this post was submitted on 12 May 2024
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Is that TV just a CentOS box running VLC‽
probably. this doesn't surprise me one bit.
If you have a smart TV, it probably runs an ARM-architecture Linux or Android (which amounts to a bunch of extra stuff piled onto Linux) to drive the logic and ui to support connecting to the internet and downloading and updating streaming apps and other smart TV crap.
most of the time they'll run some minimal stripped-down version of these operating systems to support only features needed for the TV and it's functions. buildroot is an open source project that specializes in producing hyper slim Linux OS installation images for devices like these.
if I had to guess, they had a USB full of shows plugged in and the smart tv's solution was to just boot up the linux version of VLC in a bare x session when the user hits play on "totally_not_pirated_smallville_s01e03.mkv" on their thumbdrive. not a terrible solution, honestly: VLC just plays anything.
The old kernel is because a lot of low level hardware has available drivers written for it that are intended to be loaded into old versions of the Linux kernel (at time of release perhaps) and are then just never updated lol, at least not for ARM. sometimes there are breaking changes with kernel apis and stuff as the kernel version increases over time, so the easier solution for someone trying to make a TV, over begging and/or paying the hardware developers to update their drivers, is to just run an old kernel version.
everything is a hack. nearly all these smart devices are just general-purpose computers with ancient (predictable, cheap) software and inescapable interfaces taped over the front, and a whole lot of digital duct tape on the back.
I wouldn't really call this a hack, electronic devices would cost twice as much of every OEM had to come up with their own hardware, drivers, frontend etc. Besides, this allows hobbyists to play with their hardware much more easily
Hack with benefits!
Running an absolutely ancient kernel.
Monroe electronics now https://www.digitalalertsystems.com/products makes boxes for cable headends that handle the emergency alert systems. It runs redhat if I remember correctly. They have internet connections a couple of different radio receivers in them. Centos here though