Well, this wasn’t exactly the type of hack that we thought someone might do to DJ gear, but we’re here for it. In a video uploaded to YouTube by a guy named Andy, or TheRasteri, you can see the original DOOM running directly on a Pioneer DJ XDJ-RX2 standalone. Pretty amazing:
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The entire concept seems based around a discovery by a different but equally clever Andy on Twitter, @G33KatWork. He discovered earlier this year that Pioneer DJ’s onboard computers not only run Linux and could potentially boot custom firmwares from USB sources.
Thread about some mild Pwnage: LOL, Pioneer DJ. I bought a DJS-1000. After a bit of digging, I found that they offer GPL sources and the thing runs Linux. If it runs Linux, I want at least a shell and some USB-booting of a custom kernel/rootfs.
— Andy (@G33KatWork) July 4, 2019
Andy Rasteri went a little further – and shared some instructions in his YouTube upload:
Instructions to get this to work : (do not attempt this unless you’re good at soldering/linux/etc)
1. Cross-compile fbDOOM for ARM – https://github.com/maximevince/fbDOOM
2. Put it on a USB stick alongside DOOM.WAD from the shareware release (or full version if you like)
3. Connect a 3.3v UART to port CN1002 on the main PCB (1=3.3v, 2=TXD, 3=RXD, 4=GND)
4. Get Root ( https://twitter.com/G33KatWork/status… )
5. kill rbp
6. run fbDOOM from the usb stick (it gets mounted in /media/usbx/sda1)
Hit me up if you want better instructions.
So essentially, his solution to load DOOM was to use a UART cable to directly to the XDJ-RX2’s PCB to kill the built-in Rekordbox software and instead load the version of DOOM that runs on Linux. Pretty cool.
We imagine this could inspire any number of other hack-minded DJs out there to take control of their gear and do interesting stuff with it. That’s how controllerism and turntablism both were born, after all.
