Console Nintendo Switch turned into a Linux computer

By: Bohdan Chub | 19.02.2018, 14:19
Console Nintendo Switch turned into a Linux computer

Recently, a group of hackers fail0verflow published a photo of the Nintendo Switch game console with the installed Linux Debian distribution. Then the enthusiasts did not have time to "tighten" the graphic interface, and in the new video, the set-top box works like a regular PC with a KDE Plasma shell.

How did they do it?

Protection of Nintendo Switch was hacked back in January . The crooks discovered a vulnerability in the boot memory of the Tegra X1 chip, which can not be remedied by the usual software update. "Jailbreak" can be performed on all released systems (and on future if Nintendo does not agree with NVIDIA on the delivery of modified processors). On GitHub already appeared Homebrew Launcher to run third-party software on the firmware version 3.0.0, but so far there is no application in the list. However, this is a completely different story.

The hackers have not yet published the Linux installation manual. Judging by the video, the system works briskly and more or less stably, and multitouch gestures are also supported. An open Twitter site hints at the successfully raised Wi-Fi, and there were no problems with the launch of the OpenGL demo. The sound and Bluetooth, which depends on the support of Joy-Con controllers, are still in question.

Practical benefit from the project is no, but it does not interfere with watching the experiments with the new console Nintendo.

Source: SlashGear