LinuxDevCenter takes a look at the Sony PlayStation 2 and add-ons that make it into a Linux computer. Elsewhere, the effort to port Linux to the GameCube — a longtime goal for many hackers — finally came to fruition in December 2003 at the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin, Germany. Read about it at the LinuxDevCenter.
Linux on the Playstation and the GameCube
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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The GameCube port of Linux works by transferring the code to the console’s hardware via an exploit in the game Phantasy Star Online. Another method involves a hardware hack to the console, replacing the GC’s serial BIOS chip with an Complex Programmable Logic Device (CPLD), to allow users to start a binary through the network adapter.
What is this unholy obsession that people have with putting Linux on everything but the kitchen sink? It makes a little more sense on the XBox since that has a hard drive, but geez … what’s next? Putting Linux on vibrators?
I put linux on my tennis shoes so I can run faster…
Putting Linux on vibrators?
Oh no I have a feeling a lot of unix command line sex jokes are going to appear, that will get modded of course
Linux is certain to come to the kitchen sink by 2010.
😉
It’s enough hassle to get Linux running on a PC or Laptop
What is this unholy obsession that people have with putting Linux on everything but the kitchen sink?
For pure fun? It’s a challange.
whoa… theres got to be something more…
[i]What is this unholy obsession that people have with putting Linux on everything but the kitchen sink?</i?>
Because I can.
Why must those silly people keep insisting on climbing high mountains? It’s not like there’s anything on top of Everest or anything. Geez.
I think everyone has pretty much told you why your view stinks, but I’ll add my comments too. Ah, the wonder of the internet.
Anyway, really it’s just a matter of having fun. You wouldn’t berate a builder who puts those little wooden ships into bottles in his spare time. It’s the same premise, applied to computer enthusiasts.
It’s also interesting to note that unlike Xbox linux efforts, the GC linux development used techniques to get code running that were found by people in the piracy scene. It’s not all bad.
they should work on getting on the desktop first. 🙂
It’s not really about getting Linux up on foreign hardware, as I understand the satisfaction in doing such, ASSUMING you were going to do something useful with it and/or had a specific purpose in mind for doing it.
But a Gamecube? The thing has no hard drive or network adapter unless you buy one seperately. Plus, at least with the PS2, you could stick in standard CDs/DVDs in it and as I said before, the Xbox has a built-in hard drive so it makes a decent web server or DVR.
You can import one that plays standard sized disc. I beleive nintendo wanted to focus on gaming, not an all in one device, but they did let the people who made the optical drive make a special version to go after that market.
Linux on Game Cube isn’t for everybody, but it does have uses. For example, this platform has plenty of horsepower to run a thin client. A $89 thin client could be revolutionary. You could set up a small department for less than half of the cost of installing Windows (or Linux) fat clients. In this role, the lack of a hard drive would acutally be an advantage. You could even get rid of the optical drive (and add more RAM). Then you have a box that is simple, silent, with moving parts, great multimedia & it would be nearly impossible to infect; that’s a sys admin’s dream box.
Now if we could only get Apple to port OS/X and have Mac thin clients…
Here is a challenge
Port linux on GameBoy Advance 
You can import one that plays standard sized disc.
You mean the panasonic Q? I don’t believe the GC can address that drive as a larger drive, the panasonic components that play DVDs and such with it are completely separate.
You’re dreaming really, it didn’t happen with the DC and it won’t happen with the GC. Think any dep. will be modding their hardware when they get it, or running a server to exploit the PSO code each time a user starts it up? Hardly!
OpenBSD is on the DC, so I don’t see why Linux would be any harder. Just lacks someone with the savvy and a DC. The GC is a (relatively) powerful PPC system for the price. Naturally people are going to try to put anything they like on it.
It’s enough hassle to get Linux running on a PC or Laptop
Its a hell of a lot easier than running winblows on the PC or Laptop!!! 😀
they should work on getting on the desktop first. 🙂
They have! its just your stuck under a rock. Try climimng out and seeing the world sometime. 😀
I saw this on /.
LINUX ON IPOD
http://ipodlinux.sourceforge.net/index.shtml
But unlike linux on GC, linux on ipod actually has real uses, right now. It has more features than the standard apple firmware for older ipods.
Linux IS on the DC. I was referring to the fact the DC didn’t turn into some cheap computer that people bought and put linux on, or used as a thin client.
There was that hacker project where you’d drop it on a business network and hide it under a desk or something, but that wasn’t really much more than a curio.