There are plenty of things you can do on a Nintendo Switch: you can throw your hat at sentient creatures in Super Mario Odyssey; plaster people in colourful ink in Splatoon 2; and lose your grip on reality thanks to a blue shell in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
Oh, and you can also run Ubuntu.
Switchroot is an open-source project that allows Android and Linux-based distros like Ubuntu to run on the Nintendo Switch —absolutely not something Nintendo approves of much less supports, endorses, or encourages, etc!
I covered the loophole that made this possible back in 2018. Back then the NVIDIA Tegra X1-powered Nintendo Switch was still new and Linux support for much of the console’s internal hardware in a formative state (a polite way to say ‘not everything worked’).
But as the popularity of Nintendo’s handheld console ballooned (to understate it) so the ‘alternative OS’ Switch scene grew, and before long Linux support for Switch hardware was in full bloom, like a cherry tree in Animal Crossing and every bit as beautiful to see.
A number of Linux for Switchroot (L4S) distributions have since been released, designated as Linux for Tegra (L4T) builds. As these can boot from a microSD card it’s even possible to dualboot the Switch OS with Linux, which is neat!
Noble Nintendo Switch Builds
Recently, a fresh set of L4T Ubuntu images were released based on the newest Ubuntu 24.04 LTS release. These builds work on all Switch versions, from the OG (exploit-friendly) unit through to newer, patched models (where a modchip is required).
As of writing only Noble-based Kubuntu and Unity desktop versions are provided. Upstream snafus have delayed the release of builds with GNOME Shell.
Also, compared to the 18.04 LTS builds there’s no hardware decode/encode support in GStreamer-based players, only FFMPEG-based ones, and no CUDA compiler support (but CUDA runtime is present and works0.
As I don’t own a Nintendo Switch, be it a sought-after early model vulnerable to the RCM (Recovery Mode) exploit nor a newer variant that has been modded, I can’t try things out firsthand.
But maybe you can?
Trying it out? There’s no beginner mode!
If you fancy switching your Switch to run Ubuntu you should read through the Switchroot wiki page on what works carefully, followed by the installation guide —spoiler: not as simple as flashing an image to a microSD card— then bookmark the common issues page.
I’m told all of the Nintendo Switch internal hardware now works under Linux, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, sleep mode, accelerated graphics, the official dock… Everything, basically. And despite being a 7 year old ARM device the performance is said to remain decent.
While running a full-blown desktop operating system on a machine designed for casual gaming sounds odd the fact it’s possible at all is a credit to the ingenuity of the open-source community and the malleability of Linux — truly the kernel that could.
Or to be blunt: it’s rarely a question of why do things, more an answer of because.
Thanks theofficialgman