Unmerged DreamCast Drivers

Unmerged DreamCast Drivers

[The Mariocrafter]

Hello, the LinuxDC project got abandoned long ago (and got merged with
the main kernel), with a few drivers that were never merged.

The VMUFAT filesystem, to get the DreamCast VMU filesystem working:
https://www.uwsg.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0904.1/02520.html
, a reply with a critique shows at
https://www.uwsg.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0904.1/02545.html
saying that making it not a dependency for the VMU would be
problematic for promoting it's use as a general purpose filesystem,
but being useful for emulator developers. VMUFAT support would be nice
for having Linux on the Dreamcast be able to manage saves, especially
if a homescreen replacement is developed. I think it's better to keep
it Dreamcast-dependant for now, due to security concerns, and due to
having little use outside the Dreamcast, as emulator users can use a
userspace FUSE driver.

Other than that, two full drivers for the VMU's display and the SEGA
LAN Adapter (HIT-0300) have been created, but were not merged nor
pulled, located on the open directory site
https://linuxdc.sourceforge.net/berger/ .

I don't expect the LinuxDC project to return officially, maybe an
unofficial revival, but it's better to get these drivers reviewed and
submitted, and not have it unmerged indefinitely.

Re: Unmerged DreamCast Drivers

[John Paul Adrian Glaubitz]

Hello,

On Sat, 2024-04-20 at 15:01 -0700, The Mariocrafter wrote:
> Hello, the LinuxDC project got abandoned long ago (and got merged with
> the main kernel), with a few drivers that were never merged.
> 
> The VMUFAT filesystem, to get the DreamCast VMU filesystem working:
> https://www.uwsg.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0904.1/02520.html
> , a reply with a critique shows at
> https://www.uwsg.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0904.1/02545.html
> saying that making it not a dependency for the VMU would be
> problematic for promoting it's use as a general purpose filesystem,
> but being useful for emulator developers. VMUFAT support would be nice
> for having Linux on the Dreamcast be able to manage saves, especially
> if a homescreen replacement is developed. I think it's better to keep
> it Dreamcast-dependant for now, due to security concerns, and due to
> having little use outside the Dreamcast, as emulator users can use a
> userspace FUSE driver.
> 
> Other than that, two full drivers for the VMU's display and the SEGA
> LAN Adapter (HIT-0300) have been created, but were not merged nor
> pulled, located on the open directory site
> https://linuxdc.sourceforge.net/berger/ .
> 
> I don't expect the LinuxDC project to return officially, maybe an
> unofficial revival, but it's better to get these drivers reviewed and
> submitted, and not have it unmerged indefinitely.

Well, someone needs to rebase these patches and submit them to the linux-sh
kernel mailing list, preferably the original authors.

Then the patches can be reviewed, improved and merged.

Adrian

-- 
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