Use the Pyra as a DreamPi

[AnimatedFreak]

Would it be possible to port the DreamPi software to the Pyra to use it to get online on the Dreamcast again? And if so how hard would that be?
I was thinking that the Pyra because it has USB and Wifi it could in theory be used the same way.

For those who don’t know about DreamPi it is a software written for the Raspberry Pi that with the use of an old USB modem allows users to connect their Dreamcast online, whiteout having to buy the expensive and rare broadband adapter for their systems. And that in terms allowing them to play some games online (there are still servers running for the Dreamcast to this day in case you did not know )

Here is a video on how to make a DreamPi and how to use it

And here is one on how to configure it with Wifi

(Maybe this could also be possible with the Pandora too idk)

 

[edgex004]

Do the servers support playing through Reicast? That'd be sweet too.

EDIT: Wait, I'm not sure Reicast even supports netplay. Sorry. Nevermind.

 

[levi]

Interesting. This should work with homebrew designed to rip games, and if it ran on Pandora/pyra maybe it could also store the games locally rather than connecting over wifi. Because using a broadband adaptor is apparently a better way to rip your games than using the serial port hack. Although a max speed of 56kbits is going to be slow even compared to the LAN adaptor's 10Mbps, at least a ppp connection is likely to be more robust (I think it'll take about 40 hours to rip a full GDROM though, erk!)

Although porting this is probably overkill. I guess for that you just need something that will expose a samba share to the USB host port, and something that will tell the modem to squark appropriately when the DC picks up the line. Although researching this I'm currently lost in a maze of /etc/inittab settings and pppd options. Sadly I can't find any source from DreamPi so I can peek at how it does it.

 

[AnimatedFreak]

Interesting. This should work with homebrew designed to rip games, and if it ran on Pandora/pyra maybe it could also store the games locally rather than connecting over wifi. Because using a broadband adaptor is apparently a better way to rip your games than using the serial port hack. Although a max speed of 56kbits is going to be slow even compared to the LAN adaptor's 10Mbps, at least a ppp connection is likely to be more robust (I think it'll take about 40 hours to rip a full GDROM though, erk!)

Although porting this is probably overkill. I guess for that you just need something that will expose a samba share to the USB host port, and something that will tell the modem to squark appropriately when the DC picks up the line. Although researching this I'm currently lost in a maze of /etc/inittab settings and pppd options. Sadly I can't find any source from DreamPi so I can peek at how it does it.

Okey thanks
As to the way it works I have no clue however it may be similar to the "old" fix for getting online on the Dreamcast called the PC-DC server http://dreamcast.onlineconsoles.com/phpBB2/guides_pcdcwin98.php
It could basically be a short of pre-setup that works with the Pi, I know there where ways to do the PC-DC setup with Linux too.

 

[frefol]

Here is his github page. https://github.com/Kazade/dreampi

 

[levi]

Thanks, it looks like that talks hayes codes natively, and only handles DNS lookups and HTTP connections - presumably that's all Dreamcast games actually use. Presumably homebrew accessing a network share would want the Pi acting as a full bridge, and not an application proxy.

Hmm, I'm reaching the limit of what I currently understand about networking, so I think it's safe to say I'll never actually code any of this up.