Linux on Nintendo DS, Update

fdevliegher writes "Trying to port Linux to various portable devices is hot nowadays. One project is porting Linux to the Nintendo DS, and is making big progress lately. Right after the DSLinux guys had a working bootable 2.6 kernel, they have put lots of effort in making the sash shell work, in which they also succeeded. The latest feature added is the touchscreen keyboard. It allows users to tap in the commands, providing a much easier input method than before (when only the buttons could be used to input text). Only the basics are being worked on for now, but the future uses of Linux on the Nintendo DS are practically unlimited. In other words, it might become a cheap alternative for a PDA, an emulator, movie viewer, maybe even internet browser, who knows."

Comments

Re:The two things I want

[falcon5768]

actually if your careful, and into taking things apart (and you know voiding it and stuff) you can solder something on the board that will let it play the older games.

The first generations still have the chips that allow backwards compatability to original GB titles like the GBA has, it was just never put in. Odds are the future chips wont even have this ability, but for now if you find the instruction via google, you can hack your system so that emulation of the older gameboy isnt even needed.

That was a cruel hoax

[swerk]

Don't take it seriously, unless you don't mind having a busted DS.

I wanted to believe it too. But no, the DS hasn't got GBC-compatible hardware. Emulation is probaby on the way though. Hell, if the Linux development gets far along enough that SDL can be ported, GnuBoy would run! (Who knows at what speed, but still... :^)

Re:Next Up-

[bhtooefr]

You would recompile it for the processor.

Often, new libraries have to be written for weird devices like this, because there isn't support for things like the graphics chip, the touchscreen, the wireless, etc.

Linux on the NES is infeasible because there isn't NEAR enough RAM, for starters. Also, the CPU is 8-bits - I don't know of any Linux variant that runs on less than a 32-bit CPU (except for ELKS, but that's getting a bit far away from Linux).

Re:feel free to say i'm wrong

[snuf23]

OK, so the PSP currently has homebrew apps running on either the 1.0 bios or through a swap exploit on 1.5 bios - but not on the currently shipping bios. The emulation scene is in a very early state for those that can actually run the software. PSP Linux has hardly any progress.
Now you probably don't know about emulation, homebrew, movie playback etc. on the Gameboy Advance or Gameboy. It does exist in a considerably more advanced state than on the PSP. The main difference is that in order to take advantage of it, you need a flash memory cart for the GBA or DS. A good example is the Super Card which allows you to plug a compact flash card into the DS. It also plays GB, NES, PCEngine and Sega GameGear games out of the box. It has both movie and music playback features as well and supports homebrew GBA apps. There are other cards available that will allow you to play DS bootleg or homebrew games as well.