We’re used to working Linux on CPUs the place it belongs, and the consensus is that RP2040 simply isn’t up for the duty – no reminiscence controller, and nowhere close to sufficient RAM, as well. At the very least, that’s what you would possibly imagine till you see [tvlad1234]’s Linux-on-RP2040 challenge, reminding us there’s a couple of technique to boot Linux on a CPU like this! Identical to with the “Linux on AVR” challenge in 2012 that emulated an ARM processor, the pico-rv32ima challenge emulates a RISC-V core – maintaining with the occasions.

Initially, the aforementioned “Linux on AVR by means of ARM” challenge was picked as a base – then, a more moderen improvement, [cnlohr]’s RISC-V emulator, offered itself and was too good to go up on. Lack of RAM was totally negated by including an SD card into the equation – coupled with a small caching layer, this can be a essential half for the challenge’s not-so-secret sauce. A good quantity of debugging and optimization later, [tvlad1234] received Linux to run, reaching boot occasions in 10-Quarter-hour’ ballpark – contemplating the emulation layer’s presence, that is no imply feat.

At this level, the boot course of stalls as you enter a login shell. If Linux on RP2040 is inside your space of curiosity, be happy to select up the hassle from right here, because the challenge is totally open-source – you solely want a Pi Pico board and a throwaway SD card! Now, if pairing a RP2040 with some traditional software program is your definition of a night well-spent, you possibly can’t go fallacious with DOOM! Nonetheless, for those who’d reasonably play with one thing else *nix-like, we’ve seen somebody port Fuzix onto the RP2040 earlier than.