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Linux for the Sega MegaDrive
https://hackaday.com/2026/06/29/its-linux-on-a-sega-megadrive/ https://hackaday.com/2026/06/29/its-linux-on-a-sega-megadriv...
- HardwareLust 3mo agoOriginal title: It’s Linux, On A Sega Megadrive
- msephton 3mo agoReally odd decision for it to be changed away from this original title. And if I'm being pedantic (and I am) it's Sega Mega Drive. Repo, which says Sega MegaDrive, is at: https://github.com/LinuxMD/linuxmd https://github.com/LinuxMD/linuxmd
- dormento 3mo ago(Disclaimer: I'm partial to "Mega Drive" myself.) Wikipedia has this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mega_Drive_vs_Genesis.gif https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mega_Drive_vs_Genesis.gif blue = Mega Drive, red = Genesis Linked here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Video_games/Archive_135#Mega_Drive_vs_Genesis_proposal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Vid... (didn't find the sales numbers, for those wondering. Sorry!)
- nommuenjoyer 3mo agoAnd it really is on a MegaDrive as I only tested this stuff on a Japanese MegaDrive.
- mghackerlady 3mo ago> nommuenjoyer Apt name
- dang 3mo agoIt's a cool project! but best to use the original title and original source - see https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. I've changed the title and URL to match https://github.com/LinuxMD/linuxmd https://github.com/LinuxMD/linuxmd and put the other URL in the toptext so people can look at it too.
- HardwareLust 3mo agoThanks Dan! Will do. I would have fixed it, but by the time I noticed the complaints, it was already too late.
- bitwize 3mo agoAbsolutely nuts and squirrels. Then again, I did know that the Mega Drive's CPU loadout (68000 and Z80) is the same as the first Unix machine I ever used (a TRS-80 Model 16), so running some form of Unix on it was therefore, theoretically, possible...
- aussieguy1234 3mo agoIt runs Doom, now it runs Linux
- SequoiaHope 3mo agoMy oscilloscope does both!
- nosioptar 3mo agoThere's a future front page post waiting for whoever uses one to host their blog. I believe modem attachments existed. Bonus points if they also developed the blog on a MegaDrive.
- HerbManic 3mo agoVery cool to see, so pointless it just had to be done. I was wondering how it was squeezed into 64KB of RAM but it uses the 4MB on the Everdrive cart. With that it makes sense, considering Linux can run on an N64 with 4MB of RAM.
- ChrisRR 3mo agoRAM is hardly the only difference between the N64 and megadrive. The N64 has an MMU for one thing
- mghackerlady 3mo agoin terms of running linux, yeah it kinda is. Both archs are supported by the kernel, and the kernel doesn't need an MMU if you compile it for a system without one
- dosisking 3mo agoNo, OP is correct, you are wrong. N64 hardware is much more powerful, and the MMU makes a big difference.
- mghackerlady 3mo agoI'm not denying it makes things easier. But if the question is a binary "Can it run linux?", the flowchart is pretty much "what kind of cpu does it have" and "how much ram can it use"
- walrus01 3mo agoIf this runs on a megadrive (Genesis), would this also boot on a Sega Nomad, the portable version of a genesis?
- mikepavone 3mo agoIt should. There are some small differences between the Nomad and a normal Gen/MD, but nothing that should impact something like this
- sp8 3mo agoI have such fond memories of my time back in the day owning a MegaDrive. It wasn't my first or last games console, but it was my formative one. It was a time in my life when I was into video games (Sonic 2 being the only game I ever played to completion). It pleases me to realise there's still a community around the MegaDrive and - as others has said - this is so crazy but wonderful to see!
- urbsgpw 3mo agoYa same here. Sonic and on the PC, Jazz Jackrabbit. I loved that hare.
- kraquepype 3mo agoThat's my experience as well - my family had a 2600, but the Genesis was our first modern (for the time) game console. I remember fondly all the trips to the video rental store and flea market hoping to find games we could afford.
- matheusmoreira 3mo agoGenesis does what Nintendon't. > The lowly 68000 in the Sega doesn’t have a memory management unit required for the full Linux experience, so what’s really running here is a kernel compiled with the -nommu option. Huh... I thought Linux actually required MMUs. I was under the impression it'd never run on these old consoles because of that. Learned something new today. > A QEMU fork that emulates enough of the MegaDrive and the EverDrive to play with this without the real hardware is included. That's seriously impressive.
- cjd8 3mo ago>Huh... I thought Linux actually required MMUs. I was under the impression it'd never run on these old consoles because of that. Learned something new today. There have been variants of the kernel around for some time that can run on microcontrollers without an MMU (mainly uCLinux).
- poizan42 3mo agom68knommu was merged into the mainline kernel in version 2.5.46: https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.5/ChangeLog-2.5.46 https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.5/ChangeLog-2.5.4... Of course the 2.5 line was the unstable pre-release for the 2.6 kernel. That means that stable mainline linux has had nommu since 2.6.0, which was released 17 December 2003. So yes, some time indeed.
- piltdownman 3mo agoThere was no MMU in the Macintosh Classic/SE lineup which used the 68k as a CPU, but they still support the microcontroller targeted distros like uClinux. Unfortunately the tight integration with the ToolBox ROM makes it a fairly Herculean task. Microsoft bizarrely enough released Xenix for the Apple LISA as well, but that's more of a historic oddity. Similarly, Basilisk II is a very worthy emulator for Mac 68k emulation so there's a lot to draw on for QEMU and the like.
- nommuenjoyer 3mo agoI plan to get this working on nommu mac at some point but I don't have one yet. I have a pile of 030/040 macs. Its not mentioned but this mc68000 kernel actually uses devicetree (like arm..) so its fairly portable. In my QEMU fork there is support for a 68000 virt machine so you can have a multi-ghz emulated 68000 with 128MB RAM (maybe more, haven't tested) if you really want that.
- jaza 3mo agoStill got my Mega Drive, purchased circa 1994. Recently brought it back to life with a Level Hike (I know, apparently RAD2x is better, anyway works well enough for me) HDMI adapter (otherwise sadly it doesn't work with new digital-only TVs), the main unit and all my old games (Sonic 1 and 2, Columns, Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle, Wonder Boy in Monster World, Shining Force (needed new battery in cartridge for save state), Sword of Vermilion) still functioning perfectly after all these years (just needed some vigorous dusting of bottom of cartridges). Got my kids on it, they love it: "dad, so cool, boots up instantly, no lag, no ads" (unlike the rubbish apps on their other devices!). Awesome to hear that Linux has arrived on Mega Drive. Just need it to boot up (how Sonic 1 boots up saying "seee-gaah") and to drone out "liii-nuux", hahaha.
- functionmouse 3mo agopeople go through so much trouble buying expensive converters, scalers, etc. to make their old games look good on their new tv when there's plenty of old CRTs at thrift stores for maybe like 50 bucks for an excellent one with all the fancy hookups like component and everything, I don't get it. I understand CRTs aren't gonna be around forever so we should in fact be working towards future proofing but, they are around now. You can even find small ones if transportation or space is an issue.
- cwnyth 3mo agoI still have two, a Trinitron and an RCE. For a while, you couldn't give these away. I sadly had to part with a 52" projector TV that had s-video inputs. Classics games on that was a thing to behold.
- gwbas1c 3mo agoHonestly, I think old games look best on modern TVs with an HDMI cable and no attempt to interlace / emulate the CRT.
- hbogert 3mo agoSome games really needed the crt softness and blending.
- runamuck 3mo agoIf this inspires anyone to bust out an MD/ Genesis emu, I recommend "Subterrainia." I found it too hard in my youth, but I see now it has a near perfect learning curve. The more you play, the better you get. The controls seem impossible at first, but then you SLOWLY get comfortable with it. (Kind of like learning how to Rollerblade at age 50).
- _nickwhite 3mo agoFor my American friends who may not know this: The Sega MegaDrive console from the late 80's early 90's is what we call the Sega Genesis. When I saw this post, I assumed it was some kind of optical drive or the later released Sega CD (which the rest of the world called Mega-CD). We had a lot of good times playing Street Fighter II and Sonic on this system back in the day.
- nosioptar 3mo agoI had to look it up. I misremembered and thought it might be what we call the Master System (SG-1000 Mk III).
- HardwareLust 3mo agoYeah I had originally titled this as "Linux on the Sega Genesis" because I thought more people would be familiar with the Genesis name as I was, but of course I was chastised for changing it and dang changed it back lol.
- tndata 3mo agoWhat a Wow, this brings back memories from my own Sega Mega Drive hacking days. About 35 years ago I built my own hardware development kit from scratch as a way to learn more about the hardware. I documented the project here if anyone is curious: https://nestenius.se/hardware/how-i-built-my-own-sega-mega-drive-hardware-dev-kit-from-scratch/ https://nestenius.se/hardware/how-i-built-my-own-sega-mega-d... It's really fun to see Linux running on the Mega Drive. I never would have expected that back then.
- HardwareLust 3mo agoThat's really cool!
- madog 3mo agoI was wondering what instruction set architecture the megadrive was using and came across this great article on the Motorolla 68000 and megadrive: https://www.copetti.org/writings/consoles/mega-drive-genesis/#cpu https://www.copetti.org/writings/consoles/mega-drive-genesis...
- pram 3mo agoWhy is the Genesis so slow? I've used Linux on other m68k "workstations" and it seemed ok.
- nommuenjoyer 3mo agoThe 68000 isn't very fast to start with and: To get the code to fit into memory the kernel is compiled with -Os and GCC makes some poor inlining choices (keeping a call to a function that writes a value to an address in a register instead of just writing to the register, ~5 instructions vs 1), the Mega Drive only has vblank for interrupts, and so on.