I want an odd ball Dreamcast? You can find better stuff in the garbage.
'nuff said.
It's free software and the developers can develop whatever they want... I just know someone at Microsoft must be LOL over the waste of time projects that the open source community does instead of truly trying to compete. "While they're busy... Hah hah hah Getting a software modem in a GAME CONSOLE hah hah hah, oh my god, I'm gonna die laughing, we're putting the finishing touches on the next version of DirectX that will revolutionize gaming."
The dreamcast modem while not using a serial
interface does not qualify as a 'win' modem
because that implies the dreamcast is running
windows, which it certainly doesn't...
MP3 Search Engine
We have the good ol' DMCA to protect us from 133t h4x0rs reverse engineering products that are no longer on the market!
blah
This reminds me of the many intelligent and resourceful people that shored up the Amiga movement. It's fine for a hobby, but I don't think it will ever amount to much.
Always going forward, 'cause we can't find reverse.
OK, so 4 million dereamcast consoles were sold in the US alone. Ang I have to say, it's cool that you can now use CD linux and FreeBSD to get online with this hardware, but where does the contributor of this article get the notion that this will significantly increase the userbase Linux of FreeBSD. Somehow I seriously doubt that any new adopters of Linux or FreeBSD will be so balzy as to choose to do their first installation on a DC console just because they have one. Certainly, logic dicates that the vast extreme majority of DC *nix users were already *nix hobbyists.
--CTH
--Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
My first thought was "who cares", but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was the right reaction. Yes, the DC may be "the hobbyist's favorite console" but it isn't going to get millions more people to try Linux or BSD. Millions more people will try Linux by buying Lindows PCs, or buying RH 8.0 in a store (with a bit of luck on their HW platform during the install).
I mean, coolness points for reverse-engineering the modem, but this won't open some Open Source floodgate.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
but, how many people who have a DC now have gone and bought a PS2 or X-Box?
:)
If you still have the dreamcast, it doesn't matter if you've bought the PS2 or X-Box - use the PS2 or X-Box to play games, and use your dreamcast for a browser! Unless you've sold your old dreamcast, but come on how many people do that? Almost as many as those who bought used Dreamcasts I bet
I know people here hate patents, but everyone should note that any modem driver written for this thing is going to infringe on a rather large number of patents. You've never seen such a mess of patents until you've looked at all the compression and error correction routines needed for a full software modem.
as immediately millions more people could access these OSes and use them in a meaningful way to get online etc. Don't forget - four million plus of these things were sold in North America alone!"
/. and the DC box burnt to a crisp.
Let's make some basic assumptions that the Dreamcast owners with the desire and/or technical expertise to setup Linux on the console comprise about 0.01% of the DC owners. 4,000,000 * 0.0001 = 400. Given that the market for basic Internet appliances consists of Christmas/birthday presents for mothers/grandmothers, and that they require the simplest and most basic of functionality, and that no ISPs are going to support the boxes, there will probably be about 4 of these modified DC systems to ever be utilized and will belong to EE students and be used for a final project.
The only exception will be an MIT or Berkeley student that will cram it into a stuffed animal and use it as a webserver/router, thus getting the story posted on
...the light gun for the original "Nintendo" entertainment system has been reverse-engineered for use as a pointing device by the Linux-On-Useless-Crap team! Way to go, fellas!
- A.P.
"Remember when the U.S. had a drug problem, and then we declared a War On Drugs, and now you can't buy drugs anymore?"
Okay people the amount orprice for DCs has just been increased from 4.01 to $0.05 ..please bid on eBay for your very own Dreamcast with Linux running..
Or better yet install some p2p software and give RIAA and Hilary Rosen a run for her money..
Wait, hmm there is an idea..P2p on dreamcast..why not?
Don't Tread on OpenSource
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Perhaps that now that they reverse engineered this particular DC modem, they find that it shares some similarities with all the other PCI winmodems out there.
Being the case, it wouldn't be that hard to get all those unsupported modems working on Linux. It sure would help a lot of people.
from what i've seen the difference between software and hardware modems are about £3 hardly a earth shattering sum if your that desperate to use the net through linux
though its a reason that more people will count against installing linux when they look into it
I do, for one. And it's not because I have any intention or significant probability of using the thing. It has to do with where the battles are fought. You want the front lines to be safely distant from general headquarters. This doesn't affect RH 8.0, but does affect what I can reasonably expect from RH 8.2 and RH 9.0.
The recent fun&games with OpenSSL and Apache have convinced me that open source, of whatever breed, is the only feasible way to maintain effective security. It's not that they always handle it the "right way", whatever that means. It's that it will be discovered and handled by somebody, somewhere, somehow. Flame wars and such solve the problem of who watches the watchers. You almost feel sorry for the poor worms.
I completely agree that millions more people will try Linux by buying Lindows PCs or buying Red Hat, but the scope of the Linux that people will be buying will be determined more by the lunatic fringe doing the battles than by the central soft core. This doesn't open the floodgates. It's just yet another leak in the earthen dam.
yes, everyone with mod power should hunt down everything he posts and mod it down immediatly, im tired of seeing his crap modded way up because the mods don't see the blatant trolls. Read his journal, seriously!
And in other news, about 5% of the owners of the 4 million-odd-machines know what a software modem is, let alone that their Dreamcast has one.
No, THIS is a big BUT.
braindead Winmodems. These were never engineered in the first place...
Orginal Design was done in Montreal by a company called Trisignal Comm's purchase by Eicon....
No longer in exsistance too bad
Ask yourself: Why does it have to run Linux? Why not use the Planetweb browser?
The only reason I can think of (without dedicating too much time to the effort) is that you can update the OS and browser, then burn updated boot discs as needed. But with the Planetweb browser disc, you can have, _now_, a working net station for close to $100 (using conservative prices).
Used DC w/one controller, modem, browser disc (2.0 or 2.62) - $60 or so
Keyboard - $15
Mouse - $15
VGA adapter - $20 (or more, depending on quality)
Supply your own monitor and you're golden, or you can use a TV.
Light gun games worked by quickly flashing the bounding boxes on the screen different colors when the trigger was pulled, so that the gun could easily decide whether the player "hit" (pointed the gun at the right color) or "missed" (pointed the gun at the wrong color). Since I don't think the light gun can support all that many colors, it would be impossible for it to tell which icon the user shot at.
Now the Namco GunCon on the other hand, would be perfect for such an interface.
It's not a problem with *my* modem, it's a problem with a thousand (million?) people's winmodems that don't have linux drivers...
Mod this whatever way you want, I don't care, but I just have to say W00t!!! This is a great day for Dreamcast lovers.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
Speaking for the great majority who love having all the humor in the world flattened by technical explanations, allow me to thank you.
Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these!
If you get an error, type "OVERRIDE" or "SECURITY OVERRIDE" and then try the optimize command again.
Most of these were probably sold to people that already own computers.
Porting Linux onto these MPAA/RIAA members equipment isn't only a waste of time, it's downright foolish. You're only supporting the MPAA/RIAA.
There's real work that needs doing. Work that isn't working against us.
...there are many hardware accelerated winmodems aroud and they are heavily used in pcs (mainly laptops) and there are actually drivers for linux for most of them around. however, they are all semi-proprietary (meaning that at least some part of them is not open source) since writing a codec (using a dsp or not) for a 56k modem is a tough problem. there was a lot of discussion about it on the linmodem mailing list and the conlusion was that it's non trivial.
i'd be happy if this problem could be solved for the dreamcast but i have some serious doubts since it's been around with popular pcs for some time now and noone has solved it yet.
Don't forget - four million plus of these things were sold in North America alone!"
And who is really going to run a *nix variant on them except for a few hardcore geeks?
void women (int money, time_t time);
Were holders of this document under an NDA prior to its escape onto the net?
And if so, does that mean it's illegal to use it for this purpose in some jurisdictions?
Or alternatively, if not ... does that mean we could get insiders to sneak out documentation of any device that we don't have drivers for and then legally code drivers for them?
-- Even if a god did exist, why the fsck should I worship it?
Let it be known that I'm using a Dreamcast to post this message to Slashdot.
Before I go to sleep every night, I use this Dreamcast to check e-mail, to read AnimeFu and Slashdot, and to take a look at the site counter on the Banana Chan site at http://www.geocities.com/radiomovie2002/
Hey, why not give that counter a few clicks, eh guys?
I bought this Dreamcast earlier this year because I don't have to go to my local Computer Lab to check my e-mail every day -- now all i have to do is come home.
The Dreamcast is surviving thanks to hobbyist programmers writing emulators, VCD players, MP3 players, and probably more. What I don't understand is why port an actual OS to this device? As people here have mentioned, it has no hard drive. Out of the box it doesn't have a keyboard or mouse (but are available at most Software Etc/Gamestop/Funco store). It already has a Web Browser with e-mail. What possible good would it do to run Linux on it? The load times would probably be atrocious. I can't see using any type of word processor as the VMUs won't have to room to hold documents.
What is it with some of the people in the Open Source community? Why must they try and put Linux on every device that happens to have a microprocessor? Linux on PC, Linux on Mac, Linux on Dreamcast, Linux on X-Box, Linux for PS-2 (which is an off-the-shelf product, but still), Linux on PDAs. What's next, retro machines? Linux on Amiga? Linux64 for your Commodore? Linux on your Tandy Model III? Appliances? Will I have to log in as ROOT on my toaster to change the temperature settings? Stop the madness before it goes to its illogical extreme.
Yeah and 3 million+ were sold right back to funcoland, EB, and various pawnshops after the console died.
I also downloaded the Dreamcast version of SCUMMVM. Unfortunately, the only LucasArts games I own are for the Atari 800 (titles like "The Eidolon" and "Rescue on Fractalus") so I had to order "Day of the Tentacle" for testing purposes. (SCUMMVM looked pretty impressive with free demos, though.)
I haven't tried to set up a SarienDc disk (old Sierra games) for the Dreamcast yet, though I'll probably do that today.
Oh, I also burned one of the MP3 players to a disk, and can use it with an MP3 disk I made from CDs I own.
It is a lot easier to get on the Net and Read email or go to certain Web pages with a Dreamcast than with my PC or even my laptop. The ability to just turn the thing on or off as opposed to going through a long boot up process, and then a long powerdown process is a big plus.
I think that the best software upgrade for the Dreamcast that I could think of would be a fully functioning version of Mozilla. I don't mind PlanetWeb, but it has limitations as a Web browser.
People who are knocking the Dreamcast here are kind of stupid. Yes, the Dreamcast is a failed videogame system, but as a cheap hobbiest computer system it is really great. (Of course, it has a lot of great games, too, but that is besides the point.) Messing around with a Dreamcast and seeing what makes it tick is fun. Does anyone around here understand the concept of hacking for fun? I see a lot of comments that "this isn't going to help Linux/FreeBSD" destroy Microsoft, as though the entire purpose of Linux/FreeBSD were to define itself as an alternative to Microsoft.
When I was a kid, owning a personal computer was about having fun. Somewhere along the line (probably about the time IBM and Microsoft noticed "there's profit to be had") the fun got sucked out of owning a PC and the majority of PCs became clones of a single architecture. The moment that happened, for me was the day that my dad bought an "upgrade" (laugh/chortle) for my Atari 800 in the form of an 8088XT. This machine simply screamed "I am no fun," everytime I sat down to use it.
Dreamcasts are fun to hack. More fun than most of the other consoles which are backed by organizations that are actively resisting any kind of hacking. So, when ever I read people saying, "Why are you hacking a Dreamcast? Hmmph, waste of time." I get the idea of a stogy, boring person who really doesn't like computers at all but sees them as a means to some end.
All the creatures will die, And all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai. (Jubai, 1605)
Uhm, so that I don't have to look through somebody else's trash?
The Amiga was very Unix like :)
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
partycle: I seriously do need a vacation from this
package. I actually had a DREAM about introducing a
stupid new bug into xbase-preinst last night. That's a
Bad Sign.
-- Seen on #Debian shortly before the release of Debian 2.0
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