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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."
Trying to port Linux to various portable devices is hot nowadays.
So hot. You should see the look on my girlfriend's face when I tell her, "Time to compile the kernel on this bad boy."
Gets 'em every time, baby.
A PDA I think would be great - the hard part would be letting me sync it to iCal or something, but that would be excellent for me.
The other would be a Game Boy Color emulator. Yes, I know that the DS can play Game Boy Advance games, but there's still 4 Game Boy games I haven't finished yet (two Zelda games, "Dragon Warrior III" (almost done), and "Metal Gear Solid GBC"). I just want to have the ability to play them all on one device, and then I won't have to keep the GBA SP around all the time.
Not sure if it can do the latter - the processor might not be powerful enough for emulating the GBC, but the datebook might be good.
It makes me wonder why Palm hasn't tried to sell a Palm OS cartridge - I know I'd buy one, and even if it was Palm Light (let you sync up, maybe enter some things, but no major app support) it would almost be worth $50 - $60.
Just my opinion, of course. Congrats to the Linux on DS team, either way!
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
Big Blue has spent R&D money thinking about this for us :)
http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/atomik is a layout for tapping. I used it on my m105, and it's pretty good. Definitely better than graffiti if you're standing still and don,t haveto pay attention to your surroundings, and somewhat better than qwerty or alphabetic (I used paper overlays on the graffiti area).
http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/sharktext uses the same layout in an ingenious way, where you trace a line between the letters of the word. You quickly remember the shape of frequent words, and it works surprisingly well (I'm using the java demo almost as often as the built-in TIP on my tablet PC).
Try Corewar @ www.koth.org - rec.games.corewar
If it computes it could run Linux
If it computes it does run NetBSD. (of course)
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
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...
The Nintendo DS is the perfect platform for playing Nethack. It's dual screen means that all of the various nethack commands and options can be put on the bottom touch screen (perhaps even stats), while the top can be left exclusivly for the game display. That it is a portable platform means that you can play Nethack anywhere (important to the millions additcted to the game...)
I understand that simply having Linux on the DS doesn't mean Nethack would be trivial to port, but it is a step in the right direction IMHO. I'm holding my breath.
I am not interested in articles about life extension advancements.
With how powerful the Nintendo DS hardware is compared to the original (and still useful) old Palm pilots I am not surprised it could be a PDA, but it seems Nintendo already thought of that.
Nintendo had recently licensed Palm OS based PDA software without any details on why they had done it. Nintendo sources have now revealed that the V-Pocket patent filed by Nintendo a few days ago concerns this licensing. E3 2005 will be the first witness of the Nintendo V-Pocket suite: a complete line of personal organizer tools for the Nintendo DS. Nintendo believes PDA software coupled with the already existing touch screen of the DS will put it above its high profiled rival, the PSP.
I think Linux on the DS is cool. I can think of a few neat applications and I'm sure the creative hackers out there can think up some fun projects for LinuxDS.
:-(
There is a company called Charmed Labs that makes a programmable robot cartridge for the old GBA. They're probably working on a similar add on for the DS right now. But with Linux on the DS you don't even need to robot cartridge to have fun, or you could probably by the cartridge for extras like easily accessible ADC/DAC lines. You could make a little hand-held oscilliscope or something.
GBA's were being used as information accessories for some car races. The cartridges that you could rent had wireless units that would get realtime info from the race.
Someone else was using GBA's as little hand-held real-time engine information units. You could tap into your car's microprocessor and get some info out.
Stuff like that would just be easier to do with Linux on the DS. It's all good.
I'd buy a DS just to get Linux running on it. Now if I could only find the time to play with a project like that -- I already work too hard
Religion is poison to rationality, and we lose sight of that at our own peril. -- Lurker2288
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.
Sometimes my arms bend back.