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New Linux port for the Nintendo 64

lore.kernel.org

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Re: New Linux port for the Nintendo 64

#111
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We'll probably see that happen in professional malware first.

TBH, if I recall correctly, something similar happened already in the past just by pure coincidence. I'm pretty sure somebody somewhere already experiments with self-porting AI malware.

The only instance somewhat like this that I am aware of is that two malware samples sort of 'recombined' accidentally.

One was a worm that packaged itself up and sent itself around, the other did some sort of injection or binary patching and happened to piggyback onto the worm.

Re: New Linux port for the Nintendo 64

#112

To be clear, this is a tech demo; we're long past the point where running anything useful on a system with graphics and 4MB (8MB with expansion) of RAM under Linux is reasonable. You can barely get the kernel itself that small. There's a reason why even cheapo consumer routers have at least 64MB of RAM. So it's for fun; you won't be able to run any existing "normal" Linux emulators and you'd be better off porting stu…

A microkernel would be a good fit for such constrainted environments.

Re: New Linux port for the Nintendo 64

#113
post #5

> "But why", I hear from the back. Having Linux available makes it easier to port emulators and fb or console games. > Most importantly, because I can. Good. All I can say is at least it is something different to what I keep seeing on HN. (React, Rust, Kubernetes, JAMstack, JavaScript, etc.) Probably present this somewhere in a conference (CCC, FOSDEM, etc). Who knows who could be looking at this.

> Most importantly, because I can. Are the Linux tests deterministic, and the tests for this change will not run unless something directly affects it? If not, then I’m not a huge fan of these commits, which seem more about vanity.

Did you even read the post? The author said:

RFC because I'm not sure if it's useful to have this merged.

Re: New Linux port for the Nintendo 64

#115

To be clear, this is a tech demo; we're long past the point where running anything useful on a system with graphics and 4MB (8MB with expansion) of RAM under Linux is reasonable. You can barely get the kernel itself that small. There's a reason why even cheapo consumer routers have at least 64MB of RAM. So it's for fun; you won't be able to run any existing "normal" Linux emulators and you'd be better off porting stu…

A microkernel would be a good fit for such constrainted environments.

OS design methodology doesn't really have anything to do with its suitability for constrained environments. There are plenty of small monolithic and microkernel designs around.

Re: New Linux port for the Nintendo 64

#116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...I wonder how difficult it would be for whatever desktop environments GP was using in 1993 to be used today, on a super-resource-constrained system like an N64. The Linux adage is "don't break userspace", right?

It was very barebones. FVWM was the window manager I used, running on SLS Linux with a 0.99.xx kernel.

I used fvwm as my main environment back then. It was really good. You can still see its influence in Raspbian and other desktops like that.

I actually had a gig with SLS Soft Landing back in the day. It wasn't unrelated to the stuff I was doing with uucp at the time. That was important then, but totally not at all today, lol.

I am assuming you are making a bit of a jest, because things have moved along in the past many decades.

Re: New Linux port for the Nintendo 64

#117
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...I wonder how difficult it would be for whatever desktop environments GP was using in 1993 to be used today, on a super-resource-constrained system like an N64. The Linux adage is "don't break userspace", right?

You can already do that by choosing desktop environments that aren't trying to be all things for all people. More bling is literally more resources. A lot of it is merely feature creep. Remember when OSX used to have animations (like applications minimizing like a genie getting sucked back into its kettle) as a feature you could turn on if you wanted it? Now it's pretty much default, and most people don't know you ca…

I got voted down by someone who obviously never compiled their own kernel (which used to be the norm). After lots of questions about how you need to config, you get your kernel... THAT is Linux -- the kernel.

The rest, the part you are complaining about bloating is the GNU part. I'm not complaining about that GNU part, btw. I've lived in it since the early 90's. But the Linux kernel can be as slim and responsive as you want it to be if you are willing to compile yourself. You can even compile it as an RTOS, and you can never convince me that would be too sluggish.

What I got voted down for was pointing out that Linux-proper wasn't the slow part of that blend. It was the desktop. And that part is GNU, not Linux. Period.

Re: New Linux port for the Nintendo 64

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TBH, if I recall correctly, something similar happened already in the past just by pure coincidence. I'm pretty sure somebody somewhere already experiments with self-porting AI malware.

The only instance somewhat like this that I am aware of is that two malware samples sort of 'recombined' accidentally. One was a worm that packaged itself up and sent itself around, the other did some sort of injection or binary patching and happened to piggyback onto the worm.

So basically one virus infected another virus in such a way that they became symbiotic? Cool.

Re: New Linux port for the Nintendo 64

#119
post #9

This, plus the recently announced PlayStation 5 gamepad driver support for Linux. Dreaming is free.

Deja-vu I suppose https://www.theverge.com/2016/6/22/12008286/sony-ps3-linux-o...

If you're building a hardware and have to ship it with an OS, Linux is the obvious choice for most... but the GPL licensing makes it very difficult for a lot others.

There's a reason a lot of open source in recent years have avoided GPL as a plague and opted for BSD or MIT or Apache licenses.

Re: New Linux port for the Nintendo 64

#120
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“AI” malware? Is this like calling any internet enabled thing “smart”? Any cool features are AI or is this something else?

Also, if it can happen by accident then I don't really think it should be called "porting". You don't find that a linux-centric malware has "accidentally" "ported" itself to windows, likewise Intel bytecode doesn't suddenly execute on ARM chips. The difference between "porting" and "modifying" has (at least in everything I've read in "hacker" culture) always been that porting is rarely a trivial act.

I suppose in theory malware that targets dev tools and source to infect compiled code could end up getting ported along with it’s target. More hitching a ride than porting itself though.
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