Linux and Windows on the PSP
by Ryan Block 
{ Aug 13th 2005 at 1:30PM }
Yes, it looks like one man was able to do what many could not (well, kind of): get Linux (and Windows) on the PSP. Ok, so it's not exactly what the crew at the PSPLinux project were aiming for since it's x86 emulated, but a PSP hacker by the name of Matan phoned in to let us know he ported Bochs (an open-source x86 emulator) to the PSP (which runs on MIPS R4000 CPUs) and successfully tested, booted, and ran Linux and Win95. This isn't really going to halt the PSPLinux project since they're shooting for native (not emulated) support though, so keep on truckin' everybody, we're almost to the promised land.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
H_to_tha_OV @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
sweet, always dreamed of playing solitaire and minesweeper on the PSP
Shredder958 @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
Does it interface with the PSP's 802.11B?
gadgetman @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
i wanna know how to do this
rodents @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
i can't imagine how laggy that would get
Lesbian Ham @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
"Does it interface with the PSP's 802.11B?"
Does Win95 have Wi-Fi Support?
haha @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
BSOD anyone?
Joe @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
-"Does it interface with the PSP's 802.11B?"
-"Does Win95 have Wi-Fi Support?"
-Does the PSP have Win95 support?
pete @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
er... um...
Can you play Doom on it?
www.itplaysdoom.com
:P
Dan @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
Pretty sure it would not interact w/ the wifi, being that you almost always have to have windows 98SE when running anything wireless.
Dan @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
Pretty sure it would not interact w/ the wifi, being that you almost always have to have windows 98SE when running anything wireless.
Dan @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
Pretty sure it would not interact w/ the wifi, being that you almost always have to have windows 98SE when running anything wireless.
dying.olive @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
the mouse function for win95 sucks and it takes like 15 min to boot but im looking forward to playing dos games on here!
Cullen @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
the question is...does it interact with the wipeout browser?
Question Answerer @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
Win 95 does have 802.11b support, however, I doubt that the PSP running bochs does.
swarmster @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
Old!
http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000847042958/
boynamedsue @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
8. I've been playing doom on my psp for weeks.
I hope everyone enjoys your 2.0 firmware. Sony is doing you a great service by offering you a partially operating browser in exchange for crippling a myriad of other functionality.
Jay @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
This guy must really hate his PSP is he went through all the trouble of installing Microshit Wincrap on it.
Andy @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
Oh man. Windows 95... shivers.
locknroll @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
O
M
F
G
These guys never cease to amaze me. If this works as good as it looks, I might just buy a PSP. Hackers rule.
rodents @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
programmers rule, it's not really hacking if you're programming..
Duo @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
Its about time. There has been a port of Linux running on the Nintendo DS for quite a while now. And it doesn't require the system's NDA-covered SDK. Kudos to the DS coders who are actually figuring out the hardware on their own.
Rex StJames @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
This is awesome, but windows 95? What was he thinking with that? I had a windows 95 computer. It sucked. From the day it was born.
This is pretty freekin' sweet. I wonder - is there a way to DOWNGRADE a PSP running firmware 2.0 to a pervious version? If someone buys a PSP with 2.0 - or accidentally installes 2.0 - is it possible to revert to an eariler version so you can run these hacks? I don't have a PSP, I'm just curious.
boynamedsue @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
nope. once you upgrade you're screwed. all attempts to downgrade the firmware have been unsucessful.
indolene @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
boynamedsue,
It's probably because Win95 would work on the device. Remember, the processor and ram and all that isn't completely comparable to today's desktops. Win95 worked on 486's with 16 meg of ram. Granted, quite crappily compared to XP, but it ran.
nameless @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
how do u know if your buying one with the 2.0? and whats wrong with it?
indolene @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
whoops, my comment above was for Rex.
jazzay @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
well at the moment you cant accidently install 2.0 since you have to download it from a japanese site and trasnfer to the memory stick and such
i have a Jp PSP 2.0 with WinPSP, a portal made to look like windowsXP, and i love it, it has links, a Txt reader, scientific calc, stop watch, a bunch of links to commonly accessed sites, as well as a plethora of games, such as minesweeper, checkers, hangman, lots of em
love it
bite me 1.5 users, have fun with your ol nintendo games :)
jazzay @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
o on another note, i find it funny a bunch of people buy the Sony PSP so they can play NINTENDO GAMES, haha, just thought that was funny
sorry, just jealous, i never got emultors to work on mine, but im very satisfied with 2.0
Randy Klosak @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
Very Cool Stuff. Thanks for the infil, Engadget.
Bootes @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
You can not currently downgrade. However Team Xecuter has stated that they have successfully downgraded with some hardware that they were working on.
stingraze @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
Oh boy... Now this is a reason to get PSP
Carl @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
nameless (#23), google it how to tell, you can tell what firmware version a psp has by its serial number on the box, , , A for 1.5, B for 1.51, C for 1.52, and I assume C for 2.00 WHEN IT COMES! It hasnt even been released or manufactured with 2.0, but it will soon be on store shelves with 2.0.
Again, google it and look at them images..
*I've heard some say this trick does not work anymore... but I would try anyway, its your best bet.. and also I doubt many 1.50s are left, if any.
Daniel @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
That is the awesomest thing I've seen this week! If he could get WinXP, MAN! that would rock! I've been debating whether or not I want a PSP, but if it can run a usable OSlike Win98se + then I would seriously consider it.
I use my iBook at school to take notes, but a PSP, with the keyboard accesory would be even nicer for me. Small, versatile, and still with Wi-fi. Heck yeah!
lpj8 @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
I guess I'm not that excited about this, why would I want to run Windows 95 on a 233 processor?......
I'd rather see a headline for an awesome original GAME thats good, or possibly a nice chat program.
Timm @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
I'd be happy if this thing was running OS X, then, maybe I'd like it and ACTUALLY want to buy one...
boynamedsue @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
Timm, you would actually want to be in the market for a LAPTOP in that case, and not a HANDHELD GAME SYSTEM.
as someone pointed out. a 333mhz processor thats usually clocked down from that isn't going to be running any desktop OS's in a convenient way anytime soon. in 2020 when the PSP 3 comes out then you can marvel at the homebrew guys that have that old school OSX running on it, and then buy one.
Rex StJames @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
Daniel, I would suggest getting a Pocket PC if you want to do that. A Dell Axim is currently a good deal for one with built-in Wifi, and keyboards are available for them. Even wireless (bluetooth and IR) keyboards.
DJB @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
Well the processor's underclocked, it's really a 333 mhz, and before you sneer that's perfectly servicable on Linux, unlike Windoze.
I'd love to get Linux on it. MMMM. But right now I'll settle for my firmware 1.5 and all my favourite old Genesis and SNES games. Yum.
OddManOut @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
"...Team Xecuter has stated that they have successfully downgraded with some hardware that they were working on."
Perhaps using hardware to flash the ROM -BLANK- and then apply 1.5 ? Is that even possible ? Just a thought. Even if you could do it that way you'd heavily risk turning your PSP into a 'brick'...
Not a bad hack. Not bad at all. I think 'Matan' deserves some accolades. It will be interesting to see Windows or Linux running with all the ticks to itself though...no emulation.
Kepp'em commin' hackers...
Source code @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
wow! My god, It can this.
Conglacio @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
>Pretty sure it would not interact w/ the wifi,
>being that you almost always have to have windows
>98SE when running anything wireless.
not really, I seem to remember that Bochs can be setup to read in ports, hardware and other stuff from the host, and shove it into the guest OS as if it is a peice of hardware for it...
inotherwords, just get the PSP to feed the wireless to bochs, and get bochs to feed it through and claim it is an ethernet connection.
Sonic the Hedgehog @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
Tomorrow Ken Kutagari will anounce that PSP firmware version 2.5 will run Apple OSX 10.4 'Tiger.'
fabulously @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
#14.
the previous thread is just a PSP billboard under the control of a win2k
i.p.freely @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
I hope you all realize that is is utter useless waste of time, right?
It's cool that you can do this, but what can you do with it?
funkonaut @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
Why are you goobers so excited about this? It's a game machine. It's supposed to have awesome, PS2-quality games to play on the go. Yet you're all like "Holy sh*t! I'll buy a PSP for that!" when you see a 10 year old crappy operating system running on it...
No offense, but you Windows fans are pretty lame.
Zak Petrowski @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
He installed Windows on it?
So...did it crash? :D
Ian Nott @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
the funny part about you guys talking about osx and all...with this x86 emulation, and if the psps proc supports sse2, you could therorticaly get osx x86 tiger running on it. but with a giant ms, amount other huge obsticles.
JPRacer @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
rodents, hackers rule.
Definition of hacker is "a person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities".
So when locknroll said "hackers rule" he was right. Programmers are just programmers, some of them are hackers but the majority are not. Programmers don't rule...
b @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
hackers don't rule. Thanks to hackers (or crackers), there is piracy. And even if there are good hackers, that do things like these, they don't rule. They did nothing but edit code. Programmers do the code. You said, most programmers aren't hackers. And most videogame designers are programmers on one or another way. I say game designers/programmers rule, and since most of them aren't hackers (read: code editors), hacker's don't rule.
The Smart One @ Dec 18th 2005 9:11PM
hackers schackers... who cares? this is cool