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PS3 Linux: Dual Boot Instructions & Blu-ray disc mounting supported!

Posted Nov 13, 2006 at 10:30AM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: PS3 Tags: Firefox, Japan, Linux, MythTV, playstation 3 updates, Sony

A day after the PS3 Japan launch madness, all of us here at QJ had a chance to look back and see exactly what info we had missed. I had the responsibility of checking out the Linux side of things. And while the article which I wrote yesterday was pretty much spot on, there's a few more things which I could get out of the documents released.

So without further ado, I'll make a list of things which I've learned today:

How Linux will work: The PS3 will use kboot as its Linux bootloader. The way this works, you'll first have to download OtherOS installer (not released, yet) from Sony's official site. The next thing you'll need is a customised kboot "image". In case anyone's wondering, no, it isn't a picture. It's a single archive that will contain all the stuff needed to boot Linux.

The important thing to note here is that kboot, in itself, is nothing more than a sort of a loader which will use Lilo or GRUB to load the Linux kernel. I've noticed that neither kboot or GRUB are released for the PPC architecture. I don't know about GRUB, but I'll hazard a guess that Sony have ported kboot to the PPC arch, and since it's released under the GPL license, Sony will have to release its source code.

Moving on to the installation part, it seems that it will be pretty easy. I'll write up a small how-to here. Please refer to the already-released documents for the full instructions:

Format your PS3's HDD into 2 partitions. The Format utility seems to be very intuitive and easy-to-use.
Download the OtherOS Installer from Sony's Open Platform for PS3 site.
Download the customised kboot image for your specific distro (Will be supplied with the distro?)
Put both of them on an external USB device in a special folder structure using your PC.
Plug it into the PS3 and select the "Install Other OS" in the PS3 menu.
It will scan the external storage device and list the Other OS installer.
At this point, going ahead and selecting the install option will install kboot (the bootloader) to your PS3's HDD.
Bear in mind that kboot is almost like a secondary bootloader. kboot will be initialised by the PS3's own bootloader, which will be protected, to say the least.
Once kboot is installed to your PS3's HDD, it's time to install the actual distro itself. Since the guide itself explains with the example of Fedora Core 5, I will be following it. The main reason is that I still don't know where the customised kboot image comes from. Will the distributions officially release them? Or will we have to go around looking for them on unofficial sites? We'll know more as time goes on...
Anyways, once you've installed kboot, just go to the System Settings in the PS3's menu and select the default system as Other OS.
Once you reboot your PS3, you will now be booted into kboot. You're almost there! All that's left is installing Fedora Core 5 after following the instructions on screen.

Once into Linux, you will be able to use it like any other computer. You will be able to fire up Firefox and browse the intarwebs, or load MythTV and convert your PS3 into a true-blue media center. It's as good as a shiny new PC once you're into Linux.

But wait! That's not all. After checking out the documents, I did find a few small bits of info which are big news in itself:

You will be able to switch to the PS3's game OS from Linux.
You will be able to use the Blu-ray drive to mount all types of discs including Blu-ray discs!

Looking at the fact that we will be able to mount Blu-ray discs in Linux, my mind wanders around to the fact that it could be possible to dump the PS3's game discs, and it might be easier than Sony would think. Currently, I can hazard a guess that their special Blu-ray drivers for Linux will not allow you to do so, but give it a few weeks and the hackers can easily come out with modified drivers to make the drive work according to their fancies. That's all speculation though, I won't go into much detail.

The only thing which I really want to get cleared is the situation with the kboot images. Knowing the Linux community, I can safely take it for granted that someone somewhere will create a special kboot image for your favorite distro. It's just a matter of time before the PS3 is released in the US and embraced by the modding and Linux communities. At QJ, we'll be making sure that all you Linux users can use it on your PS3. We will be covering everything in the PS3 scene as and when it happens.

Download: [Corresponding documents for Linux on the PS3]
Visit: [PS3 Linux Forums]

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(1)

(1)

I wonder if the inclusion of linux will allow the PS3 to run game servers.

This would place the online network way above Xbox live.

Having a unified server database with thousands of PS3 listed with specific game servers would rip the line between PC gaming and console gaming.

Linux servers are the best game servers on the market because they are cheap, efficient and the very fact that linux is "free".

Would be cool to find out, imagine being able to run a listen server for everyone on the internet to play with you. being able to boot down from the game but keep the server running would take console online gaming to a whole new level.

# ps3 owns — Guest 2006-11-13 12:59

The PS3 just simply owns, can't wait to release.

Its basicly a dam PC as well now.

And yes, its incredibly cheap, for what it is.

# I'm skeptical of bluray disk dumping. — Guest 2006-11-13 13:05

If you look at the linux-on-ps3 docs posted here previously, you'll see that all access to the BDROM drive and HDD are through the companion chip which is only accessable through the hypervisor. The docs specificially say that some ATAPI commands are denied by the hypervisor's virtual scsi layer. My bet is that content control is enforced here. The docs are very clear that only the otheros partition of the hard drive is visible to the guest os under the hypervisor, for example.

My *big* question is, will they provide access to the GPU? The current linux patches and docs seem to only use the GPU as a framebuffer that is DMA'd into and flipped with a hypervisor (ring1) syscall. They're providing access to the SPEs (which is awesome), but without some level of GPU access, acceleration is a non-starter. Here's hoping that OpenGL bindings or similar are just not ready yet...

-Q

# totally insane — senjutsu 2006-11-13 13:15

yes, this would be really great, but anyway I'm sure we'll find some way to use the ps3's potential to it's limit when everyone have it's own!

when evderybody will be able to test their stuff we'll have to read Qj 20 times a day if we don't wanna skip too much news!

man the ps3 is really looking better and better everyday!!!

# ps3 does pwn — Guest 2006-11-13 13:26

I wonder how long before you can run your ps3 games right from linux. it would be nice to never have to leave the linux environment.

and yeah opengl acceleration would be awesome, i hope they allow it, you would also need that to get those games working. gpu access please.

# yes it does — Spector 2006-11-13 13:46

Media Powerhouse I think describes it best and yes with all the things it can do it's well worth its price.

# Music to my ears — Guest 2006-11-13 16:35

The sony orchestra is pumping up the music and i'm loving it. Ps3 pawns

# no subject — Guest 2006-11-13 16:47

ps3 does pwn

# Hmm — Guest 2006-11-13 23:29

Well as a PC a PS3 isnt that good...

Only 256mb of RAM, 3.2 ghz processor, And a 7800GTX

Its well... A very cheap PC

The PS3 wasent designed to be used like a convential computer though - it will run alot more efficently with its normal Sony OS.

If you somehow put a PC game on a PS3 like er Crysis or UT07 -it would run.. well not great.

But the optimised PS3 version (like Ut07) - not the installed to linux version - as a PC game, would run MUCH better!

Bring fourth the PS3 homebrew!!!

Sony wants to score with the modding community i guess

# Open Driver — Guest 2006-11-14 00:16

senjutsu for that Nvidia is going to have to provide and open driver for the RSX or the OSS comunity needs to develop one(which could take years without knowing the hardware specs).

I really hope Nvidia provides one, that could be the first step to the popularization of linux gaming.

# No dumping. — Guest 2006-11-14 02:21

No, you will not be able to dump PS3 games through Linux because there is a hypervisor in place being sure that it won't happen.

# YellowDog for PS3 will be using e17: videos on youtube. — Guest 2006-11-14 02:44

There are tons of videos of e17 on youtube. I found a particularly cool one at http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZovBpvhZbZM .

# osx? — Guest 2006-11-14 08:22

eh?

# KIK @SS — Guest 2006-11-14 14:49

does this mean you can download emulators and roms from websites and play them on the ps3???if so AWSOME SAUCE =]

# Microsoft — Guest 2006-11-14 18:42

Coming Soon

Microsoft Windows XPS3

fo real. my dad works with microsoft.

# ps3pc — Guest 2006-11-14 21:49

it would be cool to install windows (xp,vista) on ps3 in dualboot a litle like the psp and win95

with luck you ll can use your ps3 like a high end pc and play pc games on it for only the price of ps3(realy cheaper than a real pc)

it would be the end of the 360

# It wont happen — Guest 2006-11-26 17:03

The PS3 is Cell (thus PPC) based. Windows can only be installed on x86 (and x86_64) hardware. The only way to run windows (why on earth would you want to?) on the PS3 would be via an emulator such as VMWare. Which, since it would be emulating the processor as well, would run at about 1/10th of the normal speed, with no graphical acceleration. You would be lucky to get Solitaire to play at full speed, let alone any decent game.

# Think About it. — Guest 2006-12-13 00:12

Do people not get that the Cell isn't designed for any current OS. Even Linux runs like crap on it. I agree with Muscrat, it's a very cheap PC with a special cpu. For anyhting to run well on the PS3 it has to be designed to cater for the Cell and so xp, pc games and...well, most things would run like crap. If you want a pc for your TV buy a Media Center PC.

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PS3 Linux: Dual Boot Instructions & Blu-ray disc mounting supported!

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