Kernel patches and documentation for PS3 Linux: Boot any PPC linux distro on your PS3! |
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The day of the Japanese PS3 launch came and went. And with it, it brought along a ton of news. But you still haven't seen the best bit yet! You see, before Sony even released more info about Yellow Dog Linux for the PS3, Power Developer has already released kernel patches and a bootloader so that you can try out Linux on your PS3.Yes, this is huge news in itself. But that's not all. Apparently, you can install ANY linux distro on your PS3 as long as it has a PowerPC build available - and that includes just about every popular distribution of Linux out there. A quick hop to my favorite distro websites shows that all of them run on PowerPC processors, which means that all of them will probably run on the PS3.
Here's a small list of the Linux distros which run on PowerPC (PPC)
Ubuntu
Fedora Core
SUSE (Paid) / openSUSE (Free)
Gentoo
I'm sorry if I haven't listed your favorite distro here. You can make your way to DistroWatch.com and check out your distro's site to see if they have a build for the PPC. There's a very good chance that it will be supported. Also, some sites might list the PPC builds as "Apple Macintosh" versions. They are built for PowerPC and they should run on the PS3, though don't come after my head if they don't. Now here's some of the info from the PS3 kernel patch documents.
The patch is for kernel 2.6.19. You can download the plain vanilla kernel here and patch it yourself. But that's beside the point, because the documents which are released here, have a small how-to on installing Fedora Core 5 on your PS3. And the only things you need are:
- Other OS installer (otheros.self)
- You can get the binary from http://www.playstation.com/ps3-openplatform/
- kboot image compressed by gzip (otheros.bld)
- You can find this in Addon Packages CD.
- Fedora Core 5 PPC install DVD
- You can get Fedora Core 5 PPC install DVD from Fedora Project (http://fedora.redhat.com/)
- Addon Packages CD.
And finally, for everyone here who's hungry to tinker with the material before the PS3 is released in the US, here's the kernel patches, the bootloader, and a bunch of documents to make it easier for you. I'm so envious of our Japanese friends right now who'll probably be busy tinkering with their PS3.
Note: The files are bzip2 compressed. To extract them, use WinRAR / 7-zip if on Windows, or tar if on Linux.
Download Link: [Patches for Linux kernel 2.6.19]
Download Link: [Patches for bootloader for the PS3]
Download Link: [Corresponding documents for Linux on the PS3]
View: [Forum Discussion Thread]
34 Jumps PSP homebrew - MHUSPEED v3
25 Jumps Sony helping fix Bayonetta for PS3?
21 Jumps PSP homebrew - MacroFire v3.0.12
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Comments [refresh]
yay! its ubuntu friendly! thats my favorite distro! it comes with openoffice so my parents think i'm doing homework on my ps3, when i'm really playing online!
PS3 has gone from a console that I had no interest in purchasing to a system that I am almost guaranteed to buy. The main reason for this being Linux. No doubt that there will be an open source media player designed specifically for PS3 that will outdo XBoxMediaCenter .
Now all it needs is some decent games.
Sony wasn't telling lies, the PS3 will be a computer :P:P!!! But I'm spanish and I won't have it till may or august... who knows...
"Stop playing your PS3 and do your homework!" "No, Mom, I'm working on an essay." "Then why are you killing chimera?" "Um, that's what my essay is about..."
i wonder.....could ppl run windows XP, or Mac, or other OS's on Linux?...like emulating them?
Maybe the older PPC versions of Mac OSX. But not windows, since it's only made for x86 and x86_64 processors. They're not made for PowerPC processors which the PS3 uses (Cell)
can we run mac OS X tiger? I heard you need a verification chip, then could we run an hacked version of tiger?
please if someone know I need to know that! thx in advance!
can we run games? I mean, can the games for linux run on the ps3 linux system?
if yes then we could download unreal tournament for linux and play it fine? or we lack RAM or something?
if someone lives in japan and have a PS3 answer this please! lol
t first i thought this was cool, then i realized, why? why would i want this? the ps3 doesnt have enough ram, and i could just use my comp, which everyone who buys a ps3 has. sure it would be a cool novelty, but how often do you use your media center pc in your living room to really do anything but watch movies, tv, and browse the web (maybe, if you have a hd-tv because other wise you wont see squat)? playing games in the living room? you got to be kidding, finding a place to put your mouse and your keyboard. its alot more efficient to just use you comp.
Video Lan Client (VLC) player. Originated as a plugin for Firefox and it plays everything, its easy peasy to stream a vid from one computer to another(or perhaps your PS3 in your living room) and it plays everything.
that's funny, Whaa?
man, i'm glad i've been out of school for nearly 10 years.
wait a minute...jeebus i feel old...
Linux is an awesome addition and it'll help sell PS3's....but I bet less than 1 percent of people will even bother with installing a new OS....then the less than 1 percent that did will realize it's not worth it because the PS3 isn't a real computer.
you're *****ing retarded. A CALCULATOR is still a REAL computer.
Just to shock a few people, it'd be tempting to install Windows NT 4.0 on a ps3
"playing games in the living room? you got to be kidding"
wtf man, where do you play your games? I mean, the best place is in front of my 42" sony bravia TV, DAH!!! not in from of my computer ! wtf is wrond with you!
Sean is a homo
i ment computer games. you need a flat surface for you mouse, and same with your keyboard. the living room is great for console games, but for pc games, you need a desk.
Well, VLC is more of a desktop media player. For a pretty interface like Xbox Media Center and Windows MCE have, check out mythtv: http://www.mythtv.org
A port to PS3 Linux shouldn't be far off at all :)
The only thing I want to know is will it play HomeBrew games
(SNES, NES, GES, MAME, ROMs, etc...) ?
If the games are compiled for powerpc, yes. unreal tournament, probably not. otherwise any other game should theoretically work so long as you can compile it from source
does it play PC games? if so does the amount of ram matter? if not what speed will thease games be running?. i think sombody should test thease things out, if nobody else does then if i get mine on the 17th il try it
It's a bit like the PC world you wouldn't find much people running linux unless there real IT buds...I've found that not many people want to dive into Linux. SoC (Scared of Change)
Pues yo no pienso esperar tanto:
te dice algo Gear of WARS!!!!! Y la Pro es mucho mejor!!!
ps3 vs. 360+
http://www.gamebrink.com/forums/showthread.php?t+11711
(Hay tantas visitas que esta algo colapsado)
Bad news, 3D games will be very slow.
"Although the GPU is connected directly to CBE, no direct access by guest OSes to the GPU is allowed currently."
and
"Currently X server uses virtual frame buffer to render its image. No hardware acceleration is supported under Linux."
I just hope they'll enable GPU acceleration so we can do some cool OpenGL programming on PS3.
The Cell could also be used for 3D calculations, shading, etc. AFAIK the famous Getaway PS3 demo used the Cell for 3D, and not the GPU! (For that its development began when in early plans the PS3 would have used 2-3 Cells only, without a full-featured GPU.) And it looked awesome. I don't know who would develop a Cell-based OpenGL acceleration, though. Also, this way you can't use all of available Cell-power for other tasks.
The Cell could also be used for 3D calculations, shading, etc. AFAIK the famous Getaway PS3 demo used the Cell for 3D, and not the GPU! (For that its development began when in early plans the PS3 would have used 2-3 Cells only, without a full-featured GPU.) And it looked awesome. I don't know who would develop a Cell-based OpenGL acceleration, though. Also, this way you can't use all of available Cell-power for other tasks.
[sorry, forgot to click Reply]
So how do you restrict an OS that is owned by an open community by definition? SONY, being a commercial entity, must have some restrictions in mind, otherwise profitability will drop.
First of all, you restrict the "third party" OS such that it does not compete with the utilization you keep in mind (i.e. no access to gpu etc.). Due to open community nature, some people will certainly try to bypass it, but no problem, because due to architecture of the CELL processor, as long as you control the emulation shell (most possibly integrated in the bootloader) you control the kernel itself, you can fight with the "unwanted" instructions via firmware updates!
Do you remember PS2 linux?
Anyone thought about playing WOW on the PS3 VIA Linux and WINE. Might be something interesting to try. I have a Japanese PS3 already. I'm just waiting on Yellow Dog to release to give it a try.
Through the use of virtualization Sony stays in complete control over what hardware we have access to. Through firmware updates they can change what access we got, even disallowing the ability to run linux on it.
They are obviously restricting the use of the blu-ray disc to avoid pirating (i guess, or maybe avoid people from figuring out too much of the game disc security).
Once you can change the code that controls the virtual machines you have basically cracked the PS3.
That is super cool. Let's hope some guys do that. Doing cell-based OpenGL should be pretty straight forward.
hye.. i live in japan... got a 20gb ps3 in my room... 60gb is good.. but i only need the 20gb interface since the hdisk used is only normal 2.5 inch hdisk(got an extra 80gb disk from my former laptop...).. managed to buy both of them.. but i sold it(60gb) on auction for $900..
most ps2 games play great on ps3... video n audio quality increased but not on a few games such as gt4(kotaku.com stated a few more games but i dont have them to run a test..)... i'll see if ubuntu and/or fedora core works on ps3... mayb i'll also try hacked version of tiger(if i have the time..) so.. stay tuned...
that needs x86 emulation which is slow..
Hoo the fu ck said PS3 has low ram ????? are u ***** in retarded wat u thot 256 RAM ment only 256 RAM no u dip sh it the ps3 has 7 spes includin powerPC prossesr all using this so called 256 RAM u must be on crak is the ram was this low MGS4 would never run on PS3 i had 512 RAM and uped that up to 1 gig it makes a BIG as diff in the way a game runs lern u dip shi ts COMMON SENSE 256 RAM HAHAHHAHA !!!!!!!!!!!!!
"Originated as a plugin for Firefox..." -- dumb guy above
"VLC was initially the client for the VideoLAN project, which aimed to create a program to stream videos across a network. It was originally developed by students at the Ecole Centrale Paris, and was released under the GNU General Public License on the 1st February 2001. It is now developed by contributors worldwide.
VLC is the client application for VideoLAN, with VLC standing for "VideoLAN Client". The project also created a server program, VideoLAN Server (VLS), whose functionality has mainly been included in VLC. The VideoLAN Server has since been deprecated." -- Wikipedia
Uhh, ok I think you are saying 512 of ram is stupid, im not sure. Linux doesnt use nearly as much mem as Windows. You can run Gnome on a surprisingly small amount, and FCE , etc, on even less.
guud one Whaa?!