Google CR-48 Running Tremulous

[FOXHOUNDz]

For those who don't know, CR-48 is the netbook sent out free of charge by Google to test out the Chrome OS and how it handles the hardware. But I got a little impatient and went ahead and flashed the BIOS.  
I flashed the CR-48 Mario-FISH BIOS and installed the generic Insyde BIOS. I didn't need to install Ubuntu first as flashrom and wget were already part of the Chrome shell.

Tremulous is running on Windows 7 Professional Edition, although I would guess it would run just as good on Linux. FPS is averaging around 40. I still have issues with the touch pad so I couldn't actually play very well, but the GPU is more than capable of running some older 3D games.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuVgYXG1r-M



I'm thinking of adding FTP/SSH servers to it and turning it into a hobby server for Tremulous, allowing public access to the /base and /vm directories so people can upload and control tremded via SSH to test out their QVMs.

[Tremulant]

Wow, you mean to say that trem runs on windows atop (sub)standard x86 processors?!? ZO. M. G. this. is. revolutionary!

[FOXHOUNDz]

Wow, you mean to say that trem runs on windows atop (sub)standard x86 processors?!? ZO. M. G. this. is. revolutionary!

Now I don't know how it's revolutionary. The interest lies in the fact that this was supposedly and cloud computing device that was meant to store all data on the web. I didn't know the specification of the GPU nor did I attempt to find out before running Tremulous, so this was another pleasant surprise for me.

Move along troll.

[Cadynum]

The device isn't trying to be locked down, there is absolutely nothing special with this.
Btw: I'm looking forward to ARM chrome os, if only for the hardware.

[Tremulant]

The interest lies in the fact that this was supposedly and cloud computing device that was meant to store all data on the web.

Then why nuke it and install windows?

I didn't know the specification of the GPU nor did I attempt to find out before running Tremulous, so this was another pleasant surprise for me.

What a wonderful surprise for you, for the rest of us it comes as no surprise, even my eeepc 701 can just about run trem, a more modern atom based netbook being able to run it somewhat better is nothing special.

Move along troll.

Hardly trolling, just completely unimpressed.

[FOXHOUNDz]

Then why nuke it and install windows?

A) Because I wanted to see if I could
B) I wanted to prove that Google's businesses model is going to fail, seeing as the limitations of a cloud computing device outweigh the benefits. Moreover, I want to show what the CR-48 is fully capable of running older generation of games, as opposed to flash based browser games.
C) To show that cloud computing could be possible without handicapping client side functionality, such as 3D gaming.
[/quote]

Hardly trolling, just completely unimpressed.

Well, you I can't please everyone. Perhaps those who actually own a CR-48 might get some inspiration to flash their BIOS because of this.

[FOXHOUNDz]

yuck...double post...

[Pazuzu]

sent out free of charge by Google to test out the Chrome OS

test

You're saying this business model is going to fail because... Because a sufficiently savvy customer can, should they choose, flash their BIOS and install another OS? You can do that to a Windows PC too, and yet, somehow, millions of people choose Windows, even over Linux. I'm one of them, and I don't see how being able to install another OS outweighs the benefits of having Chrome OS as an option in the first place.
The people who choose Chrome OS aren't likely to be concerned about 3D gaming (or have consoles anyway). You're not the only demographic out there.

[Cadynum]

B) I wanted to prove that Google's businesses model is going to fail, seeing as the limitations of a cloud computing device outweigh the benefits. Moreover, I want to show what the CR-48 is fully capable of running older generation of games, as opposed to flash based browser games.
C) To show that cloud computing could be possible without handicapping client side functionality, such as 3D gaming.

Google specifically included a developer mode which gives you access to the entire hardware as you please.
http://chromeossite.com/2010/12/14/how-to-enter-developer-mode-on-cr-48/
It is, unlike iphone, not meant to be locked down if you don't want it to be!

But yeah, you have now proved that it's going to fail by running an x86 game on an x86 computer.

[Tremulant]

Then why nuke it and install windows?

A) Because I wanted to see if I could
B) I wanted to prove that Google's businesses model is going to fail, seeing as the limitations of a cloud computing device outweigh the benefits. Moreover, I want to show what the CR-48 is fully capable of running older generation of games, as opposed to flash based browser games.
C) To show that cloud computing could be possible without handicapping client side functionality, such as 3D gaming.

• Well, turns out that you could, yay, i suppose.
• I'm not sure that you're proving anything, since when did google have any interest in flash based browser games anyway? Aren't they more likely to lean toward webGL and HTML5 for gaming and multimedia? Maybe it would have been more interesting to gauge the performance of WebGL apps like http://bodybrowser.googlelabs.com/ or indeed any of these: http://www.chromeexperiments.com/webgl on ChromeOS itself.
• Cloud computing is indeed possible without the limitations of chromeos, just run ubuntu and use ubuntu one, but it's not quite the same idea, you installed windows and a 3d game locally on the machine, what was cloudy about that? Had someone dropped a piano on your CR-48 would you have been able to pick up another one and have windows7 and trem with your qkey materialise on it over the cloud? I think you rather missed the point, have you sent google some feedback explaining to them why they fail?

[SlackerLinux]

its cool that the device seems to have enough power to run games

i dont really see the appeal of cloud computing everything's faster locally and anything in the cloud has no real security your giving all your data away to god knows who to do god knows what with it