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Hackers Manage To Run Linux On a Nintendo Switch (techcrunch.com)
Romain Dillet reports via TechCrunch: Hacker group fail0verflow shared a photo of a Nintendo Switch running Debian, a distribution of Linux. The group claims that Nintendo can't fix the vulnerability with future firmware patches. According to fail0verflow, there's a flaw in the boot ROM in Nvidia's Tegra X1 system-on-a-chip. When your console starts, it reads and executes a piece of code stored in a read-only memory (hence the name ROM). This code contains instructions about the booting process. It means that the boot ROM is stored on the chip when Nvidia manufactures it and it can't be altered in any way after that. Even if Nintendo issues a software update, this software update won't affect the boot ROM. And as the console loads the boot ROM immediately after pressing the power button, there's no way to bypass it. The only way to fix it would be to manufacture new Nvidia Tegra X1 chips. So it's possible that Nintendo asks Nvidia to fix the issue so that new consoles don't have this vulnerability.
it reads and executes a piece of code stored in a read-only memory (hence the name ROM). This code contains instructions about the booting process. It means that the boot ROM is stored on the chip when Nvidia manufactures it and it can't be altered in any way after that.
Did the person writing this not know that ROMs can be reprogrammed such as an EEPROM?
And bald with terrible comb overs.
"have this vulnerability" duh! a vulnerability?
;)
;)
Anything I can re-purpose by loading Linux on it is a plus in my world
Just my 2 cents
You have to physically put something on the device to make it work in this way. Being in control of a device you physically control isn't a vulnerability, it's a feature. Being in control of a device because something something network internet packet is a vulnerability.
Long as the wallet is fat.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Running BSD until it's dying.
A BBW is made for a BBC.
You used "Hacker" in the correct context!
The only bulge in my pants the ladies seem to care about.
This is not something to celebrate.
In the old days, when people said "Hackers got Linux running on a toaster", it meant that some clever people spent some time figuring out how to write hardware-specific Linux components for the toaster; it meant that Linux was improving, and growing.
Today, when people say it, they mean that some shady group of people used some shady techniques to exploit a bug in the toaster, and if you want to do the same on your toaster, then you'll probably have to download from some shady website a shady black-box binary blob that will run the exploit for you, without you ever really knowing just WTF is going on; it means that personal computing is further collapsing.
Oh shut the fuck up Grandpa.
Term hackers implicates those involved in criminal activity. I know that doing this to your property cannot be a crime. So LONG AS YOU DON'T TELL ANYONE!
That Debian is a Linux distro and what a ROM is, perhaps this isn't an article meant for slashdot.
The most common connotation in my half century of speaking English is that they somehow _barely_ did it. At the last minute, with duct tape and baling wire. And who knows, they might not be able to do it again.
Whereas if they "got Linux running on it", then just say it plainly: they got Linux running.
I mean WTF, this is like saying someone's "sorta pregnant." No, they're either pregnant or they're not. There is no half pregnant. There is no "managed to run it.". It's running. Case closed. End of Discussion.
How long until we can download Switch roms? Sounds like you could even have your own switch store with free roms to download straight to the device
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
But it's got Mario!
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Hackers Manage to Run Linux on X is probably to most common beginning to a /. headline. As long as new devices are manufactured, nerds will make them run Linux. Imagine if all these countless man hours were spent making Linux work on PCs.
"From the depths of my skeptical and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom."
There is no half pregnant.
Depending on context, more precise terms could be any of the following:
There is no "managed to run it.". It's running.
"Barely running Linux" is likely to mean running without driver support for the hardware features that an end user would expect to be able to use with a port of Linux. A Linux system without input, accelerated graphical output, audio output, persistent file system, networking, or power management is a starting point. But until it's shown running an application as a proof of concept, such as something using SDL, it's still in a state that one could describe as "barely" or "managed to".
It's already running a BSD variant ... Yawn ...
So, you didn't bother explaining what "LCS" meant in the article a few days ago, but you thought you had to tell us what DEBIAN was? FFS slashdot, WHO THE FUCK IS YOUR AUDIENCE?
There'll be Rev. B.
I have it on good authority that Nvidia is manufacturing a variant of the Tegra X1 just for the Switch. It is identical in every way except lower power (16FF process) and several security fixes are incorporated.
I predict any Switch bought after Black Friday 2018 is going to be immune to these hacks as it will be a new chip with a [potentially] a new Boot ROM.
This means we have an arms race Between homebrew and Nintendo/Nvidia. If Nvidia can push a new chip out in less than 9 months I really don't see the homebrew/hackers winning this fight.
Can it run Linux?
But can it play DOOM?
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
So this imost likely mask rom embedded in the chip during lithography/etching. New mask would need to be made and new chips etched.
why not make it flash rom?
Games > Hardware. I don't care for first-person shooters or sports games. The Switch is perfect for me.
What you point out is a part of a larger and more significant problem that gets into another /. thread—"What is missing in tech today?". What's missing is an appreciation that computer owners ought to be able to use their computers in the way they wish, fully owning and controlling their own computers. What's present is a focus on relatively minor issues like what gadgets people might find slightly more convenient to use (but apparently not to own).
Since people want this (the phrase "jailbreaking" is a testament to this; we wouldn't need this term if people enjoyed having their devices "jailed") the corporate proprietor-friendly media (and repeater sites) remind us when covering a story like this in multiple ways: from eschewing any reminder of the freedom to run, inspect, share, and modify published computer software like calling the installed OS "Linux" even when Debian calls their system GNU/Linux and the proper name is on the screenshot (just above the "fail0verflow" textual graphic), to using propagandistic language. There's also suggestion that the code is to be seen as "potential[ly] weak" instead of a means of allowing owners to control their own computers, and blaming fail0verflow should they choose to publish the means by which they installed Debian GNU/Linux on the Nintendo Switch for enabling "homebrew apps and (of course) software piracy". Ridiculous unchallenged and undefended anti-user views throughout which is par for the course in corporate media.
Digital Citizen
If Nintendo really wanted to keep hackers out of the hardware - they could remove the incentive by allowing an owner installed OS mode. It might be OK for this to be an extra price option.
Then Hackers would have less incentive to crack and reverse engineer the hardware.
It's a portable gaming system pretending it is also a tv console to pretend nintendo didn't dropped the tv console market.
But on the other hand, it does have the smallest gap to the consoles a nintendo portable ever did.
Fat man: hey girl, look my Nintendo is hacked!
woman: oh! My place or your mom's basement?
There seems to be no requirement to open the console, or even solder, and the picture shows what seems to be a board with an FTDI chip, and 2 wires going to the console. Is it just a UART, and are they getting into the bootloader that way ? If this is all it takes, then I imagine piracy to be rampant soon. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DV...
I ran Linuz on a potato clock, next...
You don't know that they aren't going to contribute to free software. This hasn't been released yet so we don't know what license they will use, but the nintendo hacking community is pretty open. All of the major 3DS hacking tools are hosted on github for crying out loud, you can compile them yourself if you don't trust downloading a binary from a "shady" website (you probably define shady different to normal people based on your usage).
Furthermore, there was really nothing to celebrate about Linux being hacked to run on a toaster. It's still a fucking toaster, and nothing of value is gained from having a in-kernel driver for a disposable piece of IoT trash. On the other hand turning the Switch into a general purpose computer is a serious improvement, so it's a hack worth celebrating.
But I bought the toaster. What business do you have telling me what I can do with the toaster regardless of whether I people, shady or otherwise, helping me do what I want with my toaster. Did you become the toaster police?
"when your console starts, it reads and executes a piece of code stored in a read-only memory (hence the name ROM)"
It's highly detailed technical analysis like the above that I come here for.
--
sig: I'll bet you're the kind of guy that hangs round Reddit fapping off over pictures of furries and yellow-scaled wingless dragonkin
This is true. It's basically Nintendo's backdoor way to exit the console market while saving face.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
I work on SoCs for a living. these things often have write-once fuses that let you replace small sections of the on-chip boot rom. It's not unusual to be limited to around 1024 bit. You can usually do this in the field, but not always.
If there really are no fuses, then changing boot ROM is a metal layer change (ECO). You can definitely do in manufacturing for a current product line without it being horribly expensive. It doesn't resolve devices in the field.
from eschewing any reminder of the freedom to run, inspect, share, and modify published computer software like calling the installed OS "Linux" even when Debian calls their system GNU/Linux and the proper name is on the screenshot
I too write the term "GNU/Linux" in part because it's a convenient way to say I don't mean Android. But this particular point isn't quite the strongest in your argument because practically, until enough drivers are ported to let the user interact meaningfully with the GNU operating environment, it's still "Linux".
Who the fuck wrote this bullshit?
It's a weak console pretending to also be a portable.
The key to the portable market has always been having a device that fits in a pocket. Switch is enormous for a portable, which greatly limits its portability. It's intended for using when someone else is using the TV, not for carrying with you.
Women love fat men at the same rate that black men love fat white women. It isn't universally true that women love fat men, nor that all black men love fat white women, but the rate of white men loving fat women is much lower. Source: America.
It seems to me that Switch owners either use it predominantly as a handheld or as a portable, few actually 'switch' it up that much. Some people hate tiny screens, others hate cramped controls, others hate sitting in one spot or gaming at home. An unusually powerful handheld that gets all of Nintendo's AAA games means I only have to buy 1 Nintendo device each generation, instead of two, to get all the stuff I want.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
But I bought the toaster. What business do you have telling me what I can do with the toaster regardless of whether I people, shady or otherwise, helping me do what I want with my toaster. Did you become the toaster police?
You're looking at this all wrong. Nintendo can't stop you from hacking YOUR Switch, but they have every right to try to prevent you from doing so. The same thing applies to toasters. If hacking a toaster/Switch involves publishing or reveres-engineering code, then you might run afoul of copyright laws if you help other people do it, but that still doesn't mean you can't hack your own.
If the damn switch was even remotely useful and priced sensibly in the first place. . Then people wouldn't need to hack it
To be honest, I've enjoyed the vast, vast majority of my gaming life on systems that would be considered so laughably slow and obsolete now that people wouldn't take them off your hands for free.
It didn't once affect my enjoyment of the games, my enjoyment of replaying the games, or the nostalgia of going back to those same games 30 years later (whether on original hardware or via emulation).
If you think that anyone who plays games care about how many MHz or how many CUDA cores or how much texture RAM a certain device has, you're sadly in the minority. I gamed through the home computer rivalries, the 8-bit and 16-bit rivalries, PC vs console, online vs local LAN, etc. and not once did I ever care about having what was technically best, compared to what played the games I most enjoyed.
Nintendo are pretty much the only modern console company that get this. All their effort goes into the game design and new, fun twists, rather than what texture fill rate they can achieve.
Even in my "PC gamer" years on my twitch-shooters, I still didn't really care about those people who bought the top-line gear, overclocked everything, etc. just to get a few more FPS or a lower ping. It was the game that mattered.
Same as car-nuts. I'm sure your car does 0-60 in some unfathomably trivial fraction of a second faster than mine. But that's not why I bought the car. Don't put your use case onto me, or entire markets of billions of people who "just want to play a game with the kids".
Call me when they have a dual boot ready for Android, or more specifically, using the Switch as a full nVidia Shield TV.
I mean, I'm getting one anyways, but that would certainly double the value in my page. xD
Yes, because when I put Linux on a PS4 I certainly didn't spend several months figuring out how to write hardware-specific Linux components for the PS4.
Oh, wait, I did. I also happened to reverse engineer the Radeon GPU microcode instruction set. So now every AMD Radeon user can benefit from being able to understand what their GPU firmware is doing, which they couldn't in the past.
But hey, I guess GitHub is some shady website that serves shady black box binaries, and implementing kexec as a hot-patchable module for the FreeBSD kernel is a decidedly shady technique. Right.
Jesus, how did I manage to fuck up the links so badly. Link, link, link. And some bonus stuff.
Funny then how I and several people I know never actually use it as a handheld device (I've tried it out for 5 minutes once just to try it). There goes your narrative! Oh well.
Funny how this so called underpowered hardware runs a game that looks visually better than literally anything on either of those systems. :) I'm sorry your big boy console isn't as popular as mean old Nintendo's, why don't you go cry to mommy about it, precious little thing.
Xbox and Playstation are pointless plastic boxes. I have a PC already.
how usable will this turn out the be?
the nvidia tegra soc has horrible linux kernel support.
it even made Linus flip the finger at nvidia.
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
> It could have some financial implications for Nintendo.
Yeah they might sell more switches since they've now just become useful.