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A Geek’s Guide: How To Pimp Your Car With Linux

hehe2.net — Linux users are individualistic, one branch of this rugged individualism, so to speak, is running Linux in different environments. Just using Linux in your PC? Ok, that’s pretty good. But how about building a Linux system from scratch? Or on your phone? Even better, how about in your car?

Who dugg this? Made popular Nov 19, 2008

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  • weizbox, on 11/19/2008, -0/+24No... this is how you pimp your car with Linux :)
    https://www.timekiller.org/carpc/index.php
  • T8erT0T, on 11/19/2008, -0/+11/mount engine
  • inactive, on 11/19/2008, -0/+11Better yet, hook up a big wifi antenna to the hood and go wardrivin
  • Shootfast, on 11/19/2008, -0/+11NOTE: The following driver only supports reckless mode. Safe mode coming soon!
  • castleking, on 11/19/2008, -0/+10Wtf, how is this an article about me pimping my car with linux. He basically tells me to buy a new stereo that's supposedly next to impossible to find, then install it in my car. Hey guys I got a great guide for fixing your appendix: go to a hospital and pay them to remove it.
  • Macskeeball, on 11/19/2008, -0/+8DeLorean
  • diggtochina, on 11/19/2008, -0/+7mp3car.com if you want real info
  • mchacotay, on 11/19/2008, -0/+6disapointing. I was expecting EFI and the rest of the electric subsystems controlled by an embedded processor running linux. But this is just an mp3 player...
  • inactive, on 11/19/2008, -0/+6I believe there IS a map like that of NYC, but I don't recall where I saw it.

    EDIT - I correct myself; Wikipedia, Seattle.

    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/15 ...

    Warning: ***** huge image.
  • PixelEater, on 11/19/2008, -1/+6Typical Linux article, making it sound mystifying and like the stuff of advanced, freethinking individuals. Mere mortals need not apply.

    Building a CarPC is easy and fun if you've ever put a computer together. If you don't want to hack into your dash, you can use a flip out screen where in the radio's old DIN slot. Hook a CarPC up to any cheap 7 inch touch screen, run whatever OS you want. You can get a really sexy interface going and run Amarok, Beryl, GPS, tethered internet, wtf ever, have fun.

    If you enjoy the challenging side of Linux, people have programmed some digital gauges and other car specific applications to play with. Some cars can be performance tuned from your CarPC, if you're into that.
  • shotgunefx, on 11/19/2008, -0/+4That's actually coming, there was a recent article about one of the major manufacturers thinking about using linux for the onboard.

    Yes the article was weak, you want real info, check out the mp3car forums http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/

    I've been running linux in my car for almost 4yrs now, depending on your car, you may or may not be able to hack. I can interface with my car through an Openport cable, I can even flash it and change the roms and timings, thought i haven't done that yet.

    There's tuning software for my car http://openecu.org/ , while free, is only available for windows. I'm a little wary of flashing my car under Wine though. Though one of these days I'm gonna learn enough of the hitachi assembler to have some real fun.

    There's also libmut
    http://www.cs.unm.edu/~donour/cars/libmut/
    an implementation of the MUT III (Mitsubishi) protocol. It's written in C with a Python (SWIG) interface. I was working on making a Perl interface to it, but got side tracked, still buggy. I hope to get back to it shortly. (My profile pic is the digital dashboard for my car)

    There are various front ends for linux, such nGhost http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/linuxice/92157-ngh ...

    Navigation sucks, while there are a few options, like RoadNav, the problem is most don't have good map data, they use Tiger maps which don't have street directions. Though OpenStreetMaps is starting to get a good fill of data. I think there are more options for the UK though.

    Currently I'm using iGuidance 4 under Wine (3 is easier to get going), it works awesome except for TTS. Sometimes it randomly hangs mid-speech, an Alsadriver bug I believe that will hopefully be resolved soon.

    As for my self, I have my own front end that I've been working on way too long, called Auto-DAC, which is written in Perl using the SDL library, but possibly soon the Clutter library (hey, SVG graphics and webkit browser for free!). It also has a Sirius USB tuner interface. There isn't much video functionality at the moment, because I could care less about watching movies in my car.

    And while it is a touchscreen interface, I added support for the 3Dconnexion space navigator, it's freaking awesome. I barely touch the screen anymore. It's like an iDrive only 10 times better.

    An old video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gtqj2N8hc3Q

  • ThatGeek, on 11/19/2008, -0/+4someone should do organized wardrives, and make a map
    then give said map to me
  • inactive, on 11/19/2008, -0/+4Hah, that's incredible.
  • reddevild, on 11/19/2008, -0/+4WOW, that's really ***** cool
  • bemenaker, on 11/19/2008, -0/+3Isn't there a war driving site that has a cumulative user submitted war driving maps?
  • netneutrality, on 11/19/2008, -0/+3I just went and buried and reported all of your comments. Have a crappy day!
  • tripzero, on 11/19/2008, -0/+3http://openice.org - a site completely dedicated to Linux in the car. Don't know how the author of the article missed it...

    They've been creating a number of apps specifically designed for the car environment including a desktop environment and dock.
  • gravylookout, on 11/19/2008, -0/+3This is way better than the posted article. I wish I could stream MythTV to my car. It all looks relatively inexpensive too. Under 1.4k.
  • steviesteveo, on 11/19/2008, -0/+2When you use the word "big" to describe the aerial you use to go wardriving, what you really mean is "bitchin' huge"
  • mb309, on 12/31/2008, -0/+2Check this guys comment inside the post:

    http://hehe2.net/linuxhowto/a-geeks-guide-how-to-p ...

    Surely a follow-up article is needed..
  • jackyyll, on 11/19/2008, -1/+3Yeah... A stereo that runs linux. Wow. That's.... Intense?
  • revenz, on 11/19/2008, -0/+2i wouldn't really call that a guide.
  • ialan2, on 11/19/2008, -2/+3que "sup dwag" meme...
  • johnstar, on 11/26/2008, -0/+1hacked xbox 1 with xbmc way cheaper. Music, movies, + roms ,and games= freekin sweet. my homeboy put a 360 in his car and the thing is pretty much unusable.
  • Garofoli, on 11/19/2008, -1/+2My typing is off tonight. **pimp
  • peteinakl, on 11/19/2008, -0/+1I'm with Kevincy Q
  • smmakira, on 11/20/2008, -0/+1This should of been titled "Empeg players are fuggin sweet! and I have the last one muahahahaha". I think he just wanted to pimp out that picture he had of the linux penguin driving a car.
  • bhuntsbarger, on 11/19/2008, -0/+1I pimped my 85 civic back in 01 with a hacked iOpener pc from CompUSA. It could Wardrive and play MP3's
  • inactive, on 11/19/2008, -1/+2sup dawg. i heard you like to compile the kernel. So we put the source code within the source code so you could compile when you compile.
  • DaGeek, on 11/20/2008, -0/+1nonono

    mount -t carfs /dev/engine /engine
  • ethana2, on 11/19/2008, -0/+1This isn't a smart car article? No tweaking hybrids and electric vehicles? No iRobot style interfaces? WHAT.
  • mb309, on 12/31/2008, -0/+1I for one would love to read it.
  • shotgunefx, on 11/19/2008, -2/+2Me, it can be a PITA, but it's been my never ending side project for the last 4yrs
  • inactive, on 11/19/2008, -1/+1Brian, you ain't no pimp, dude.
  • ace214, on 11/19/2008, -2/+2I thought this said "Pimp your cat with Linux" and got excited about Cyborg-cats running Ubuntu... Damn.
  • PixelEater, on 11/19/2008, -2/+2*****.
  • Garofoli, on 11/19/2008, -3/+3What can't Linux pump?
  • steviesteveo, on 11/19/2008, -1/+1I CAN HAZ WHAT WHERE? NAI, DO NOT WANT!
  • hotspoons, on 11/19/2008, -0/+0That would be me. I was planning on writing up my adventures when I get some free time, complete with pictures, videos, configuration files, and source code.
  • thesteef000, on 11/19/2008, -2/+1Wow that looks incredibly ugly. A typical linux app i'd say... Do you have to recompile the kernel each time you change the channel?
  • Ajzimm3rman, on 11/19/2008, -1/+0How about in my head.
  • inactive, on 11/19/2008, -2/+1Wow that was a real ***** article, I just logged in so I could bury it.

    As someone who has actually rolled his own vPC (and modded xbox in car) I'll tell you this guy is a true adword fetching assclown.
  • premiumtours, on 11/19/2008, -3/+1Who wants to pimp his car with Linux?... Most programmer and office worker would rather destroy a car pimped with Linux...
  • breatheon, on 11/19/2008, -4/+1hey man awesome article. the new technology really is cool. kind of relates to hooking up your style! with clothes or jewelry!
  • rjhomuth, on 11/19/2008, -5/+2Why not get an old Dolorian? Those run Linux.
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