Linux Coming to the Nintendo DS

GamersZion writes "A recent IRC conversation with ChaosKnight, a member of the DS Linux development team, revealed information about the status of the DS Linux project. 'It was a bit tough to get the ball rolling, but with PassMe fully functional and everything starting to fall in order, I wouldn't be surprised to see an alpha release within the next month.' While little information is being revealed about the release of this anticipated software, it looks like we can be expecting it sometime in the short future."

How much hardware will they figure out?

[PxM]

There is still very little known information about the cool hardware features like the touchpad, WiFi, etc. While they (the hacker community in general) have figured out how to tweak [darkain.com] things like model data in Metroid Prime, they still haven't figured out how to get the WiFi to work fully. Based on what is currently known the DS doesn't support IPv4 or any public protocols on a higher layer than OSI Layer 2. This means it might still be a while before someone gets a working web browser or telnet client on the DS. However, given the amount of hacks available for the GBA, I'm confident that they'll figure out all the cool tricks pretty soon. Then I won't have to worry about buying a PDA and I'll have an excude for having "using" my DS during work.

--
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Fake signature

[Anonymous Coward]

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Re:Great!

[idlake]

Get an Archos PMA-400; similarly gorgeous screen, it runs Linux out of the box, and it doesn't use any proprietary disks.

Lunix on C=64

[tepples]

True, but teh Lunix does run on Commodore 64 computers [sourceforge.net].

Re:Universal OS.

[zachetus]

I think that for Elks [sourceforge.net] (embeddable linux kernel) one target was z80, though i don't know did it actually never run on it, but least one unix port named Uzi [dougbraun.com] is running on it.

Please mod me up

[sbaker]

OK - I've been hanging out on the www.dslinux.org site for a few weeks. This announcement is *WAY* premature. There isn't even a coherent team put together to START the port yet.

What there is right now is a bunch of individual developers who have each individually solved various parts of the puzzle. However, we are quite far from having all of the parts put together in the form of a runnable kernel - and there is ABSOLUTELY NO ORGANISED DSLINUX TEAM YET!

In order to try to pull things together, I am in the process of organising an election to nominate a team leader - and then to collect together the expertise of the disparate developers, set up a SourceForge account (there already is one - but there has been nothing committed to it since December.

I don't know the individual who posted this to /. - but it doesn't represent the current state of affairs one little bit.

If you need to confirm what I'm saying, visit the forums at www.dslinux.org - or check the emptyness of dslinux.sf.net

Please mod me up so this message gets out.

Re:So how do I run this?

[Melfina]

If you read the site a lil more it tells you that the passme/passthrough "redirects the DS to a GBA Flash cart, so you can run your own program on the Nintendo DS. It requires the use of a commercial DS cart and a GBA Flash cart to work." (DSPassme.com) Basicly, you upload your program to a flashcart, than onto passme, and you can run it off of the DS. Obviously it's more work than that, but thats the idea.

"that's not acceptable. I won't bother."

The project hasent been subbmitted for your approval, these are some people doing this for fun, and possibly a chance to take over the world (I havent read the blog yet). If you can find a better way good luck. But, to answer your question, the card does stick out of the back, and you dont have to plug it into your pc. Altho that could be fun to test programs instead of flashing and re-flashing them.

"At what point will I be able to somehow plug a little all-rewritable DS card into my computer (preferably my mac), load a linux kernel onto it, and then three days later just pull it out of my pocket, stick it in the DS, and boot?"

The best way to do it, would be get "passme" and a GBA flash read/writer and do it like that. Or you could build your own. It's not impossible, I just dont think anyone has done it yet.

Re:WooHoo!!

[Mignon]

The ZipIt might be more what you're looking for. It's a wifi-enabled, Linux-powered, IM client that some folks have figured out how to get a custom filesystem onto. There's already lots of interest in ssh and web clients, but one limiting factor is how much memory it has.

But US$100 sounds pretty nifty.

Re:Universal OS.

[Prod_Deity]

The first PlayStation had the unoffical PSX, then they named the PlayStation media center PSX,.

http://www.psx.sony.co.jp/ [sony.co.jp]

So the PS3 will be just, PS3.