this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2023
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Something like a thermostat or a smart fridge -- have you seen any? If so, please share with a video or two.

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[–] breakingcups@lemmy.world 88 points 1 year ago (2 children)

On a hard drive. No, not a motherboard connected to a hard drive, a hard drive by itself. Sprite is brilliant.

[–] pacjo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sorry to hijack, but does someone have a link to the talk? Article mentions it, but link no longer works.

[–] christophski@feddit.uk 14 points 1 year ago

Haven't watched it but could be this: https://piped.video/watch?v=0Da6OARhgXk

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[–] TimeWalker@lemmy.foxden.party 60 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Linux can be run on an Nintendo 64. Mainline Kernel support has been added in v5.12

I tried it a few years ago and it kernel panics due to lack of RAM with the expansion card.

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[–] GuyNoIRQ@infosec.pub 46 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

We had a fancy coffee machine at an old job that ran Linux. If I remember correctly it was a top of line cafection or zulay machine. One of the ones with a touch screen. Just booted off an SD card as well iirc so probably would have been pretty easy to hack on.

I still find it weird that managed switches run Linux as I generally would think that at those data rates they'd need something closer to the metal but with the magic of HW offloading that's been a thing in enterprise for a while and OpenWRT even supports some consumer grade ones now.

Some (probably most) ebook readers like the Kindle.

Many newer cars.

TI NSpire calculators.

A slow cooker. https://www.linux.com/news/crock-pot-slow-cooker-wi-fi-smarts-hands/

A cable modem. Specifically the Motorola SB6120 can. Maybe others too.

WiFi enabled SD cards. https://elinux.org/Wifi_SD

A dead badger. http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/articles/installing-linux-on-a-dead-badger-users-notes/

[–] Thade780@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

A dead badger.

🤣

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[–] zabi94@lemmy.ml 46 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Idk, needs more e-waste :(

[–] pastermil@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] Otherwise_Direction7@lemmy.world 45 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There is actually a way to run Debian on Lego Mindstorms Kit using ev3dev

Tho I never owned one of these kit, it still pretty cool looking

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[–] sorrybookbroke@sh.itjust.works 36 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The leapfrog leappad used to run linux. People were able to hack them in order to run full on operating systems, by rooting their children's learning toy

[–] yukichigai@kbin.social 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

You still can. Not only that, you can install emulators and Retroarch, the thing is capable of running consoles up through PS1 games, though the button mapping for most games is a bit awkward.

Also !sbcgaming if you're into that sort of thing.

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[–] gnuhaut@lemmy.ml 34 points 1 year ago

Read an article some years back about someone installing Linux on a hard drive.

Not on a computer with a hard drive. On the embedded ARM core inside the hard drive. One of them anyways, I think this particular hard drive had three CPUs inside it actually.

[–] yukichigai@kbin.social 25 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The Sega Dreamcast. Live CD distributions of Linux were really taking off around then, so some enterprising sorts decided to see if they could get Linux running on the Dreamcast. They partially succeeded, though accessing some of the hardware was... dicey. That said, the Dreamcast had a native keyboard adapter and they managed to get support for that going pretty quickly.

Unfortunately the project kind of stagnated, but you can read up on more of it on the sourceforge project page.

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[–] GreenMario@lemm.ee 21 points 1 year ago

The scale at my job that prints labels for price per pound stuff when it boots shows Linux boot stuff.

Once installed Linux on my iPod 5G. Honestly wasn't worth it cuz it cut battery time in half and only added a couple extra codecs it could play. Doom was strange on the scroll wheel.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 21 points 1 year ago

Not crazy or exotic, but the Wii runs linux with a DE. Not very performant, but a neat thing to install and tryout.

[–] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nothing too crazy, bus information table running Linux Mint:

Some of them (run) Windows. You can identify those based on:

error

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|                               Unhandled exception               |    X   |          |
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|                                                                                     |
|  An unhandled exception occured in TFT_LCD.exe                                      |
|                                                                                     |
|  Exception = System.AccessViolationException                                        |
|                                                                                     |
|  Messagr = Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often               |
|  an indication that other memory is corrupt.                                        |
|                                                                                     |
|  FullText = System.AccessViolationException: Attempted to read or write             |
|  protected memory.  This is often an indication that other memeory is               |
|  corrupt.                                                                           |
|  at                                                                                 |
|  ...                                                                                |

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[–] Rogueren@discuss.tchncs.de 19 points 1 year ago

A PS4 can be jailbroken to run Linux. You can then install Steam and Halo and have Halo on Linux on PS4

[–] wim@lemmy.sdf.org 19 points 1 year ago

A hard disk. Not boot from a hard disk, but the hard disk controller is actually made to run Linux: http://spritesmods.com/?art=hddhack&page=1

[–] vortexal@sopuli.xyz 19 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I once saw someone running Doom on a pregnancy tester, so I'd imagine that it could run Linux as well.

[–] flubba86@lemmy.world 28 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

I saw that too, but it was a bit a bit misleading. The pregnancy tester for some reason had a pretty high resolution monochrome OLED display, so the guy used the tester's display to show the Doom graphics. The actual device running Doom was a more powerful controller external to the tester stick.

[–] IsoKiero@sopuli.xyz 15 points 1 year ago

It wasn't even original display. Original display wasn't "pixel based", it just had couple of segments on a LCD which display pregnant/non pregnant texts and some other info. So it was (is) just a doom on a microcontroller+OLED in a pregnancy test case.

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[–] Rand0mA@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I had an old iPod nano that was hacked with a light Linux distro. Could even run doom on it... It ran, but wasn't practical to play it.

[–] marquisalex@feddit.uk 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Rockbox, by any chance? I have fond memories of playing doom with that scroll wheel...

[–] Rand0mA@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Pretty sure it was just called iPod Linux.

Just looked.. looks like rockbox is the successor. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPodLinux

[–] lanigerous@feddit.uk 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

We have a carbon evaporator that runs linux

[–] digger@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 year ago

I assembled a HeaterMeter for my Kamado style charcoal grill/smoker... It's built on top of OpenWRT.

[–] lnxtx@feddit.nl 12 points 1 year ago

8-bit micro, for example ATmega: video.

[–] LainOfTheWired@lemy.lol 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Didn't they get at least the kernel running on a Nintendo 64

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[–] Drito@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 year ago

The PS3 is not crazy, but has an exotic hardware that optionnally runs Linux.

[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Syringe drivers exist that are on-line devices. I half expect the first IoT murder to be by someone hacking a syringe driver filled with something vital (say insulin) that's plugged into the victim's IV.

I don't know if such devices are capable of being jailbroken and installed with Linux, but why not?

[–] scubbo@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago

Good work, 47. Now get to an exit.

[–] Aceticon@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

At the level of microcontrollers there is an entire range with the necessary radio HW and enough computing power and memory to have WiFi and a TCP stack but not enough to fit Linux (stuff like the esp8266, which has only 80KB user data memory).

Those things essentially run just the one application on top of some manufacturer provider libraries (no OS, though if you really want to there's an RT OS) and which can be something that gets commands via the network and activates some hardware via GPIO ports.

For example, smart LED lamps that can be controlled from a smartphone are made with this kind of HW.

Mind you, recently somebody managed to get Linux to run of a top range model of the most recent of these things (an ESP32-S3).

So I wouldn't presume that a syringe driver can be made to run Linux, given that it's functionality is simple enough to be implemented by a simple program that can fit in that kind of microcontroller.

[–] solidgrue@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Does a MicroVAX count?

It was the late 90s. We booted it on whatever we could.

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Not as impressive but I got a oneplus one that:

  1. Runs lineageOS 20, thanks to UL and someone on xda
  2. Runs kernel 6.3 with postmarketOS, thanks to a whole bunch of people working on the kernel
[–] blindbunny@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago

Didn't someone get a cuecat working? It's been a while since I've seen it.

[–] gamey@feddit.rocks 4 points 1 year ago

I haven't done it myself but I own a Pinephone (Linux phone) and that completely isolates the modem to prevent closed source code on the main OS and apparently that runns Linux, not sure if it counts because it's technically Linux already but someone hosted his blog on that and wrote about it!

[–] ViciousTurducken@lemmy.one 4 points 1 year ago

Back in the day some iPhones could run janky forms of Android/Linux. I don't think it ever got to daily driver status but it was surprisingly feature complete.

[–] kuneho@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

It's not entirelly Linux, but there's a port of FUZIX for the Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller

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