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linux & saturn?

mrkotfw - Jan 29, 2004

		mrkotfw		Jan 29, 2004
			linux & saturn? Does anyone think it's possible? If it is i'd be more than happy to try to port it to saturn (could be too slow?)

		antime		Jan 29, 2004
			linux & saturn? The Saturn doesn't have an MMU, so you'd have to go the ucLinux way. I think someone's working on that, though.

IBarracudaI

Jan 29, 2004

linux & saturn?

	
	
		
		
			Originally posted by antime@Jan 29, 2004 @ 06:15 PM



 I think someone's working on that, though.

really?? that would be awesome!

		Alexvrb		Jan 29, 2004
			linux & saturn? What about memory usage, how much would you have left over? How much could it be stripped down?

		antime		Jan 29, 2004
			linux & saturn? You should be able to boot the kernel in the 2MB provided, but squeezing in more might be difficult. There's a project with the aim of reducing the footprint of the kernel for embedded systems, they've produced some patches against the 2.6 kernel. Porting a dedicated embedded OS like eCos would probably be easier.

		Alexvrb		Jan 29, 2004
			linux & saturn? Hmm, I figured as much. We DO have the 4MB carts though. That'd help a ton.

		AntiPasta		Jan 30, 2004
			linux & saturn? Well, here at the Uni there's some crazy 3rd year students who were contemplating porting Linux to the Ti-83 Anyway, sorta OT, but does anyone know more of that Runix thing on the PSX? It was supposed to be a Linux port and I do remember some talking about it on the PSXdev group, but it went silent afterwards.

		kahuna		Jan 30, 2004
			linux & saturn? I'm wondering if NetBSD might be a better choice.

		antime		Jan 30, 2004
			linux & saturn? NetBSD requires an MMU, so unless there's a ucLinux-like project for it that's not going to happen. (Besides, most NetBSD ports that list memory requirements say 4MB minimum.)

		mrkotfw		Jan 30, 2004
			linux & saturn? hm... i guess we can at least get it to run but whats this MMU about?

		antime		Jan 30, 2004
			linux & saturn? MMU stands for Memory Management Unit....

		mal		Jan 30, 2004
			linux & saturn? Even I knew that, and that says a lot.

		kahuna		Jan 30, 2004
			linux & saturn? I could use one of those. I keep forgetting where I put my games!

Alexvrb

Jan 30, 2004

linux & saturn?

	
	
		
		
			Originally posted by AntiPasta@Jan 30, 2004 @ 11:41 AM



 Well, here at the Uni there's some crazy 3rd year students who were contemplating porting Linux to the Ti-83  



Anyway, sorta OT, but does anyone know more of that Runix thing on the PSX? It was supposed to be a Linux port and I do remember some talking about it on the PSXdev group, but it went silent afterwards.

Yeah suuure. I've seen fake linux for TI-83, does that count? I bet they don't even know how much memory a TI-83 Plus has, let alone what that number means.

		antime		Jan 30, 2004
			linux & saturn? They might have more success with LUnix... or Contiki... (a Saturn port of Contiki would be neat).

		ExCyber		Jan 30, 2004
			linux & saturn? Piratero: An MMU allows implementing virtual memory. When you hear that you might think of swapping to HD, but really that's only one application of virtual memory. Virtual memory means that you get to construct your own memory map and control unauthorized accesses to memory. It's hard to explain but basically suppose you have a really simple system that looks like this: 0000-7FFF: RAM 8000-BFFF: VRAM C000-FFFF: ROM With an MMU you could write an OS that makes it look like this to an application: 0000-0FFF: RAM 8000-88FF: VRAM C000-FFFF: ROM And then set it up so that any access outside these areas generates an interrupt from the MMU rather than completing the operation, transferring control back to the OS. This is what allows modern operating systems to catch runaway pointers etc. without them corrupting data or bringing down the system. What's more, you can then use this same memory map for multiple applications by changing the translation table when switching applications, like so: App 1 ------- 0000-0FFF -> 0000-0FFF App 2 ------- 0000-0FFF -> 1000-1FFF App 3 ------- 0000-0FFF -> 2000-2FFF and so on until you run out of RAM. To make a long story short, without an MMU you can forget about implementing any substantial security, protecting the OS from programs, and protecting programs from each other.

AntiPasta

Jan 31, 2004

linux & saturn?

	
	
		
		
			 Yeah suuure. I've seen fake linux for TI-83, does that count?

Well, of course they hadnt done anything yet - I spoke to them again yesterday and they had already forgotten about it

Their point was that there supposedly (I havent verified) are Linux ports in existence for the MSX, 8086 and 6502-based systems.

		antime		Jan 31, 2004
			linux & saturn? For 8086 machines there's ELKS..., apparently there was a Linux Z80 port hoax about four years ago. MSXers can try UZIX....

		antime		Feb 1, 2004
			linux & saturn? If you download the CVS tree from linuxsh.sourceforge.net... you'll see it contains some support for the Saturn, but it appears to be very preliminary (look in the directory linuxsh/linux/arch/sh/boards/saturn/). For anyone interested in such a port, this would probably be a good place to start.