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PostgreSQL Ported to GameCube, Linux Progressing

Posted by simoniker on Sun Mar 07, 2004 06:24 AM
from the mega-geek dept.
GameCube (Games) Entertainment Games
TheFuzzy writes "Hey folks, thought you'd like to know that the guys at Cybertec.at have succeeded in porting PostgreSQL 7.4.1 to the Nintendo GameCube. Now you, too, can turn your former video console into the world's most underpowered database server. And before anyone asks... the Windows port is coming real soon now, so be patient - it says something that the GameCube was easier to convert to than Windows, don't it?" Elsewhere in GameCube homebrew development, it looks like the GameCube Linux project is moving along quite swiftly, with "a 22 MB Debian base system image" now available, and an "ARAM block device driver" also created, now allowing 40mb of space for Linux to run in.
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  • Why? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by skermit (451840) on Sunday March 07 2004, @06:26AM (#8490131) Homepage
    I don't see ANY possible use for this other than to earn geek points to spent at the next LARPG meeting...

    • Re:Why? (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Bacause XBox and PS2 DON'T have PostgreSQL.

      That's why... muahahahaha... let the fanboy flamewars begin...

    • Re:Why? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by torpor (458)
      dude, the gamecube is a $99 computing device. it is about on par with the $20,000 computing device i once had to use, in the 80's, in terms of processing power and capabilities.

      why -shouldn't- this be done?

      i never had a reason to get into game consoles before, but now that i can build a $150 database server and stick it on my network, i've got a whole new platform for the home, knowing that the hardware is pretty much rock-solid, dependable.

      PC's might be 'better', but you can't beat game-console economi

      • Re:Why? (Score:3, Informative)

        by antime (739998)
        Dude, unless you plan on storing your whole database in RAM or on a memory card there's very little point in using the Cube as a database server. The machine's network connection is also limited (by the bus the NIC is connected to) so its use even as a frontend is questionable. Hack value, but not any practical value.
        • ... and why wouldn't i store a database in RAM or on a memory card, if I can do it ...

          honestly, people are so stupidly negative at times. for every technological single step forward, there's some asshole saying it shouldn't be done, its not useful, it has no purpose.

          so many things we have all come to take for granted now, started this way.
          • If you read the announcement you probably noticed that even the people who did the port aren't too serious about it, because it's just too damn slow. Right tools for the right job etc.

            The big steps forward have been the exploitation of the PSO update mechanism to boot selfmade code and the reverse-engineering of the hardware that made the Linux port possible. Compiling a software package after that is mostly an excercise in masochism but nothing insanelygreat.

            So yeah, I stand by my statement that trying to

              • And you need a database server for that?
                • If I'm going to share data with the UN and other farmers in my valley, Postgres would be a nice way to do it. It could be a flat text file too, but the point is ... now there's an option in case a flat text file isn't adequate...
              • Check your facts before you start calling people names.

                Gamecube - $100
                Broadband adapter - $40
                Phantasy Star Online Ep. I&II - $30-40
                Computer needed to bootstrap the whole shebang - $100

                Add a bit more for assorted network gear and memory cards and you're up to about $300. Why not take that money and get yourself a slightly better computer straight away? Just face it, this is even more of a toy than Dreamcast Linux, which at least had the advantage of being able to boot directly from a CD.

                • Um, you're the one who started calling people names...

                  Just face it, your life lacks inspiration. You probably watch too much television, you have no idea how big and wide and wonderful the world is ... my advice to you: Kill your TV.
                  • You might want to go back and read your reply to my first post in this thread. Also, didn't anyone ever teach you about making assumptions about people? As I already said, I hack on console hardware. I do it because I enjoy it, and I understand the motivation behind the port very well. But you won't convince me that a Gamecube would make a useful database server, especially with ad hominem attacks.
                    • I never called you an asshole. It was you who told me to "fuck yourself, asshole". I guess you assumed I was referring to you, when in fact I wasn't, directly. All I did was make a general observation about how there's always an asshole who doesn't get it, who craps on the new progress, and tries to infect other people with his ignorance. I didn't, actually, get around to calling you an asshole until after you'd had a little temper tantrum in response.

                      I don't give a fuck if you've been 'hacking on conso
                    • You really know fuck all about me, stop thinking you do.

                      The Gamecube is hardly suitable for the use you have in mind - the hassle of booting the system should be enough of an indicator (you have tried it, haven't you?)
                      How does your solution compare to a cheap computer collecting data from remote sensors, keeping in mind that the Cube is designed for living-room use only? Leave it out in the sun and it'll overheat. Leave it out in the dirt and the fan breaks down. Leave it out in the rain and it'll fry. Mayb

                    • How does your solution compare to a cheap computer collecting data from remote sensors, keeping in mind that the Cube is designed for living-room use only?

                      Where is the $99 computer that I can buy anywhere in the world? Please tell me.

                      I can put a Nintendo Gamecube in a bucket, seal it with a $2 tube of silicon sealant, bury it in the ground with some cables coming out of it, and walk away knowing that it will be okay. No 'special' hardware, no 'PC-104 formfactor', nothing. Just cheap, commodity game ha
                    • Want to go cheap? Buy one of the many routers running or capable of running Linux. Excellent availability, no moving parts and no need to buy anything extra (LAN adapters/boot-PCs/mods). PDAs are another obvious choice (how much do the Simputers go for?) and are available now, instead of having to wait for a mod that may or may not appear. And if one does appear, chances are it won't be free.

                      I could also add that in many of the places that could use this sort of help, even $30 is way too much money, especia


                    • Simputers failed. $300 is too much money to spend. Routers? Show me a router I can buy, in quantity, at $30 a piece (like I can with Nintendo Gamecubes). What part of "GameCubes are available in markets everywhere in the world" do you not understand?

                      As for my travel history, I'm on my 4th almost-full passport, actually, and have lived in more places on this planet than most Americans know how to find on a map.

                      {Your Mom smells funny and your Dad has a boyfriend he doesn't tell anyone about ...}
                    • $300? I thought the things were designed to be cheap!

                      Routers that run full Linux can be had for about $50 (retail, US prices). Most home ADSL/cablemodem/routers seem to be based on ARM7 chips, regardless of brand, and can be made to run uClinux. They can be had for $30 (again retail US prices). I don't know wholesale prices but I'm sure Linksys will give you a quote if you're serious about buying a few thousand.
                      I do think you're overly optimistic about the availability of Gamecubes. Many years ago I was hel

                    • I do think you're overly optimistic about the availability of Gamecubes. Many years ago I was helping out with a development project to send solar cookers to places like rural Namibia.

                      Well, thats an interesting project. Solar cookers rock.

                      But the point is, wherever Nintendo is available, you've got yourself a linux box with Postgres capabilities in the works. Look at it that way. That's a nice thing. Happy, positive thing! In India, small villages -would- use this to make sure they're getting their

    • What? (Score:4, Funny)

      by Rhinobird (151521) on Sunday March 07 2004, @08:48AM (#8490379) Homepage
      What, you play GAMES on your Game Cube?
      That is sooooo passe...

    • Re:Why? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by BW_Nuprin (633386)
      Well, I'm excited about the possibility of using the Gamecube's very good TV output to watch my TV show DivX's on. I have a dedicated computer for it in the living room, but its TV-out port is very touchy, and doesn't look very good anyway.

    • Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by rtaylor (70602) on Sunday March 07 2004, @11:15AM (#8490941) Homepage
      Granted there isn't much use, but there is some.

      The PostgreSQL port to the PS2 (quite a while back) made a performance issue on certain platforms very obvious. I believe as a result the Itanium port recieved a bit of a speed boost (common issue).

      Simply put, looking at something from a new angle doesn't hurt any of the currently existing platforms, and often it will help.

      It's the same reason many developers like to use more than one compiler. One will sometimes warn about things the other doesn't catch.
      • The PS2 also has a hard disk available... so you could conceivably want to run a database server
        using a PS2.

        You'ld have to have a really specialized application to want the gamecube to run a database server, since it has nearly no local storage, and I hear the network performance isn't that great either.

        • You're right. Gamecube isn't good for PostgreSQL (regression tests took 3 days to run). That said, the investment by the core developers was minimal, and someone had an enjoyable afternoon setting up the test rig.

          Although I don't believe any new issues have been discovered as a result of this port, it is useful as a confirmation of database portability.
    • I would love to be able to boot my cubes into MythTV frontends. While I'm sure the standard frontend wouldn't fly, someone could work on a cube-specific one, as the hardware is a known quantity.
    • it gets the chicks? I've been trying different things, maybe this one will be it!
  • "it says something that the GameCube was easier to convert to than Windows, don't it?"

    Yes, it says your command of English is poor.


      • If one hides for the negative posts how could it be considered karma?

        Besides, you may have not noticed but it is the score of the post that moderation exists for, not the poster.

  • ... i just spent my sunday morning putting it on my ipod, which now has a whole new lease on life.
  • wouldn't that make a good priority, given the limited amount of storage on the gc?

  • Relevance? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by JackBuckley (696547) on Sunday March 07 2004, @07:52AM (#8490272) Homepage
    I suppose that this is interesting, in a geeky/hacker way, but I really don't think it belongs in the games section. Just because they used game console hardware for an OSS/Linux port story doesn't make it gaming news....
      • Amazing how narrow-minded and limp-dicked the world has become.

        A Nintendo GameCube, being pretty much currency for children all over the world is a commodity computer. It is available in China, in Taiwan, in England, in Austria, in Pakistan, in Iraq, in New Zealand, on the common market, everywhere.

        Also, peripherals for this device are cheap, and usually well designed. Intended to be sucked on, chewed on by dogs, had juice spilled on it, dropped from TV-set heights to the floor, etc. and still keep func
  • Just as it is beginning to shake its reputation!

  • Needs a Hard drive hack. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by polyp2000 (444682) on Sunday March 07 2004, @08:49AM (#8490384) Homepage Journal
    Naturally I think this is a cool project. I have the Linux kit from Sony for my PS2, its fun to tinker with, the 40gb hard drive is a nice addition. It would be nice if "somehow" , someone found a way of attaching a harddrive to a game cube. It would make such, a tiny and cute little box, but free it from the reigns of having to use the network to boot and load applications from a remote machine! GC's are soo cheap these day's id be tempted to get one just for some G3-Linux goodness!

    • Re:Needs a Hard drive hack. (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      It would be nice if "somehow" , someone found a way of attaching a harddrive to a game cube.

      That's most unlikey... NFS works though...

  • Reminds me of Oracle. (Score:5, Informative)

    by torpor (458) <(jayv) (at) (synth.net)> on Sunday March 07 2004, @08:53AM (#8490392) Homepage Journal
    I once visited a friend on the Oracle campus in the 90's, and noticed that in a whole slew of cubicles, programmers had Nintendo 64 setups. It seems they were porting Netscape to N64 back then, and I always wondered how weird it was for Oracle to be involved in that at first.

    I wonder whatever happened to that project. Clearly it never saw the light of day, but they did have Netscape up and running on those boxes.

    Now it seems things have come full circle, in a sort of twisty klein bottle kind of way ...

    • I always wondered how weird it was for Oracle to be involved in that at first.

      Actually, it was a sort of logical progression of something they did earlier. That's when Larry was pushing the "Network Computer", that diskless workstation that was supposed to replace the PC. They created a new subsidiary for this business, called NC. Meanwhile Netscape started a company called Navio [uakom.sk], in partnership with (among others) Nintendo, which was supposed to sell web browsing using consumer devices. Navio and NC then

  • > it says something that the GameCube was easier to convert to than Windows

    Was it really easier, or did it get done first for some other reason, such as
    because it was more compelling? I mean, we're accustomed to the idea of using
    Linux on low-end hardware as a server platform, so porting an RDBMS to it makes
    a sort of (weird) sense, but Windows is inherently a desktop platform; the only
    people who use Windows on servers are people who are so MS-only that they'll
    also use MS SQL Server. There's very little
      • > The only comparison that could have been made is between the GameCube
        > and the x86.

        Right, and of course it's already running on x86 just fine.
  • Why is it that these people always feel inclined to port OS software to game consoles? I mean, sure, it's an interesting challenge, and it has some uses, but really, the hassle of the project usually outweighs the results. You have to wonder what kinds of great things these people could do if they put their skills elsewhere, rather than simply making Linux and windows available on every video game console. I'm not saying that they're wasting their talent, but why not do something new, r

  • PostgreSQL on a game console: "My pistol will perform a SELECT query on a bullet and then use it to perform an INSERT INTO query on your head and truncate your life, you denormalized villain!"
    (from a SA game review [somethingawful.com])

  • There's a lot of comments about whther or not his is useful or just stupid. While you probably wouldn't be running a database on your gamecube (unless they port apache and python as well, for a very cheap web server), this ensures postgresql is platform independent which makes it easier to port to other more useful systems.
  • And here I had trouble getting it to work on my Sun Blade. Damn missing libraries.
  • And before anyone asks... the Windows port is coming real soon now, so be patient

    You can run PostgreSQL under Windows using Cygwin. This has been available for quite some time.

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