# PS3 and linux



## Wile E (Jul 20, 2007)

I just got a shiny new PS3 60GB model. (Only $100 out of my pocket, due to selling my standalone Blu-Ray player, and getting a Best Buy gift card by winning a raffle at work. Wooot!)

Anyway, I want to venture into installing a flavor of Linux.

Has anyone loaded linux onto their PS3? If so, what distros has everyone tried. Has 3d acceleration been figured out yet?

I'm leaning towards Fedora, as that's my distro of choice on the pc, but I'm willing to take other suggestions as well. Was never a huge fan of Ubuntu, but it is still nice, so I'm also considering it. Also heard YDL runs on it nicely.

Anyway, fire off your PS3 Linux experiences, tips, tricks, and just plain ol' stories here.


EDIT: I'm starting off with Fedora. Gonna see how that runs for a while, then probably try some other distros as well. Please still chime in with your stories and suggestions, however.


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## cjoyce1980 (Jul 20, 2007)

I've looked into it and wouldnt bother as the PS3 does it all out of the box anyway.

by installing linux all you would gain is different front end.


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## Wile E (Jul 20, 2007)

PS3 doesn't quite have everything I want, out of the box. 

But even if it did, I mostly like to tinker. So a distro of some flavor is goin on there. lol


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## cjoyce1980 (Jul 20, 2007)

ps3 does gaming, internet, media centre........ only out thing i can think that i'm missing is open office!

what else does a user want?


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## Wile E (Jul 20, 2007)

The first thing that comes to mind is, I dl and watch a ton of anime. Much of it is in ogm or mkv with soft subs, and multiple audio tracks. To compound matters, some of those subs are in .ssa or .ass formats, which contain font, placement, and styling information. I want those to playback properly.

As for Internet, I don't really like the built in browser. Don't get me wrong, it's a very nice browser, but I'm a Firefox junkie. lol.

And above all, I like to tinker. Sometimes I like to do things, just because I can. lol


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## cjoyce1980 (Jul 20, 2007)

now i get you.

there is a PS3 version of ubuntu i've seen and one called Fedora if i remember correctly that will do all you pretty much need.


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## ktr (Jul 20, 2007)

congrats on your ps3, hopefully, i will receive mine early next week. 

as i said in another thread:



> The ps3 uses the power pc architect...similar to macs...so you can use linux...
> 
> There is ubuntu, http://psubuntu.com/ and other such as fedora, gentoo, yellow dog...
> 
> ...


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## Ben Clarke (Jul 20, 2007)

Install Windows on it!!! It's been done before, through Linux, then another Linux, then loaded to Windows!!! Stably!


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## ktr (Jul 20, 2007)

Ben Clarke said:


> Install Windows on it!!! It's been done before, through Linux, then another Linux, then loaded to Windows!!! Stably!



Wouldn't it run like crap? I have ran windows on a powerpc of a mac laptop of some sort and it ran like donkey donk.


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## Solaris17 (Jul 20, 2007)

http://ps3.qj.net/PS3-Linux-The-void-has-been-filled-Full-install-instructions-for-Fedora-Core-5-/pg/49/aid/73144


try that dude

or

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZXcuhJkwx4
this

and just a quick note no 3d acc will not work


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## cdawall (Jul 20, 2007)

fedora core 7 works and can load XP thru qemu but its slow


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## 15th Warlock (Jul 20, 2007)

I read at Tom's that running WinXP thru Ubuntu using VMWare Server  is really fast, the OS boots a lot faster than booting from scratch due to disk caching. Dunno about gaming performance though. 



> It runs the OS faster than the operating system itself can do on physical hardware.  I'm sure this has to do with disk caching and the like.  But, the Windows XP Home install I have boots in 7 seconds.  It shuts down in two.  When I installed Windows XP Home it installed in about 10 minutes.  Microsoft Office 2000 installed very fast also.  Everything I've installed has gone faster.  Everything I've ran has worked flawlessly and just like you'd expect speed-wise.  I have had absolutely no complaints with VMWare Server.



http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/32967/113/1/6/


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## Atech (Jul 20, 2007)

I'm pretty sure all PS3 hardware support has been in the official kernel since 2.6.20, cell from 2.6.16. Any source based distros should work fine.

I think any ~ppc and ~ppc64 software in Portage will work. Give Gentoo a try 

Forum thread and wiki howto.


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## Wile E (Jul 21, 2007)

LOL, had Fedora up and running, but the resolution was wrong. I tried editing Xorg.conf to my resolution (720p), but to no avail. It was stuck in SD resolution.

So I gave up for a while, and finally went to sleep for a few hours. Woke up, go out into the Living room to fire it back up and try to get it up and running properly, when I noticed it wasn't there anymore. I was like, "wtf did I do now?"

Then my better half comes in the room and says, in a super-innocent voice, "Um, I was messin around with the ps3's settings, and I think I accidentally deleted your Linux partition" 

Eh, oh well. Guess it's time to try again. lol


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## Dippyskoodlez (Jul 21, 2007)

Try yellowdog.

Its a distro that is built around "other" CPU types, such as PowerPC, and Cell.

it would probably work excellently, Fedora should work well too.


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## Wile E (Jul 21, 2007)

Dippyskoodlez said:


> Try yellowdog.
> 
> Its a distro that is built around "other" CPU types, such as PowerPC, and Cell.
> 
> it would probably work excellently, Fedora should work well too.


Yeah, I downloaded YDL, but it was corrupt. I don't think I want it tho. The more I read about it in the Linux community, the more I see that it's actually pretty behind, in terms of how recent it's software and kernel are. Plus it uses Enlightenment desktop, I don't really like Enlightenment.

I'm a Fedora junkie, I really like it on my computer, but it doesn't seem to run all that well on the PS3. From what I've been reading, Ubuntu seems to be ahead of everyone in ps3 development, so I think that's next. Well, at least until Fedora rolls out their ps3 specific distro. lol


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## Dippyskoodlez (Jul 21, 2007)

Wile E said:


> Yeah, I downloaded YDL, but it was corrupt. I don't think I want it tho. The more I read about it in the Linux community, the more I see that it's actually pretty behind, in terms of how recent it's software and kernel are. Plus it uses Enlightenment desktop, I don't really like Enlightenment.
> 
> I'm a Fedora junkie, I really like it on my computer, but it doesn't seem to run all that well on the PS3. From what I've been reading, Ubuntu seems to be ahead of everyone in ps3 development, so I think that's next. Well, at least until Fedora rolls out their ps3 specific distro. lol



I thought Fedora had a PS3 distro already.

I used YDL on a powerbook for a while and loved it.

Enlightenment rocks 

But I also really dislike KDE and Gnome.


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## Wile E (Jul 21, 2007)

Dippyskoodlez said:


> I thought Fedora had a PS3 distro already.
> 
> I used YDL on a powerbook for a while and loved it.
> 
> ...


I tried Yellowdog on my iMac G4 once, but it just wasn't for me. Good distro tho.

And Fedora doesn't have a ps3 specific release yet (at least not one that I can find). The newest release supports it, but it's not optimized for it. When I did have it running, it was a little slow. I'm sure trimming some of the boot services would've helped, but it's a little late for that now. lol

Also, Fedora doesn't include the ps3 boatloader on the install disk, you have to download and install it separately. But that's easy, so it's not a huge deal.


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## cdawall (Jul 21, 2007)

god your all insane why cant you just play games on it  still wanna see someone get XP to work on


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## Dippyskoodlez (Jul 21, 2007)

cdawall said:


> god your all insane why cant you just play games on it  still wanna see someone get XP to work on



For some of us, poking and prodding hardware brings the same or better entertainment value than games do.

So we do it.


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## Wile E (Jul 21, 2007)

Dippyskoodlez said:


> For some of us, poking and prodding hardware brings the same or better entertainment value than games do.
> 
> So we do it.


Agreed 100% 


EDIT: Installing Ubuntu. as we speak. It's actually a ps3 specific live distro. Nothing like the "try before you buy" linux approach. lol


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## cdawall (Jul 21, 2007)

Dippyskoodlez said:


> For some of us, poking and prodding hardware brings the same or better entertainment value than games do.
> 
> So we do it.



i kno if you read a up a few i posted to use fedora 7  but still just ugg im board anyone kno how to oc a PS2?


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## Wile E (Jul 21, 2007)

Yay! Posting from Ubuntu on ps3. So far it's working much better than Fedora was.


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## cdawall (Jul 21, 2007)

cool

now oc you PS3  and have some real fun


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## Havoc (Jul 21, 2007)

Dont suppose someone would like to throw me a spare PS3 over here? Im kinda skint and need one for GT5.. lol


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## Wile E (Aug 3, 2007)

Quick update and bump. Still runnin Ubuntu. It really does work flawlessly on the PS3. I'm very impressed so far.

There are some cons, tho. Flash and JRE are no longer developed for the PPC64 architecture, and the open source replacements are buggy, and generally just crap. I know, I've tried all of them. lol.

Despite the power of the Cell cpu, it isn't able to playback high def content in Linux. There just isn't enough ram in the thing. Ubuntu says it has 216MB of ram. Never heard of that amount, but whatever. I'm guessing it's actually 256MB. Either way, not enough ram. lol


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## HookeyStreet (Aug 3, 2007)

Wile E said:


> Quick update and bump. Still runnin Ubuntu. It really does work flawlessly on the PS3. I'm very impressed so far.
> 
> There are some cons, tho. Flash and JRE are no longer developed for the PPC64 architecture, and the open source replacements are buggy, and generally just crap. I know, I've tried all of them. lol.
> 
> Despite the power of the Cell cpu, it isn't able to playback high def content in Linux. There just isn't enough ram in the thing. Ubuntu says it has 216MB of ram. Never heard of that amount, but whatever. I'm guessing it's actually 256MB. Either way, not enough ram. lol



Isnt it strange how these next gen consoles dont have at least 1GB of RAM, surely that would help during gaming etc 

Any news on the PS3 playing backups/homebrew through Linux yet?


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## Wile E (Aug 3, 2007)

HookeyStreet said:


> Isnt it strange how these next gen consoles dont have at least 1GB of RAM, surely that would help during gaming etc
> 
> Any news on the PS3 playing backups/homebrew through Linux yet?


Nothing yet. They haven't even figured out how to access the gpu yet.


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## Ketxxx (Aug 3, 2007)

Consoles suck. They always lack memory. Sony and the like need to really start realising if they gave their console more memory it would make programmers lives so much easier.


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## ktr (Aug 3, 2007)

interesting thing is that the 360 has 512mb shared memory (lol...shared) while the ps3 has 256 main, and 256 video.


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## Dippyskoodlez (Aug 3, 2007)

ktr said:


> interesting thing is that the 360 has 512mb shared memory (lol...shared) while the ps3 has 256 main, and 256 video.



PS3 is at a disadvantage in this case, because you cannot access the GPU.



Wile E said:


> Nothing yet. They haven't even figured out how to access the gpu yet.



You can't. because sony SUCKS. 



Ketxxx said:


> Consoles suck. They always lack memory. Sony and the like need to really start realising if they gave their console more memory it would make programmers lives so much easier.



512 for a console these days is plenty. The problem is programming tools.

Consoles run a stripped down OS.

Unlike windows, where you're stuck with windows's bloat, un-needed services, services that are about 10 times larger than they need to be, useless frameworks, plus a UI, and extra drivers.


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## kwchang007 (Aug 3, 2007)

ktr said:


> interesting thing is that the 360 has 512mb shared memory (lol...shared) while the ps3 has 256 main, and 256 video.



lol, but like dippy said, they don't use a crazily bloated os.


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## HookeyStreet (Aug 4, 2007)

ktr said:


> interesting thing is that the 360 has 512mb shared memory (lol...shared) while the ps3 has 256 main, and 256 video.



LOL, since you got your PS3, I notice you 'dis' the 360 more....funny that


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## ktr (Aug 4, 2007)

HookeyStreet said:


> LOL, since you got your PS3, I notice you 'dis' the 360 more....funny that



I am trying to justify my purchase


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## HookeyStreet (Aug 4, 2007)

ktr said:


> I am trying to justify my purchase



lmao, how can I argue with a comeback like that


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## Dippyskoodlez (Aug 4, 2007)

ktr said:


> I am trying to justify my purchase



Thats why everything is justified by the dude that has a wii.


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## Wile E (Aug 4, 2007)

Dippyskoodlez said:


> You can't. because sony SUCKS.


The open source community is pretty creative. I'm sure they'll find a workaround someday.


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## Dippyskoodlez (Aug 4, 2007)

Wile E said:


> The open source community is pretty creative. I'm sure they'll find a workaround someday.



Its probably going to have to force a bios flash.. in which will likely nuke your online gaming too.


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## HookeyStreet (Aug 4, 2007)

Wile E said:


> The open source community is pretty creative. I'm sure they'll find a workaround someday.



What about this ISO loader that some were talking about?


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## ktr (Aug 4, 2007)

Dippyskoodlez said:


> Its probably going to have to force a bios flash.. in which will likely nuke your online gaming too.



Or sony becomes nice and unlocks the RSX with a firmware update.


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## Dippyskoodlez (Aug 4, 2007)

ktr said:


> Or sony becomes nice and unlocks the RSX with a firmware update.



That'll be the same day they let the PSP play homebrew software.


I.E. Never.


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## ktr (Aug 4, 2007)

I bet sony would be all up for homebrewing if people didn't use it to play backups...or other illegal software.


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## Dippyskoodlez (Aug 4, 2007)

ktr said:


> I bet sony would be all up for homebrewing if people didn't use it to play backups...or other illegal software.



Doesn't change the fact that neither Microsoft, nintendo, or sony support it.


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## Wile E (Sep 7, 2007)

Thought I'd bump this. Still running Ubuntu on mine. Have both Gnome and KDE going on it. Everything's great so far, save for one thing. I can't seem to get my resolution set correctly. 

It auto detects my TV correctly as a 720p set, but since it's an LCD, the native res is actually 1366x768. Ubuntu displays in true 1280x720, so there are black bars all the way around my screen. I can't seem to get it fixed in Xorg.conf either. I must be overlooking something.

Anybody else give Linux a spin on their PS3 yet?


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## Frick (Sep 14, 2007)

Now that makes the PS3 interesting.. Hardcore gaming + Linux makes everything good. I've been off the Internet for a while, so this is news. 

Anyhow, what's it like to do regular deskop things? Surfing the web and so on..

EDIT: And can you connect mouse+keyboard? Because if you can, you have a fully fledged home PC in your hands.


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## Wile E (Sep 15, 2007)

Frick said:


> Now that makes the PS3 interesting.. Hardcore gaming + Linux makes everything good. I've been off the Internet for a while, so this is news.
> 
> Anyhow, what's it like to do regular deskop things? Surfing the web and so on..
> 
> EDIT: And can you connect mouse+keyboard? Because if you can, you have a fully fledged home PC in your hands.


It's a little slow, due to the 5400rpm notebook hard drive, and the low ram. The low ram only comes into effect when heavily multitasking tho. I also tweaked the OS and my proggies to use less ram, and that helped as well. It's blazing fast on pure cpu tasks, however. And the 5400rpm drive obviously only comes into play at start-up and program launches. It pretty much behaves like an average, mid-grade laptop.

I'll be ordering a 7200rpm hard drive in the near future, to compensate a little. Should provide a nice boost.

As for the keyboard and mouse, any usb combo will work, including wireless. Bluetooth is also an option.

As a downside, Flash and Java don't work. It's not developed for the platform, and open source hasn't caught up. That's just a matter of time, I'm sure.


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## Frick (Sep 15, 2007)

All good then.


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