“The very fact it is attainable in any respect is a credit score to the ingenuity of the open-source neighborhood,” writes the weblog OMG Ubuntu:
Switchroot is an open-source venture that permits Android and Linux-based distros like Ubuntu to run on the Nintendo Swap — completely not one thing Nintendo approves of a lot much less helps, endorses, or encourages, and many others! I lined the loophole that made this attainable again in 2018. Again then the NVIDIA Tegra X1-powered Nintendo Swap was nonetheless new and Linux assist for a lot of the console’s inside {hardware} in a formative state (a well mannered option to say ‘not all the pieces labored’). However as the recognition of Nintendo’s handheld console ballooned (to understate it) so the ‘different OS’ Swap scene grew, and earlier than lengthy Linux assist for Swap {hardware} was in full bloom…
Quite a lot of Linux for Switchroot (L4S) distributions have since been launched, designated as Linux for Tegra (L4T) builds. As these can boot from a microSD card it is even attainable to dualboot the Swap OS with Linux, which is neat! Lately, a recent set of L4T Ubuntu photographs have been launched based mostly on the most recent Ubuntu 24.04 LTS launch. These builds work on all Swap variations, from the OG (exploit-friendly) unit by means of to newer, patched fashions (the place a modchip is required)…
I am instructed the entire Nintendo Swap inside {hardware} now works beneath Linux, together with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, sleep mode, accelerated graphics, the official dock… All the pieces, principally. And regardless of being a 7 yr previous ARM system the efficiency is alleged to stay respectable.
“Upstream snafus have delayed the discharge of builds with GNOME Shell…”