PS3 Linux Install - 'how to' (FC5 up and running now!)

[Titanio]

This is being discussed in the other thread, but I figure these developments are significant enough to put in their own thread. The info in the other thread is also a bit scattered and it may not be obvious how this all works. So here in one neat package are the steps as far as I can tell - any corrections, let me know. It's basically a shortened/summarised version of Sony's documentation:

Preparation:

1) Download and burn Fedora Core 5 to a DVD
2) Download and burn the PS3 Linux Add-On Packages CD
3) Using a USB stick (or other storage option, like CD/DVD/BD etc.) create a folder at the top level called 'PS3'. Within that folder create a new sub-folder called 'otheros'. In that folder you need to put to files:

otheros.bld (bootloader - found on the Add-on Packages CD in the 'kboot' folder)
otheros.self (Sony's "Other OS Installer")

4) Create a Linux partition on your PS3 (via the XMB format utility)
5) Connect the USB or other storage from 3) to your PS3.
6) Start the "Install Other OS" Utility. It will scan for the otheros.self file, and when it has found it, will display its location. Select that and it will install the bootloader.
7) Set the default OS to be "Other OS" in the XMB system settings.
8) Reboot the machine. It will now automatically boot the bootloader from which you can install your OS.

Installing Fedora Core 5:

The bootloader will have a command prompt. To install type the following command:

install-fc sda

It will prompt you to insert the Fedora Core 5 DVD. Put it in if you haven't already, and hit 'y'.

It will then ask you if you want a minimum or full install, enter your preferred option. It will warn you that data on the linux partition will be erased - just hit 'y' to continue.

When finished, the DVD will eject. It will then prompt you to enter the Add-on Packages CD. Just pop it in and hit 'y'. It will eject to finish, and that's the installation complete. Just enter 'reboot' to start Linux or 'halt' to turn off the machine.

The results - some posters on GAF and PS3Forums already have FC5 installed and running:

If you are feeling adventurous, you may want to try Gentoo. Here's some instructions from the powerdeveloper.org forums:

the quickest way to get it running is just fetch or produce a standard stage3 image, add a default kernel for ps3 (the latest cell-sources should do) and it should work. (if you have a powerpc or a ppc64 would be easy since you can chroot inside)

I'm not 100% sure since I don't have access to a system...

http://www.powerdeveloper.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=927

It seems any PPC distro ought to have a good chance of working here.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

197 MB User RAM. Is that what's left over after Linux has loaded, or is that including Linux and the missing 60 MB is PS3OS reserved?

 

[Titanio]

197 MB User RAM. Is that what's left over after Linux has loaded, or is that including Linux and the missing 60 MB is PS3OS reserved?

That's your 256 minus GameOS reservation. I wonder if it's still actually running in the background or what.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

At this point I would guess not, as it doesn't in games. Shouldn't be hard for some of these Linux users to find that out though. Can they switch to the OS and back? If you can't multitask...well, even if the GameOS is running, one wonders why!

This looks to me like something to be improved - multitasking the GameOS so that reserved SPE and RAM actually do something useful. And they'd better sort it out quickly, as it's a silly waste of resources!

 

[bobthebub]

At this point I would guess not, as it doesn't in games. Shouldn't be hard for some of these Linux users to find that out though. Can they switch to the OS and back? If you can't multitask...well, even if the GameOS is running, one wonders why!

I found this quote from the Open Platform FAQ interesting

After using an "Other OS", I cannot go back to the system software of PLAYSTATION®3. What should I do?
A.
The way for switching from an "Other OS" to the PLAYSATION® 3's system software depends on each "Other OS". Please ask the provider of the "Other OS" you are using.

It's fairly ambiguous (as in it probably just means that the "other OS" might provide a way of changing the default OS) but it seemed to me that there may be a possibility of hot swapping between the two.

edit: Looking forward to the first OpenOffice Screenshots the most tho!

 

[DieH@rd]

Can you see XMB partition from linux? Can we access media on that partition??? Also, it would be cool to mess around with demo files, savegames and stuff.

 

[habbe]

ohh this is great... i was wondering if Sony would include any upnp/dlna features in ps3.. With linux on the Ps3 that wouldnt be a problem, that is with lack of a better word fantastic. (imo)

 

[Npl]

I found this quote from the Open Platform FAQ interesting


It's fairly ambiguous (as in it probably just means that the "other OS" might provide a way of changing the default OS) but it seemed to me that there may be a possibility of hot swapping between the two.

edit: Looking forward to the first OpenOffice Screenshots the most tho!

I guess there will be some kind of remote-procedure-call between Linux ("OtherOS") and GameOS/XMB. Maybe Linux could even playback BRD by communicating with XMB.

Hmmm. going further... can you have "OtherOSes" or just 1 "OtherOS" ?

 

[NERO]

Gnarly!! I am wondering if FC5 will eventually be updated to recognize blu-ray. Also curious of whether all the devices are recognized and the ability or lack-there-of to go from os to os. Guess time will tell.

 

[bobthebub]

Hmmm. going further... can you have "OtherOSes" or just 1 "OtherOS" ?

Hmmm, Depends what you mean, is there the possibility of a bootloader that could choose between several OS's - sounds likely

Can you have several OS's running concurrently? I would reckon that technically that would not be too difficult, but they are gonna be helluva starved for RAM.

 

[Titanio]

Can you see XMB partition from linux? Can we access media on that partition??? Also, it would be cool to mess around with demo files, savegames and stuff.

Very doubtful..

Gnarly!! I am wondering if FC5 will eventually be updated to recognize blu-ray. Also curious of whether all the devices are recognized and the ability or lack-there-of to go from os to os. Guess time will tell.

You can apparently mount the BD drive already, at least according to the documentation. It'll be interesting to see if either DVD or BD protected content can be played back - the docs mention that the hypervisor filters out some commands sent to the BD drive for security, which sounds to me like you won't be able to, but hopefully someone will confirm soon.

 

[Npl]

Hmmm, Depends what you mean, is there the possibility of a bootloader that could choose between several OS's - sounds likely

Can you have several OS's running concurrently? I would reckon that technically that would not be too difficult, but they are gonna be helluva starved for RAM.

not concurrently.
Im thinking of 1 Linux OS and one free slot to toy around with. Not sure if thats possible, the XMB could be very picky on how it runs an OS, up to restricting access to a single partition via hypervisor

 

[Titanio]

not concurrently.
Im thinking of 1 Linux OS and one free slot to toy around with. Not sure if thats possible, the XMB could be very picky on how it runs an OS, up to restricting access to a single partition via hypervisor

Parition options are quite limited at the moment. But you could use multiple removeable HDDs for multiple OSes I guess

 

[Npl]

Parition options are quite limited at the moment. But you could use multiple removeable HDDs for multiple OSes I guess

You can install & run Linux from a USB-Drive??? Mighty fine if thats the case.
But i fear you meant replacing the builtin one

 

[Titanio]

You can install & run Linux from a USB-Drive??? Mighty fine if thats the case.
But i fear you meant replacing the builtin one

Yes, hehe, multiple 2.5" drives

 

[Carl B]

The 'Linux OS as only OS' situation... can that be resolved by not making it your default? Or worded differently, can the Fedora Core install complete without making it such? I expect YDL will have the transitional support alluded to in the PowerDeveloper docs, but I'd like to try out Fedora anyway... just to see what a non-optimized distro will run like.

I'm upgrading my hard drive next week anyway, so I'm not too worried either way... but still, it'll change when and how I pursue it. It's going to be a busy weekend for the PS3 afterall!

 

[zed]

interesting a 512mb swap partition (for non linux users this is virtual memory)
thus in effect the ps3 has more than 512mb memory as this is in addition to whatever physical memory the computer has,
one of the benifits of having a HD in every system u can page data to the disk, does anyone know if any games are taking advantage of this?

 

[assen]

interesting a 512mb swap partition (for non linux users this is virtual memory)
thus in effect the ps3 has more than 512mb memory as this is in addition to whatever physical memory the computer has,
one of the benifits of having a HD in every system u can page data to the disk, does anyone know if any games are taking advantage of this?

Paging virtual memory managers are frowned upon in realtime systems such as consoles, because you lose predictability. Games will likely use the HD to explicitly cache data, not to create a swap file and allocate away.

 

[SPM]

Paging virtual memory managers are frowned upon in realtime systems such as consoles, because you lose predictability. Games will likely use the HD to explicitly cache data, not to create a swap file and allocate away.

I am not sure if you would use a Real Time OS to write games, but Linux has a realtime kernel patch which guarantees a minimum response time. It does this by using a process scheduler which gives realtime tasks a very high priority and only lets the general purpose OS processes get a time share when realtime processes are idle. This isn't a true RTOS in the sense that it isn't single threaded (for utter predictability, and absolutely minimal response time) as is the case with other RTOSes, but it does guarantee a maximum response time and is the only multi-tasking general purpose OS that can be used for some RTOS applications where slightly longer response times are acceptable, and a full feature OS is also required.

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS9566944929.html

This will of course run on any distro which is recompiled to enable the realtime feature.

 

[ManuVlad3.0]

Is this real?